Whether you’ve heard of her or not, get ready to hear the name Indigo De Souza.
After releasing her sophomore album Any Shape You Take, singer-songwriter Indigo De Souza has been taking the indie music world by storm.
North Carolina native, Indigo De Souza, grew up in a predominantly white conservative town. De Souza felt out of place for a lot of her childhood being mixed-race in her hometown.
Her mother helped her through her doubts and really pushed De Souza to be proud of what she did and who she is. After noticing her talent, her mother enrolled her in music lessons. De Souza’s passion for music grew from there. She soon began writing songs about anything and everything she could think of. By 11 years old, De Souza was set on making music her future “I knew spiritually that music was what I was going to do with my life.” she stated in a Pitchfork interview.
De Souza’s music is alternative rock, which is a blend of traditional rock tones but as well as her use of different genres such as R&B/Soul and even hints of folk. The tracks on Any Shape You Take seesaw from a sort of an uneasy feeling within her relationships and her inability to elude from them to the more joyous moments within self-discovery.
Fans have given a positive response on how relatable and intimate her songwriting is. Themes in this album include the unfiltered reality of adolescent feelings within relationships: how they can shift from a desire for a relationship to work to the obsessive overthinking of why it did not work. It’s a mix of yearning and the constant wondering of whether she is doing everything right within that relationship.
In her song “Die/Cry,” listeners can hear her ongoing fear and contemplation throughout the song. The chorus of the song, “Well I’d rather die than see you cry” shows her anxious feelings in her own role in romantic relationships.
The lyrics hold relatability but the vocals add emotion. De Souza’s voice adds a whole other layer to her work and makes it unparalleled from any other. Her rich and raw vocals that range from dramatic and fiery to soft and acoustic, add a feeling to the music– a feeling that in many ways cannot be replicated with instruments.
Track ten, “I Had To Get Out,” in her debut album, I Love My Mom exemplifies this claim. The song alone has a singular strumming guitar that adds an almost eerie feeling, but De Souza’s vocals add a sense of intense exhaustion in her frustration, almost like throwing in the towel. Throughout the whole song her desperation and tiredness almost to the point of defeat is obvious.
De Souza explores her acknowledgement of the challenges within her relationships and shares it through her confessional music. Her vulnerability and transparency over her past relationships and inner thoughts have clearly been working to her advantage. With a little over half a million monthly listeners on Spotify and a rapidly growing audience, De Souza is being launched into success.
Currently, De Souza is finishing her Any Shape You Take tour but she is also set to appear in a multitude of festivals later this year including the Here and There Festival in Austin, Texas and This Ain’t No Picnic Festival in Pasadena, California. In addition, De Souza is set to open for singer Mitski in her upcoming Laurel Hell tour on Thursday, July 14, 2022.
