Indigo De Souza talks her new album, industry traditions and turbulent relationships
This is A HOT MINUTE WITH, a quick-fire interview series championing all the rising talent catapulting into fashion, art and music’s fickle stratosphere. From pinch-me moments to bad dates and even worse chat-up lines, think of it as an overindulgent conversation – like the ones you have in sticky club toilets at 4.A.M. Except these guests don’t regret the overshare…
With the release of her new single Kill Me and the announcement of a second studio album, Indigo De Souza is the singer hoping to evoke a “feeling of acceptance towards change, and a reality around the grief that it carries.”
Credit: @britribbit
NAME INDIGO DE SOUZA
AGE 23
LOCATION North Carolina, United States
STAR SIGN Cancer
May Garland: Hey Indigo, what plans do you have for the weekend?
Indigo De Souza: Hey! I’m gonna swim and walk around in the woods, make food with friends, probably play music, record music, dance to music and wrestle with my dog.
MG: I’m in love with your sound. What inspired you to become a musician?
IDS: Thank you! I just always wanted to be a musician. Ever since I became aware of music as an idea. It was never a question, really.
MG: Who would you say your muse is?
IDS: My muse is so many people! I have a lot of incredible people around me who are constantly showing me so many beautiful things about love.
MG: Congratulations on your second album too, I can’t wait for its release! What is the message behind Any Shape You Take?
IDS: Thank you! The album is really meant to encapsulate the idea that real love is holding space for the people in your life in whatever shape they assume throughout their lives. The album is meant to carry a feeling of acceptance towards change, and a reality around the grief that it carries. Everything is shifting all the time and we are just along for the ride. We can either fight it or learn from it.
MG: Between your first and second albums, how do you think you have developed, both personally and sonically?
IDS: When I recorded the first album, I really hadn’t recorded much before and was very new to the world of playing music with other people. Recording I Love My Mom feels like it was a lifetime ago. So much has changed. I have grown so much as a person and as a songwriter. I think a lot of the growth just comes from the fact that I have found a lot of stability since the first album. I have been very sick in the head my whole life, but I am getting better all the time at navigating the world. I have found such incredible love and rooted support in my community and in myself since 2018.
MG: Talk me through your creative process, what comes first?
IDS: It’s really different every time, though I think most of the time it feels like it starts with a melody. Melody carries so much emotion. I will be humming something for a while, and then maybe I’ll attach a phrase to it, and then I will flesh out the whole song, sometimes all at once, and sometimes over a period of time. It can be months, or it can be a few minutes. It really just depends on how full the emotion is and how willing I am to completely feel it all. I record almost all my songs on my own before bringing them to the studio. I like to build all the parts up in a way that’s easy for others to attach to before I record the song for real. Sometimes I even end up using some of the elements from my demos into the finished recordings.
Credit: @chajbo
MG: What advice would you give to those going through a bad break-up?
IDS: Oh my goodness! I think my biggest piece of advice is to focus fully on yourself and your health and the things that you like to do. Try to have no contact with the person you are separating from at least for the first three months you’re apart (especially if it was a dysfunctional relationship). Make a list of all the things you love to do that you lost touch with or that you haven’t been engaging with as much as you’d like, and find the time to re-connect with those things! Find the space to fall in love with yourself. Spend time alone and with friends, eat healthy foods and move your body. Remember that it’s okay to cry and hurt and feel all of the emotions that come with grief. Grief is a huge part of our lives and if you can have compassion for yourself in that space, you will grow from it.
MG: Can you tell us about your tattoos? How many do you have and what do they symbolise?
IDS: I don’t know how many I have...but there are too many for me to list their symbolism. Most of them I just got because I liked the artwork.
MG: What does fashion mean to you?
IDS: I love clothes! I have too many. It’s just a fun way to express myself.
MG: How would you describe your style?
IDS: Happy, colourful, loose, always changing.
“Grief is a huge part of our lives and if you can have compassion for yourself in that space, you will grow from it.”
MG: What three things are you obsessed with at the moment?
IDS: Dexter Webb, Zack Kardon, Avery Sullivan.
MG: Early bird or night owl?
IDS: Night owl absolutely!
MG: Home by 11pm or out ‘till 5am?
IDS: Home by 11!
MG: What’s one thing you’d like to change about the music industry?
IDS: The close-mindedness that comes with a lot of traditional industry methods and the way that a lot of labels take advantage of bands when they first start out and don’t have people around them who can help them make sense of industry lingo. I am so so so grateful to be on a label as artist friendly and honest as SADDLE CREEK, but I have seen people around me get pushed around by their labels in really ugly ways.
MG: What advice would you give to other aspiring musicians?
IDS: Do what you want. Society doesn’t make sense.
MG: Any last words?
IDS: I love you.