By day, Jordan Hunter Hyland works as a doctor in Auckland. Outside the hospital, he has spent years writing songs, quietly building a body of work that has now become his debut EP, Waste.
Released on 26 September, the four-track project was written during a period of major personal and professional change, exploring moving on, guilt, lost love and the things that can sometimes be easier to put into a song than say out loud.
Waste follows the release of its title track, which introduced Hyland’s understated approach to songwriting. Across the full EP, that same intimacy remains at the forefront, with tape hiss, hushed vocals and stripped-back instrumentation leaving plenty of room for the songs themselves.
The result is a project that feels deliberately close and unpolished, almost as though it is being performed in the room rather than delivered through a recording.
While medicine and music might initially seem like two separate worlds, songwriting became a way for Hyland to process a period in which his relationship with both was shifting. Rather than attempting to neatly separate those parts of his life, Waste exists somewhere between them. It is observant and personal, with Hyland turning his attention towards the quieter and often more complicated parts of being human.
Across ‘See You Around’, ‘Obviously’, ‘Waste’ and ‘Amphetamines’, Hyland writes about loss and letting go without dressing either up. There is sadness throughout the four tracks, but little self-pity. Instead, the songs feel like an attempt to understand experiences and emotions rather than provide neat explanations for them.
It is an approach perhaps best summarised by Hyland himself.
“No happy songs until the sad ones pay rent.”
With only four tracks, Waste is a concise introduction to Hyland as a songwriter, but one that establishes a clear sense of what interests him creatively. Small moments, uncomfortable emotions and the thoughts that linger after something has ended are given space rather than hurried towards a resolution.
For an artist balancing songwriting alongside a career in medicine, the debut also offers a glimpse into a creative life that has largely been taking shape quietly in the background.
Waste is out now on all streaming platforms.
