New Microdose single for 2021: Jordi’s “Escape Route” Jan 27, 2021
Today our Microdose single series returns for 2021 with the release of Jordi’s “Escape Route.”
Jordi is the project of Jordan Radnoti, a seventeen year old high school senior from Monrovia, California. She writes, plays and sings her songs. Every part of them. Songs this good are an extraordinary accomplishment in any case. To still be in high school and have pulled this off is the rarest feat. Jordan’s songs are sharp and concise. Daydreams wrapped in sunlight, with exactly the right mix of clouds on the horizon to balance the picture.
Jordan came to our attention as the drummer of Unicorns at Heart, a beloved contributor to the Microdose series from early 2020. Though she had never mentioned her own songs, a common friend alerted us to the existence of these gems. When we heard “Escape Route” we were immediately smitten. Ken Sluiter (Heart, Veruca Salt, The Jesus Lizard) was enlisted to give final shape to the existing recording of “Escape Route” and to produce, track, and mix her follow-up single “Standing in the Back” with Jordan.
“Escape Route,” written when Jordan was 15, found its existence in Jordan’s bedroom as a riff that she imagined playing to a huge crowd, on a huge stage that “would be fun to jump and mosh to.” Initially insecure about her own songwriting abilities, she took the song to her good friend and drum teacher, Toby Semain, and they tracked the song in one-hour sessions during her lesson time. The riff IS huge, and her voice and the performances exhibit a confidence which allow a rock song like this to dig in and do its job. To allow the listener to let go for a few moments. To escape.
The music video for “Escape Route” premiered yesterday in MXDWN, who ask that you “just try to stop yourself from head-banging.” American Songwriter also published an interview with Jordi yesterday, where they call the track “a glorious culmination of angst wrapped up in a rock ‘n’ roll, punk-infused, bass-heavy bow.”