Indigo

Described as exceptional chemistry in motion, atmospheric and beautiful the new single La Luna from Western Australian band Indigo is one of their best yet! The heartfelt lyrics by lead singer Chris Kinnas gives this single its uplifting sultry vibe as he explains “La Luna is about how we are endless and always in this moment.”

The lads from Mandurah are a fun bunch and the Hi-Fi Way had a chat to bassist David Williams about the new single, new members and whats in the works for Indigo.

Your new single La Luna has been described as “moody indie rock, balanced by the perfect amount of that ’80s ‘driving at night’ vibe”. How would you describe it and what is the song about?
Yeah, I kind of agree. My favourite part about this song is you can really imagine driving down like an Australian road looking out and seeing all the nature and stuff. I picture more of like an outback scenario rather than at night but I think one of the key elements of the song is that we wanted to embrace and have an appreciation for the land. That’s what the video clip is about. We were appreciating some local spots around Western Australia and we’re very intent on making sure that the music reflects the connection to the land.

Its funny I was talking to another band from Western Australia and they felt connected to the land. Is that a Western Australian thing that you’re very connected to your environment?
I don’t think so. I mean it might be. We’re really blessed in WA actually it’s like we have down south which is really lush and green and its beautiful and there’s the ocean all the way through but then if you wanted to drive up north its awesome in the outback. I mean perhaps we’re really blessed in WA. We are from regional WA in Mandurah so we’re pretty connect to the coast and down south.

I haven’t been to WA yet. It’s on the list!
Oh absolutely get down here!

Yeah hopefully soon!
Come have a beer with us (laughs).

Well there’s an incentive! (laughs).

You guys have been playing together for a while now have you reach the point where you’ re happy with your sound and your music?
Oh absolutely! This song has taken us about 2 and half years to release. We have been working on music in between but actually been sitting on this song in particular for a long time. Simply because it just took a long time for us to be happy with it. We kept changing things around and you know eventually you get to this point where go “actually no this is really good” and we’re really immensely proud of with what we’ve come up with this song. We kind of have a really fun and interesting new direction that we’re taking our music and we’re excited for it!

Guitarist Dylan Keirnan produced the single. Does it help having one of the band members produce the song in the sense of you are in more control of how you want the song to sound and how you want it to be finished?
Yeah absolutely! Dylan is a little mastermind. I don’t know how he does it! It’s a little bit tricky sometimes for Dylan because he finds it difficult to find the balance of saying something that needs to happen on an engineering stand point and trying not to make it come across as him having to much input in the band. Sometimes he has to put his foot down and say “No! This is a recording thing not a music opinion thing!” But overall its actually really valuable having him do it because we can just take our time with the songs rather than trying to smash it out in one studio session.

Does the whole band have input in things or is it one usually takes the lead and everyone just follows?
I think it depends on what song it is. In general Chris the lead singer he writes the songs, the lyrics and the melody but we all have a lot of creative input in it. So, in general he’s the songwriter and the one that makes it but we’re actually quite good now at being really flexible and being open to change. That’s something that we’ve learnt over the couple of years that even though Chris is the songwriter he’s actually letting go a little bit of the creative control now and it all feels really cohesive and flexible between us.

Has newcomer Raurke George brought a different aspect to the band’s sound?
Yeah, my boy Raurke! Yeah absolutely. I think it doesn’t matter who the person is if you add another person because everyone has different influences right so if you add another member to the band they’re absolutely going to add a new dynamic and new element to it. Its been really quite exciting for us to jam and try and mesh it all together. Its kind of like starting a band again. Its given us a lot of energy so yeah we’re feeling really good about having Raurke on and he brings an awesome dynamic to the band.

So, who are your influences?
Oh man all over the place! Like me, Dylan and Chris all grew up as any other person that learnt guitar as a teenager playing Metallica songs you know what I mean (laughs) but we all have really have diverse tastes in music and we all listen to different kinds of music. Like our drummer is a huge punk fan, I’m more of an indie/alternative fan and Chris and Raurke are more rock n roll and that kind of stuff. So, mixed with a whole bunch of other stuff we all have really diverse tastes but sometimes it can be tricky trying to piece it all together with all of those influences. That just makes it more fun!

