Ward Is in His Jordan Year

July 05, 2023

Jordan Ward laid out many of his ideals on life, relationships, the music industry and his family on FORWARD his debut album.

On some tracks on the full-length, over sticky, guitar-tinged beats the St. Louis artist rap-sings about his current state of mind and his life. The topics on FORWARD range from soured relationships, and friends that are draining to the weight of relationships with family members. In its entirety, the album is an earnest project that is written in diary form.

There’s a through line heard throughout FORWARD that connects Ward with his church-centric upbringing in St. Louis – some songs have an energetic feel that only someone connected to the musicality of the Black church could create. “My mom was a singer in many different choirs,” he tells office. “To this day, she’s very active in the music ministry in St. Louis.” He adds though he didn’t evolve into a religious person, he feels his music is influenced by gospel music and the different people his mother studied under.

Photography by Ricky Alvarez
Interview by Robyn Mowatt
Styling by Dylan Andrews
Photography assisting by Austin Withers, Savino Reyes
Styling assisiting by Finlay Mangan, Angelo Saunders

Left: jacket WALES BONNER, jersey HERON PRESTON, shorts WILLY CHAVARRIA, headband NIKE.

Aside from growing up in the Black church, Ward also says he was heavily involved in the dance community in St. Louis from an early age. At 9, his mother placed him in a musical theater program where he learned tap, jazz, ballet and hip-hop. He acted, sang, and danced for years, due to his excellent dancing skills and involvement in competitions, he was constantly traveling. Jordan’s aspirations to move to Los Angeles guided him and by 18 he moved there to pursue professional dancing.

After some time there, he landed a gig touring as a backup dancer for Becky G. While on the road, he found himself drawn to creating music while cooped up in his hotels – Becky G. encouraged him too. Though it felt foreign for him at first, he began doing what felt natural for him: writing and singing about his life as a dancer on the road. By the time 2015 came, he was hired as a backup dancer for Justin Bieber as a part of the singer’s Purpose tour. This led to Ward striking up a friendship with a talented artist and dancer who pushed him to start freestyling and recording, he stayed consistent and within a year and a half he released his first EP, A Peak At The Summit.

FORWARD released on Interscope Records has so many layers and that’s what lands Ward in the lexicon of rising alt acts who once were inspired by distinct eras of hip-hop: think the blog era where artists like Wiz Khalifa and J. Cole got their footing (Jordan looks up to both of these acts). In conversation, the artist-rapper expresses that FORWARD paints a picture of where he’s at right now as a music-maker. But, it also does more than that, it introduces him to new listeners by way of fleshed-out arrangements by Lido, the album’s executive producer and Ward’s honest lyricism. These notions when paired with hip-hop, gospel and rhythm and blues influences create a fusion sound that culminates with Ward ushering in a reflective chapter of his artistry.

office caught up with Jordan Ward following his first headlining tour to speak about his influences, his creative childhood and his background in St. Louis, and more.

What were some of your earliest music memories?

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill was just one of those CDs that I just remember always being in my house since I was a kid. And I would always pick it up and listen to it, and it followed me into my adulthood. Other than that, I mean, I grew up around a lot of gospel music.

Left: jacket WALES BONNER, jersey HERON PRESTON, shorts WILLY CHAVARRIA, boots TIMBERLAND, headband NIKE.

Right: jacket HERON PRESTON, sunglasses STYLIST'S OWN.

How old were you when you started getting involved with creative activities like musical theater, dancing and more?

I remember being drawn to singing and dancing and rapping ever since I was a kid, ever since I can remember. But the first time I actually got involved was when I was eight or nine and I started doing musical theater. My mom had noticed I was getting in trouble for singing and dancing in class. So basically she was just like, "Let me just switch you with some singing and dancing." So she sent me to some musical theater auditions.

I started doing community theater, professional theater. And then when I was nine, I started dancing, started taking tap, and then when I was 10, I joined my dance studio and I was like a competition kid. I was a convention kid. As a kid, I always just wrote raps, had rhyme books, battled people at the YMCA lock-ins and around neighborhood and stuff. I had a big community in the musical theater realm. And then within the dance studio culture in St. Louis, I knew a lof of kids from competing.

What other types of music were you listening to as you were growing up?

Other than gospel, I mean, coming up as a kid, I was big on 50 Cent. And then right before middle school, I got more into 2Pac’s Me Against the World and Nas’ Illmatic. I like All Eyez On Me too. Biggie’s Ready to Die, JAY-Z’s Reasonable Doubt. I was on my real hip-hop shit as a kid. I started listening to all that when I was like 10.

