Boston via Atlanta rocker Jordan Maye isn’t afraid of big guitars and even bigger vocals on her debut album Creation of Jordan Maye out on 23rd August. Her lyrical honesty, depth and profound imagery is a portal into what she’s lived through in her 21 years: mental health challenges, being a full time student at Berklee College of Music, going through the process of transitioning, all the while navigating relationships with family, lovers and friends. Through all of this, she’s had a prolific year of writing, recording and releasing songs.
Today GIITTV are delighted to premiere the video for her stunning, intensely cathartic, stadium-ready glam-rock opus, ‘Do You Really Care?”
Speaking exclusively to GIITTV she said, “This song digs into the idea that you can return to burnt bridges and see what’s left of damaged relationships. It describes what it’s like to be in that space, and how it feels when you think about a relationship that’s no longer there, a friendship or otherwise and to see what’s left of it in your mind. I’m asking “Do you really care?” to past friends and to past people in my life. It’s less “Do you do you care?,” and more like, “Did you ever care?”
For me, big guitars equals anger. When I’m angry and I’m playing guitar, I’ll just turn up the distortion and strum really loud. But it’s not all anger, some guitar is there to add atmosphere. I really wanted it to feel like you’re angry about something. You’re angry about a broken relationship. You’re angry that you’re thinking back on all this. Through all of that, there’s also sadness in looking back on these things.“
‘Do You Really Care?’ reminds us that friends will come and go as time passes. It hits the pinnacle of the stadium rock vastness of this collection of songs, starting with a dark intro reminiscent of Metallica’s ‘Enter Sandman‘ before filling out into something more akin to Pyromania era Def Leppard, including a wailing guitar solo and a stomp-clap chant chorus. Through the power of this massive song, she confronts the loneliness we’ve all felt as she sings, “Is there anyone out there / Calling from far away / Was it even a human voice / I heard the other way / Do you really care?”
Maye writes deeply personal songs that resonate with who we are as a society. She taps into our shared empathy and compassion as she guides us through these specific moments of her life. Maye recently met songwriter and producer Rico Love (Usher, Beyoncé, Trey Songz) who’s advice deeply impacted her.
“Something he said really stuck with me,” says Maye. “Write things that need to exist, so people can relate to them. I just want to humanize our struggles in my songs, to relate to the problems we all share.”
Maye has been a consistent student of songcraft, taking piano, guitar and voice lessons since she was a child growing up in Atlanta.. While in high school, she was accepted to a prestigious week-long piano program at Berklee. The following year she was accepted into Berklee as a full time student, where she continued to write and record songs.
From 2022 and into 2023, Maye took a year off of school to focus on her mental health. This is when she met producer, engineer and multi-instrumentalist Eric Breiner, who built a career as a composer for nearly 200 placements in ads, film and television. He recently left Hollywood for his hometown of Atlanta, where he focuses on producing new talent in his Peach Music studio, and to be closer to family. His brother Daniel plays drums on several of Maye’s songs.
“Her voice can be powerful or sweet depending on the song,” says Breiner. “Beyond her command of tone, timbre and intonation, she’s such an easy vocalist to record because she’s never phoning the emotion in. If she’s singing, she’s singing with reason.”
“Jordan is an explosively creative individual,” says Breiner. “Every time she walks into the studio, she sits down at the piano, or picks up a guitar, and sings a new song. They’re always soulful songs with beautifully dark lyrics that invite the listener inside a young adult’s journey of self-discovery.” Maye would bring Breiner demos that she recorded, and together they’d break the song down to its basic elements and put it back together. Breiner would take Maye’s base of lyrics and chords and start building from the ground up.
Creation of Jordan Maye takes us on a candid journey of mental stress, love and death. Her songs are personal, yet feel universal in their humanity. We feel them viscerally and understand them innately.
“For me, ‘In My Life’ by The Beatles is the perfect song,” says Maye. “I find myself going back to it a lot. I’m always thinking about how time changes. Time passes. People come and go. The sun goes up and down. ‘Time’ by Pink Floyd is another one of those. I feel like I spent most of my life wasting time, especially now that I’ve found who I really am. I lost the kind of childhood that I wanted, in terms of my gender identity and in terms of who I actually am. I felt very isolated then. Now there are people in my life that make me feel found, happy, and that I matter.”
Jordan Maye’s – Creation of Jordan Maye LP is out on 23rd August
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Photo Credit: Bella Wang
Creation album art by Ambrose H. Hoilman
