How Rochelle Jordan Is Redefining The Future Of Electro-Pop
Rochelle Jordan is expanding what it means to exist within the electro-pop world, crafting soundscapes that shimmer with nostalgia yet pulse toward the future. Her music feels like both a homecoming and a rebirth, a space where futuristic synths and emotional honesty coexist.
Drawing from the daring legacy of disco icons like Donna Summer, the Toronto-born artist continues to honor the roots of Black innovation in dance music while bending the genre into something uniquely her own.
Her latest body of work, “Through The Wall,” captures that balance between past and possibility. “For me, it’s a mix of the ’70s and early ’90s,” the “Ladida” singer says, describing the record as “a mashup of all the sounds I’ve ever played with or loved growing up.”
The album carries echoes of her musical foremothers: Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, and Aaliyah, voices she affectionately calls “all my mothers,” whose voices and spirits she channels through melody and tone.
Yet, even as she nods to that lineage, Jordan’s gaze remains forward.
“If I was in 2077 Cyberpunk,” she laughs, “there are certain sounds and frequencies you’d hear on the undertones of this album that mesh really well with nostalgia. I like pulling the past and the future together and just making it me.”
But beneath the glitter and groove, “Through The Wall” is also an emotional excavation.
Jordan admits much of it was born from confronting her own insecurities — the walls she built to survive in an industry that often measures worth by visibility and resources. “We all carry certain traumas,” she says. “For me, it was the wall of being an independent artist and being compared to some of the greats who have all the resources.”
That comparison fed years of imposter syndrome. But this album, she says, helped her break through it. “I had to really look at myself and ask, ‘Why don’t you celebrate your wins?’ I never took time to see the footprints I’ve left behind since 2010. With this album, it’s about breaking that wall — realizing I deserve these things I want.”
That spirit of liberation radiates through songs like “Sweet Sensation,” co-written with Paris Alexa, a track she describes as “freedom based in freedom versus defiance — because being free is defiance in this society.” Rather than ignore the darkness of the world, it channels faith in what’s next. “As doomish as things have been, I wanted to reflect that a new chapter is coming,” she says. “Not literally, but through self-assurance.”
The result feels like an anthem for Black women everywhere who move with hope, even when the world grows dim.
Across “Through The Wall,” Jordan glides effortlessly between disco, house, and pop, refusing to be confined by genre. “Genres are fine,” she notes. “They help us identify what we’re listening to. When people put me in R&B, pop, or electronic, I’m not mad — I want to be listed in all of them.”
That refusal to shrink her sound has cemented her, alongside longtime collaborator Kaytranada, as one of the defining voices of a new Black futurism in dance and electronic music. Still, for Jordan, the story always begins with identity. It’s a theme she’s explored with producer KLSH since they first began collaborating when she was 21 years old. Growing up, she heard her autistic brother blasting gospel house and drum and bass through the walls of their Toronto home — sounds that became her creative foundation.
“The sound really mattered to me and KLSH,” she says. “It made sense that when we came together, we’d understand how important it is to rest in what you believe in.”
That same belief fuels her commitment to reclaiming the Black origins of electronic music. “Thinking back to Frankie Knuckles, the originator of house, we never shied away from it because we knew we belonged there,” she says with a smile. “It’s exciting to see us forging again — and forging into the future.”