Born in Cranford, NJ, Jordan White was raised in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, where he learned to play guitar and classical piano. White explained that depression he experienced as a teenager was the motivation behind writing his own music, revealing that music “saved me from being another statistic.” White began playing keyboards in a class project led by his teacher in elementary school and was later inspired by his father’s vinyl record collection. White says his musical influences “started with singer-songwriters out of the 1970s,” referencing Van Morrison, Jackson Browne and Billy Joel. He also cites Guns N’ Roses, Counting Crows, Tom Petty, The Beatles, & Ritchie Valens.
White has shared the stage and opened for national acts such as Third Eye Blind, Vertical Horizon, Bowling For Soup, Sharon Little, Ryan Star, Crystal Bowersox and Katharine McPhee; White also advanced through the early rounds of
“Four Songs” now available on iTunes, Amazonand CDBaby.com
American Idol during season 5 but has since publicly criticized the selection techniques used by producers of theshow. After being dismissed, White was offered and signed a management contract with Media Five Entertainment.
White’s first break into the music industry occurred in 2005 when a demo n recorded was included on a compilation in Australia on Bamboo Bird Records. In November 2007 White was a finalist in the Lehigh Valley Acoustic Competition and in 2008 KineticBlu was nominated for two Lehigh Valley Music Awards. White performed for a sold-out audience on December 31, 2008 for Musikfest’s “First Night in Bethlehem” annual New Year’s Eve concert in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
White is known to frequently perform at fund raising events, notably in January 2010 to benefit the victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake with Wyclef Jean for The American Red Cross in and at the “Songs For The Spill” concert in Allentown, PA to assist the clean up from the Deep Horizon BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
In February 2010, White’s original song “September” recorded with KineticBlu, was selected by Sony Music/Red Distribution for inclusion on a national release of hot new musical acts and is available on Amazon.com, iTunes, Rhapsody, and Napster. The song put the Pennsylvania-based band into the spotlight, and with over 1.5 million hits on Myspace it had clearly struck a chord. Says White: “I wrote the song about September because thats when summer comes to an end, and even though chances are we’ll get to see another, it’s possible we won’t.” In April 2010, White performed his original song “Crazy Girl” live on WFMZ-TV Channel-69 News and performed at the annual Tunes at Twilight festival to a record breaking crowd. White has also performed at the Tunes at Twilight Festivals in Bethlehem, PA and at campaign fundraisers for U.S. Congressional Candidate Jake Towne.
In August 2010, White himself was nominated for three 2010 Lehigh Valley Music Awards for Best Songwriter, Best Lyricist, and Best Band Website, being chosen amongst 3,000 other fan and industry nominees. White performed at the awards ceremony on December 5, 2010 in which was well received. Since then, white has performed as a solo artist and with several acts, popular east-coast cover band The Fuzzy Bunny Slippers, the acoustic trio Foreplay and alternative rock band, KineticBlu.
KineticBlu was named Alternative Addiction’s “Next Big Thing” for October 2010 and performed at the fifth annual Bethlehem Harvest and third annual Blue Mountain “Rock The Fall” Festivals, and in February 2011, White performed at the 15th annual Millennium Music Conference & Showcase in Harrisburg, PA, an event which draws nearly 300 musical acts from across the country. In May 2011, White performed at the Paul Robeson Arts Center in Princeton, NJ which was televised on Comcast and Verizon FIOS and performed at 2011 Musikfest, held annually in Bethlehem, PA.
White spends much of the songwriting process fine-tuning lyrics and is known to occasionally alter verses in the middle of performing.Much of the lyrical material deals with personal relationships, the divorce of his parents, and “how people just stop talking and the second things gets difficult they’ll walk away.” He adds, “I really like lyrics that are personal but sometimes they become broader to apply to others; although there’s a fine line between doing that and making it obvious.”
In a June 2011 article, White told The Philadelphia Daily News, “The songs are inspired from the life that I lead and the lives that I see. They are often about wounded people. People who are flawed and the flaws I find in myself; being caught in the grey area between what you want and what you can’t have. That’s not to say I can’t write about positive things, theres an enormous element of faith and hope in what I write. I see both the beauty and heartache in people.Sometimes it’s like saying, well, I really made a mess of things this time, but I can’t wait to see what happens. I’m extremely inspired and moved by the environment I’m in.” Also, in 2011 White performed with both American Idol runner-ups Crystal Bowersox and Elliot Yamin at Stabler Arena to benefit juvenile diabetes, a disease which both Bowersox and Yamin suffer from.
White was then nominated for two Mongtomery/Bucks County music awards and performed at the ceremony in November 2011; and for the third time was also nominated for two more 2011 Lehigh Valley Music Awards, including Best Songwriter and Best Male Vocalist.
In 2012 and 2013, White finished up recording a new EP with producer Scott Tice, to include new songs “Bloodshot,” “Maybe Amy,” “No Promises”, and “Before I Go Out.” The EP, entitled “Four Songs” is available as of July 2012, in stores, and on iTunes and Amazon. White also performed with Grammy-Award winner Richard Smallwood and performed for many charitable events including “Alex’s Lemonade Stand.” “The people who are making a living playing music, the reason they got to that level is because they see music as a lifestyle,” White told The Northeast Times, adding, “It requires talent, dedication and endurance” also telling the Sun-Gazette that “there are a lot of setbacks and accomplishments. Often you take two steps forward and one step back. It’s just how it goes.” White also graduated Nazareth Area High School with actress/musician Kate Micucci, who stars in “The Big Bang Theory” on CBS.
