Indra Aziz
Lindsey Jordan, the artist behind the acclaimed Snail Mail moniker, is currently situated in her North Carolina home, engaging in a lively discussion with Clash about her third studio album, "Ricochet." The conversation, occasionally punctuated by the enthusiastic barks of her dog, Pip—a frequent star on her social media and featured in the video for "Dead End"—delves into the multifaceted journey leading to this latest release. The album arrives five years after its predecessor, "Valentine," and represents a significant milestone in Jordan’s artistic development, showcasing a more confident and rounded perspective.
A Prolonged Gestation: From Vocal Surgery to Sonic Maturity
The genesis of "Ricochet" is a narrative marked by a significant personal and professional hurdle: vocal cord surgery. This procedure, undertaken at the close of 2021, became a pivotal moment, addressing long-standing vocal issues that had plagued Jordan’s performances since the early days of Snail Mail, over a decade ago. "I hadn’t really taken vocal lessons when I was younger," Jordan explains, reflecting on the initial stages of her career. "But there was a point in middle Snail Mail times, like where I was trying to get vocal lessons to try to figure out what the f*** was wrong with my voice. I was continually losing it since we played South by Southwest for the first time when I was, like, 16."
The persistent vocal strain led to concerned observations from fellow musicians. "It was other people in bands saying ‘this sounds like polyps to me’ when I started to think okay, crazy, I need to go to the ENT. I went to the ENT and right after COVID was letting up, and people were allowed to tour again, that was when I got the diagnosis." The diagnosis confirmed a significant issue that necessitated a period of intense recovery. "It was an intense operation and healing process. I had to learn how to sing and speak again. I had a whole month where I couldn’t talk at all, which was really disturbing. I mean, I lived alone in New York in my apartment at the time, and so I there was a few things that happened where I was like, holy sh*t, what do I do now? And I had a voice to text thing that I used to try and communicate."
The enforced silence and subsequent rehabilitation, while challenging, ultimately yielded profound benefits. "Yeah, everything’s easier now," Jordan affirms. "It’s like hitting the target is easier. Knowing how much power is going to come out is easier. And having a whole new range is awesome. I used that a lot on the record and, yeah, I don’t have to work at it. I think a lot of the stuff that used to give me a really hard time about touring and live sessions and stuff now is gone, which is such a gift. I can enjoy myself more!" This newfound vocal freedom has demonstrably infused "Ricochet" with a new level of expressive power.
The Lyrical Odyssey: Existentialism and the Shadow of Charlie Kaufman
While the instrumental foundations of "Ricochet" began to take shape during extensive touring following the "Valentine" era, the lyrical component proved to be a more intricate and protracted endeavor. Jordan describes a self-imposed process of fleshing out the instrumental arrangements first, a period spanning roughly two to three years on the road. "Through concluding that I, like, maybe wasn’t ready to jump in lyrically, I decided to just try to flesh out all the instrumentals at once. And then I ended up, over the span of, I don’t know, 2- or 3-years touring, finishing up these 11 songs all at the same time. I was like, this one needs a bridge, this one needs an outro, and then I was writing the vocal melodies, like, to an excruciatingly detailed point. Basically, I knew how many syllables I needed for lyrics."
This meticulous approach to melody and structure preceded a deeper engagement with lyrical themes. "And then by the time I finished touring ‘Valentine’ I had moved into this house. I knew I wanted to try really hard to get myself to a place of being ready to make the lyrics. It was its own project in some ways, and I was anticipating wanting to do something different for such a long time."
A significant catalyst for the album’s thematic direction emerged from an unexpected source: the films of Charlie Kaufman. A line from the track "My Maker," "above us, it is just sky," served as an initial lyrical anchor. However, it was revisiting Kaufman’s "Synecdoche, New York" that reignited a latent struggle with religious existentialism. "About three years ago. I checked Letterboxd, and I saw that this movie ‘Synecdoche, New York,’ by Charlie Kaufman. Yeah, it’s heavy. It just reignited I that have insanely intense religious OCD that started for me as a little kid around confession and then also around heaven and hell. I basically was able to dodge all of that as an adult for the most part, until I saw this movie, and it got me into this pretty insane loop for years of being terrified of the doctor and dying and losing my parents and losing my friends and losing my job eventually. It’s like all I ever thought about, and it was ruining my early twenties."
Jordan’s intention was not to replicate Kaufman’s bleak outlook but to channel these anxieties into a more constructive artistic exploration. "But I knew I wanted to apply that to the lyrics and that I would love to make something of it. But it felt like it had to be an intentional thing to go into the universal life and death stuff. I didn’t want to do a Charlie Kaufman nihilistic thing. And I didn’t want to come off like I am some sort of sage expert on the world and religion, because I’m not. Also, I can’t help but feel pretty jaded where I’m at in the in my life right now, with music and just a lot of stuff, but I just didn’t want that to leak into the message that I was delivering. Because that’s not something about myself that I am proud of, and I don’t think that creates interesting work." This thoughtful approach to grappling with profound questions imbues "Ricochet" with a unique blend of vulnerability and intellectual depth.
