Meet Jordyn Dodd-Waddington

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jordyn Dodd-Waddington.

Jordyn, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
As a kid, I was always drawn to music. Whether family activities or social outings with my friends, I’d find myself drifting off somewhere listening to my walkman, or wishing I was watching some biopic about a successful musician. I was adopted at birth and my parents had a pretty messy divorce when I was seven. Life was very chaotic, stressful & emotionally taxing at a very young age for me. Music acted as a form of therapy. When I was ten years old, my mentor Prince Habib scheduled me my first studio session with a producer by the name of Sean Graham, he had pro-tools and a mic setup in his living room, this was circa 2003. We recorded a song that I wrote at school called “Shine,” and the moment we burned it onto a cd and I was able to listen to it on my walkman was the moment I became obsessed. I found it so surreal that I could listen to my own music in the same way I was able to listen to The Temptations or Michael Jackson. A few years later I started going to a Boys & Girls club down the street from my school. They had a teen center facility with a recording studio in it and I was there every day. I was determined to master the art of recording vocals, & my mentor Dom taught me how to run the soundboard & vocal produce artists. On days that I couldn’t work on my own stuff, I’d ask to engineer whoever else booked studio time.

When I graduated high school, I moved to LA to attend the Musicians Institute for a three month program. In the three months, I got connected with Kerry Gordy, which was ironic because I grew up obsessed with the Motown sound. I wound up writing my first ever billboard charting song on his artist. Over the course of about five years in LA, I managed to work with a fair amount of budding artists on their music projects, racking up some experience. I wound up co-writing six songs on an album that premiered at number 2 on the iTunes R&B charts. Soon after, I left LA to recharge, I tasted a couple of bitter experiences in my personal life and needed to cleanse the palate. In the time I was gone, I won a couple of cash prize jingle contests and drove Uber & Lyft to keep myself afloat.

When I came back, I plugged back in with some old music connects & hit the ground running with a new momentum. Out of the random one day my sister Carmen reached out to me about an opportunity to meet with Red Bull Publishing and I hopped on it. A few months after connecting with them, I landed my first publishing deal.

Has it been a smooth road?
The road has been far from smooth. For every peak, there has seemed to be 100 valleys, and I think one of the greatest struggles was learning to see the beauty in the valleys and extracting the necessary nutrients to maintain my sense of self at the peaks. I think I invested a lot of my self-worth into the applause of others, which caused constant anxiety and paranoia about what others thought of me. It got to the point where it felt like my whole life became about suppressing my feelings to maintain inauthentic relationships with people and not burn bridges, and I had to take about a year and a half to leave LA and get back to my core. I now value my mental, emotional and spiritual health more than any opportunity. I’ve learned that the best opportunities come as a result of you being authentic and that the ones that require you to morph into something you’re not don’t belong to you and will only act as a means to an end.

We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I am a recording artist & a songwriter. I specialize in telling stories, whether my own or the stories of others in a way that’s melodically, rhythmically and phonetically pleasing to the consumer. That was all a fancy way of saying that I write music in hopes that people will like it. I’m proud of the ability to walk into a room and create something from nothing, oftentimes with people that I’ve never met before. I’m proud of the ability to articulate my thoughts in a way that is entertaining to others. I’m proud of the ability to inspire. I’m proud of the ability to be consistently vulnerable and explore the depths of my soul. I think what sets me apart is my disregard for trending topics and my desire to tell an authentic story, regardless of if it fits into a popular narrative or not.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I see genre lines blurring more and more, and new genres being created. I think that we’re starting to see more of a spectrum in music. We’re starting to honor many different perspectives & narratives & as a result music will continue to become more dynamic and interesting. My hope is that the industry would move into such a space that there would be a maximum output of music with high vibration, healthy messaging and/or healing qualities.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jordynsmusic.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @jdoddwadd

Image Credit:
Kevin Ray Orange

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