pop

The Ready Set

1 festival played →

Jordan Witzigreuter's solo pop project, born out of the late-2000s scene and still turning out bright, hook-first synth-pop.

Jordan Witzigreuter was born November 14, 1989, and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana. His mother enrolled him in drum lessons at age eleven, and he played drums in local bands through middle and high school, including the ska band Take Sides and the hardcore band Saints Never Surrender, appearing on that group's 2008 album Brutus. He also spent time in the acoustic act brideandgroom before graduating Homestead High School.

The Ready Set began as Witzigreuter's solo project in 2007, recording alone in his childhood basement before uploading songs online and building an audience through independent releases. Syntax and Bright Lights and Tantrum Castle came out in 2008, followed by the EP Stays Four the Same in 2009. That momentum led Pete Wentz to sign him to Decaydance Records in November 2009.

The material is synth-driven pop with a pop-punk lineage, built on programmed beats, layered vocal hooks and short, chorus-forward songs. The 2010 single 'Love Like Woe,' from the major-label debut I'm Alive, I'm Dreaming, gave the project its widest exposure and remains its best-known track.

Witzigreuter has kept The Ready Set going through six studio albums, among them The Bad & the Better and Cherryland, handling most of the writing and production himself. Between 2019 and 2022 he also released music as Onlychild, and he plays in the synthpop group Nekokat with Cameron Walker and Jess Bowen. In 2021 he and Walker started the label Swim Team Records.

Read more

pop