Digital Cover: Rochelle Jordan
Photography: Amanda Elise K
Styling: Malu
Makeup/hair: Rochelle Jordan
Through the Wall marks a new era for Rochelle Jordan.
Electronic and dance music has always been a product of the underdogs, shaped through the underground scenes in both Europe and the U.S., carried through the fingerprints of the outcasts and visionaries who’ve come before us. A lineage that spans decades long; from the sweaty dancefloors in Chicago and Berlin to now, where it has inevitably become the backbone of mainstream music. And yet, the architects, masters, and legends of these sounds — the Black diaspora and the queer communities, very rarely receive the recognition they deserve. Rochelle Jordan knows this truth intimately, and with her forthcoming album Through The Wall, she not only shines a light on that legacy but also continues to proudly push it forward.
Three years after the release of Jordan’s critically acclaimed album, Play With The Changes, she makes her triumphant return with a new body of work that glows with an unshakable sense of confidence and artistic maturity. Jordan’s creative process remains unbothered by an industry that is dictated by algorithmic trends. Instead, her music flows from a much deeper and authentic place. To put it simply: making art and constantly raising the bar is coded in her DNA. The 17-track album proves to be a powerful testament to her unwavering artistic vision and continued dedication to pushing boundaries in music.
The sonic palette of Through The Wall is timeless—a collection of tracks that echo glamour and power of legendary divas from the ’80s and ’90s. Inspired by her ancestors, Jordan doesn’t make the album a nostalgic deep dive; instead, she pays homage to the sounds that shaped her while keeping her vision firmly forward-facing. Expertly weaving through the past, the album avoids retro indulgence and offers a glimpse of the future. “Ladida” sets the tone, with Jordan talking her shit and owning her space as the pioneer she is, an addictive chorus and four-on-the-floor production making it an instant club banger. “SUM” carries the narrative of running into an ex at the club—catching sight of you all glammed up, still magnetic, still unforgettable. And “The Boy,” a personal favorite, captures the push and pull of desire and restraint, battling the urge to go after the one you want while repeating the mantra: “single for a reason.”
Above all, Through the Wall is Jordan’s love letter to the dance floor: a place of release, resilience, and collective spirit. LISTEN Magazine caught up with the supernova herself as she steps into this new era.
LISTEN Magazine: Let’s dive into the album.
I've been listening to it in secret for a couple of weeks. I want to talk about the opening track, “Grace.” I feel like a lot of the album touches on your resilience and inner strength, and I think the opening track really represents that. Do you find strength in either religion or spirituality or anything like that?
Rochelle Jordan: Definitely! For me, not so much religion, so to speak, but spirituality, just like that inner understanding that there is something bigger than me and higher that has created everything so beautifully in miraculous ways. I rest in that because I know that all of the physical things that I have are fleeting, and I'm on borrowed time. Like, even my own body doesn't belong to me. Once I'm gone, I know it will go back to the earth. That's something we don't want to think about. It's very confronting, not in a morbid way, but more like, wow, this is an experience I'm having here on earth.
And it's so fricking cool! And so I lean into that. And it really helps me get through life, even when I'm feeling irritated, angry, or stuck in writer's block, and I'm blaming myself and having weird tantrums. It's something I can lean into, saying, ‘Okay, it's really not that big of a deal.’
It's really, actually not that big. You know, like, look at the grand scheme of what's happening. It definitely pulls me through. It is a thread. Spirituality is a thread that pulls me through.
LISTEN Magazine: No, for sure, and you can definitely feel that throughout the album, where it kind of feels like the only thing you can do in hardship is dance. I really wanted to bring up the sonic difference between Play With The Changes & Through The Wall. I think it’s such an amazing jump.
Rochelle Jordan: Oh, thank you.
LISTEN Magazine: I feel like this album feels super crisp, like it's just— I wanna listen to it in the club, like from sunset to nighttime.
Rochelle Jordan: Yes, yes, yes!
LISTEN Magazine: Like top to bottom, no skips, no interruptions.
In your previous works, it's like a mixture of electronic and R&B elements. And this record feels very pop and very dance. What does pop mean to you in 2025, and how do you envision reshaping the genre?
