The music industry is an undeniably a competitive area of employment. As there are many gifted musicians pursuing to break into the industry, the use of modern technology making marketing and publicity accessible for all who wish to promote their own material, the competition is more intense than ever.
English artist Jordan J. Fawcett is a melding of rustic innocence and frailty millennial abandon. He’s young, handsome and full of beans, and 2018 looks set to be his year. He’s had a smattering of lined up gigs across East Yorkshire and he’s just been announced on the bill at Freedom Festival. He took time off from a breathless schedule to chat to Bethany Stephenson about his uncle’s death and the creation of his music style.
How long have you been playing music for?
I’ve been playing music for the best part of 4 years so far. I started playing my uncle’s old guitar after he passed away following a car accident and since then I’ve moved onto a multitude of string instruments: bass, ukulele etc. I’ve recently began playing the harmonica after a brief obsession with Bob Dylan
What inspired you to start playing music?
After my uncle passed I wanted something of his to remember him by so I kept his old battered classical guitar, after a couple of weeks I realised I wanted to make use of it, I started looking at tutorials on YouTube and chord diagrams. At first it was painstaking as its just repeating chord progressions over and over but once I had the chord down I began learning songs with a friend whose been playing since he was young. ‘HeartBreak Hotel’ by Elvis Presley was the first song I learnt.
When and how did you begin performing live?
I started going to open mic night’s at the Sail Makers Arms in Hull with friends, I went every week for months just to watch other artists play. Every week I’d tell myself “tonight’s the night, I’m getting up there”. But I never got up until one night I had the right amount of Dutch courage in me that I put my name down and played ‘Clint Eastwood’ by Gorillaz on a friends right handed guitar upside down… Badly but I realised it wasn’t so bad…. Until I saw a recording and almost fainted! However I’ve continued to play as much as I can for a few years now.
What is the biggest difficulty you have encountered throughout your career as a musician/performer?
The most challenging thing that I have encountered would be finding out what my style is. I was aware that my voice wasn’t great but I started to realise some songs I use to play didn’t match my style of playing like the folky Bob Dylan and the pop Ed Sheeran songs. So I revised my song vocabulary and found that I enjoyed playing songs with energy like hip-hop. Songs that I can have fun with from artists like Jamie T, Afroman or Gorillaz. Once I had my style conquered others started taking me more serious as an artists.
How important do you think it is for aspiring musicians to earn their success?
I believe it’s very important for aspiring musicians to earn their success, I believe the journey of the graft it takes to earn your spot is the most important factor in building yourself as a person and as a musician. It’s the people who have grinded themselves down to the bone to get where they want to be that becomes the greatest in history.
What advice would you offer to anybody trying to gain success in the music industry as a performer?
My advice, never become comfortable because comfortable means you’re not moving forward. Even a step back is better than standing still.