I. JORDAN: “I just love euphoria, I’m such a sucker for it”

I. JORDAN has had a hell of a summer. It’s been a hell of a year, actually. Releasing their first album last May, moving in a circle of extremely successful recording artists featuring, and touring it internationally, they’ve become a mainstay on queer and secular line-ups alike – making them one of the most booked, busy and exciting artists in the world right now. And “in the world” is not just a lazy end to a sentence, but reference to the fact that they have literally played the four corners of it: New York, Sydney, Tokyo, Shanghai, a festival Alsisar, Rajastha, the north-western region of India… These are just highlights from a list of destinations a journalist hates to try to summarise.

Not to get all “trans joy” about it, but this interview set out to skip past issues of identity that usually feature in Jordan’s interviews, and focus on some of that success and the experiences it has brought, and most importantly, love. Their love of “stupid dance music”, their cat, their two long term partners and (are you ready for the unpredictable last item on the list?) custard. Fittingly then, their next release Free Falling is all about love, long distance love, familial love and falling in love with their own music.

It’s the Thursday after the late August bank holiday when we join our Zoom call – it’s a weekend that marks the end of summer and could be a bit of a downer, but Jordan is on a high from the euphoria of the long weekend.

Alright, first things first. How was your bank holiday weekend?

I had a wonderful bank holiday weekend, I am feeling lots of love and happiness from it, still trying to ride the wave of joy that I felt whilst DJing [at Body Movements] on Sunday.

I was there, you looked happy and relaxed behind the decks. It was beautiful and euphoric from the dance floor. How was it from where you were?

I’m glad that I look like I was relaxed, because behind the decks I’m like, ‘Don’t fuck this up… Don’t fuck this up.’ The set was streamed and will be up on Resident Advisor, so it felt like a big moment. [Body Movements] were saying, ‘You’re only allowed four people in the booth,’ and I was like, ‘No… everyone’s in the booth. We’re all here.’ There were so many people dancing in the booth I had to hold the decks down. It was slightly chaotic, but absolutely beautiful. I’m really glad that you said it was euphoric, because that was the vibe that I was trying to go for: sunshine, in a park, queer festival. I want everyone to turn around to the person stood next to give them a fucking hug.

No, for sure, that was definitely the vibe – sunshine and good vibes.

I just love euphoria. Like, I’m such a sucker for it. I love a bit of moody shit every now and again, but if I’m in a field we want the joy, you know, the happiness.

In the social media aftermath, there were a lot of posts mentioning an unreleased track called ‘Proper Silly’. Are you able to share anything?

‘Proper Silly’ is a track that I have made that will be coming out, on a label I’m unable to disclose, next year. I made it last year for a Boiler Room I played in Australia in December. I feel like it’s a proper northern dance track. Emotional dance music is really important to me, but so is stupid dance music.

While we’re talking about new releases, your new EP, Free Falling, is out on 17 October. What can you tell me about it?

It’s the first fully focused EP that I’ve ever written, or any body of music that I’ve ever written. My discography is a mishmash of every single dance music genre, which is very much who I am as an artist. But this EP is quite unified in its genre. It’s basically all house and garage inspired sounds. It ended up being an EP full of love songs, so I’m gonna have to be wearing my heart on my sleeve over the next couple of months. The track with Ashwarya is called ‘Without You’, that’s about living in a long distance relationship. Then there’s ‘East Coast Line’, which I wrote on my way up to see my grandma. She’s a really important person in my life who’s accepted me in all of my transness. So there’s that connection I feel with her, and that acceptance in that track. There’s also the relationship that I’ve developed with the music itself. I felt moved by my own music, which feels a bit weird, but I wanted to have that same effect on other people. I’ve really had to fall in love with these tracks, and dive deep into them to understand them, and to get the energy out of them.

So are you currently in love?

I’m in love with everything and everyone. I’ve got two long term partners. I have several eally close, intimate, romantic, platonic relationships. Like, I’m very poly. So yeah, I don’t know if I’m “in” in love in the traditional sense, is how I’d answer that question. Because what is that? What I’m in love with right now is making music and meeting new people, and just enjoying connection in all of its forms. Like the expansive amount of love we can feel for our friends, or my cat. And I love custard. I love custard so much.

It’s been a big summer. You’ve done your third Glasto–

Fourth!

Fourth Glasto, Primavera, Whole fest – what have been some of your highlights of the summer?

I think Glastonbury was a big highlight for me. It’s the first time that I played slightly smaller, queer focused parties, and there was a trans focused one and a queer one. The last couple of years I’ve played on bigger stages, which have been amazing, but it was also just quite good to do some smaller bits. Whole Fest is a massive highlight as well. I wanted to play for years and just go and experience it and see that cool site. I think Body Movements has probably been the biggest thing… I played a rooftop in Krakow overlooking the castle? That was pretty nice. Yeah, I’ve done alright.

On your new EP you have that collaboration with Ashwarya and in the past you’ve collaborated with Taahliah, Felix Mufti, Sister Zo and Tom Rasmussen – how is the process of collaboration for you?

More often than not I was already friends with these people. The names that you mentioned like Tom, Taahliah, Zo, Felix, they’re all my pals. That’s why I wanted to work with them, because we’ve already got a baseline on which we understand each other. And it’s important for me to work with people that I align with. The most rewarding thing I’ve found this year was working with vocalists – it’s made me a better producer. I’m learning the amount of detail that a vocalist can hear in their own voice. I’m learning how to train my ear, really fine tuning on different layers. That’s been a really great process.

You’ve talked about Kae Tempest as a big inspiration – did you manage to see or meet him at Glastonbury?

I’ve not met him yet but I saw him play at Glastonbury, and it was really moving. He did this incredible spoken word improv at the end where he was talking about his transition, and took his top off. And I was like, ‘Yes, representation!’ I just… You just never see that. So yeah, I felt really moved.