Jordan Lewis returns with his new single “Scared New World”, a clattering and personal take on modern life and hazy self-loathing, the negative sides of nostalgia. Following up his first two tracks “Back To School Again” and “Morning Pills”, “Scared New World” is Jordan’s most melodic yet, Jordan really stretches out and shows us how great and unique of a voice he has. Swirling synths, thumping drums, and a great acoustic guitar hook that drives the whole song, “Scared New World” is a killer new track.

We recently caught up with Lewis to discuss more about his single.

The instrumentation on “Scared New World” is incredible, I especially love how you use the acoustic guitar. Tell us about the recording process. 

Thanks for that.  Scared New World started as an idea with Jordan Ware at my studio.  We were messing around with putting his violin though guitar pedals and he came up with a little plucked loop that was implying two chords.  Jordan is able to get incredibly creative with his violin and can make it sound like many different instruments, everything from a piano to a synthesizer.  After he got his loop down, I added many many layers of acoustic guitar and Jordan added more violins, synths and crazy drum textures. I also played a drum pattern on the body of my acoustic guitar.  I like to engineer all my own songs and recording sessions so I can be constantly messing with the arrangement.  I also do all my own mixing because I really think that the way a song sounds dictates how it is perceived.  After Jordan and I came up with the initial idea for the music at my studio, I took it to Brendan O’Brien’s place where we wrote the song and finished the production.  Brendan is an absolute genius and working with him had been a childhood dream of mine.  What surprises me most about working with him is how well he understands the mechanics of songwriting and lyric writing. His ability to pick out references and to edit ideas is really unmatched.  

Is “Scared New World” a reference to the famous novel “Brave New World”? Does this track touch on the current state of the world or was it written before everything changed?

It is not actually a reference to the book at all.  Maybe I made a subconscious connection, but I was certainly not trying to make any sort of reference at the time.  In fact, it was my drummer, Aaron Silberstein, who first brought this to my attention months after the song was written when we were preparing for a show.  The song was written over a year ago though so, no; I was not trying to comment on the moment we are living through now. I do think that the lyrics touch on a feeling that many are experiencing now – the mourning of the past and uncertainty.   

You’ve written in many different styles as an artist so far, “Scared New World” seems to be the darkest and most serious in subject matter yet. What else can we expect from you going forward?

I always try to make every song sound different than the last so I don’t think my music can really be put into a box and be categorized.  While the other songs I have put out have dealt with difficult subjects as well, I used humor in them to make the feelings go down more easily.  I think in Scared New World I dealt with the subject more head on and that comes across in both the music and the lyrics.