Biography

Even though she grew up as the daughter of a church organist, Jordana Nye never really wanted to learn piano. “My dad kind of wanted me to, but he didn’t push it on me or anything me,” she assured me over the phone last month when we spoke about her early interest in music, which was deeply influenced by growing up in the church. “I went to church and I saw this dude playing violin and I was like ‘whoa, I want to do that!’” she continued. “So my parents got me a violin, and I started taking private lessons. That’s pretty much the one instrument that I know like the back of my hand.” 

Learning violin laid the bedrock for her striking one-woman project, Jordana, which has mostly been an extension of her natural ideas about music so far. Describing herself as a “church baby, raised up,” and a relentless “covers girl,” Nye not only learned violin as a kid, but also viola, ukulele and guitar. It wasn’t until February of 2018, though, that she tried writing songs of her own — mostly thanks to the help of an iPad. The resulting self-produced songs were dreamy and moody, bedroom pop with swagger, expertly sung and arranged with the fantastic indifference of a beginner. 

Combining simple, gloomy beats with even simpler melodies, Jordana stitched together baroque folk, ‘70s guitar noodling, and glitchy production, a completely intuitive blend for a nineteen-year-old who grew up in a world dominated by hip-hop, hymns and nostalgia radio. Things really began to take off for the young musician, though, when she left her hometown of  North Beach, Maryland and moved to Kansas in January of 2019. Jordana and her girlfriend got their own place together in Wichita, with room for Nye to begin recording in earnest.