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Photo: Amanda Elise K 

Reviving a certain chic that’s been dormant for decades, Rochelle Jordan is her inner little girl’s wildest dreams. A young seed watered by divas like Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey, she now serves that same prowess in her own artistry. Bridging genres with big hair and big vocals, her music is a love letter to unconfined femininity. Her highly anticipated upcoming album Through The Wall, set to release September 26, is a testament to that dharma — a complete body of work that elicits sweat and joy, electrifying the sacral chakra.

A visionary reclaiming pop-dance music for Black women, the accolades she’s earned thus far don’t outshine the cultural significance of her living in devotion to her spirit’s desires. In Jordan relinquishing herself from one-dimensionality, she’s given every set of eyes on her permission to do the same. 

Ones to Watch got a chance to sit down with Jordan ahead of Through The Wall’s release to explore her allegiance to authenticity, aversion to the status quo, and deep familial ties with Kaytranada.

OnesToWatch: You are made up of so many different cultures at once. Being born in London, raised in Toronto, a British Jamaican, how do all of these different cultures make up one unified version of self?

Rochelle Jordan: That's a very interesting question. I think just naturally, I've been able to adapt very well in my whole life, almost like a chameleon. Not in a sense where I'm putting on a costume by any means, but I'm able to have a deep-rooted understanding for different cultures and have a very open mind to differences. Even down to the seasons. Being in Canada, you see all the different seasons all the time. Living in LA for 15 years and just kind of seeing one season, I was like, “I need the changes. I really need that spiritually.” For the most part, I had a very good upbringing, being around different cultures and everyone meshing in well with each other. It kept my mind open and wondering and very curious, all of that leads into the music at the end of the day. 

That's what's so magnetic about your music; it's unconfined. What were you listening to growing up that informed your eclectic taste for music?

Oh, my goodness, so much stuff. My parents were obviously playing old stuff like Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, and a lot of Vybez Kartel. My brothers were playing a lot of real deep cut UK garage. I grew up listening to a lot of pop music when I was younger, like my obsession with the Spice Girls, Janet, Britney. I was paying attention and not paying attention, just living through the music. And then suddenly, it just kind of struck something. My mom recently sent me my agenda from elementary school, and it was like asking questions like “What do you want to be when you're older?” And I just kept saying, “I want to be a singer.” I also used to write, which is kind of sad, “I want to be pretty. I want to be pretty.” I was so hard on myself, even at a young age. But it's very interesting to see the footprints of your thought process and the little things that you were thinking about when you were younger. All of it manifested into something that I hold so closely to my heart as an adult.

That little girl grew up to be someone so uninhibited. I think a woman who is healed is a woman who is the fullest expression of herself. How do you tend to that on a day-to-day basis? 

For me, it's very much about holding true to the things that inspire me. That is the most important thing. I'm not somebody who is entertained much by trends. I’m pretty rebellious in that sense; if something is going one way, I try to dance the opposite way. I can understand why things have come out the way they have, and why things are the way they are for me. I'm very strong in who I am. I'm an independent thinker, and I am somebody who appreciates silence as well. I like to hear the voice of God, my inner voice as well. Social media is very noisy. My body, my spirit, my chakras don’t like that feeling too much, so I have to keep a certain balance. All of these things combined really help me hold on to who I am authentically. I think for everybody, you got to find out how to manage yourself personally in order to hold on to who you are authentically. 

Social media is so overstimulating. I think people like the noise because it takes up the silence.

So true. That silence is so important, you'll drown if you don't allow it.

I’m sure it played a role in making Through The Wall. Where were you mentally while creating this project?

Throughout my years of creating, I've always had my blueprint. I make sure that I'm listening to what has always inspired me truly. Because what you're ingesting, you will digest, and for me to hold on to my sound, that's the only way I'm going to be able to have my true point of view for myself. What I can imagine being a future sound that's coming solely from Rochelle, but then also holding on to everything that I've ever loved in the past, and just marrying both of those things. I want to do it better every single time. “How do I top the last one?” was pretty much the mentality. I wanted to showcase my inner diva, the seasoned woman really coming into her empowerment and knowing who she is and being very striking and strong about that. That was something that I wanted to make sure I nailed.

That certainly translates. It's such a feminine project; it makes me feel so in my body. If anything, you also really reclaimed dance music for Black women

Yeah, that was an intention. When I was making Play With The Changes, I was just so excited about blending genres and making that bridge between R&B and dance music. I was so experimental and imaginative, and then the reaction that it got, it definitely encouraged me to move forward in that space, but not be identical. I know that my fans really love me on drum and bass, and they want me to stay there. Even the way music turned into even more of an electric sound, like Charli xcx and PinkPantheress, I know that's maybe where they were expecting me to go. For me, I want to play in those worlds, but I really want to hold true to the sounds that I love listening to, like Whitney and Mariah, women that are major, major artists. I wanted to make sure that I implemented that feeling as we moved down this dance direction with Black music.

