Andy Jordan 2014

You may know Andy Jordan best from ‘Made in Chelsea’ – or you may not know him at all, we won’t judge either way. But, before the London singer songwriter embarks on his first full UK and Ireland tour, GoldenPlec caught up with him to learn a little bit about his solo career and projects outside the show.

Jordan played a small six date tour in the UK before Christmas and said the response was “amazing”. “I never expected people to be singing my songs back to me,” he told GoldenPlec. On the last tour he had the accompaniment of just two musicians but this time around he will have a full band in tow.

Andy’s rise to popular culture fame came mostly away from music on ‘reality’ show 'Made in Chelsea'. He is best known for playing one of the sensible characters on the programme. Over the last few series fans have seen him pick up a guitar beside a bonfire or play a gig or two for the cast. But, even in the midst of all the 'MIC' hysteria, music has always been something that intrigued him.

“I always loved music growing up and I taught myself to play guitar in university," he said. "We made a music video for 'Made in Chelsea' that was a total piss take but the guy who produced it was like ‘Dude, you can actually sing’ so I told him I had a few songs. I recorded two of the songs on this EP in London and then another two in Yorkshire.”

Jordan was worried that the 'Made in Chelsea' would prevent people from taking his new career venture seriously.“Yeah, it does have a negative effect for some reason," he said. "Especially in the UK. It’s different in the US, I mean look at Drake, he started on a bad sitcom and look how he’s getting on now.”

Still, he is not sure if he is going to give up 'MIC' to focus on music full time, though he does find music a better outlet for his emotions. “It’s really hard to tell to be honest. I want to stick with music for as long as I can. You can’t live your life on TV forever. It’s quite exhausting. I’d love to be part of it for as long as possible. I don’t really like talking about my feelings so I find TV is a harder place to do it. I usually just bottle everything up but I do feel that writing music helps me let things out.”

Jordan says he would definitely like to bring out an album but admits he is not quite there yet. “I need to focus on what style I want to produce," he said. "It’s a question of what genre I’d slip into. I always have a bank of things that I’m thinking of writing a song about and I muck around on the guitar and then I come up with the melody.”

Some readers might remember that Andy popped up on RTÉ News at a surfing event several months ago, so we asked if he has a particular affiliation with Ireland. He explains that he was visiting to catch some waves with friends. Surfing is another hobby of his that has turned into a money spinner “I have a clothing brand for surfing and I really need to get stuff down to the coast before I go on tour and I stupidly booked a holiday to Spain in the middle of all this.”

He speaks fondly of Malahide, however, telling us that he has a house in the seaside village. “I love it there. When I film 'Made in Chelsea' and it’s a bit intense I just hide and go for walks on the beach and stuff.”

Andy grew up listening to Motown and Van Morrison but his tastes are constantly evolving.“There is an artist called John Butler Trio, he’s my all time favourite," he told us. "He played in London a few weeks ago and I pretty much listen to his stuff every day of the week. In terms of more poppy stuff I really like Ed Sheeran.”

Andy was in the middle of moving out of his apartment in London when he called so we let him return to packing. After all, with a TV show, surf line and upcoming tour Andy Jordan is a busy man.

Several dates on Andy Jordan’s tour are already sold out but there are still tickets available for his gig in Dublin’s Academy 2 on Sunday 6th July via www.ticketmaster.ie