interview | jordan alexander

There’s a long list of Canadian pop icons who have impacted music, from Justin Bieber and Tate McRae to Carly Rae Jepsen and Nelly Furtado. Now, Canada has a new rising pop sensation in Jordan Alexander. A multifaceted force in entertainment, seamlessly blending acting, modelling, and music, the Toronto-raised native has been influenced by pop and rap icons like Whitney Houston, Beyoncé, Britney Spears and more all her life. Although her breakthrough role as Julien Calloway in the beloved Gossip Girl reboot eventually led her to New York, music has always been bubbling under the surface for Alexander. So much so that she used New York City as her own playground, collaborating and meeting creatives across industries to help create the universe in which her debut album, Now You’re Caught Up, exists in.

Spotted: Jordan Alexander speaking to Schön! and spilling the details of her debut album, her time in Gossip Girl, and more. 

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Let’s briefly talk about the HBO Max reboot of Gossip Girl. How would you describe being part of it in your own words? It was incredible! Up until that point, I was mostly a local musician in Toronto. Things were definitely happening on the music front, but nowhere near to what Gossip Girl ended up bringing on. It changed my life in probably every single way. And you wrote the Heartbreak album in NY while recording Gossip Girl. How did that come about? Yes, I did. I wrote the first two singles that I released while I was still in Toronto, but that was in a couple of weeks where I was packing all my shit. Then, I wrote the rest of the album while I was working on Gossip Girl.  

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What was the process like and the intersection of your music with your experience filming Gossip Girl?

I feel like it’s almost this yin-yang thing where while I was doing Gossip Girl, I was very immersed in a world that was overwhelming and brand new to me. It was so shocking to my system. I had this respite of writing music and this thing that I’ve always done in this safe place and it was also a way to express how I was feeling. Now that Gossip Girl‘s over, and I’m focusing on music, what I learned from Gossip Girl is informing how I move as an artist. My character, Julien, is so fabulous and ever since embodying her, I feel like I have a taste for the finer things [laughs].

Before that, I was very into lo-fi and indie vibes. This taught me to embrace newness as an artist. I was able to see myself in this grand light because of the character I was playing. I feel like I was all I’ve always been more easily able to access my undying support for others and uplift them up, but now I also feel that I can gas myself up and do that for myself too. Basically, I feel like I’ve come to like myself. And saying that shouldn’t be a weird thing to say.

Sounds like “now we’re caught up” then! But really, congratulations on your new album. How do you feel?

Well, I’ve been balancing two careers – one career is acting in which I feel I’m very taken care of. Then, with music, I am literally in the water by myself. I just flew back because I was shooting in Nova Scotia and just haven’t really had a chance until this exact moment right now to process the new album is out! There’s just a lot going on, but as we said earlier, I just really believe that it all feeds into each other. I think it’s just so fucking fun to be alive! I’m feeling great and just here for whatever it is.

That’s great that you were saying you’re balancing these two big careers. How do you do that?

Yeah, I think that overall and in general, how I approach my life is I just try to give myself as much grace as possible. Maybe this rollout doesn’t look like that of all of the pop stars that I love, however, this is what I was able to do and there is so much beauty in that.

Totally relatable. And shifting back to the new album, what was the inspiration behind it and can you tell us about some of the songs on there?

So, the executive producer, who is my friend, is an incredible rapper, a singer, and an artist from Toronto. She’s just been in the game and I really looked to her to help me guide this album rollout. We were having a conversation and she was saying that I wouldn’t write an album about a relationship that wasn’t for a significant period of time, like five years or something. But then I wrote an album about four months of an extremely tumultuous relationship. It was just such a funny moment because I could feel so much for a very short period which required me to do self investigation. And that four-month period of extreme emotion and feeling really caused me to do a total overhaul of my identity. So, to answer your question, that’s where a lot of the songs are coming from.

What would you say your genre is?

I do think I have a strong pop sensibility and I used to write as a singer-songwriter mostly about alternative, grunge, or rock genres.

Is there someone in the industry, whether acting or singing that you really want to work with?

Yeah, I feel like it’s almost like paralyzed by choice. I like so many different things and I don’t feel bound by a certain genre or a certain style. I’ll just do the first thing that comes to my head.

Are there one or two songs on the album you particularly like or a favourite lyric?

There’s a song on there and it’s called “I Don’t Want to Lose You.” When I was working on it with the producers, we decided to have this really long instrumental break, which is not very normal for pop songs. But maybe that is why I love it because it’s just such a moody, heartbreaking song. I think there are a lot of other songs that people might gravitate toward first, but that’s the one that will always just hold a special place in my heart.

What are you working on next?

So, I definitely have some things that I’m extremely excited about on the acting front. Watch this space!

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Source: https://schonmagazine.com/interview-jordan-alexander/

Credits:

photography. Sage East
fashion. Anthony Pedraza
talent. Jordan Alexander
hair. Niko Weddle for Judy Casey
make up. Tomoyo Pattou using MAC Pro + MAC Cosmetics
photography assistant. Garren Pryce
fashion assistant. Sean Kilke
interview. Sandy Aziz