Jorden Makelle Is Finally Allowed to Show Her Dark Side

Over the past 10 years, Jorden Makelle has been a part of various Dallas music collectives. Often joined by her husband, Greg, Makelle has dipped her toes in electronic and rock music with different local bands. Now she’s going solo and on her debut single, Makelle explores her “Dark Side” on a guitar and string-driven track, showcasing her raw, silky vocals.

Makelle released “Dark Side” last month after sitting on the track for over a year. The song was inspired by a time when she was dealing with depression and anxiety.

“I went through this period when I was just constantly sitting down every night writing songs, so I wrote ‘Dark Side’ all in one night,” Makelle says. “I had just had a really tough day. I feel like it’s about mental health struggles and how that can impact the relationship that you’re in, whether it’s your marriage or friendships or family relationships. I felt like so many people would be able to relate to it because we’ve all been through this huge collective trauma over the past couple years.”

Makelle, who is 32, started taking piano lessons when she was around 5 years old. She says she didn’t really care for “the structure” of learning piano, or having to play the “boring songs in the book,” but learning how to play instilled in her a love of music from an early age. Makelle has been singing ever since she could speak, often using her living room as a performance arena and her backyard trampoline as a makeshift stage.

Despite her prowess manifesting at an early age, Makelle wasn’t allowed to perform secular music. She grew up in Pittsburg, Texas, a town with a population of 5,000. Even if she had been allowed, there weren’t a lot of opportunities for Makelle to perform.

After high school, Makelle briefly attended Stephen F. Austin State University before eventually dropping out. She moved to Dallas at 22 with nothing but her “dog, a guitar and a box full of clothes.” One of the first things she did upon arriving to Dallas was audition for the band Derisory, where she met Greg, the band’s lead vocalist and the man she would eventually marry.

Makelle joined Derisory as the band’s keyboard player and background vocalist, and began playing shows with them all over Dallas.

“I was really fortunate to get that experience really quickly when I got to Dallas,” Makelle says. “Being able to play live shows wasn’t something I was ever able to do before that point.”

Derisory later disbanded and Makelle and Greg later formed an electronic duo called SZRHNDS. Makelle played keyboard, sang and wrote most of their songs, but still had dreams of making more acoustic music of her own.

After she and Greg ended the SZRHNDS project, Makelle put music aside and launched Writing Revolt, an online freelance writer workshop. But as it did for many small business owners, the COVID-19 pandemic caused her to slow down, leading Makelle to reconsider what she wanted to pursue.

“Being stuck at home during the pandemic, I just had all these thoughts and emotions and everything needed a way to get them out,” Makelle says. “I randomly started songwriting one night, and I pushed myself to get better and better with each song. I think it played such a huge role in my mental health and getting through the pandemic. It really allowed me to cope during those times.”

While Makelle is skilled in piano and with string instruments, she says writing lyrics allows for her to focus more on conveying a message with emotion, as opposed to directing all of her attention toward complex instrumentation.

“I feel a lot more comfortable with writing lyrics than I do as a technical instrumentalist,” Makelle says.

When writing songs, Makelle usually begins with “one line of melody.” She’ll then record a sound in her phone’s Voice Notes app and build a song from there.

She tries to write lyrics every day, even if they don’t always manifest into a full song. According to Makelle, she has a “huge note” in her phone with three years’ worth of lyrics and “thousands of words” and “hundreds of snippets” to pull from.

“When I’m building out a new song, I’ll piece those together and can usually write about 80% of the song with stuff I’ve already written,” Makelle says. “Once I get to that 80% point, then I really go in and refine the existing lyrics and add whatever needs to be added from there.”

Makelle is in the process of recording an EP, which she plans to release later this year. In a recent Instagram post, she revealed she is already writing her second album and “[hasn’t] even released the first one yet.”

For her debut, Makelle says this first collection will consist of songs similar to “Dark Side,” with “soft, acoustic vibes” and “lots of strings.”

“Hopefully, I’ll be able to work some piano in there,” Makelle says. “It’ll be a good balance of sad songs and love songs.”