Rising indie rocker and recent high school grad Lindsey Jordan (a.k.a.
Snail Mail) has been playing clubs since she was 15.
Now 18, she’s set to drop her superb debut,Lush, on June 8.
Credit: Matador Records
She chats with essayist (and fellow teen)Anna Koppelmanabout music, love, and self-confidence.
But no matter how many new looks I try, I have never been able to crack the code.
I care too much, and everyone knows that the number one rule to being cool is acting unfazed.
Which is why, when I first met Jordan, I was awestruck.
She constructs her coolness out of empathy, not apathy.
Jordan cares about writing, and rewriting.
About reading and the way words function on a page.
She cares about melody, and the girls her songs are about.
There seems to be a quasi-“cool revolution” going on.
Young people are no longer rewarded for indifference.
In this “coolness revolution,” crossed arms and rolled eyes are out, and passion is in.
In your songs, you make those moments permanent.
I’m glad I have such a clear documentation of who I was.
It almost guarantees that I am growing as a writer and as a person.
You sing a lot about love, and the pain love can cause.
I more look at making something I’ll be able to sing with conviction every night.
That’s the only way for me to not feel like I’m going crazy.
I was like: “Whatever, they know that it happened.”
I was just laughing.
That’s what the song is, it’s about you: know thyself.
If she didn’t realize, I’d be concerned for her self-awareness.
I feel like I put in cement myself being stupid and that’s what some of those songs are.
I think that’s what gives songwriting at this age a lot of charm.
I kind of like looking back and seeing how much I’ve changed.
There’s nothing better than songwriting for me.
It’s so much deeper than lyrics, and there’s so much that changes about music for me.
It’s so cool to see people dress up.
Fangirl culture is sick.
Everyone thinks it’s super hot to be unfazed and it’s so lame.
It takes a lot of security to show that you care.
I would go to rock camp and it would be all boys.
When did you realize you saw the world differently and needed to express it?
When did you realize you were an artist?I started playing guitar when I was like five.
I maybe realized I was an artist when I was 12, which is when I started writing songs.
I was definitely a tomboy a cargo pants-wearing little athlete freak.
I think I just wanted to be a part of that spear.
Or terrified to let go of all the teen angst?I feel like I am a bubbly person.
I am usually psyched.
It’s traveling with me into my young adulthood.
I am so ready to be done being a teenager.
I am in a good place right now.