Navigating Industry Shifts and the Urgency of Creation
The creation of "Ricochet" unfolded against a backdrop of a rapidly evolving music industry, a reality that Jordan acknowledged with a sense of urgency. Despite the supportive stance of her management and label, Matador Records, who encouraged her to take her time, Jordan felt an internal pressure to complete the album. "I felt pretty bad for my touring band mates," she admits. "They were, for a while, like, ‘do you have plans putting something out?’ But my management and the label (Matador) have always been really encouraging, honestly, for me to take my time, which is bad ass. I don’t have any peers that have the same experience. And I think generally, yes, taking the time is good. But I also was becoming aware of how much the music industry was changing during the last like, chunk of time, which was scaring me too, because I was like, I don’t even know if we’ll be able to come back."
The financial implications of this extended creative period also played a role. "And after I bought this house, I completely ran out of money eventually, so either way, I knew the record had to be done." This confluence of artistic ambition and practical necessity lent a distinct impetus to the final stages of recording.
The recording sessions themselves, held at Mitch Easter’s Fidelitorium studio in Kernersville, North Carolina, with producer Aron Kobayashi Ritch, were remarkably efficient. Eschewing the protracted timelines of some legendary albums, "Ricochet" was largely completed in approximately three weeks. "It all happened so fast," Jordan notes. "I set a deadline for myself while I was doing all the lyrics, just because it was getting a little ridiculous on my end. We had studio dates booked where I had decided we’re going to go in and we’re going to get it done then. Usually, I take a lot more time in between, so I check on stuff and review different takes. This time it was it was well stuck together, because Aron, the producer, is also in Momma, and he had to go on tour again."
Further refinements were made with Mitch Easter, a figure Jordan clearly respects. "Afterwards, I did go back into the studio and changed a bunch of stuff with Mitch, who is amazing and a legend. The studio is only 30 minutes from my house, and it is chill. It was like flipping the like writing retreat scam on it, I didn’t need to go somewhere far away to record." This local approach not only streamlined the process but also contributed to the album’s perceived immediacy.
Sonic Influences: A Nod to the Nineties and Contemporary Explorations
The resulting album, "Ricochet," masterfully blends an urgent, live-sounding energy with meticulously crafted layers, evoking a timeless quality that resonates with the spirit of the 1990s while leveraging contemporary recording technologies. Jordan, born in the late 1990s, readily acknowledges the profound impact of artists from that era on her sonic identity. "I mean, I didn’t realise how much I was emulating nineties stuff when I first started making music, but then reading about it, it made sense. And since then, I’ve sort of settled into my music taste. A lot of the stuff that’s really gone the distance for me has been from then. A lot of my favourite guitar work has come out of nineties’ stuff like shoegaze, and it just feels like it’s the birth time for a lot of things that mean a lot to me now."
Her recent listening habits reveal a continued appreciation for artists who have shaped her musical vocabulary. "When I was making the record, I was listening to a lot of Pinback," she shares. "And Juliana Hatfield. I only just started getting into her in the last few years, which, in a way is strange that she hasn’t been there all along for me. It just feels like something I would have found already. I’ve been loving an Australian band, Armlock, that we are doing some shows with, they’re sick. I like @, but mostly I’ve been sticking to my classics. A lot of Magnetic Fields, Radiohead, My Bloody Valentine…" This curated selection highlights a deep engagement with influential artists who have shaped the landscape of alternative and indie rock.
Touring the Globe Anew: Reconnecting with Audiences and the Snail Mail Persona
With "Ricochet" now released, Snail Mail embarks on an extensive global touring schedule. The prospect of performing these new songs live, unburdened by pandemic-related disruptions, holds particular significance for Jordan. Reflecting on the challenges of touring in 2021 and 2022, she describes the experience as "really fucked up," noting the loss of momentum in certain regions. "When we started again," she recalls, "we hadn’t played shows in years, and I also had to debut and learn my new voice. I was just so nervous. I was like, really, like, shaking out of my mind the first show that we played, and I was taking beta blockers and stuff. It ended up getting a lot better, but there was a lot of things that we didn’t get to do on that tour that, like, I think normally we would have, like going to South America by now. And we didn’t do Australia at all, which made me feel so bad. I would like to go back there and, we also did an amazing tour in Southeast Asia, on the ‘Lush’ tour, and all those cities sold out. It was the best tour we’ve ever done, and we didn’t get to return to Southeast Asia at all. There’s a bunch of stuff like that, I am really hoping we can do this time."
The constant demands of being "Snail Mail" on tour, however, present a unique challenge in maintaining personal boundaries. "I’m thinking something that I have never thought before," Jordan muses when asked about switching off from her stage persona. "But maybe the reason I am able to live in a state where I don’t know anybody is because I’m actually realising that maybe it’s because even on tour, I feel that as the leader of this sh*t, even your attitude matters. It affects everybody else’s and so I always try to be, attitude wise, a positive force on the tour. And then also, to give fans a real conversation, and make the show fun and engaging. And that for sure kicks my ass after a while, especially if I have, like, a night where I don’t feel good, if I catch a cold or something. Then I think I must be Snail Mail all the time, there is no rest for Snail Mail on a Snail Mail tour, for sure, but it’s different at home."
As Jordan concludes her conversation, Pip makes another appearance, prompting an apology for the canine interruptions. For Snail Mail, the world stage beckons, a testament to her resilience, artistic growth, and the enduring power of her music.
"Ricochet" is out now.
Words: John Williamson
Photo Credit: Daria Kobayashi Ritch
