Artist Spotlight: Snail Mail

 Snail Mail is an artist who I’m consistently amazed by. The quality of music she put out at such a young age is just incredible, and her distinctive sound is one I am always itching to hear more of. For this reason, this is going to be a special artist spotlight for me. If you haven’t heard of Snail Mail, I would 100% recommend that you go and give her a listen, especially if you’re into indie rock/folk.

Born Lindsey Jordan in Maryland, Snail Mail played her first show in 2015 and released the ‘Habit’ EP which brought her first real attention just a year later in 2016. She was only 17 at the time. After this release, she signed with Matador records and has gone on to release two successful albums and, recently, an EP of demos from her last project. One of the best things about her music, I’d say, is the difference between each of her projects. While she definitely has a ‘sound’, each EP and album is different from the last, for example her debut ‘Lush’ which was almost completely defined by the unique tone of her Fender Jaguar. Recently, Snail Mail has been experimenting a lot more with genre. 2022’s ‘Valentine’ featured rock and more folky tracks, as well as the song ‘Forever (Sailing)’ which features a sample from Madleen Kane’s ‘You and I’, a 90s dance track. 

In the last year or so, Lindsey has been experiencing some health issues which delayed touring for a while, including needing surgery for vocal polyps. However, she’s now back on the road. I attended a Snail Mail show in Manchester in 2022 and it was a brilliant experience, the band were amazing and the atmosphere in the room was super comfortable. As well as headline shows, Snail Mail also play lots of festivals here in the UK, including Green Man 2023 and there has even been speculation that she might play Glastonbury next year. 

If you haven’t heard of Snail Mail I would definitely recommend that you give her a listen. The variation across projects means that there’s something for everyone, and guitar nerds especially will enjoy how deeply guitar driven the music is. So yeah, go listen to Snail Mail!