Press kit, Rochelle Jordan · Press kit, official use
Without experimentation, innovation is impossible. For Rochelle Jordan, this desire for sonic expansion has been long embedded into her fusion offuturistic and ancestrally soulful R&B. To listen to a ROJO song is to absorb a phosphorescent but subtle blend of sampledelic 90s pop, vintage UK house and garage, 31st century electronic bangers, airy late night ballads, and progressive hip-hop. Born in London to British-Jamaican parents, Jordan and her family relocated to the eastside of Toronto in the early ‘90s. Her father, a drummer, encouraged her love of art and instilled an appreciation forNorthern soul, and Jamaican reggae and dancehall. Bleeding through thewalls of her childhood bedroom, the adolescent Jordan soaked in the record collection of her older brother: funky UK house, nocturnal drum and bass, garage, and all the gospel samples contained therein. After a contemplative period marked by spiritual and artistic growth, LA-based Jordan returned with a slew of ethereal soul, collaborating with Machinedrum, Jacques Greene, and J-E-T-S. It all led up to the radiant breakthrough that is her new album, Play With the Changes. Released on TOKiMONSTA’s Young Art imprint, the album showcases not just her own personal evolution, but a path to pushing sound forward. It presents her as a modern heir in a lineage of powerhouse vocalists with style and imagination: everyone from Whitney Houston to Celine Dion, Aaliyah to Amerie, Kelis to Mariah Carey. Produced by KLSH, Machinedrum, and Jimmy Edgar, Jordan defies categorization to create a project full of slinky, dancefloor-packing burners that channel her U.K. roots --reminiscent of childhood nights spent listening to her brother’s 2-stephymns from the other side of the wall. These are songs of experience: grappling with depression, homesickness, and struggles with an industry that rarely has room for true originals -- especially ones who write all their own music. Nonetheless, they are unmistakably songs of triumph.
