Jordi Up Late’s stunning new single “Same Moon” is a beautifully intricate track accompanied by an even more stunning music video. The Los Angeles-based artist has combined her love for the visual and musical arts to create this unique project. With this being her third-ever single, Jordi has already crafted a compelling world around her work that instantly draws you in. Learn more about the artist you should keep on your radar as we enter the new year.
Hi Jordi, it’s a pleasure to meet you! How are you?
So good to meet you too! I’m doing well, all things considered.
I’d love to delve into your songwriting process. You’ve directed, animated, and edited the music videos for your last two releases. When creating your songs do you imaging the visuals first before writing the lyrics to a song? Or is it that while you’re writing this sort of world in your music videos starts to come to life?
Just like writing and producing music alone, every track or video is a different process. While studying animation at RISD I would often decide the mood of the piece and the idea of the visuals before composing. Then I would produce a track before carrying out the rest of the animation as the timing of movements to the sound is key in creating my worlds. But sometimes it all happens simultaneously without me even realizing separate audio and visual projects are even connected. Sometimes months go by between creations until I figure out there’s a match in tone or movement between those things.
Building off that, when watching the music video for “Same Moon” I noticed that the colors both change depending on the beat and multiply as the song progresses. Is this reflective of synesthesia or is there a separate meaning?
I definitely don’t have synesthesia but I do enjoy attempting to capture what that sensation might be like and to allow my audience to imagine that experience as well. By changing the colors or shape depending on the progression of the composition, I am able to give each instrument and each brushstroke its own unique voice. You might notice a synth line in the background of a song that comes to your attention in the foreground of an animation. In this way, lyrics or instruments can be appreciated from different vantage points.
Being a Los Angeles native, what was it like going to school in Rhode Island?
Going to school in Rhode Island kept me extremely focused. It was comparatively very quiet and unexciting while also cold for a large majority of the year. It felt bleak, industrial, and colonial in providence in the winter months while the spring and summer transformed the city into a vibrant college town. I honestly worked my ass off though and I didn’t really explore RI as much as I would have liked to. But I was there for a reason and that was to refine my craft and take in as much as the school and my peers had to offer. The workload was endless, I didn’t get out that much, and I probably lost 5 years off of my life because of all the sleepless nights but I wouldn’t have traded it for any other place or school.
What is your favorite thing about combining your musical and artistic passions with this project?
I get this question a lot: Are you more of an artist or a musician? By combining these two equal parts in music videos or album covers, I don’t ever have to compromise one for the other. I will never be one thing and that goes for other parts of myself as well. I have other passions! I make ceramics, I love refurbishing furniture and painting, and I’m an amateur interior designer (kind of a joke but not really).
All of these practices inspire each other. Each practice opens and allows access to different creative muscles and allows me to think of ways of creating music or making videos with unconventional methods. For example, going to film/animation school has allowed me to sometimes take a cinematic approach both in the composition and progressions. A track can feel like a resolved full-length feature while it can also be conveyed like a short experimental film.
Jordi Up Late
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Cover image by Isabel Camille
