Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jordan Marcotte. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jordan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I would say that our whole career is built on risk. Music is what brought us together but a lot of work and dedication has been what’s kept it alive. Before we got married, we both had our own version of what music looked like in our lives. We had dreams and desires and I’m not sure we ever imagined that starting a band with our spouse was something either of us thought would happen.

Our career is full of a lot of small risks but the biggest one was choosing to solidify our individual love for music and make it a “together” thing. Marriage has plenty of it’s own adjustments and challenges but choosing to also take on a career and share creative passion adds that much more. We wrestled with wondering if it’d cause unnecessary strain to our relationship. Though we have passed through many trying moments in five years, the worth of what we’ve risked to make music together has far surpassed all of it.

Doing this together has allowed us to go further, slower, with more impact and we’d have it no other way.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

We’re a married, music duo from Kansas City.

We met back in 2013 over our love for music. In 2015 we got engaged for the first time and not long after broke it off. We navigated heartbreak, loss and confusion as we took time apart without knowing if we’d ever get back together. In 2017, after finding healing that we needed, we got back together to be engaged again and married in the Spring of 2018.

We took our wild story and started writing songs and playing out live telling it to anyone who would listen with the hopes of bringing encouragement to them. One thing led to another and before we knew it we had a real and intentional career happening as a result of it all—from weddings, to coffee shops, touring state to state or curating our own shows, sharing music and moments with people is our joy.

Currently, we’re most proud of how we’ve been able to maintain and excel while starting a family. We had our first child, Emalia, in April. One thing that was always important to us is to never feel like our children would be burden or hindrance to how proficient we could be in our career. As a band that cares about family, that’s exactly what we wanted to showcase. Our daughter has been the biggest inspiration and motivator to everything we’re doing in this season of life. We’re proud of that.

We’re all about community and letting music provide opportunities to create that and share moments together.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

We often tell the story of our first tour. We were a couple years in and trying to navigate what needed to be next for us. We wanted to go on tour but at this point we didn’t have a lot of music out and we didn’t have a solid fan base.

One night we said forget it, we’re going. We got an expo marker out and started writing out ideas on a mirror in our living room. The objective was to contact as many people that we knew across the country, ask them to host a show in their living room or yard, help invite their friends and we’d do the rest. After a month of planning, we were ready.

We got gear, learned how to work it, packed it all up in our Ford Focus and hit the road for two months—playing over 20 shows that we planned entirely on our own.

It really felt all backwards but that’s what made it amazing. Night after night we stood in rooms with strangers working to earn their trust and it was so rewarding.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

It’s a simple one but I wish that we knew how impactful collaboration was earlier on—even before the duo started. When it comes to songwriting specifically, it doesn’t always have to be a solo endeavor. There’s nothing like getting some of your most trusted and favorite creators in a room and craft the best piece of art that you can.

Collaboration isn’t a secret or new idea by any stretch but it was definitely something that we didn’t learn to value until much later. Now, we collaborate on probably 90% of every area of what we do.

Contact Info:

• Website: marcotteofficial.com
• Instagram: @marcottemusic
• Facebook: @marcottemusic
• Youtube: MARCOTTE

Image Credits
Erin Fender