Rochelle Jordan: Yeah, I feel like every artist is different. We all have different points of view, and usually what makes an artist pop is being, for the most part, white. It is easier for you to land that title if you are a white person versus being black. It doesn't matter if you're making music that, let's say, this person would make the same song, but because you are a person of color or a black person, now you're automatically in the R&B category, even though the sounds are the same. So I think for me, I can't fight that; that's a fight that's beyond me. That's something that has been happening for generations before me.
But what I can do is put my stamp on that, and make my intention very much known in the pop world. But in music generally, when I think about music, my mind is just about what kind of footprint am I gonna create so that I'm remembered for certain things for the listener to be attached to and to, you know, resonate with throughout their life.
That's the first thought that comes to me. But when it came to this album, I did have the thought of, ‘What does Rochelle Jordan sound like in Pop?’ But even more in pop, like her coming into the full knowing of who she is as a woman, as a diva, as somebody who has worked very hard and is very seasoned at what she does.
That's what I wanted to get across in this album. I think I did my job. I'm very proud of this album and I look forward to everyone hearing it and seeing what they all think.
LISTEN Magazine: Absolutely, and the word you used Diva. I caught that essence also while listening.
The album really honors the eighties and nineties. It felt very Donna Summer to me. Did you channel any specific artists from that era for this album?
Rochelle Jordan: Yeah, I think for this one specifically I will honestly say that I wanted to channel an Aretha Franklin or a Whitney Houston. These were the women that really have spoken to me throughout my life growing up.
You know, there were just certain elements about their voice and how passionate they were. You can hear it in the music. I mean, listening to Whitney when she's 16, sounding like a woman who's fully realized, it's just absolutely unbelievable. I think there's just like so much power in that.
There's so much empowerment as a woman and as a black woman, to sound like that and to just reinforce that I am a force to be reckoned with. And so I'm definitely channeling my ancestors, channeling the ones that came before me. I think that's always important as we forge into the future.
I do have the future in my mind when I'm making music as well 'cause I am a futurist as well. Like, how do I bend this melody to feel a little bit more unique. I'm always thinking of ways to play. But at the forefront of my mind was definitely pulling out the quality of voice and sound in which the ones that came before you did.
LISTEN Magazine: Themes of healing, triumph, and liberation are woven throughout. Was there a specific moment while you were making this record where you felt those themes click into place?
Rochelle Jordan: For me, it was really about telling my story and just being honest about the way I feel about certain things that have happened in my career. A song like "Ladida" where I'm really breaking down what has happened from the very beginning and how I felt and the gatekeeping that's happened with me and me recognizing it and empowering myself through it. Saying, ‘Y'all can't hold me down. Like, are you crazy? I'm here to stay!’
Like I'm always coming with a bang! That's something I've really liked. Same with “I'm Your Muse”— just really getting a bit cocky with it. I deserve to be cocky at this point!
I've created so much, and that's a part of who I am. I feel like that was definitely the energy I was trying to pull out in this album. It was all there, and I just had to thread it all together and make it make sense for each and every one of these songs.
LISTEN Magazine: Do you have a personal favorite song from the album?
Rochelle Jordan: Honestly, I hate favoritizing my songs, but I will say the next one that's coming out, “Sweet Sensation.” That one is hitting me a little hard right now. It's the energy I need right now.
I've been going through this weird fatigue, and I feel like a song like “Sweet Sensation” really brings me back to my childhood when I was having sleepovers or going to the mall with my friends and just living like we didn't have any bills. That's what this song really gives me energetically. So, yeah, right now that is my favorite, and I think “Doing it Too.”
LISTEN Magazine: Do you pull from that sense of innocence a lot, where it's kind of like that childhood freedom?
Rochelle Jordan: Yeah, I do. I do because that was the point where I was just simply a fan of music. I wasn't a creator and I've said this time and time again, I don't think a lot of people understand the privilege of what it is to be a fan because music gets you through life. It gets you through depression, it gets you through the hardest times of your life, and the happiest times of your life.
And if you're able to listen to music with such freedom. You just feel like you could take on the world. When you become a creator, your view on music becomes a little bit skewed to the details of music or numbers, and business. All these things start to intertwine and affect how you create, how you think, how you listen to music. So when I'm reaching back into my childhood, I'm reaching back because I wanna feel that freedom again. I wanna feel like just a fan. I wanna feel excited again. So I always kind of go back to baby Rochelle to grab that sensation, I guess you can say.
