While most kids were playing in the park or running around eating bugs at aged five, Lindsey Jordan was learning how to play the guitar. By her pre-teens she was writing songs, and in 2016, her name started appearing when she released the six-track EP “Habit”. Right from the start Jordan was a keen musician ready to break through.

Coming into the world with her band under the name Snail Mail, she wasn’t new to the game. She’d been the face and primary songwriter of Snail Mail since the age of 15. “I played in a church band and jazz band at school so I’ve been around the block a couple of times,” she giggles. Standing as a striking piece of work, her first release “Habit” is long, technically intricate, and hinged on a series of melodic quirks. The admirable ambition buried within even from the early days simply confirms how interesting and intrinsic she is as a songwriter.

Fast-forwarding to now, and Snail Mail has successfully signed to Matador Records. With her debut album Lush coming out this week I was excited to ask her about her thoughts and feelings. “I’m really siked and it’s time for it to come out. I’m really proud of it and it definitely has my stamp all over it,” she tells me. “It’s been a six month project with a couple of breaks in between due to touring. I think I’ve been writing a little over a year and a half and most songs have been floating around for a while now.”

The emotional candour captured in her music is undoubtably something she has effectively channeled on Lush with fiercely unapologetic lyrics. Jordan’s depiction of crushing teenage romance and sharp coming-of-age narration comes at a time in line with a rising tide of many young indie phenomenons, with her songs taking her evolution from a bright-eyed crush-driven adolescent to a wiser, occasionally jaded young woman. “It has different stories and things going on but I think it’s really a self realisation where there’s very much a mature process going on,” she says about the record. “The first few songs on there like ‘Heatwave’, ‘Pristine’ and a couple others, are very wistful, optimistic and excited about love and relationships. They are significantly different compared to ones that appear further on as it becomes more self-aware. There’s a good ‘fuck you’ track on there, then the emotions start to level out at the end with ‘Anytime’ which is an ode to really caring and loving someone but being able to separate yourself from this relationship that prevents self-growth, which is definitely peak maturity.”

With much to look forward to, I ask if there was any track in particular she was looking forward to share with the world. “I was a huge control freak throughout the entire process and I knew exactly what I wanted,” she laughs. “I really like ‘Deep Sea’ and definitely my newest one ‘Let’s Find an Out’. That newest release was the last one that I wrote in the process, and I think it’s really telling about where I’ve been heading more recently. It’s going to be a huge leap! Only having that EP out which I wrote when I was 15 to portray my music just felt really limiting. So yes I’m really excited for people to finally hear it all. I’m really really proud of the outcome and I’m already working on new songs for the next record. Out with the old, in with the new!”

Considering her own influences Jordan wants to see “optimism towards music and people making their own relationships with the songs.” Thinking about her audience and demographic, she has some ideas of what the tracks should be for. “I want to be writing and inspiring a generation of new guitar players,” she openly shares. “Also there’s something about writing songs about your feelings and not being sorry about it. We as a society tend to antagonise simple love songs and write them off, but maybe it will bring feelings back, and in the year 2018 it will be a next wave!”

With this new project close in view, this part of the long yet incredible first album journey for this rising star is coming to an end, and we’ll all soon be making up our minds to what each track means to us individually very soon. “Its been really great and informative,” Jordan beams. “I love writing and travelling so playing ever night and doing it for real is awesome.” With a nervous laugh she concludes, “I don’t think I would want to do anything else.”