Snail Mail aka Lindsey Jordan is an indie musician and songwriter from Ellicott City, Maryland. She considers Fiona Apple, Elliott Smith, Bon Ivier, Sufjan Stevens, My Bloody Valentine and Sheer Mag as her biggest influences. She’s a protégé of sorts because her original songs were starting to get noticed when she was just 16 when she released her first EP Habit. 

I started listening to her music when her first album Lush came out. I searched out her music on Spotify playlists because she was similar to acts like Soccer Mommy, Japanese Breakfast and Phoebe Bridgers. 

Her first live performance was at Baltimore’s Unregistered Nurse festival alongside legends like Sheer Mag, Screaming Females and Priests. Based off of her EP and her life performances she secured a record deal with Sister Polygon Records (in 2016), the same label that Priests were signed to.

I would credit some of her early success to the Spotify algorithm, but the rest to her personal style of indie rock and her skills as a songwriter. She initially became pretty popular because of this album, which was really surprising to her. In an interview with Justin Barney from radio Milwaukee she said “It’s crazy to me that it even got so successful because it was the most basic experience putting it down… I had no interest in what the production side of it was.” So she essentially gave Jake Aron creative freedom on the album

She wrote and recorded the album while she was in high school.I don’t think she should be surprised this album became so popular because it shows her mastery as a songwriter at such a young age. I was surprised to find that Lindsey did not come from a particularly musical family. Yet, she has built up a pretty successful music career all on her own. She managed to craft hit songs, secure a record deal and released albums in a true indie manor. I respect her as an artist a lot of this seemingly impossible feat.

In an interview with DIY magazine, Jordan had this to say about her writing process for Lush, “I was putting pressure on myself to make something that mattered to me, so when I graduated it was even harder because it was like ‘Oh I have time, why do I not want to write?”

She released this album soon after she graduated high school. It ended up hitting all kinds of “favorite albums of the year” lists including: #5 for Pitchforks, #13 for Entertainment Weekly, #25 for Billboard, and #49 for NPR.

She toured America opening for Priests, Girlpool, Waxahatchee and Beach Fossils. 

In 2017, she secured her second record deal with Matador Records. In 2021, she released her second album with them. She took more control over her second album Valentine and took charge as a producer where she could express her sonic vision for the album. She also got deeper and more personal with the second album,

If you’re a fan you may remember she was forced to reschedule an upcoming tour. This is because she had to have surgery on her damaged vocal cords last year. 🙁

Now that she’s fully recovered you can catch her live and back in action in a city near you!

…I might hitchhike to Louisville, KY to see her play this year since she’s not coming to Nashville.