We recently caught up with the incredibly talented Jordan Stewart for a chat...
How would you sum up your 2018?
My 2018 was full of new beginnings and adventures, I finally made the jump from school into college to study music and I am having so much fun it was definitely the right decision. I was lucky enough to have lots of amazing opportunities throughout the year such as the couple of gigs I did with Carol Laula, Marie Collins, Linzi Clark and Lisa Kowalski which was an incredible honor to be able to perform alongside all of these incredible female musicians, I also had the chance to play at festivals such as Youth Beatz and Oxjam. To sum up 2018 in a couple of words I would probably say exciting, eye-opening and inspirational .
Plans for 2019?
My plans for this year are to release some new music in the next few months with F32 Records, Complete my HNC and start my HND in music and to hopefully do loads more gigs! I can't wait to see what 2019 has in store for me!
Any new music in the pipeline?
I have just started working on my first album with F32 Records which I am unbelievably excited about! writing, recording and releasing an album has always been a dream of mine and I can't believe that it is really happening! I can't wait to share all of my new material that I have been working on
Songwriting influences?
I don't really particularly have any specific influences but I would say that my favourite songwriters are Sara Bareilles and Carole King they are two incredible women who inspire me to pursue music and songwriting. I mostly take inspiration from the world around me, I really like to tell stories in my songs I think it helps me to write when I try and put myself in someone else's shoe's to try and imagine different scenarios and situations. I am working on writing from personal opinion and experience as I feel that is one of my weak points, I struggle to write about specific things at times, a lot of the time I will write a new song without any opinion or clear description of the meaning behind it but after coming back to it after a little while I figure out what it means to me.
Thoughts on the Scottish music scene?
I think that the Scottish music scene is bursting at the seams with talent of all ages and all genres! It is so inspiring and exciting to see so many different people involved in a huge variety of different genres and of all ages come together through music! I recently attended the Scottish Women Inventing Music (SWIM) launch event in the Kinning Park Complex, it was amazing to see so many incredible women involved in a variety of different sectors within the music industry come together to discuss recurring issues that we may face within the music industry such as the gender imbalance within the festival scene. It was incredibly inspirational and eye-opening to hear about the woman and organisations who are working tirelessly to make a change!
Favourite Scottish bands or artists?
My favourite Scottish artist is definitely KT Tunstall, I have looked up to her as an artist for a long time and she has always been one of my biggest inspirations in music. I have had the opportunity to meet her a couple of times at her CD signings for the last two albums and she was incredibly down to earth and kind, there is a picture of me meeting her where my mouth is wide opened out of shock that I was actually meeting her, I was star-struck!
If you could cover a song, what would it be and why?
There are so many! as I mentioned before Carole King is one of my favourites so I would say her song 'Beautiful'. The song means so much to me as it is a great reminder that true beauty is found on the inside and that it's so important to treat people how you would like to be treated even through the use of a smile!
What's the most bizarre thing to happen while you were onstage?
I'm still early in my career so I haven't really had any horror stories yet but I recently played at the F32 Records showcase, I quickly realised when I started playing my first song that the guitar wasn't coming through the PA. in my mind I was panicking that the battery in my guitar had died or that the pick-up stopped working or something but it turned out to be the cable, I played to the end of the song but we still hadn't manage to fix the problem so I realised I had no choice but to start talking to the audience while the sound guys were switching cables over, I decided that the best option was to tell jokes, im not much of a comedian so I think the audience might have been laughing at me and maybe not with me but after we fixed the problem the rest of the set went great and my nerves completely disappeared so I think I will start telling jokes more often!
If you only had one album to listen to, what would it be?
In an ideal world it would be a huge compilation of Carole King, Sara Bareilles, Eva Cassidy, Fleetwood Mac, Jessie Mueller and Beatles songs but if i had to pick just one it would have to be ' Tapestry' by Carole King, I just think every album in the song hits a certain emotion within me, I think my favourite song from the album is 'You've Got A Friend' I first came across the song in a darker time in my life and I just felt that the song said everything that I needed to hear at that point in my life, ' Beautiful' is a close second!
What is your guilty pleasure song? 'Dancing Queen'. I am a massive Mamma Mia fan so naturally I fell in love with 'Dancing Queen' the song really knows how to cheer me up when i'm down and since I am 17 I get to pretend that the song is about me!
If you had your own festival, who would be your 3 headliners? Fleetwood Mac, Kate Bush and again Carole King! I love all three bands and artists and I think they would all be amazing to see live!
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