Catching her breath backstage after playing Green Man Festival’s Far Out tent, Snail Mail’s Lindsey Jordan and her band have flown across the pond for a handful of UK shows this month. The 24-year-old has recently bought a home, where – as she tells Emma Way – she plans to record the third Snail Mail album, but if you’re looking for more sad girl bops from the Pristine songwriter, you might consider looking elsewhere…

You’ve been in Snail Mail since you were 15. How is it to have that much of your life documented for you to listen back to?

Lindsey Jordan: From an archivist point of view, I feel embarrassed about social media periods – like when I’m on social media talking, or when we hadn’t played as good a show as I maybe would have as an adult. I feel like my routine wasn’t as professional then.

There’s so much I learned, going from 13 to 24. Looking at things I was doing at 15, I wasn’t warming [my vocals] up, things like that – I had vocal cord surgery when I was 22. It’s all learning, but it’s hard to look back on, now that I know what I expect from a Snail Mail show now. I was a child, trying to figure it out.

Album-wise, it’s cool to have a document like that, and it’s cool that people identified with it so hard: I was just writing in my journal, and my diary entries just got popular. It was insane. We were just playing house shows to hang out with our friends, and there was no intention for it to pop off. The fact that it did was really cool, it was just not expected. With the understanding that it would have popped off, I don’t know if it would’ve been called Snail Mail! I don’t know if any of the decisions I made would have happened. I’ve learned a lot, and I’m embarrassed sometimes – but you have no choice but to embrace it.

It’s funny you say about house shows because we don’t really have them in the UK. They sound amazing.

Lindsey Jordan They get the job done. It’s just like a lot of shows where you’d get flyers, and you’d hear about it from other people. That was my entire goal. I just wanted to play shows with my friends, and I love music, but I didn’t see it being a viable career option for me. Teachers would say, “it’s not gonna happen”. People just liked the music enough that they got attached and made it a thing themselves, which I’m really grateful for.

You’ve been touring your second album Valentine for two years. How have you found coming back to writing after a long period of time away?

Lindsey Jordan I go so long without ever writing a single thing. I just got a house in North Carolina. It’s like this big open architectural treehouse, but it’s really far from any neighbours, which was my goal – playing music and having someone hear it makes it hard to experiment, I think. I lived at my parents’ house for seven months after leaving New York – I put all my stuff in storage – and during that time I was writing a ton but my mom, bless her, she’d be stood outside the door saying, “I like what you’re playing!” Honestly, that is enough for me to feel self-conscious…

So I got this house, so the band and the person I want to produce the album can come over, and we can all hang out and build something without people hearing. I write all the time, I write down specific quotes from books that I really like, where I want to build something off them. I feel really uncomfortable experimenting lyrically when I know someone’s listening.

I think my main goal for this next record is just to take another path. I’m a fan of a lot of different types of writers, and musically – for me personally – getting yourself into a pocket is kind of embarrassing. It’s not gonna be like past Snail Mail records, heartbreak forever. It’s not heartbroken: I love my girlfriend, and I don’t really feel that bad for myself anymore.

I look back at songs I wrote about being victimised, and now think that was my fault. I think finding other music that’s outside heartbreak and self-victimisation, has helped me understand the lyrics that I really love. I’ve always been a fiend for heartbreak lyrics, but I’m not heartbroken anymore. I want to grow as a writer, and for that space to exist – to write genuinely and not just for the people that want sad girl shit.

And I guess you can’t fake that.

Lindsey Jordan You can… but I haven’t faked it yet, so I don’t want to fake it now. And I don’t want people to be able to smell it. I’m too happy!

You said about reading – what are you reading at the moment?

I’m reading this book called Stoner by John Williams. It’s about this guy in the 1800s. His family in the past didn’t have enough money to send him to school, but eventually, they save up enough money for him to go to agriculture school, but he wanted to be an English teacher. My friend was reading it, which is how I found out about it. The writer is ridiculously good. It’s really visceral, and about a person being in a situation they didn’t choose and them wanting a non-traditional life. And I love Dennis Cooper. I’m reading a Dennis Cooper right now.

Do you read on tour?

Lindsey Jordan Yes – there’s nothing else to do! I play Nintendo Switch and read…

So what’s the rest of the year looking like for you? 

Lindsey Jordan We’re playing Japan in December. We’re doing a whole Japanese tour, and going to a lot of cool places we’ve never been before, like Nagasaki. And then I’m moving into this new house. I’m trying to get the band to just come there for the foreseeable future because there’s room for them and it’s similar to this studio we used to rent out in the middle of nowhere. The pressure doesn’t need to be on, and we can all be there and have a bonfire and watch movies.

I know who I want to produce the album, and I want him there. I want all of us there as friends. It’s going to be different, I think; one big friend project. The producer – I won’t say too much, but he’s our age and our friend and I don’t feel self-conscious around him. We’re just trying to do it as a bunch of friends, which has never been the approach.

Info: snailmail.band

words EMMA WAY