How did the 80’s element come into it? Was it by fluke that with everything put together or are you really influenced by the 80’s?
Kind of a mix between the two. We went through a period a few years ago we would just strictly listen to 80’s sounds because Dylan got this new synth keyboard and we were playing around with some of the sounds on that and we were just addicted to the synth sounds. Those 80’s sounds there’s just something so awesome and dramatic about it. We obviously went through a huge phase of listening to 80’s music for a little while so that’s reflected in some of the music we’ve made naturally as it does.

What kind of music do you listen to when you’re not creating your own music? Who are your favourite bands or artists?
Me personally one of the main influences for me would be Jungle Giants, Gang of Youths and Holy Holy. We are all huge fans of Holy Holy and Gang of Youths. They write really good music and we respect them as artists.

Do you think that coming from the west coast of Australia does that give you a point of difference or a challenge when it comes to getting exposure for the band?
I don’t think in the west coast that we are under served here in WA. I think if you look at all the artists that come out of Fremantle it’s like WA actually has an insane amount of good bands in music and they’re all getting exposure. No, we don’t feel like its more hard work or anything like that. Being on the west coast is really good. Our music scene over here is really good if you head into the city and catch some local bands. Its all about writing good music that you love and not so much worrying about exposure.

Do you think that with help of the internet that you get that kind of exposure with out going to say, Sydney or Melbourne?
Oh yeah, absolutely! Times have changed to the point now where essentially if you’re not just pumping social media like prolifically, you’re not doing yourself a favour. You don’t need publicists or anything like that you just have to work hard. You just have to put yourself out there on social media and provide good content that people are gonna want to look at and like and interact with so I think with bands that separates the boys from the men so to speak. If you’re willing to put in the hard work on your social media, you’ll get the exposure that you’re looking for.

Do you think though that it takes away a little bit of your time to create music? Like you have to divide up all your time between creating music and creating content and all the other things you need to do.
Yeah. If I’m being completely honest with you, we hate it! We are so lazy we haven’t been doing enough social media pumping recently just because its pretty taxing man. Like it just sucks having to look at your phone the whole time and we’re trying to jam the stuff and just you’re trying to figure what we’re going to put on the socials. “Is it going to be cool enough? Will the young cool people like it if we post this?” So, you know it’s really taxing but worth the hard work.

Yeah, its one of those evil necessities isn’t it? (laughs)
(laughs) Yeah!

What are your thoughts on the streaming services? Is that something you feel you have to do as well?
Oh yeah absolutely! I mean you’re doing yourself a disservice if you’re not putting it up there. People don’t listen to CDs. I don’t ever listen to CDs. I don’t even have anything to even play them on. You either run with the technology that’s available or you don’t. If you don’t then you get left behind. People just wont listen to it because people are just used to having everything on demand. You just have to put yourself out there!

I’m a little bit old school. I like getting the CD or a vinyl because I like to have something tangible in my hand!
Yeah yeah, we listen to vinyl. It’s for the purists. That’s the best way to listen to music for sure in my opinion.

Having said that you’ve released a couple of EPs. Do you have any plans to release an album or do you think that’s now an outdated concept?
Absolutely! Yeah absolutely! In this day and age recently most bands unless you have the exposure your looking for, unless there’s a large quantity of people that are going to spend money and invest in your music there’s no point. We are more than happy to release single after single and maybe an EP here and there. People in general don’t listen to albums. You have the music purists like us cos were musos and I will listen to an album front to back because I love hearing the way they try to piece whole thing together but most people will just find one song off the album and put it on their playlist.

What about live shows? I think you have a few gigs in WA but are there any plans for some shows for the rest in Australia?
Yeah, we’re really interested in heading up to some of the other states. That’s in our short-term goals for next year. We had the single launch for La Luna last Saturday at The Aardvark in Fremantle. We have another song coming out in a few months that we will try and book shows for and then interstate in 2020.

Anything you’d like to say to finish off?
Yeah I just wanted to shout out to my boy Dylan (Keirnan). He was asking for a shout out so there it is Dyl! (laughs).

(laughs) Ok then I will have to add that in the interview! Is that Dylan your producer?
Yeah, yeah he is next to me (laughs). The whole band is here eavesdropping into the conversation (laughs).

Did they want to chat too did they? (laughs)
(laughs) Definitely not!

Next interview they can put their hand up!
Next time we’ll do a group Skype interview! (laughs).

You guys sound like fun. Maybe I will come to WA for that beer sooner!
Absolutely! Please do!

Interview by Anastasia Lambis