East Toronto listening party to celebrate Jordan Armstrong’s full-length album This Engine

By MATTHEW STEPHENS

Multi-faceted singer, songwriter, composer, and instrumentalist Jordan Armstrong ‘gears up’ with the release her first full-length sophomore album, titled This Engine, today.

“It’s my first full-length album. I put out an EP two years ago, and this one, I’ve been working on it for about a year and a half,” said Armstrong in an interview with Beach Metro Community News.

The album, to be released on Friday, Sept. 19, delves deeper into the artist’s vulnerability, as she reflects on experiences of heartbreak, resilience, and deep emotions.

“The new songs on this album are very personal, spanning a lot of past experiences, past heartbreaks, that sort of thing,” said Armstrong. “I think my life got a lot calmer in the last year or so, and I started making different choices in terms of what I wanted to be doing with my time.”

Armstrong, who grew up in East Toronto, describes the album as “modern-era sophistipop for those longing for the heyday of Kate Bush.”

In anticipation of the album’s release, she released two singles, titled It Follows and Last Time.

The first single (It Follows), begs listeners to face the looming fear that envelops one during life’s hardships.

“It was written in pieces over the course of a year as a relationship crumbled, and I recorded it after that relationship ended and the worst was finally over,” said Armstrong.

The second single (Last Time) explores feelings of regret for taking the path not chosen. With smooth horns, layered vocals and a felling of nostalgic soul, Armstrong transcends listeners beyond the music, to reflect on their own personal experiences.

Along the journey crafting her latest album, Armstrong dug deep within her personal feelings, emerging with the inner strength needed to appreciate herself as a true artist and musician with thought-provoking messages to share with the world.

“I started moving towards a career as an artist. I’ve always been a musician, but I really didn’t identify as one on my own. Now, I’m doing this for me, I’m making art and I’m putting it out in the world – so I made a commitment to start doing that,” said Armstrong.

Armstrong released her first EP in 2022, writing many of the songs during the COVID-19 pandemic as both an experiment and means of self-expression. As people reemerged from isolation and transitioned back to normal life, she continued to use songwriting as a tool to reflect on past experiences.

“When I put out my first EP, I thought it was just going to be an experiment,” said Armstrong. “It happened during the pandemic – I wrote those songs and started writing songs for myself, to really process the things that were happening in my life.”

“I was in a much more calm, emotional place to start writing songs that were deeply connected to me, processing things from deep in my past,” she added.

Following in the footsteps of her parents, Armstrong has been playing instruments since she was a child – from piano to saxophone, and everything in-between.

“My mom was a piano teacher, and my dad played trumpet and a little bit of piano. He taught me to play by ear,” said Armstrong. “I don’t really remember a time where I wasn’t playing an instrument, which was very fortunate. I went to music school as well for saxophone.”

For This Engine, Armstrong wrote many of the songs for piano, accompanied by her producer on guitar.

Highlights in her music career include composing for, and musically directing, three critically-acclaimed Second City Main Stage revues.

Other projects include the musical web-series Haunters, which was written and produced by Blain Watters (Sleeping Giant) and J Adam Brown (Degrassi: The Next Generation), as well as more than 80 episodes of the award-winning CBC Kids Podcast The Story Store.

A celebratory listening party for This Engine will be held on Monday, Sept. 29, at cocktail lounge Farside, 600 Gerrard St. E. just east of Broadview Avenue.

With the release of “This Engine” Armstrong emerges as an individual artist with a profound and heartfelt message to share with her audience.

“I hope that listeners can see me as an individual,” said Armstrong. “Not that I’ve been invisible my whole life, but I hope they recognize the chance that I’m taking and can see me as a more defined artist and see my vision for the project.”

To see and hear more from Armstrong, head to her Linktree.