Snail Mail’s Lindsey Jordan is back at her parents’ house in Ellicott City.

Her apartment in New York City, where she’s lived for the past few years, is turning into a hotel. She had to move out.

Now, Jordan is back home writing music, soaking up the “townie air” and “trying to figure out what’s next,” she said.

“I don’t have any plans to go anywhere else,” she said, “so I’m like, damn, I wonder what Ellicott City has to offer.”

She likes going to the Judge’s Bench, a “townie bar” on Main Street, with friends.

This week, for the first time in years, Jordan and Snail Mail will return to the Ottobar stage where they played their first show in 2015. Two years later, Pitchfork interviewed Jordan and reviewed the band’s first single, “Thinning,” when the singer and guitarist was just 17.

Since then, Snail Mail’s two LPs have drawn praise from national outlets such as The New York Times and Rolling Stone. Last year, Vogue called Jordan “one of the most exciting talents in the music industry.”

Although vocal cord surgery kept her from playing the north Baltimore rock club last year in support of the band’s second album, “Valentine,” Jordan knew she’d be back to perform at the Ottobar eventually.

From Feb. 10 through 14, Snail Mail will put on a music festival called “Valentine Fest,” featuring surprise guests each night.

When I talked with Jordan in December, she and Snail Mail had just wrapped up a tour with two artists with Baltimore roots, hardcore band Turnstile and rapper JPEGMAFIA.

Ahead of the sold-out Valentine Fest, Jordan spoke about starting out in Baltimore, gaining a stronger singing voice after her surgery, and that one time she punched a hole in the wall of the Ottobar.

(Editor’s note: Questions and answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.)

The Baltimore Banner: Why did you decide to put on Valentine Fest and how did it come together?

Lindsey Jordan: I think we haven’t played Baltimore in five years. And me and my manager have been talking about wanting to do something that was more involved with the scene.

The original idea, which is pretty much still the idea, is to be able to have new bands on the lineup that we’re excited about introducing people to, and then also legends on the lineup who we’ve learned from. Hosting something like that feels really good and we want to be in Baltimore doing cool things. That scene has done so much for us and the Baltimore scene is so supportive.

How has Baltimore influenced you and your music?

I started going to DIY shows when I was, like, 15, and all the older people there have always been super nice and supportive to me — just being my friend and introducing me to bands I’d never heard, and taking interest in me as a person.

The first time we [Snail Mail] ever played was Unregistered Nurse Fest. Obviously, I had shows by myself, but I got a band together for this show. My friend Angie was in that band Post Pink at the time, and we were just chilling and talking about U+NFest, and she was just like, “You should do it, you should put together a band.” I’d only really played house shows and I was like, “That would be awesome.” I was so excited.

And, the music that’s come out of Baltimore is super inspiring. At least the time that I was going to shows in Baltimore, I didn’t feel like there was much of a sound that people were chasing, as much as it was a place where people are allowed to be freaks, and make music not trying to follow a criteria.

I saw so much diverse shit while I was there, while I was growing up in that world, and so many cool bands that sound nothing like each other that are all playing shows together. It made me just want to be part of it. The goal was never to blow up, I just wanted to be part of it. I was so happy playing DIY shows, I never thought about it becoming a thing, really, Snail Mail. So, I kind of owe it all to DIY.

Did you ever imagine you’d sell out Ottobar all of the nights?

Honestly, I was a little worried about putting on this festival, mostly because I didn’t think we’d be able to get bands for every night, but also I just didn’t think that we would be able to sell out, even. Having it sell out was, it hasn’t even registered. It’s cool. I’m really happy about it. I went into it with really low expectations, because I didn’t want to be disappointed. But wow, it’s crazy. I’m so excited for the shows, and it’s going to be nice to see so many friends.

Do you have a favorite memory at Ottobar?

I punched a hole in the wall. I can’t remember who was playing, we were just fucking around and the wall was really shitty drywall, it’s been fixed since then. I just punched the wall jokingly. It wasn’t a hard enough punch to even hurt my hand, but the wall caved in around it, which was really funny.

I have so many memories there. I feel like everything is there. It goes back so far, too. I mean, one time I somehow got tickets to see one of the secret Beach House shows there, and that was awesome. They sounded so good in there, it was kind of crazy. Our first ever Snail Mail show is a pretty good memory.

How was touring with Turnstile and JPEGMAFIA? Who put it together?

Turnstile put it together. JPEG is really awesome, I’ve hung out with him before at festivals, so it was cool, he’s really great. And the Turnstile guys are super sweet, and they were really welcoming and just super nice to me and the band. We’re all big Turnstile fans, so it was fun to get to watch them every night. And being on such a long tour with all Baltimore people was cool. It was just, like, the traveling Baltimore show. It was funny, I feel like every night I had to say something about Baltimore, and it started getting weird once you got to, like, Missouri. I was like, ‘Baltimore! Go Ravens!’

How has touring been this year, and how are you recovering from vocal chord surgery?

It’s been amazing. I kind of feel like I got a brand new voice, which was really confusing. When I first got surgery, we hadn’t played a show in, like, two and a half years, so I was in physical therapy trying to relearn how to speak and talk and sing, and that was a whole experience where I didn’t even recognize my own voice. We were adjusting the songs a lot, and I was still healing when we first went on tour. It was the first week that I was physically allowed to be singing, so I wasn’t speaking at all during the day.

It was really scary in the beginning. I was shaking so much because I was so unsure about it, and it was really hard to get my footing. But then, after the first few months of it, it started becoming fun again and it stopped being scary and started actually being awesome. And now my voice has so much more of a range — it’s completely different.

I’ve had polyps before I was even in Snail Mail, so my experience with touring has always been losing my voice and being frustrated. And I haven’t lost it at all, so that’s been really awesome, I feel like it’s a different thing now. And I feel so much more confident, so it’s definitely more fun.

What inspired you to call the album “Valentine”?

I had a couple songs written before I came up with the title. And the song that is “Valentine” now didn’t actually have a chorus when I went to the studio to record it. So then I wrote the chorus and it had a whole valentine thing in it.

It’s more or less a breakup record. It’s just about the difference between fantasizing about what love is and then how gnarly it can truly be with the wrong person, or how ugly it can be when you are dealing with humans. It’s about that dissonance I felt between imagining what love would be like on “Lush,” and fantasizing and yearning, and then experiencing a love that couldn’t be imagined into something good.

It’s fantasy versus nasty-ass reality. That terminology, “my valentine,” you have such a sweet implication there, and then the lyrics say a good amount about what’s beneath that.

cadence.quaranta@thebaltimorebanner.com