Jordan Hunter Hyland Releases Debut EP ‘Waste’
By day, Jordan Hunter Hyland works as a doctor in Auckland. Outside the hospital, he’s spent years writing songs, quietly building a body of work that has now become his debut EP, Waste, out today.
Written during a period of major personal and professional change, Waste is a four-track collection about moving on, guilt, lost love and the things that are often easier to put into a song than say out loud.
The EP follows the release of its title track, Waste, which introduced Hyland’s understated approach to songwriting. Across the full project, that same intimacy carries through: tape hiss, hushed vocals and stripped-back instrumentation leave plenty of space for the songs themselves, giving Waste the feeling of something recorded in the room with you.
While medicine and music might seem like separate worlds, songwriting became a way for Hyland to process a period where his relationship with both was shifting. Rather than trying to neatly separate the two, Waste sits somewhere in between – observant, personal and interested in the quieter parts of being human.
Across See You Around, Obviously, Waste and Amphetamines, Hyland writes about loss and letting go without dressing it up. There is sadness throughout, but little self-pity; the songs feel more like an attempt to understand something than explain it.
On the EP, Jordan simply says: “No happy songs until the sad ones pay rent.”
Jordan’s debut EP Waste is out today on all streaming platforms.
