High-Flying Lo-Fi
a conversation with 'Chordandjocks'
For those who practice mindfulness and meditate, I invite you to sit with me as we take in the wide array of sounds ricocheting from the walls of Argenta’s Blackberry Market. If you close your eyes, the conversations that fill both floors of the dining area become incomprehensible – providing a warm, alive ambience that functions as a foundation for the light clinks and taps of silverware on plates and glasses. It seems as though all this meditation is missing is a boom-bap beat. I almost forgot that, sitting across from me was North Little Rock native Chordandjocks (Jordan Cox).
In today’s dive back into those who are making waves in Arkansas, we’ll be tackling the blooming career of Chordandjocks, a self-described “smooth beats” maker who dabbles in lofi hip-hop instrumentals and Guitar Hero. As Blackberry Market was alive and kicking, we covered topics ranging from Jordan’s many musical projects pre-Chordandjocks, troubleshooting the internet, and adapting the lofi formula for a live audience.
Eagerly awaiting our food, the Chordandjocks story is kicked off by Jordan recounting the first hip-hop beat he had ever heard: Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg’s ‘Next Episode’. The intro is still playing in his head to this day, he says. In his earlier days he can remember his mom singing around the house and his dad playing mixtapes of 70s and 80s soul in the car. For Jordan, when the opportunity to get into music came, it was only natural that he’d jump for it. Taking up baritone in his school band and being inundated with individual practice sessions, Jordan was in for the impression of a lifetime when the band assembled for one of their first performances, saying, “As we got closer to [the event], they got us all in the same room for the first time. So, we heard all the drums and all the saxophones and tubas all together for the first time. I remember hearing it all around me [...] I was just like, ‘this is nuts.’” He was hooked.
Jordan, not unlike many kids growing up in the mid-2000s, has fond memories playing video games. This is where he cites one of his biggest influences (and passions), the rhythm game, Guitar Hero. Jordan laughs and shakes his head as he reminisces, “Guitar Hero, I’m sure, like[...] I think it honestly introduced me to rock music in general, like [...] all those songs… It was like from then on I actually started to want to learn how to play guitar.” Jordan would go on to learn to play the guitar for real. Quickly, Jordan fell in love with rock and roll pointing to Aerosmith as being his first favorite band. After quickly falling out of love with the baritone, Jordan took on trumpet for his school band. Going into his senior year of high school, Jordan then assumed the position of Drum Major.
Circa 2009-2011, Jordan got a job at everyone’s favorite apparel and memorabilia store, Hot Topic. He highlighted how this influenced his tastes in music, stating, “I went pretty hard on [metalcore]. I could just name off some bands – you wouldn’t know who they are. I had drifted completely away from hip-hop. Then I found shoegaze.” During this time Jordan would play in a few different musical outfits and venues around Central Arkansas. Notably, a shoegaze project titled, GIFTT that still remains on Bandcamp if you want to give it a listen. Jordan found it difficult to stay dedicated to these bands when he moved away to Arkansas State University to do marching band, so the projects fell through.
Funny enough, Jordan didn’t even discover lofi on his own. He credits his girlfriend (now fiance) for introducing him to the first lofi track he had ever heard, ‘Don’t Say a Word’ by Idealism. This was the turning point for the type of music Jordan found himself producing, noting that he “was making [his] own music at the time, like kinda doing the shoegaze stuff for a solo project. Then [his] fiance, or girlfriend at the time was like, ‘you should try this out!’ [He] started making my own loops, in a way, with a piano and chopping that up. Then [he] got influenced to start sampling records.” Chordandjocks didn’t really even get the ball rolling until late 2019-early 2020, putting him face-to-face with the impending pandemic.
Jordan began uploading tracks to Spotify under the moniker Chordandjocks just before the pandemic and promoting the music on social media. The internet was described as a major-player for Jordan, specifically – offering him a digital space for him to find an audience where he couldn’t find one physically here in Arkansas. The internet is the one place where you get to tell people who you are without any kind of repercussion, and that’s where Jordan found it the most useful, saying, “I have to use the internet in a way to push into[...] and make waves – get booked at events where I know it makes sense.” However, the internet gives and takes. Jordan wrestled with his relationship with the internet for better and worse. He points to the first time he felt like his name was catching on early in his career, “I think it was Dibia$e, a beatmaker out in L.A. – [he] might have been one of the first guys with notoriety who I kind of caught [the attention of]. It was like, ‘Oh shoot if that guy who I listen to, who has all this prestige, and sounds like this, and has been doing it since I was born – he thinks I’m good. This is pretty dope.’” On the flipside of the internet coin, Jordan became distracted by the performance of his posts. As a small artist just trying to get your footing, this is a death sentence. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but Jordan had a hard time keeping perspective, noting that “you want to see how many people are viewing [what you put out on the internet]. It’s all marketing, it’s all analytics[...] I found myself running down that rabbit-hole a million times[...] You will drive yourself crazy if you focus on [numbers and stats] and that’s it. It’s just not good.”
Where the internet provided Jordan with a bit of a headache, there were plenty of more positives that outweighed his qualms with the web. As everyone began to board up their windows and doors for the pandemic, Jordan jumped at the opportunity to make connections. Surprisingly, the lofi producer community was pretty tight knit as Jordan would discover, saying, “I hit [social media] heavily. I would [go through] the Spotify radios I was listening to, like, ‘let me find out who this actually is.’ Finding them and then realizing: They don’t have that many more followers than I do.” He connected with other creators quite easily, describing that there wasn’t “that gap” between listener and artist that is usually found with more popular names. One producer he reached out to, Jordan excitedly teased, “will probably be on [his] Spotify this year [was], like a homie from Toronto,” continuing with, “People that I talk to [regularly] are people that I listen to all the time. That’s what really drew me to it. It was really genuine.” He started to see where more and more people were reacting to the tracks he was releasing, stating that “it was reassurance in a way. I was on the right path.” His work even garnered a few accolades as his album ‘LESSONS vol. 4’ was featured on Bandcamp’s ‘Beat Tape of the Month’.
