Gordi is inconspicuous and refreshingly normal in both her disposition and her appearance. As a result, when she sets up stage at The Ace Hotel, no one really pays notice. That is, until she starts singing. Then, slowly, everyone shuts the hell up. One drink turns into three or four as guests fall under her spell. This is how Gordi operates. She doesn’t beg for attention; she earns it. “Those are my favorite kinds of gigs,” she tells me when we sit down to chat after the show, “\[I like\] when you have to work for it and get people’s attention.”
The Australian singer-songwriter has amassed a steady stream of fans since her self-produced and self-funded EP _Clever Disguise_ came out in 2016. From the get-go, she showcased her masterful ability to integrate synthesized beats and vocal effects with stripped down lyrics. It’s a perfectly measured mix of Imogen Heap and Carole King. She uses loop pedals, vocoders, trigger pads, synthesizers and harmoniums to create otherworldly sounds, but she doesn’t rely on them. In fact it’s important to her that her songs sound good without them. “A really good song should be able to pass the campfire test. You should be able to pick up a guitar and play it around the campfire. You shouldn’t need the whole production.” At the core of all of her songs is a captivating story that can stand alone without any help from engineers or instruments.
This is especially true for her most recent album. _Reservoir_ weaves together stories of longing, loss, heartbreak, growing up and growing apart from the people and places you once cherished. The album’s title represents a reflective and “sometimes sad” place that you go to process your emotions. Although she coined the phrase many years ago with her best friend, Gordi sheepishly cites Brené Brown’s TED talk on the power of vulnerability as another source of inspiration for that concept. “One phrase \[of her’s\] that I always come back to is ‘Lean into the discomfort.’ That’s what making music is. Leaning into that and producing this thing as a result.”
Another source of inspiration for her willingness to dive head-first into melancholy is Justin Vernon, the creative force behind Bon Iver. Gordi names the fellow Jajaguwar recording artist as her ultimate music idol. Their relationship extends back to 2016 when Gordi was able to sing back-up for him on _The Tonight Show_ and covered his song “00000 Million.” More recently Gordi recorded parts of _Reservoir_ at his Wisconsin studio, April Base, and traveled to Berlin to perform in his collaborative festival, People. It isn’t his raw talent, astounding vocal abilities or poetic songwriting abilities that inspires her. Rather, it is his innate ability to create an extraordinary experience on stage. “When you watch a performance and you can see them giving you a piece of themselves, that’s what life is about. That’s what music is for. It should be an exchange of feeling.”
Gordi certainly has a natural gift for this. She rips out her soul and serves it on a silver platter for listeners. When she performs “Heaven I Know,” some spectators are even brought to tears. It’s one of her most achingly intimate song to date. Gordi sings, _I got older / and we got tired / Heaven I know that we tried_. Surprisingly it isn’t about a failed relationship. It is an elegy to a fragile friendship that shattered. Since Gordi opts for genderless pronouns like “you” and “we” this subtly is hidden and the song is left open for interpretation. “I like to keep it more ambiguous. I’m a firm believer of fluidity. I actively try not to use \[pronouns\] so people can place themselves into it.” She admits maybe it’s to shield herself too.
This is also why she performs as Gordi. The nickname, which was given to her during adolescence, creates a healthy divide between the public sphere of music and her private world where she exists as Sophie Peyton. These two distinct identities also help her separate her two careers. When Peyton isn’t touring as Gordi, she is a normal 25-year-old Med Student studying for finals and helping with C-sections and colonoscopies. When she gets her degree at the end of the year, she’ll begin a year long residency at a hospital—but this doesn’t mark the end of Gordi. Peyton plans to continue writing and recording her next album, which will dig deeper in the reservoir to explore her “anxious spells.”
For now though, she will reap the rewards of a recent feature in Troye Sivan’s sophomore album _Bloom_. The only other singer to earn a slot on the album is Ariana Grande. This should tell you something about Gordi’s status as a highly underrated performer. Like everything else she does, it also says a lot about how humble she truly is. Even with this massive hit in her catalog, she still prefers to fly under the radar. She lets listeners find her, instead of seeking them out. As her status inevitably grows, it’ll still be business as usual for Gordi. She will continue to heal the masses through medicine and music, on her own terms and in her own time.
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Written By: Tori Adams
Photos By: Ward Roberts, Sanae Kato & Cameron Wittig
Creative Consulting: Meagan Rafferty
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