Snail Mail on Lana Del Rey, Lindsay Lohan, and the album that wrecks her
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Soundtrack of My Life is a recurring column in which musicians recall their favorite songs, artists, and albums.
If Snail Mail's rousing, critically lauded debut album, Lush, signaled the arrival of a remarkable young talent, its follow-up, Valentine, will leave listeners downright mystified. Over a slick 32 minutes, the Maryland native — born Lindsey Jordan — traffics in the sandpaper-course indie guitar anthems that put her on the map ("Glory," the title track), but she also swerves into new terrain. Nothing seems off-limits: "Ben Franklin" dabbles in squelchy, deadpan hip-hop. The string-laced acoustic ballad "Light Blue" evokes the Beatles at their most introspective and austere. The winking "Forever (Sailing)" even finds her dropping anchor into the once-maligned, recently reappraised genre we now call yacht rock (the risk more than pays off).
Tina Tyrell Snail Mail (a.k.a. Lindsey Jordan)
How, at just 22 years old, is Jordan capable of exhibiting such confidence, versatility, and — that rarest of traits in budding songwriters — restraint? Much will be said about Valentine being her "post-rehab record" (she checked into a recovery facility in Arizona while working on it), but spend an hour with her and the answer to that question becomes glaringly obvious: Music has always been a part of her life, from the childhood dance parties she had to Hilary Duff breakups bops to the emo-heavy mix CD an infatuated fanboy-turned-boyfriend gave her after he saw her perform in high school (he knew early on she was a force to be reckoned with).
Jordan's influences run deep; her tastes run the gamut. She's both self-aware and unapologetic about what she loves, whether it's Bob Dylan, Bush, Lindsay Lohan, or "You and I," the obscure Swedish disco cut by Madleen Kane that "Forever (Sailing)" deftly samples. Here, in anticipation of Valentine's release, she shares the artists, albums, and songs that shaped her.
Grayson Vaughan Snail Mail (a.k.a. Lindsey Jordan)
The first album I bought with my own money
"I think I got So Wrong, It's Right by All Time Low at Hot Topic. I remember it being prominently displayed on the shelf. I was 7 or 8, and they were being introduced on MTV for the first time, and I was like, 'They are so cute.' My older sister liked pop-punk. That was her thing, and I just copied her, but we could all agree they were cute, and they were from Maryland [where I'm from]. We went to see them on a stacked pop-punk bill. We had an older cousin we all looked up to, and she had a girlfriend who went to prom with one of them, and that was the most exciting thing."
The first song I danced to
"Me and my childhood best friend, Sara, who's still one of my very best friends, met when we were in first grade, and we would always dance to Hilary Duff's album Metamorphosis. I was a massive Hilary Duff fan — she was my first concert. I remember really loving "So Yesterday." We would put that on the Barbie boombox and just go ham. It's got a good message: 'Get your ass up and dust yourself off from this breakup. Because there's another one coming in the future.'"
My initiation into alternative music
"I distinctly remember having this spiritual experience discovering Born to Die by Lana Del Rey as it was coming out on one of those iTunes advertisements, where it was like, 'Listen to this preview, please.' I remember hearing the 30-second preview of 'Video Games' and being like, 'All right, my dollar is going here,' just losing my mind buying the songs one at a time. I thought she was so pretty and exciting. I was like, 'Who is this?' That was my alternative-music beginning."
The song that reminds me of my first crush
"I had so many crushes when I was little. I had really complicated dynamics with all my babysitters, because I was, like, deeply in love with them because they were women. Then I had a crush on every single boy in school and was getting labeled boy-crazy from age 5 to 15. Anyway, I had a boyfriend in high school, Quinn, and I'm still really close friends with him. He came to see a really early Snail Mail show when we were like 15 or 16, and then he jumped in my Instagram DMs and was sending me cute stuff. I was conflicted because I wasn't sure about my sexuality 100 percent, but I was like, 'He's so cute.' He was a skater indie boy, and he made me a mix CD with 'Gnaw' by Alex G on it, and I had started getting really into Alex G in high school. I loved [his 2014 label debut] DSU, but this was an unreleased song, so I was like, 'Quinn's cool.' I'd just gotten a car and remember driving everywhere listening to that CD. There was tons of emo shit on it that I really liked too, but I was so impressed he had good taste in Alex G songs."
A song I love that might surprise people
"I love 'Glycerine' by Bush, so genuinely. I think the lyrics are really beautiful and deep, and I love the grunge cello in it. I think what makes me liking that song a little embarrassing is that it fits in that '90s time period but is so uncool compared to Nirvana. It's not really part of what makes that time cool — it's emulating it. But it's really good."
And…
"I was just out the other night with some friends and heard 'Closer' by the Chainsmokers, and I was like, 'I forgot that this song is so good.' I love most pop music, like pretty shamelessly. I felt like, 'If I tell my friends I like this song, they'll make fun of me,' but it's just super catchy and the melody's good. I think it's fun."
A song I wish I'd written
"I have so many, but my answer right now is 'It's All Over Now, Baby Blue' by Bob Dylan. That period of time, in the '60s, with those capital-P Poet songwriters, that's my ultimate admiration point. Of course, everybody acknowledges Bob Dylan's lyrical accomplishments, but that song has so much power to it. And the Joan Baez cover, the way she arranges it, is just so heartbreaking. His version is too, but there's something about when she sings it from that other perspective that just puts envy in my heart. We got to pay respect to the ultimate songwriters' songs, to the kings and queens. You know what I mean?"
The album that wrecks me
"I keep a copy of Sufjan Stevens' Carrie & Lowell handy. I go back to that album probably more than anything else in my entire music library. I'm a massive Sufjan Stevens fan, and I think Carrie & Lowell might be my favorite album by him start to finish. Every single song is amazing. Every single one makes me emotional, and more times than not I come away from it crying, which is surprising because I listen to it so often. It takes and takes and takes, but I don't know… things that do that I ultimately have a lot of respect for."
The song that made me want to play guitar
"I have this pretty clear memory of being probably 5 or 6 and watching Lindsay Lohan perform 'Ultimate' in [the 2003 film] Freaky Friday. She was in a band, and I was like, 'They rock.' I watched Freaky Friday over and over again, I think because I was just really obsessed with the concept of being a rocker chick and I was like, 'These are some rocker chicks.' I don't know if I ever actually learned any of their songs. That could be changed though."
The music that calms me down
"I'm a big jazz fan, and my favorite jazz artist is probably Bill Evans. His 1959 album, Everybody Digs Bill Evans, really calms me the f--- down. I guess it's just the motion of it — it shows the spectrum of his work. It starts out kind of big band-y and then moves really dynamically. Then there are more heart-wrenching moments that go into more upbeat stuff. Some of those more thoughtful, slower pieces melodically really inspire me and just put me in touch with what I love about music. I feel really present with it whenever I listen to it."
What I put on to get pumped before a show
"I love Oasis. Listening to them gets my head in the game. And I f---ing love the 1975. I feel like you've got to have a certain attitude when you get on the stage — I've got to put on the face right before — and the 1975 puts me in that place. It's very confident music, catchy and full of attitude. I don't know what it is about British people and rock music. They just do it a little cooler."
Snail Mail's new album, Valentine, is out Friday.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
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