Jordan Mayland

Bio:

-Article by Elizabeth Wong

Jordan Mayland is not the typical 28 year-old male. Instead of following the social standard of mindless job and mortgage, he is still reaching out for that American Dream. For some it is money or social climbing, for Jordan, it is simple. Music.

Sitting on his old white leather couch, Jordan seems more like a college student than a guy almost hitting 30. Relaxing in a flannel shirt and jeans with his sleepy gray cat at his side, it is almost surprising how long he has been around the Ames music scene. Just getting home from teaching music lessons, he settles in and starts talking.

“I was always playing and enjoying music growing up. My mom on the piano, my sister and I singing along to church songs and such. Plus my dad would play a lot of Beach Boys, Beatles, and other rock and roll. It's just something I always did.”

Starting in the seventh grade, Jordan has been an active musician. “I started teaching myself for a bit then taking a few lessons.”

“I grew up in the middle of nowhere . . . a farm, the nearest stop light a half hour away, the nearest music store an hour. So every other week my parents would drive me an hour to Mason City for lessons for about 6 months or so.”

***

I get an unusual insight into the musician’s world when I arrive too early for a Volcano Boys show and have to wait it out at their practice space. Walking into the building I can hear a practice amplifier wailing guitars and vocals into the night air. Jordan is set to celebrate Halloween a few weeks early and greets me with drawn on whiskers and a cat nose. He acts like nothing special is going on.

***

Keepers of the Carpet, one of Jordan’s five bands and one of the first, started when he was in junior high, and still exists today, in some form. “We're looking forward to getting together and jamming some songs out, but it's been a while. Not for about 10 months or so. People moved away, got married, started different lives. It's hard to get together and enjoy practice . . . especially with new members learning old songs that I’ve played a thousand times.”

When I ask him for the list of his current bands, he pauses. “Keepers of the Carpet, Volcano Boys, Electronidoll, Nuclear Rodeo, The Thermal Detonators (solo project)”

He attributes his many bands to the same reason he does not work an eight to five job. “I don't like being in one place for 8 hours straight. That's why I like teaching, and maybe working an odd job a few hours a week or playing with different bands”

***

The Volcano Boys show I am attending is only one of three he is playing in one night. It is sandwiched between two different shows with one of his other bands, Nuclear Rodeo. Since it is too loud in the practice space to say hello, I take a seat on an unused amp and wait for the song to end. It is a relaxed practice, just Jordan and the Volcano Boys drummer, Trent Derby in the space when I arrive. The bassist Erik Knudtson walks in after me and plugs in, ready to go.

In a quite, take charge, sort of way Jordan decides what songs to run through before heading over to the Vaudeville Mews. He stands in front of the mic and makes small suggestions for Trent’s backup vocals, and helps Erik work through a chord progression on a new song, making sure they are ready to perform. The practice runs smoothly and they are done in less than half an hour. Without the noise I can finally give Jordan a proper hello. “Sup girl? Ready for some rock and roll?!” his voice goes up at the end, afflicting a rock yell at the last few words.

***

When he’s not working on new music with one of his five different bands, Jordan teaches music in downtown Ames. With about 30 students, he teaches 15 hours a week and enjoys the variety that a normal job would lack. “30 students is a load, but as far as hours are concerned it's still not as many hours as a lot of people in the ‘work world’ do, but I'm ok with that . . . not being a worker bee.”

Jordan also enjoys being able to identify with the kids he teaches. “Some [students] remind me of myself growing up . . . all different ages. The 8th grade Nirvana stage, or the incredibly uncomfortable 6th grade timid stage. So I can relate a lot. I know what they're going through . . . as a kid that is. So I just try to have fun.”

***

It’s a Saturday night in Des Moines, but oddly the venue is quiet. Other musicians wander around talking to friends, but for the most part the Mews is empty. We sit at the bar, sipping drinks and talking about nothing in particular. It’s a little too loud to easily hear anything over the music playing. A lot of people come up and chat with him about various things, recording, what music he is listening to these days, stories about mutual friends. We wait for the first band to take the stage.

***

His college years were spent in Pella, Iowa at Central College. “Guitar was my primary instrument, but I really enjoyed and learned a lot about theory on piano. It's a much more visual instrument . . . I'm not great technically on the keys, but I know chords, inversions, and a lot of jazz chords . . . which is fun for me. I'm trying to teach myself with some of my students. Start at square one, major scales, fingering, flats, sharps...nothing like a review to remind yourself not to let things get too complicated.”

Even though he values his training in piano and theory, he offers a contrasting viewpoint. “I'm very thankful to my teachers and professors, but it's hard for me to think out of the box. I listen to what other musicians are writing and some of it's wacky and still sounds amazing, and I think to myself ‘why can't I do that?’’

