Jordan Mackampa is a man made up of misspelt lyrics, milky tea and Etta James tracks playing on a vintage wooden steepletone. He is a hand-stitched soulster in every sense of the word.
Hailing from the Democratic Republic of Congo and growing up between London and Coventry, Jordan combines his timeless soulful voice with melodic sun drenched tones to create beautifully crafted songs that are a joy to have stuck in your head all day long.
In this interview, we spend a few minutes talking with Jordan about his influences, his newest project, and more.
Full Q&A, links, and a stream of Open Arms below.
https://soundcloud.com/jordanmackampa/openarms
Let’s dive a little deeper into You, the artist and your music. What attracted you to this genre(s) or style(s)?
I feel that both genres (Soul and Folk) represent me well as a musician. I put my soul into everything I create, but I’ve fallen in love with how artists such as Bob Dylan and Jeff Buckley, used to play and write music in a cadence similar to someone telling a story from a book.
How long have you been creating and sharing your music with the public?
It’s been roughly two years or so, since I’ve been sharing my own music on a larger scale, but according to my mum I’ve been singing before I could actually talk, so it varies on whom you’ve been speaking to!
Who or what influences your playing and/or writing? Also, what motivates you to keep going?
The people I keep close to me, tend to inspire the music I make. The songs i write are either about my friends or family and what they’ve been through or what I’m dealing with personally. My influences vary from Laura Marling to Fela Kuti, depends on the mood I’m in, but I think a blend of the two is interesting to the ear.
What motivates me to keep going would be the fact I know how music makes me feel and it’s that ball of energy, that I want to share with others.
Were you trying to accomplish anything specific on this new project? Creatively or otherwise?
Personally, with this EP (Physics) I was trying to get to grips with what I believe love, is. As well as, what I think it does to us as people, particularly because we fall in & out of love at different speeds, I wanted to encapsulate what happens within us psychically, mentally and emotionally.
My latest single, “Open Arms” is about me trying to get someone to drop their guard and see that if they meet me halfway, they’ll be able to see that I don’t mean them any harm.
What was the last song you listened to?
The last song I listened to was, I Would Rather Be Blind by Etta James, it makes my heart ache every time.
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
I’m an old soul so vinyls and Cd’s for me! The last CD i got given was an Aretha Franklin gospel album which is all kinds of goodness!
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
Any sort of device that people can find my music on – I’m game!
Other than the digital era overwhelming us with access to an abundance of music, what are one or two of the biggest challenges you face when trying to attract listeners to your music?
Keeping up with social media trends, especially because our attention spans are very short, so if you’re not clued into what’s hot right now, it’s easy to fall behind.
Do you gig, tour or perform? Do you ever live stream? Where can music lovers see you live?
I love to gig – I’m actually going on my first UK headline tour, starting on the 12th September in Leeds, finishing off at The Slaughtered Lamb, in London on the 29th, I’ve got some great support acts too along the tour and then I’m releasing the EP the next day.
Where is the best place to connect with you online? Discover more of your music?
I’m on all the social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram – you can find more music on Spotify, Apple Music, Soundcloud, YouTube, I’m pretty much everywhere!
Any last thoughts? Shout outs? Words of wisdom?
My words of wisdom, would be to go out and see more live bands, even just at open mic nights, there is a world of sound just waiting to be heard, you just have to be willing to listen.
