Hi friends, I want you to meet my good friend and songwriter Jordan Reynolds. He has some amazing wisdom about songwriting, life, and how to get a cut in the industry. Enjoy!
Name: Jordan Reynolds
Location: East Nashville, “Studio” in our house…aka the third bedroom.
What are you currently listening to?
Julia Michaels. Julia is a songwriter friend of mine from LA who has exploded in the last two years…cuts like “Sorry” Bieber, “Close” Nick Jonas, “Hands to Myself” Selena Gomez, and a million others. She just released her first single as an artist. It’s called “Issues” and it is off-the-chain tasty and delicious.
Where do you want to go with your career?
What a big question. If I could sum it up it would be to have a sustainable career in music, whatever that ends up looking like. I love songwriting and the opportunities it’s afforded me so far to meet some top notch human beings, and I’d love to be able to do it for as long as I can. I’d love to continue to produce; I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to be picky with the artists I work with, and it has made the work way more inspiring and way more fun.
One piece of advice for people about life or music:
Learn how to say no. I’m a people pleaser at heart, and so when I’m asked to do something for someone my natural reaction is always to say “yes.” This is not inherently a bad thing, but it will lead to clogging your schedule with things you probably don’t want to be doing. Prioritize the things that you want to get done, and say “no” so you are able to say “yes” to the opportunities you are excited about. To my fellow people pleasers, people will NOT hate you if you tell them you don’t have the time currently to do something for them/produce their project/write with them.
Something you learned the hard way:
This story is specifically about songwriting, but I think it can apply to anybody in any career. When I first started writing, all I wanted to do was get in the room with the “big dogs” of music row….the 5-10 guys/girls who get all of the cuts in this town. I knew that if I got in with these people, they would think I was awesome, we would have musical babies, they would tell all of their friends, and I would become a quick millionaire. My first write with one of the top dogs happened around January of 2015. We wrote, it was terrible, and I left the write feeling like a failure. I was sure that this guy was going to go around town telling everyone else that I was the worst writer he had met. I felt defeated, and deflated of creative energy off and on for a few months. I finally started coming out of my funk after some wise advice from a friend…they essentially told me this: who you are is not based on who this writer thinks you are. Long story short, a mutual friend of ours started sending this guy songs me and her had written. He had no idea that it was me, but he loved the songs and eventually asked for a write with this other “writer,” who was, me. We write often now and have a deep respect for what the other brings to the table. Moral of the story: don’t put your self worth in other’s opinions of you…especially when their “opinions” are really just things you made up in your head.
Something You’re Proud Of:
Keith Urban-“Getting In The Way” –Ripcord
My first big cut by a major artist. Keith was the reason I started listening to country, so it was a huge honor to have him cut this one. I wrote it with super talented friends David Hodges and Emily Weisband.
Connect with Jordan below...
twitter @jordankreynolds
instagram @jordankreynolds
Photo Credit: Brian Zimmerman