Were you creating music as a part of the SoundCloud era in middle school or high school?

I never made music as a kid. I used to just rap, write raps. I recorded one demo in my friend's basement because her dad was a church musician and he had a studio. By the time I got to high school, I was way more focused on dance.

In high school, I wasn't thinking about being an artist at all. I was just focused on being ready to move to LA when I was 18, to start my career and shit. But I definitely was super into music though. If anything, I thought I was going to go from dance to the music industry, but just in a different way. I came up on the Lil Wayne No Ceilings era, the Wiz Khalifa “Taylor Gang” era, coming home, watching Wiz Khalifa YouTube videos “DayToday” every day, watching Mac Miller, watching just even early Tyler, The Creator and Drake.

I was traveling a lot for dance. Every weekend I would fly to these different workshops around the country and try to get on scholarships so I can train more throughout the year. And I would be flying by myself a ton. So I always just had music with me. And I feel like that combination inspired my view on the world a lot.

Jacket, pants and shoes GUCCI, top HERMES, sunglasses FLATLIST, rings MIANSAI.

Do you think you’ve taken anything from the blog era and used it as a part of your artistry?

For sure. I mean, I feel like the blog era artists lay it like a new blueprint for artists. As far as putting yourself on the internet, branding yourself. My YouTube series “PlantainGo!” is definitely inspired by Wiz Khalifa’s “DayToday.” I'm trying to carry that era with me – everything from the merch to just the community recognition.

What inspires me from that era and what I try to bring with me is that the internet allowed people with different personalities. It allowed for a different set of representation. When I saw these artists on the internet that maybe came from a similar community that I came from, but was different from a lot of the people they came up around inspired me.

People like Wiz Khalifa and J Cole, they made me feel I could identify with them as a young Black kid growing up in the inner city that didn't talk like everybody, or didn't necessarily dress like everybody. I was doing contemporary dance and doing ballet and getting music from what I would be doing with that, studying at my studio and stuff. And I would see them be tapped into the same music too. So I feel like it's just inspiring.

How did you transition from dancing to creating music? Especially since you initially moved to Los Angeles to chase your dreams of being a professional dancer.

By the time I actually started working professionally as a dancer, the last thing I wanted to do was become an artist. I feel like there's an unspoken code you assume as a dancer when it's just, you just become more ninja like. You're only there when you need to. You not asked. At least the way I was thinking about, I'm not asking for extra attention. The only thing I want to speak for me is did I do my fucking job. I was touring with Becky G for a year. Becky would just hear me sing, playing around sometimes, and she’d be like, “Just sing a little something for me.” And I’d be like, “What are you talking about?” Then maybe a year and a half after that is when I started fucking around with the music.

I was on tour with Justin Bieber in 2016 with my friend, he was another dancer and performer. We just had a lot of free time in the hotel rooms, and he's an amazing artist. So he would be making music on his laptop, and then I would just be free styling for fun next to him. And then he was like, "Bro, you should fuck around with that." And then I started writing raps, and then pretty much all my free time on tour became me just getting recording equipment and recording demos in my hotel room.

I spent the next year and a half being in my hotel room, hooking up my mic, instead of going out and drinking with everybody all the time, I would just be pulling beats off YouTube and just seeing what I could do living in my own little world before I touched down back in LA. And by the time I came off tour, I had a tape and I started going to the studio on my breaks in between booking studio time in LA. By the end of 2017, I had a tape and I put an EP out, and then yeah, it just started from there.

Jacket and pants ALEXANDER McQUEEN, shirt ACNE STUDIOS, shoes CAMPER, sunglasses FLATLIST, rings MIANSAI.

With your debut album FORWARD do you have any lessons or themes that you took from your first project?

I feel like I'm just always trying to evolve. I'm never trying to do the same thing twice. So on that first tape, I feel like I was describing where I was in life. It was called A Peak At The Summit, which is basically me describing being at one peak of dance and then looking over at the next peak or the next summit of music and being like, "Damn, I got to go through that journey to go up and down." And I feel like, so on that tape, I was talking about my current life being a dancer and my current relationships. And I feel like on FORWARD, I tried to go a little bit before that and talk about my childhood and my family. And I mean, it's music at the end of the day. It's not a tell all or anything, but I feel like I just tried to show a little bit, give a little more context behind it.

