Sophie Allison has always written candidly about her life, making Soccer Mommy one of indie rock’s most interesting and beloved artists of the last decade. Allison has used Soccer Mommy’s songs as a vehicle to sort through the thoughts and encounters that inevitably come with the reality of growing up. After all, Soccer Mommy began as a bedroom-to-Bandcamp exercise with teenage Allison posting her plaintive songs as demos. Over the years, though, she has often enhanced that sound, using the endless production possibilities, newly at her fingertips, to outstrip singer-songwriter stereotypes. The records would start with songwriting’s kernels of truth, and she would then imagine all the unexpected shapes they could take. Every Soccer Mommy record has felt like a surprise. On Soccer Mommy’s fourth album, the tender but resolute Evergreen, Allison is again writing about her life. But that life’s different these days: Since making her previous album, 2022’s Sometimes, Forever, Allison experienced a profound and also very personal loss. New songs emerged from that change, unflinching and sometimes even funny reflections on what she was feeling. (Speaking of funny, this is a Soccer Mommy album, so there’s an ode to Allison’s purple-haired wife in the game Stardew Valley, too.) These songs were, once again, Allison’s way to sort through life, to ground herself. She wanted them to sound that way, too, to feel as true to the demos—raw and relatable, unvarnished and honest—as possible. The songwriting would again lead where the production would follow. Nothing overindulgent, everything real. Led by singer, songwriter, and guitarist Lindsey Jordan, Snail Mail make unsettled, candidly introspective indie rock songs. Lo-fi production and moody textures defined the group's 2018 breakout debut album, Lush. Adding components like samples, synthesizers, and strings, Snail Mail both polished and coarsened surfaces on the Brad Cook-produced follow-up, 2021's Valentine. Released in 2026, Ricochet further expanded the project's sound with both lusher string arrangements and denser electronic textures recorded with Aron Kobayashi Ritch of Momma. Raised in suburban Baltimore, Maryland, Jordan started playing guitar at the age of five. As a teenager, she took lessons from Mary Timony (Helium, Ex Hex). Having already made other friends and connections in the Baltimore and D.C. music scenes by her mid-teens, in 2016, at the age of 16, she released her debut EP, Habit, on Priests-run Sister Polygon Records. Recorded and produced by Priests' G.L. Jaguar and Jason Sauvage (Sneaks), it featured Jordan on vocals and guitar, Ryan Viera on bass, and Shawn Durham on drums. An NPR Tiny Desk concert and an Audiotree Live EP followed in 2017, as did tours with Waxahatchee, Girlpool, and Beach Fossils. Before the year was through, Snail Mail signed a record deal with Matador. Recorded with producer Jake Aron, who had engineered albums for Solange and Grizzly Bear, Snail Mail's full-length debut, Lush, arrived in June 2018. It saw Jordan's personal lyrics and dreamy guitar style backed by touring bandmates Alex Bass (bass) and Ray Brown (drums). That same month, they opened shows in New England for Belle and Sebastian. Lush eventually landed on the Billboard independent, alternative, and rock charts, reaching as high as number two on the Heatseekers Albums chart. Jordan's sudden fame, a breakup, and some time away from music all informed Snail Mail's second full-length, Valentine. Written in 2019 and 2020, it was later recorded with Bass, Brown, and producer Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Waxahatchee), who brought in synths and a string section, among other additions to her sound. Far from a February release, Valentine came out on Matador in November 2021. The album was well-received by critics and fans alike, reaching number 61 on the Billboard 200 and cracking the Top 40 of the U.K.'s album chart. The next few years were spent in phases of touring and dormancy, with some minor forays into acting. In 2023, Snail Mail released Valentine (Demos), an EP with demo recordings of tracks that were fully realized on the Valentine album. The band went on tour with Waxahatchee and Tim Heidecker in 2024, and opened a tour for Dinosaur Jr. in 2025. Following in March 2026, Ricochet was written during a period of change that included a relocation from Brooklyn to North Carolina and which saw Jordan moving from themes of turbulent youth to more-existential concerns. Recorded with producer/bassist Aron Kobayashi Ritch (Momma), it featured still lusher strings and notably denser electronic textures, including voice effects. - Biography by Marcy Donelson