Breakdown: Jordan Mackampa – ‘Open Arms’

Moving new track examined...

Rising talent Jordan Mackampa has a fastidious approach to his art.

Nothing is released until it is perfect, until it matches his own high standards – so new cut 'Open Arms' is just a bit special.

A slice of folk, a dash of soul, Jordan Mackampa fuses a number of ingredients together to get a sound that is wonderfully fresh and new.

Clash invited the hotly tipped songwriter to break down his new track for us – check it out below, then find Jordan's words after the jump.

'Open Arms' is about something everyone has been through, it’s about breaking your barriers down and allowing someone in. I think we’ve all been both people at different points in our lives. The person who’s been hurt and now has a stone wall in front of them and also the person chipping through to the other side to get to know someone, proving the chemistry the two of you have isn’t something to be missed. It's difficult moving on, especially if you're still feeling the effects of the last relationship, but it’s a lot worse releasing you’ve missed out on something better.

The lyric “you’ve been hurt before, and it left scar I cannot see” came from that idea, I was seeing a girl at the time who was still pretty troubled by her last relationship and having a rough time getting over it. We’d talk for hours about it and during one of our conversations I wrote that lyric on a napkin, not really knowing what it would turn into. We’re friends now and I attribute this song to her all the time. Going through that experience taught me a lot about the unseen scars that we all over look in relationships whether it be our own or the other persons.

The track came to me in bits and pieces, all songs start with me mumbling something into my phone, a melody or lyric here and there. I had the lyric going round in my head and I’d had a voice note of the me singing the driving bass line you hear in the breakdown in my phone for a while and I just kept going back to it. I’d spend random days listening to this loose vocal bass line on repeat and I just didn’t know what to do with it.

I ended up writing the whole song with a friend called Ross O’Reilly who is an incredibly talented guy and one of my favourite people to write with. I told him the story and the lyric and played him the voice note and the song just came together, before we knew it, a demo of 'Open Arms' had pretty much written itself.

Final piece of the puzzle was Brendan Davies, who produced this track as well as the rest of the EP, he’s been a friend for a long time and we have a great short hand when working together. I played him the track and we both knew exactly where it needed to go and how it needed to sound, we were on the same page immediately and 'Open Arms' was born.

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