Ahead of his UK debut, supporting Old Dominion at Hammersmith’s Apollo, we caught up with Jordan Davis in London for the podcast, to give a bit of insight into what to expect from his sophomore album and the back story behind Home State.
So – the UK debut – do you have any idea what to expect from it?
No, I’m excited. You know, a ton of my buddies have been over here and played and kind of say how awesome it is, so I’m just ready.
It’s been 18 months since Home State. First of all, can you believe it’s been that long and second of all, can you believe the success that’s come from that record?
(laughs) I can definitely believe it’s been that long. The success definitely shocked me a little, I can’t believe how people gravitated to it. It’s been an amazing record, I definitely didn’t think that it was going to get to the level that it got, but I’m happy that it resonated.
What did you want people to take away from the record in terms of introducing yourself to the world?
That’s just exactly what it did, that’s the way I write songs, the way I sing songs and the topics that I cover and it’s just who you are as an artist – that first debut album could be your last one… you never know, so it’d better be 12 songs that you love and that you want people to hear and that’s exactly what Home State was for me.
Going back you grew up in a very musical family and there’s so many different influences in your music – there’s a bit of hip hop, RnB – what kind of music did you grow up listening to and gravitating toward?
Early on my dad was a big fan of songwriters, kind of folk singers, so the first couple of years riding with him you just had to listen to what dad listened to.
Monopoly of the car radio?
(laughs) Haha, yeah he owns it. You know growing up in the downloading era, it was just a time when you could pop in a CD that had everybody under the sun on it. I think you’re kind of seeing that now in today’s music and the genre blurring – you’re seeing a bunch of kids that grow up listening to a ton of different stuff.
It is so hard in today’s day and age, there are so many different blurred lines, so I guess why did you decide to stick in the more ‘country’ lane and label. Was it just a natural thing that happened?
I think so, it’s just I always try to say I fell in love with songwriting first. I mean I moved to town just to write songs so this was something that just kind of came along 3/4 years into town. Really all it was someone saying, ‘hey man have you ever thought about being an artist?’ It had just never crossed my mind. I mean now I can never imagine not doing it.
Was it a strange transition from songwriting for other people to writing people for yourself?
Well I think that’s kind of how it made it easier, whenever I was just trying to write songs for either what some artist was looking for or I was writing songs for what I thought some other artist would want to sing about. It was terrible, I hated it. It wasn’t stuff I wanted to write about, and every day walking in I was kind of like ‘oh I guess I’ve got to do this again.’ It really felt like a job, and so any time I would try to be like ‘why don’t we play it this way’ and do it the way that I would want to write a song, every body was like ‘oh that’s not very commercial.’
So how did you come to make the decision to become an artist then?
Well I was starting to write those songs right at the time when I thought you know what I’m going to wake up every day and I don’t care if I’m going to make a cut, I’m going to at least go out writing the songs that I want to write and that just totally flipped it. To be honest with you, when I started doing that it was pretty quick, with people being like ‘hey man, this is different, this is cool, you know are you looking for a record deal?’ I didn’t think that was possible – I hadn’t even played a show, I’d never played a live show with a full band. I kind of just jumpstarted into finding a band, and booking a no name venue in Alabama and it spiralled.
‘Leaving New Orleans’ is my personal favourite track from the album. What was the inspiration behind that track?
I had that idea… I met my wife in New Orleans and I remember leaving – obviously there was a connection there – and so, whenever we were leaving I just thought this is it, I’m never going to see that girl again and I thought there was something special. I was sitting on the plane and the idea just kind of popped into my head, about someone in a town that you have to leave. You don’t want to leave because there’s too much of a memory everywhere… so that’s what sparked that. I flew back on a Sunday and I wrote that the Monday morning, I was writing with two buddies of mine, one of them I wrote ‘Slow Dance in a Parking Lot’ with and the other one is a Louisiana guy too. So I threw that idea out, and I think the initial idea was called ‘Give Me Back New Orleans’ but we ended up switching it.
It was interesting reading on the inspiration behind ‘Singles You Up’ and it coming from a slightly abstract inspiration about your friend’s fiancee. Do you find you get more inspired by ideas or stories?
Yeah, I think I can get it from anywhere. I’m a great storyteller as far as – you can ask any of my friends, I just tell stories better than they do.
The Home State videos you’ve been putting out kind of demonstrate that… The Taco Bell story is hilarious.
Yeah and it’s true. I’m terrible about, I’ll see somebody on an aeroplane and just totally make up a whole story about what that person’s doing, why he’s going where he’s going. I mean it can be anything, it could be anybody walking in and saying ‘look man, I’ve got this idea, this title of a song and that’s it.’ Those are fun, because it’s just a whiteboard, but there are some where I like to think it out. Those are a little more special, I like to write those with the people I like to write those with…
Do you have a particular set of people you gravitate to for those?
Yeah I have a few that I know could do really well with a few titles. (laughs) We all do it, we all have our favourite writers, so those guys get the iPhone ideas.
‘Slow Dance in a Parking Lot’ is the latest single, was that an obvious choice?
Oh man, I think we knew that from day one that this was going to be a special one. I mean, even looking at numbers leading up to picking the first two songs, ‘Slow Dance in a Parking Lot’ was always the one that raised its hand. I’m glad that we did it third, now that there’s a lot more people and ears on it. It ended up working out the way it was supposed to.
Then, looking toward the second album, a lot has happened in your life personally, since the release of Home State, do you think that will be reflected in the next album?
Oh yeah, for sure, there’s a lot of songs about my wife in there, a few songs about the kiddo. I’ve got a few songs about how it’s changed me and my wife’s relationship and how I view her.
I guess songwriting is kind of like a diary for that and your perspective and how everything has changed.
Absolutely, my favourite artists are like that and you see them grow up through their records. I’m trying to follow the same path.
Final Few
Wine or whiskey?
Whiskey.
Record you couldn’t live without if you were stuck on a desert island?
Oh man, I’d say ‘Southeastern’ by Jason Isbell, just because that’s what I’m listening to right now.
Would you rather give up songwriting or performing?
I don’t know I’ve got two albums worth of music, I’ll just perform those, performing is pretty fun. (laughs)
Complete the sentence…
Music is.. my life, I love it.
Country music is… powerful.
Jordan Davis is… Jordan Davis (laughs) that’s weird…
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