I ask him to explain what he means by wacky, he is very emphatic on this point. “Stepping outside the mindset of ‘this key has THESE chords to choose from and the best way to get around a scale is this way, or the standard way to change keys is like THIS’ . . . rather than just playing and thinking ‘this just sounds cool and I'm doing it this way for no reason.’”

***

There is one band playing before Jordan’s, and These Stains is Us is about to take the stage. We watch in amusement as the lead singer sheds his baggy clothes to reveal a spandex body suit. The DJ hits his stride and a fun electronic beat starts blaring through the speakers, and the lead singer jumps off the stage and starts gyrating towards the audience. These are the things that make normal people feel awkward, but for Jordan it does not seem that out of place. Just another weekend playing shows with one of his various bands. I watch as Jordan dances, somewhat disjointedly, to the beat and grins at me. He is definitely having a good time.

***

I ask him about performing live, and his answers are so varied and different, I can almost see his brain bouncing from idea to idea. It is moments like this that make it easy to understand why an office job is so unattractive to him.

“Sometimes I feel totally on and the audience is in my lap. It's really intimate and relaxing . . . but playing solo, sometimes it's a major drag, because you get up there and hope for the audience to at least give you their attention momentarily, but sometimes you go up, introduce yourself and everyone just keeps talking...in my opinion it's rude, but then I remind myself that I'm an entertainer and that's what I have to put up with sometimes . . .it's not all about me.”

“I like stages with a decent monitor system. I don't need to hear every little thing happening on stage through a monitor, but I can't sing if I can't hear my voice. But sometimes I just think I’m being a baby and remind myself that at one point of my life I thought of myself as a punk rocker . . . so I deal with it.”

***

The Volcano Boys set up and are playing by 11pm. Jordan is standing front and center, guitar in hand and microphone inches away. Glasses shining in the boom lights, the band launches into “Messed Up” a fun pop rock tune and the audience, however small, is getting into it. Jordan seems in his element, eyes occasionally closing and just rocking out to the music, his music.

A few of the audience seem to know the songs, and are mouthing the words along with the band. Trent sings from behind his drum set and Erik has his eyes closed, head bobbing to the music in time with the bass notes he plays. Jordan runs through a guitar riff without thinking about it, and the show goes on.

***

Between the five bands and more than fifteen years of playing music, Jordan has an impressive discography. I ask him to list the albums he has released over the years and he has to think about it. In the end he lists gives five albums, with two on the way “plus a few singles.”

He talks about the editing and mixing process, explaining the timelines. “With the Thermal Detonators, I started that in . . . 2007? I just released the 6 song EP a few weeks ago.”

“Keepers of the Carpet started a record in Eudora Kansas at Blacklodge . . . got 6 songs done, waited another 5 months and went back to finish it, then months later got it mixed, then months later mastered. By the time it came out I was almost sick of it.”

Describing himself during recording and producing his music Jordan uses words like “obsessed;” talking about his overall efforts to “making pretty sounds sound prettier.” One short sentence to describe months of work.

***

Volcano Boys wrap up their set around midnight and start breaking down their equipment. Jordan stores his guitar in the case, and rolls his amp outside to his car. His night is only two thirds over; he has one more show to play before he can drive back to Ames. I have no idea how he does it, but he makes it look easy.

***

Music has been the deciding factor in Jordan’s life. More than anything else, it has affected the person that he is.

“I think of most of my life in terms of album release dates,” he explains with a slight smile on his face. For Jordan, 1991 was the year of Nirvana’s Nevermind and Michael Jackson’s Dangerous. “Or maybe that was 90 . . . I dunno.” (He was right the first time, Dangerous was released in 1991.)

"Jordan Mayland and The Thermal Detonators" is now available at upcoming shows. Look for it online soon for purchase.

Member Since:

June 14, 2004

Members:

Jordan plays guitars, keys, and sings for Keepers of the Carpet, Drums for The Wheelers, Bass for Nuclear Rodeo, keys, voice, and guitars for Electronidoll, guitars and sings for Volcano Boys.

Influences:

The Beatles, Dylan, Mozart, Daniel Brummel, Ben Kweller, Elton John, Billy Joel, Ben Folds, Ben Folds Five, Hendrix, Elliott Smith, Organ Donor, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Pookey Bleum, Ozma, Frankenixon, The Pixies, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Toadies, Miles Davis, Gabriel Espinosa, Radiohead, Aerosmith, Rilo Kiley, Beach Boys, The Arcade Fire, Weezer, The Rentals, Chemicals, Sun, Hold Music.

Sounds Like:

A night drinking wine.