One of the things that drew us to Chordandjocks was a photo of his that we saw from a show about a month ago. The photo was of Jordan playing a live show at River City Coffee as he stood hunched-over a little box of buttons with knobs and cords strung about. It was really intriguing and unlike any live performance we had seen prior. Through fate, or whatever stroke of luck, our interview fell on the 4 year anniversary of Chordandjocks’ first live show. Jordan recalls his first performance saying, “One of the first songs I was playing a lot was a ‘Pursuit of Happiness’ flip by Kid Cudi. I had like, taken the chords and slowed it down and [put] a beat to it.” Without trying to offend Jordan, we (tried to) phrase our question carefully: ‘How do you bring life into a lofi hip-hop performance?’ He laughed as we immediately began back-pedaling. Once he reassured us it was alright and he claimed to understand our curiosity, he had a simple method for making his shows engaging for a live audience. In a kind of perfect analogy, he likened his performances to karaoke. Jordan takes familiar phrases, such as ‘Throw Some D’s’ by Rich Boy and “puts a sexy R&B beat behind it.” It’s ingenious to us as he says that “it’s reaching two different crowds in a way.” He makes a point to differentiate his set from that of a DJ, saying he’s not here to please crowds, but “challenge them” in a way by offering up something familiar, yet putting his own twist on it.
But, wait, Jordan. Isn’t that stealing? No. Well, yes. But, also, no. At least, not really. Lofi hip-hop is one of the most famous (or infamous) genres that benefit from the use of samples. You can sample almost anything, but sampling-purists will demand that it comes from a vinyl record before anything. Jordan gives props back to his old friend, The Internet, saying “I started out taking stuff from the internet, honestly. And I agree with why you should use vinyl – it teaches you the manual process and the patience [required to do it]. Somewhere like Arkansas, where it’s not [the center of hip-hop], I’m not gonna be exposed to the same samples as someone who goes to a record store in L.A.” Lofi hip-hop is sampling’s bread and butter as Jordan insists it’s all about how “you’re stealing, you’re borrowing, you’re manipulating[...] it’s a blurred line.” Whatever side you fall on in the great sampling debate, one thing was evident to us: Jordan loves vibes. When reviewing his musical journey we pointed out that Jordan seems to be drawn to music that has a strong sense of ambience and space. From shoegaze’s vast guitars to lofi’s ability to craft sonic soundscapes marching to the rhythm of a beat. Jordan was in agreement with our diagnosis, saying, “Shoegaze had such a heavy influence with the creation of, like a ‘wall of sound’ in a way. I think that’s one thing that I incorporated into my beats early on.” He went on to describe how hip-hop beats can sound so flat, only utilizing the bare necessities of a beat (kick, hi-hat, snare), while he much prefers a rich soundscape. Lofi hip-hop finds itself in an interesting place amongst the music pantheon. Referential in nature, it lends itself to being a sort of Frankenstein of musical ideas and world-building. In discussions with Jordan, we came to the conclusion that it is a maximalist's genre. A kind of collage of influences and sounds that all come together in a way that only lofi (and perhaps hyperpop) can.
Kick by Chordandjocks — a track from his upcoming release ‘Collections’
With so much space being taken-up for the signature sound of his tracks, Jordan finds it difficult when it comes to collaborations. While he has worked with some notable local rappers by the likes of DeeAyee and Como Sasaki, he goes on to say that “I’ve had people hit me up, and they’re homies too – no offense to [them] – sometimes you just know it won’t work. As far as the way I structure beats[...] I don’t make beats for space. There’s too much going on.” In fact, it goes against where he first found himself in the world of music. He told us that “I started doing my own kind of instrumental stuff, all around, just cos I never have had a good voice. I couldn’t sing for anything. My thing was always, even now with [Chordandjocks], the goal is to be able to speak without lyrics. You can still convey all kinds of emotion.” If you have ever thrown on a Chordandjocks track, you wouldn’t even miss a vocal track. Jordan says you can sing about anything: heartbreak, loss, love – what is most important is “what you’re trying to communicate musically… that’s a whole other level.”
As for the future of Chordandjocks, he’s looking back. Holding a sort of “one man’s trash, another man’s treasure” approach, Jordan hopes to stumble upon vintage drum machines from the mid-90s. He states that he’s most excited about the opportunities that old (new to him) hardware can give him, saying, “Every single sample that you get has something different on it and it causes you to work differently, so I’d like to get different drum machines. [Maybe one from] ‘95 that doesn’t have some of the same capabilities – that limits me in a way – that’s where my elevation comes [from].” In a full-circle moment, Jordan is most excited to venture back into the sounds of golden-age hip-hop, highlighting that “as long as these machines are still kicking – I’ll probably get one of them. Those are limited. Software, I think, is forever. It’s history, you’ll have a piece of hip-hop.”
Even more exciting news is on the horizon for Chordandjocks as he announces (Arkansas Sound exclusive) that he’ll be playing a gig at the Hillcrest Fall Fest in late October-early November. As for the near future, you can catch Chordandjocks mixing live at a house show on September 15th and a brand new album ‘Collections’ hitting streaming by the end of September. Regarding the new release, Jordan is most excited about it consisting of “one to two minute songs where you’re like, ‘dang it’s already over.’ You leave them wanting more. It’s like little moments. Little atmospheres in a way.” Of course you can stay up to date with all of Chordandjocks’ little atmospheres @chordandjocks on Instagram.