ayo jordan

— between photographs and look changes for SB! 7, model and music producer Ayo Jordan took some time to tell us his story and what made him become the man he is today.

November 16, 2020

“I was born and raised in Hackney before moving to Barking (London) when I was 11. I had a pretty rough childhood: my family did the best they could, but it’s hard being foreigners in this country and to make ends meet. It’s tough living in London, the cost of living is really high but they did the best they could. I’m proud of where I come from though, of the area I grew up in, both Hackney and Barking made me who I am. It taught me a lot about my character, taught me to be strong and resilient. It makes you or breaks you, and I personally believe that it’s what made me the person and the man I am today. I’m 26 now, and seven years ago, I was studying sound engineering or audio engineering in Middle State University. I thought the course would be a great idea because I’ve been fascinated by music for as long as I can remember, but once I started doing the course, I realized that it was nothing like I had imagined, and a far cry from creativity in music and how music is made. I did learn a few technical things though, like bypass, but it didn’t teach me anything I wanted to know or things that I already didn’t know. I’m not going to lie, I dropped out. It was sort of like taking a gap year. I back-pedaled because I wanted to gain experience outside the academic world and make myself a bit of money.

A friend got me a job at Foot Locker, so I started working there. I wanted to keep going with music, do something better, things I enjoyed, so I worked at Foot Locker. I didn’t earn enough money, but I did what I could, working one day in the week and at the weekends. I put a bit of money aside for some studio equipment to build a studio in my bedroom and started teaching myself again but took it more seriously. I was releasing some stuff on Soundcloud and YouTube. I got some good feedback, but not the feedback I wanted. It taught me a lesson though, that things take time and it takes years to master a craft, to gain a foothold in a sector and make yourself known. At the time, I wasn’t really aware of that. It’s only now with age and experience that I have understood how it works. I ended up quitting at Foot Locker as they were treating me like trash. I just felt like that I was worth more than that, not that I wasn’t grateful for the experience, but I felt I had more potential. What was crazy about leaving that job, was that my last paycheck was about £700. Obviously, when you don’t have a job, a month later all that money is spent just on things for everyday life, helping the family or simply just being a young man in London. London is very expensive place, I had to even sell the music equipment I had saved up to buy, and things were not going well at all in my life at that time. I was losing friends to gang violence, and I got myself into trouble too trying to make a bit of money in different ways. It was a very bad time. Then one day a friend and I decided to go eat in Brick Lane. While we were out, an agent came up to me and asked if I had ever done any modeling.  

I’m cutting the story a bit short, because a few years ago when I was still working at Foot Locker, an agent did come to me from AMCK Models or something like that but I didn’t like the contract and I guess I didn’t really take modeling seriously at the time. What’s funny about it is that the friend who came with me to Brick Lane when an agent came up to me for the second time, had also been there the first time I was approached. When I refused the first contract, he kept saying that I should have jumped at the chance and that luck like that only happens once in a lifetime. I was going through a really bad patch; I was finding it hard to make ends meet and my family tried to help by giving me a little money. It played on my mind all the time, and I had to wait three years and go through unemployment before the opportunity arose again.

Whatever and then yeah… going back to the story of Brick Lane. So, I was in Brick Lane with a friend having dinner, and the agent came up and asked me about modeling. I said that I’d done a bit of photography for people but had no professional experience. I told him that I understood the fashion industry pretty well because music and fashion go hand in hand. I guess I took that opportunity because times were very hard as well.To cut a long story short, the week after that, I went to see the agent, I liked the contract, it’s what I like to do and what they like to do too, and then the rest is history. I started making money from modeling just because of the way I Iook. What’s amazing is that it gave me a lot of self-confidence and also the feeling that the industry needed my image (and that modeling pays well). It also made me realize that the best things come to those who wait. The first year I signed I did London fashion week, I got some good stuff you know, some good advertising campaigns, so things were really looking up, and I haven’t looked back since. With a bit of luck, the best is yet to come." 

Full editorial here.

Version française ici.

photographs BEN FOURMI

fashion CYRIL VINCHON

thanks ANTHONY BULL

production FABRICA