Northampton singer in star-studded company after record reaches iTunes chart top 10

Kingsthorpe man Jordan Herbert says he could barely believe his eyes when he saw his Roots EP reach number six on the iTunes singer/songwriter album chart at the end of February.

For a short period, the 22-year-old recruitment consultant saw his four-song EP sit one place behind Jake Bugg’s eponymous debut album and two behind Brit Award winner Ed Sheran.

Jordan said: “I woke up the morning after it was released (February 29) and someone text me to say the EP has gone into the top 20.

“Then later on that day I kept checking, and it kept creeping up before it peaked at number 6, it was crazy.

“It was the day after the Brit Awards, but it was amazing to see my name up there with people like James Bay.”

Jordan says he and his songwriting partner, “Harls”, had done a lot of promotion in Northampton before the record’s release and believes its opening day success was because several had pre-ordered the EP.

The duo has mainly gigged around Northampton and launched the Roots EP at the Charles Bradlaugh pub.

The title song he says is about “trying to remember who you are where you come from and where your roots lie. It’s about not forgetting where you come from”.

Jordan, whose inspirations include Paolo Nutini, Ed Sheran and John Mayer, started singing when he was eight and used to attend Chaplins Stage School on St Michael’s Road.

But while the EP has now dropped out of the singer-songwriter charts, he says the stint at the top has earned him fans from further afield.

“There are a lot of people out there wondering ‘who is this guy from Northampton?’,” he said.

Jordan and Harlz are due to play at London’s The Bedford, on May 23 - the same venue Ed Sheran recorded his 2010 Live at the Bedford album.

For more information about Jordan, head to www.facebook.com/JordanHerbertMusic