What were the biggest themes you were hoping to get across on FORWARD?

I was just trying to illustrate what I was feeling on the inside. At the most basic level, I was just trying to show my evolution as a human being, try to give more context as to why I choose to express myself the way I do, why I have the humor that I do, why I have the emotion that I do, why I have the passion that I do, because of everything that's led me up until this point. And I'm not sure why, but I was just trying to paint the picture as to what led up here.

Left: jacket, pants and shoes GUCCI, top HERMES, sunglasses FLATLIST, rings MIANSAI. Right: jacket and pants GUCCI, sunglasses FLATLIST.

What was the process of creating FORWARD?

Everything was recorded in LA except “IDC” with me and Joony. We made that in New York. We were both in New York at the same time, and that was our first time meeting. But everything else was made in LA. We worked a lot in Lido’s studio. Lido has a home studio, so I was at Lido's crib a lot. There are a lot of the producers on the album, I would just be at their crib. The intro “BUSSDOWN,” produced by my homie, Eli Heisler, I was at his crib when we made that.

All of us came together, myself and the producers, and we rented some houses out throughout the year. One in Malibu, one in Topanga, one in Venice. And just spent four or five days at a time, just locked in, making different ideas, taking mushrooms, going to the beach in between, coming back, trying something else. There was definitely a sense of camaraderie.

I’m curious about the fusion sound you landed on, on the album too. I don't want to say that it's R&B or anything, because I'm not sure what you want to define yourself as, but I'm just curious. Was that a decision that you came up with Lido you executive producer, that you just didn't want to confine yourself to any genre?

I'm not the first to do any of this shit. You know what I'm saying? I'm inspired by mad people. But yeah, I guess, I mean, I don't know if we was sitting in there like, “I don't want to be confined to one genre.” I don't think we stay in one genre. Going back to what I was talking about earlier as far as what I was so inspired by on the blog era, is that you could really hear all these artists' influence.

I don't really mind what genre people put it in. I feel like that's not my job. I like to consider myself a hip-hop artist. I'm not going to call myself a rapper, but I like to consider myself a hip-hop artist. But ultimately, most things are just rhythm and blues derivatives. Rhythm and blues is the ultimate genre after blues and gospel and jazz and all that.

I never want to pigeonhole black artists. What if the artist actually doesn't want to be canonized and placed definitively in a lane?

Since you said that, I'm going to just go ahead and insert that right there. I mean, Chuck Barry, father of rock ‘n’ roll from St. Louis. Tina Turner, queen of rock ‘n’ roll, also from St. Louis.

I feel like I'm just always trying to evolve. I'm never trying to do the same thing twice.

Jacket and pants HERON PRESTON, shoes JORDAN BRAND, bag LOUIS VUITTON.

What was it like collaborating with your friend and stylist Angelo as you were piecing together the album?

I’ve known Angelo since like 2014. We both came up in a similar dance circuit as kids to adults and ended up on similar career paths. But me and him have been friends before I ever started making music, before he started pursuing fashion professionally. We both have gone through financial ups and downs together, real life ups and downs, relationships, all that. I've slept on his couch.

He's seen how my tastes and everything have shaped over the years, why they've shaped that way, how everything has influenced what I do. And I've also seen him evolve as just a fashion creative, and I think we just both have a trust in each other. And now he knows where I'm at with the music. I know where he's at with the fashion, and we both want to take each other to the next level.

How would you describe this chapter of your life?

This chapter is about reaching the fullest potential. I don't even just mean that in just music because my journey with music isn't about becoming as big as I can. It's about being the best artist that I can be genuinely. Of course, I would love to travel the world, and I would love to create financial freedom and create a freedom for me and my loved ones. So I feel like you have to create something sizeable naturally to do that. But to me, it's just about really bringing to life everything that God or the Spirit has put on my heart.

Music

Jesse Jo Stark Is in a Genre of Her Own

April 19, 2024

In the midst of a total solar eclipse, I got the chance to talk about music and style with Jesse Jo Stark.

As I’m on the phone with her from New York, Stark is on a tour bus with The Veronicas, driving through the Colorado mountains to enjoy some time off in between shows. The Veronicas have just started their Gothic Summer North American Tour, and Stark is opening the show. What’s special about this tour for the lifelong music obsessive is the sense of powerful feminine energy encapsulating the tour. “We just started [tour], but it’s been really lovely. I’m obsessed with the fact that we’re all women — it feels like a very powerful crew. The Veronicas are lovely, the crowds have been so fun, and the venues are beautiful. It’s gonna be a good month.”

