When you hear Rochelle Jordan’s music, she wants it to bring you to the greatest dance club you’ve never seen.
“We were thinking about Studio 54, and the basement parties of the ‘90s,” she said of her current album, “Through the Wall.” “But then taking it into the future, and making sure I connect with the audience as I move forward. I’ve always been quite experimental and I love the idea of an adventure when you listen to an album, you never want to be sure what you’re going to hear next. I like giving the fans a roller coaster ride.”
Jordan is one of dance music’s mavericks, working modern and old-school elements into a mix of her own. Though a proudly underground artist, her voice has graced mainstream hits including Childish Gambino’s “Telegraph Ave.” and Kaytranada’s “Lover/Friend.” She brings her show built around the new album to the Paradise on Monday night.
Born in the UK, Jordan moved to Canada as a child and started uploading songs to YouTube as a teenage Justin Bieber fan. These caught the attention of the Los Angeles producer KLSH, who’s been her main collaborator ever since. “When I heard his beats I said ‘This guy is out of his mind, we gotta do this.’ We were so experimental, so playful. And we put all these random cuts on YouTube that we’re ashamed of now, but they set us on the path of being imaginative with music.”
And the bigger names started taking notice. “J. Cole heard my song ‘Follow Me’ and called us over to his house; he was looking to sign an artist. That didn’t connect all the way but he said ‘Keep going, I like what you’re doing.’ Little things like that encouraged us to go forward, but it’s been a long ride. And looking back now I can say ‘Damn, we were resilient’.”
The album’s title refers in part to breaking down creative walls, but it also references a literal bedroom wall of her childhood home. “My older brother is autistic and all of his OCD went into music. When we moved from the UK to Toronto, he brought two briefcases full of cassettes that had these beautiful house and jungle beats—They were so ambiguous and eclectic, and he would play them every day at top volume, for 12-15 hours a day. And my mom would be completely driven crazy, but I’d be in the other room hearing it all.”
She’s done fine so far without signing to a major label, but she’s got no rules against that. “I resisted over the years because I have such an attitude about my music. Every time I was courted I could see what they wanted to do, which was to tear my music apart, direct where I would go and throw me out there. But now I figure that I’ve been here to long to get watered down; whether I stay indie or go with a major. A lot of fans want to gatekeep you, and they say ‘You’re going to go mainstream now.’ And I remind them that it’s all a natural evolution, I’m going to be me either way.”
