Indigo De Souza (she/her) is a singer-songwriter based in Asheville, North Carolina, U.S.A. Indigo started writing music when she was 9 years old and has been penning heart-wrenching lyrics descriptive of her own lived experience ever since.
Anushka Joshi: Thanks for being here today. Start us off––why are you an artist?
Indigo de Souza: I am a musician, a writer, an artist in general––I think I was born into the world unable to do anything else. I'm very passionate about creation, and about the truth.
AJ: The “Create Now. Create Next” campaign highlights artists and creators from all over the world and how your individual work is a part of a larger collective. Tell me more about it!
IS: I'm very honored to be a part of the campaign. I’ve interpreted it in this way of people supporting each other and creation. None of us actually saw each other in real life to make the video, but it all comes together as one. It’s full of lots of diverse young people who are just embodying and following their passion. It feels important to do the thing that you feel called to do. You can create whether or not someone sees it, and whether or not it means anything to other people. Creating in general is just really important for the human soul.
AJ: Could you take me through the process of coming up with the vision and what that meant for you?
IS: It was centered around what I would be doing in my own home and the things that feel really personal to share. I really just wanted to kind of show my authentic self or the truth, my truthful self in a space in a casual way. It feels really good to be really honest, raw, and just bare bones who I am.
AJ: You bring up the truth a lot. It’s a core value of what should be in society so I understand why it is a priority to you––but what exactly does it mean for you?
IS: I mean, there's lots of different levels to it, but my passion for truth comes from the smaller things. Truth is really important in many ways within relationships, and especially with people that you really love and want to be close with. Sharing the truth brings you closer, even if it is a hard truth. Sharing the truth with other people is the way to actually create real connection and real growth.
I feel that way about relationships, but I also feel that way about the world. In this time that we're alive, it feels like a lot of society is built around lies, and is built around showing up with a false face.
I wish there was only the truth. I think there would be a lot more love and communication.
AJ: How does this show up in your music, and for yourself as an artist, whether that's through what you're creating, or how you're connecting with an audience around you?
IS: I just don't make anything that's not true to me. I'm just throwing it all out there. I don't embody something that I'm not when I'm on stage or when I'm recording.
Working with Converse has been really cool. I was a little nervous about working with such a large company, but they have really given me the space to be fully myself and have really appreciated that. It's been really, really nice to be received in that way.
AJ: Going back to the process of creating the campaign, a lot of the featured creatives hadn’t necessarily met face to face during the process, but you were all still working towards the same mission and supporting one another through that. How does collaborating with other creatives or being influenced by other artists, whether or not you're interfacing with them show up in your day to day life?
IS: There is just a general feeling of togetherness. Being a creative in the world and making a living off of it is a really intense thing. Something that feels really special is just the energetic feeling of being in an industry together. We need all the support that we can get.
I have a beautiful community of friends around me who create things, not necessarily music. I have some friends who make music, but I also have friends who are just makers of things with their hands or with their bodies, dancers and sculptors and painters, and all of those things are really inspiring to me. It doesn't have to be just sound. Any kind of creation is inspiring.
AJ: I like that your artistry goes beyond music. I think everyone has an inner artist within them. How would you encourage them to have the confidence to pursue their calling and live their truth as well?
IS: The thing that inspires me to follow my calling is just the fact that I have limited time on Earth. Knowing that I have been blessed with this one blip in time to embody myself and to be honest with people around me, to create connections, and enjoy beauty and enjoy pain.
This experience is limited. There's really no point in living your whole life doing stuff that you don't want to do. And working for people or working for companies or people who treat you badly, just to be unhappy with what you're doing in your day to day life. If you have any control over that, then you should take it.
This is the one chance to get to be you. So you should be you as loudly as possible. And as truthfully as possible.
AJ: Thank you from someone who needed to hear that today. What’s next for you?
IS: I will just be creating until I die. I recorded a new album recently. So I'm just getting ready to launch that, getting ready to go on tour again, and play all those new songs for people. And that'll probably be the story for the rest of my life.
View the full “Create Now. Create Next.” campaign here.