Photography Sophia-Liv Maguire
Styling Marc Eram
Interview Angelina Hazzouri
Talent Jesse Jo Stark
Hair Antoine Martinez with PARADIS using Roz Hair
Makeup Sydney Szramowski
Photo Assistants Mia O’Neal, Rashaun Richardson
BTS Ms Josephine
Creative Producer Olivia Roper-Caldbeck

This is Stark’s second time touring since the release of her full-length debut album DOOMED in late 2022, which was very well received and led to Stark’s first sold-out international headlining tour on behalf of the album. Previous to her solo tour, she’s opened for various notable acts, such as Guns N’ Roses and Jane’s Addiction. I asked Stark, who’s been writing and playing music since age 11, what it was like to prepare for her first sold-out headlining tour. Unsurprisingly, before any tour, Stark goes into what she describes as “bootcamp mode” — dancing every day, vocal training, rehearsing with her band, and of course, working on her outfits. “That’s the sort of homework I love,” she says, smiling. (Even though we’re on the phone, I can tell she’s smiling when she talks about the outfit part. I’d smile too if I had her tour closet.)

What’s unique about Stark as a musician is that she has ultimately created her own universe by embracing every aspect of her creative upbringing, her raw talent, her fascinating influences, and her unwavering beliefs in not needing to fit into a certain box when it comes to her art. She creative-directs and styles all her own looks, referencing an ever-evolving list of influences that range from Vegas showgirls to Halloween to old films to her parents in the 90s. “I think when I was younger, I had this rebellion against what I was made from,” she tells me, “but now it’s just my blood. I constantly reflect on my childhood and everything I was taught and everything I saw. My brother and sister and I are constantly pulling influences from our parents from the past. I think, more than ever, I’m heavily influenced by them.”

Stark, the daughter of founders and owners of the self-made American fashion brand Chrome Hearts, and now its creative director and designer, is someone who always knew what she liked, but as she describes it, had to ‘go through the motions’ that come with growing up and knowing one’s identity. Today, her self-efficacy is palpable — and it’s inspiring.

...when I was younger, I had this rebellion against what I was made from, but now it’s just my blood.

When she’s on tour, Stark is growing with herself and with her art — she’s not afraid to take life as it comes and learn through the process. With every show, regardless of whether it was on her DOOMED tour or this tour with The Veronicas, Stark understands the importance of human connection through music. Seeing faces of music lovers like herself, meeting those who have traveled to see her, and visiting familiar and unfamiliar cities has reminded her that she loves being on the road. “The growth that happens on tour is so important to me as an artist.” Sometimes we have to leave behind what’s familiar in order to rediscover what’s important, and Stark is a proponent of this growth mindset.

Growth doesn’t just happen on tour with Stark — this evolution of herself happens within genre as well, and for Stark there’s no such thing. Since her first release Driftwood in 2017, the artist’s sound has shifted year after year, but in a harmonious way that still feels central to her gothic Americana roots. When asked if she’ll experiment with genre in the future, Stark confidently answers, “I think I’ve only experimented with genre. I don’t think anyone knows what genre I am.” (She calls herself a “horrific hillbilly” — a perfect descriptor.) Steadfast in her belief that we as humans can constantly evolve in our work, Stark thinks it’s antiquated to fit yourself into a certain box and focus on one specific trade in order to succeed. “If you look at us as people, we’re seasoned. We change all the time. I want to experience different things.”

Since Driftwood, a two-song EP rooted in rock and country, Stark has experimented with more robust beats and 808s on DOOMED, and her most recent single “skeleton” features a softer, grungier punk sound. Without fitting into a specific genre, Stark’s music is undoubtedly and wholeheartedly her own, transcending the boundaries of what many artists struggle with when finding their sound. “I don’t think we should have to label ourselves in any way, shape, or form; so I’m not going to. I will continue to make all types of different music.” Fuck yeah.

If you look at us as people, we’re seasoned. We change all the time.

