After releasing his solo debut EP ‘In Colour’ back in May, Brisbane singer-songwriter Jordan Merrick has released his second solo EP, ‘Songs From House Arrest’.
The EP comes out of a difficult period for Jordan, having sustained a serious neck injury that severely hampered his ability to perform live.
“It’s interesting how it all came together,” Jordan says, “because late last year I hurt my neck, so I had to do a lot of resting and rehab stuff. I was at home a lot and it was right as I was finishing the first EP [‘In Colour’].
“Because I wasn’t able to work or anything either and didn’t have much time to do to many gigs, I had a bit of time to write and ended up writing a bit of poetry, a bit of songs [sic] and that was where the EP started to come from. When I could play a bit more I put it to music and the EP was fully born.”
Jordan adds that writing and eventually recording another collection of songs served as a vital goal during his recovery. “When you go through a lot of rehab stuff you set a goal, and my goal was to do a bit more recording.
“It fell together really fast and I started recording the second EP only a month and a bit after finishing the first one. I started around June and finished it in August and here we are.”
‘Songs From House Arrest’ is a side project from Jordan’s band Fugitive & The Vagabond and explores new, sonic territory from his usual fare of acoustic folk. “Musically it’s a bit more progressive,” he says.
“The first EP was very much a folk EP; it was all these acoustic, vocal and one-piano songs, whereas this adds a few more layers. The single I just brought out, ‘Gypsy Diver’, is a full-band song.
“I’ve only got one song on this EP that is just guitar and vocals, all the other songs have at least bass, harmonica, slide guitar, drums, and [I'm] exploring different elements. The music is more progressed on this EP.”
Although he was initially nervous as to how his new sound would be received, Jordan says the response so far has been overwhelmingly positive and that he is looking forward to his upcoming run of live dates in November.
“I’m still taking it a bit easy with dates because the injury I had generally takes a while to recover and I don’t want to push it too much,” he says.
“I picked my favourite places to play and fortunately it all came together really easily. I’m really excited; I can’t wait to go play in Sydney again, and this will be the second time in Melbourne for the year.
“The Brisbane show will be really exciting as well because I’ve got a lot of plans for that one. [I’m] bringing in a bunch of musicians for the show and we’ll make it nice and exciting, and finishing at the Sunshine Coast – what a great place to finish up, just casually playing near the beach.”
‘Songs From House Arrest’ is available now.
Jordan Merrick Shows
Sun 5 Nov - Gasoline Pony (Sydney)Sun 12 Nov - Black Bear Lodge (Brisbane)
Sat 18 Nov - The Penny Black (Melbourne)
Thu 23 Nov - Solbar (Sunshine Coast)