How has that informed what you are doing alongside the project visually?

I just think staying very grounded and authentic. I want people to feel good. It made me feel happy when you said that you feel very much in your body when you listen to this music as a woman. That's what I want to celebrate. We could add all the bells and whistles, but at the end of the day, what is the foundation of feeling? I'm not afraid to be by myself in these visuals, because I'm really trying to feel everything that's coming out of me and not be manipulated by anything. I'm just here right now, and it feels so good. That's what I'm trying to translate in the visuals. 

I can’t imagine how excited you are to bring this into a physical atmosphere.

I'm so excited about tour, it’s coming up in November. It's like a mini tour. We're hitting a couple of cities at first. I’m very excited. I've been teasing some of these songs in little secret shows here and there, and oh my god, it's absolutely unreal. I’m so excited about “Sweet Sensation,” I actually just performed that. My fans found a little clip, and they just threw it out there. It's really such a beautiful song. It reminds me of when I was younger, just getting ready for sleepovers, putting on our makeup. It brings me back to that time when I was very, very happy. I'm still happy, but when I was free in happiness.

So many people are now finding you through the avenue of Kaytranada. “Spit It Out” was 100% my standout on TIMELESS. Being on a project with so many other artists, is there any pressure at all to establish yourself on the track-list?

Oh, it's very organic. I never usually feel pressure about anything. I think the focus is quality of music, quality of lyrics, intention, authenticity, all those things matter the most to me. And Kaytranada is definitely the same about that as well. He's very intuitive, very authentic. He's so real. If he loves something, he loves it. There's nothing that can be done if he doesn't like it; he doesn't like it, he'll scratch the idea. I'm the same way, so I think naturally we just really understood each other. Even some of his inspirations and influences, we share. It’s always exciting to work with him. That is my brother. I'm so happy that people responded well to the two tracks that I had on that project. Very cool.

The chemistry that you guys have is really special. 

I think it's because we grew in the same field of flowers. There's a language that we speak. I love when I find collaborators where we go through albums, we go through the details, we scream about it. We have really absorbed this sound and this feeling in music. So when we create naturally, it's like, there's just no other way it's going to come out. It's going to come out the way we felt about the past stuff that we were influenced by.

This is the calm before the storm. Soon, the project will be in the world’s hands. Are you ready for it, or do you still feel protective?

Oh, I'm ready for it to be in the world. I was very protective up until last week. I just want to make sure that my baby is still mine. But I'm excited about it going out to the world. I find that every single time I release music into the world, it sounds different. I can't put my hand on it. I just hear it differently. I can hear what the people are hearing, and it really excites me. I think it's because before it goes out, you are in an analytical mindset. I might be hearing things and paying attention to things that are more on the creative side. Once it's out, it's like freedom. It's gone. It no longer belongs to me. It belongs to the world, to the universe, and it's such a good feeling to let go.

I’ve heard so many artists say that exact sentiment. Maybe it sounds different because you're now listening as the consumer, right?

Exactly. There's nothing better than being a consumer, as far as music goes. If I could tell people who want to walk into the music industry one thing, it would be to just ask yourself, "Do you want to give up being a consumer?" Because that feeling that you get listening to music with no bias, just complete admiration for the gift, is a feeling that can take you through all the highs and lows of life. That's the thing that pulls you through. When you are a creator, that mentality completely shifts. You become more analytical. It doesn't feel as good as it once felt. Are you willing to sacrifice that to create that feeling for others? You don't realize until you're in the game that that's what's going to happen. Maybe not for every artist, but I know for me, there was definitely a sacrifice as to how I listen to music and how excited I get versus how excited I got before. 

I think there’s a mini version of that we’re all experiencing now, as social media has given everyone a platform to be a critic. We’re all thinking of how we’ll rate movies and albums publicly while we’re consuming them, rather than just being immersed in the experience. How do you maintain the inner fan girl that's just consuming for the sake of it?

Silence can help palette cleanse. Being out in nature is very important to me, and breaks within creating. I set a time for, like, a month of creating, then letting go and just listening back to all the things that I love again. Looking at the details of why I like these things and finding new artists as well that hitting the nail on the head. There's no real way of healing what happens when you become an artist in the business. But there's little things that you can do. I can maybe take a little gummy here and there, make the music 3D.

Who are your ones to watch?

Oh my gosh, there's an artist called Sidibe. I think she's from Los Angeles. She has a beautiful sound. It's kind of giving like Sade-esque. It's really, really pretty. I think she's so exciting and really dope.