This goes beyond just music — in terms of her personal style, the same mentality applies. We discuss the idea that clothing and dressing is a sort of playground, and personal style comes from within. Stark isn’t about following trends, but rather, she thinks it’s important to tap into different stylistic elements that amplify who we are at our cores. On her DOOMED tour, Stark wore a lot of leather and stuck to a fairly dark color palette. Right now, she’s into more bourgeois satin and lace, experimenting with different textures and wearing things that feel slightly daintier and more delicate. On this current tour with the Veronicas, Stark is making it more of a point to take everything in — absorbing inspiration from every city, writing songs on the road, recording video on a friend’s super 8 camera, styling and wearing new outfits, learning and performing new covers — ultimately growing through the whole experience.

It’s endearing and inspiring how well Stark knows herself. A Los Angeles native, she proudly tells me that the tour finishes on May 5 in her hometown, a show that she’s especially excited for. While we can’t predict what thoughtfully-curated outfit she’ll wear or what songs will be performed, with new music already underway, one thing is clear: Jesse Jo Stark is just getting started.

Music

9lives' Latest Single Continues to Push Sigilkore

April 19, 2024

The versatile artist, producer, and pioneer of the sigilkore genre, 9lives, has recently unveiled his latest single "CANADA" featuring jnhygs. In less than two years since his emergence onto the music scene, 9lives has carved out an impressive niche for himself as a prominent figure within the digitally-driven sigilkore movement. "CANADA" sees him teaming up once again with experimental dance artist jnhygs, following their successful collaboration on "XTAYALIVE".

With aspirations to establish himself within the mainstream arena of experimental music production and artistry, 9lives is blending his distinct dark production style with collaborations with a diverse array of influential artists who trust him to create innovative sonic landscapes. "CANADA" marks his second release of 2024, as 9lives continues to champion the burgeoning sigilkore movement, pushing the boundaries of genre, evolving into a multifaceted artist, and solidifying his status as a rising star with an expanding audience.

Image by Connor Pritchard

Reflecting on their latest project, 9lives shares, “In early 2023 jnhygs found my music and we started chatting through TikTok, releasing our first song together called "XTAYALIVE"." He adds, We’ve been friends since this song had a viral moment, and fans have been heavily requesting for us to work together again all over our videos.” Describing their creative process, he explains, “I sent a bunch of new ideas to jnhygs via Discord and she sent back vocals to “CANADA”, which I then used to create melodic layers and extra percussion to complete the song.

Music

Eclipsed at Vampire Weekend

April 16, 2024

It had been about a week since the goosebump-inducing communal howls at the moon, as it covered the sun through a cloudy Austin, Texas sky, left me needing to take a seat—suspended in awe of the totality of the event and the synergistic break from routine. I overheard someone say, “I mean, it feels like we’re all going to die, but in a way that’s okay, you know?" under the shadow of the eclipse's peak, ceremoniously brought in as the band performed “Jonathan Low,” (in Vampire Weekend's familiar ironic hue) a track they wrote for the third movie in the Twilight series, Eclipse.

It had been five years since the band had released an album. In celebration of their latest album, "Only God Was Above Us," ticket holders wrapped the streets in blocks outside the venue for the band’s first Stateside show in about two years. Event managers searched to replenish the venue’s stock of eclipse glasses, while the band prepped a show reminiscent of 'getting the boys back together again'.

Words and photography by Rianne Akindele

In between newly released songs like “Classical” and “Capricorn”, the boys filled the almost two-hour-long show with old favorites like “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa”, “Diane Young” and a genre evolved rendition of “Sunflower” as the crowd danced barefoot feeling the Earth’s energy intertwined with their own and the vibrations from the amps on stage. People stole glances at the imminently darkening sky, artists doodled, friends grabbed onto each other to scream the lyrics in each other’s faces, and onlookers from the highest level of the parking garage across the street cheered on in a symphony of nostalgia and anticipation.

Adding to the layers of the celestial afternoon, the band invited to the stage the likes of Thomas Mars from Phoenix, Dave 1 from Chromeo, and guitarist Brian Robert Jones, inducing further levels of indie revival euphoria.

As the show drew to its close, and the zydeco/country-rock “Cocaine Cowboys” medley fiddled through the air, a conversation could be picked up between two sisters in search of their Lyft driver through closed-off streets,

“I wish this happened more often.”
“Eclipses or shows like this?”
“Both.”

It’s moments like these that remind us of our shared humanity and the power of collective experiences; a gathering of souls under the same sky, sharing the joy of music and a wonder of the stars above. Perhaps it’s the rarity that allowed such transcendence, reverence, and gratitude to be felt. Either way, what a beautiful moment in time it was.

Here are a few shots from the Monday afternoon: