A music composer from County Durham has launched his singing career - and made the amazing discovery that his stammer disappears when he performs.
Jordan Caygill, who has suffered from the speech condition from a young age, is attempting to channel his successful career as a music composer into a new field. But it hasn't been plain sailing for Jordan who said his stammer caused crippling anxiety and a loss of confidence.
But after discovering music, Jordan from Bishop Auckland learned how healing it could be. And soon his confidence and belief in himself began to grow and he soon began composing music for trailers of Hollywood films.
He has seen his music appear in Terminator Dark Fate, The Outside and American crime drama Blue Bloods and has even visited Los Angeles as part of his work. However, he recently started singing and was amazed when he discovered his stammer goes away.
Opening up on his struggles, Jordan, 31, said: "When I was really young, I couldn't talk for a lot of years and I struggled a lot with my confidence. My stammer created a lot of issues growing up, I felt really isolated. It wasn't until I got into music that I discovered this magnetising, healing sensation. I didn't know where I would end up in the music industry but I knew this was something I had to do."
And as his career as a music composer took off he was eventually signed in January 2019 but it wasn't until this year that Jordan dabbled in singing. He said: "It wasn't until April, May time this year that I became quite ill. I had a really bad flare-up and lost my hearing. I basically spent the whole of April in bed but after that, I started singing which is something I've never really done.
"I'm in a lot happier place, discovering singing has completely changed my life now. My stammer just leaves when I'm singing, it feels like I'm becoming the person I was always meant to be. It just feels completely natural."
He also discovered his stammer completely disappears when he speaks with a slight American accent. Jordan explained: "I completely discovered this myself but I realised if I put on a slight American accent I don't stammer. It's really crazy, I found it out when I was in LA and used to do it to blend in a bit. It completely blew me away.
"People could maybe try acting or voice acting to see if it helps with their stammer. It's something I discovered completely on my own but it's something I wanted to share as maybe it can help. Even if I can help one person then I've done my job. If anyone can take anything away from it then that is just amazing."
Jordan recently released his new single "Heavens Stairs" which is available to listen to on all streaming sites along with a music video. He said writing his own songs helps with his mental health and said it feels amazing to bypass his stammer.
He said: "Each song I'm writing is getting better and better and people are really enjoying what I'm doing. I hope it's helping people dealing with issues that can relate to my lyrics and it's also helping me deal with my own issues in terms of my mental health.
"It's obviously really scary releasing music when you haven't done it before and not a lot of people realise the extent of what I've been through in terms of my speech. But maybe singing is something that can help with other people's stammer because I know it helped me."
He is now sharing his story in a bid to inspire people that they can achieve anything if they believe in themselves. Jordan said: "I used to put myself down a lot and I never used to believe in myself. I didn't believe I'd be composing music for Hollywood films, I didn't believe I would be in LA, I didn't think that I could do any of the things that I have done.
"I've continued to push myself and not let my stammer hold me back. If you have a dream and you want to do something nothing can hold you back, only yourself. Singing helped me overcome that.
"Hopefully, I'm a good example that no matter how hard something is or how scary something is you are in control of your own life and you can achieve anything.
"That anxiety of worrying about what people think about you is gone, now I really don't care! It's taken a lot of hard work, it's taken me nearly 20 years to overcome it but you just need to believe in yourself.
"I feel like my story is transferable to a lot of people, not just those with stammers but people who maybe have issues with anxiety or confidence. I never used to want to speak to anyone and didn't date for years but this is really helping me to come out of my shell and hopefully, it can help others too."
You can find Jordan's single on Spotify and you can view his music video on Youtube.
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