Dreamy indie tune accompanied by surreal visual landscapes featuring Riley Jordan. “She Can Defy Gravity” is an inspired piece of songwriting and a terrifically absorbing listening experience from start to finish.” Radio Airplay.
“There was a time in my turbulent twenties when I felt like I was living in a Carnival Hall of Mirrors. That’s where the seeds of this song were planted. It became a part of a personal mythology that emerged from dealing with that whole experience.” Riley Jordan
Out now on all streaming platforms and Bandcamp.
Wash Rinse Repeat Productions is proud to announce the release of a new single ‘She Can Defy Gravity’ by Dandenong Ranges Singer-Songwriter Riley Jordan.
It will be launched on all digital platforms on October 16th 2021, marking the anniversary of the birth of Nancy Bird Walton, one of Riley’s role models in life. Nancy was an courageous pilot who barnstormed around the Aussie out back in the 1930s and went on to have a career in aviation.
“It would have taken deep conviction and a bloody thick skin to do what she did at that time.” Riley Jordan reflects. “It was people like Nancy that showed me the way forward when I needed to grow.”
She Can Defy Gravity’s deeper meaning grew out of Riley’s experience of growing up in central Victoria in the 1970s. “There was a big emphasis on cooking and cleaning as the fundamental duties of my life. My mother spoke in recipes.”
So Riley moved to the city at eighteen years of age to pursue a life in music. She looked to adventurous women who had gone before her, for a roadmap to an interesting life. She explains “I’ve had to look outside of my family for role models. You see my mother had a beautiful heart but she suffered a life that was distressingly contained. I swore my life would be more.” She goes on. “There are two qualities that I admire about the woman in this song. Firstly; she defines herself – in every way. And secondly; the only house she’s cleaning is in her damn suitcase.”
There are many role models who have inspired Riley to break free but not many in music. “I started writing, arranging and recording pretty early on and if there were women who did this, I didn’t know about them.” She explains. “Nancy Bird Walton wasn’t a musician but she was fearless and I needed to see and know that in order to follow in my own way.” More information about Nancy Bird Walker here.
‘She Can Defy Gravity’ was recorded in the Blue Room at Riley’s cottage in the Dandenong ranges. Riley has written and recorded the song. Guitarist Gary Young provides soaring feature guitar highlighted with an atmospheric solo. Many thanks to Annie Watkins and Cres Crisp for all your wonderful support with the making of the official video.
She’s always ahead of me. She turns and gestures to me to follow… encouraging me to keep going ever forward, never looking back.