LISTEN Magazine: I love that. And what was Baby Rochelle listening to back in the day?
Rochelle Jordan: Oh gosh!
I was listening to so much stuff. I was listening to the Spice Girls. I was listening to 112, Mary J Blige, and Faith Evans. I was listening to Mariah Carey, Whitney [Houston], and Luther Vandross. I was listening to quality music that my parents were playing for me, that I was just in, in the car in the back listening to, from the radio standpoint as a kid, not in control, just listening.
I wanna say more intensely, I would have to give it up to my elder brother, who is autistic. I've told the story many times, but he's honestly like the don, like he is the king, he is a dj, and when we moved to Canada from England, I was about four years old.
He was about 14, and he brought two briefcases full of mixtapes, like actual cassettes. One was black and one was red, and just tapes galore of jungle house, garage drum, and bass. Like, just the most deep cuts that you would never hear, that we can't find today, probably, he was playing that obsessively. Through the bedroom wall, I was hearing this music every single day for maybe like a good 17 hours a day. My mom would just be like, ‘Turn it down! Turn it down!’ And he just kept turning it up. Because he was obsessed, the OCD in him was coming out in the music, and I’m just there playing with my Barbies, chilling, hearing these melody lines. Like the gospel house melody lines coming through. I'm hearing the most soulful singers you would ever hear in music, it was an absolutely incredible time, and I didn't realize that I was studying that whole time.
I was listening and these things just subconsciously started to happen. I think everyone, when you're young, a lot of subconscious things are happening. That's going to be prominent. You don't know what's happening and it's happening, that's what happened to me growing up. So it all kind of worked out in my favor.
LISTEN Magazine: Is that where the title for Through the Wall comes from?
Rochelle Jordan: Yeah. One of the reasons for that title. Yeah.
LISTEN Magazine: I see. I want to bring it into the future. You said that mainstream can't exist without the underground. So, how has moving through these worlds shaped your journey?
Rochelle Jordan: I think the underground world is very inspiring for the mainstream world.
I was coming out in the early 2010s alongside like Kendrick Lamar, Jhene Aiko, The Weeknd, James Blake. I was one of those. I come from that school and that era, and I saw directly how all of our sounds translated into mainstream. The labels at that time were very afraid and hesitant with some of us because we were just so dominant in where we stood artistically.
I chose to stay independent because I could see the swaying coming towards me with these major labels. They were looking at me like “we would like to carve you into this artist versus who you are”. And so I was very protective of myself and my art, which I still very much am. And because of that, remaining underground has been amazing for several reasons. One of them is that I'm able to keep my creative control always, and whatever my vision is, I'm able to get it out. But it is a risk that you take because of major labels and people who are looking for the next best thing, which is usually coming from the underground.
That's where they're looking to grab that source from, in order to use it for whatever product they're trying to sell. Being underground is extremely needed in order to push culture forward, to push music forward, and pop culture goes forward because of what's going on with independent artists and that whole landscape.
So I know my impact in this music industry. I've seen things unfold after I've done it. That's my job. To influence and impact the music industry in a positive way so that things can progress forward in the way that's best for music, just generally speaking.
And I take pride in that because I only want for music to get better. I only want for the standard of music to rise.
LISTEN Magazine: This record showcases that quality, and I feel like once it comes out, you'll have even more daughters who will be influenced!
Rochelle Jordan: They're ready to be born!
LISTEN Magazine: Oh, they will be born! I could see it happening. I have one last question. Who are you currently listening to?
Rochelle Jordan: I'm still listening to Amerie, Mariah [Carey], Aaliyah, and Missy Elliot. But I am also listening to a lot of gospel, like Fred Hammond and Kiki Sheard. I'm also listening to Doja Cat and Doechii. I think they're brilliant in what they do.
Pinkpantheress as well. She stands really firm in her sound, and I appreciate anyone who has a point of view and sticks to it, and they're so precise with it. I just love to listen to artists like that. So yeah, some of these artists right now are also very inspiring and helping push things forward.
