Real Sounds Feature
Eve Indigo - Video Interview
By Real Sounds
Life is too short to be anything less than too much - when eighties metal, seventies glam rock and poetic indie rock come together, you...
Life is too short to be anything less than too much - when eighties metal, seventies glam rock and poetic indie rock come together, you get Eve Indigo ! We had the chance to interview Eve before her upcoming show with us at Mascara Bar.
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Transcript
Hi, my name is Eve Indigo and welcome to Real.
First of all, thank you so much for being here.
Yeah, thank you for having me. I'm very excited.
My first question, rather a simple one to start off, what inspired you to become a singer-songwriter? How did you go about writing your first song and when was it?
Oh God, I think so, I kind of, I'm quite lucky that I came from quite like a supportive, like creative family. Like my dad was a drummer when he was younger and then my mum was a singer. And kind of what inspired me to become a singer-songwriter? I wanted to be when I was little. And then obviously you get told like, oh, you're never going to make it. You're never going to do well. And then I kind of pivoted. I studied film for a little while and I thought I was going to be a writer-director. And then the film industry was just as hard to get into as the music industry. So I was like, well, why don't if the two things I want to do are equally difficult, why not do the one I've always wanted to do? Oh God, the first song. I used to write songs when I was like 12, probably. Because I've been playing guitar since I was like six. And I wrote little songs. Oh God, I dread to think if anyone ever finds the books that those songs were written in. Because they were so, I mean, classic 12 year old, like what do rock stars sing about? And I was like, heartbreak, even though I'm 12. Like, so probably that's the first songs I wrote. I was like really, really little.
I thought you had a very strong look, makeup-wise.
Really? I don't know what you mean. I woke up like that. It's natural.
But I was wondering, where did you find the inspiration? I don't know. Sometimes I see artists with like inspiration from characters or inspiration from like series or something. Do you have any inspiration for yours?
Oh God. So I really love my favorite film, my favorite musical, my favorite like piece of art ever created by the human mind is Hedwig and the Angry Inch. And in that Hedwig's like, my favorite color is the color of Hedwig. I call it Hedwig blue. This like bright, like tacky glittery teal. And I just love it. So like Hedwig and the Angry Inch, the kind of the makeup that she has in that. These gorgeous, like giant blue eyes, like big red lips. That was like one of them. And then kind of like cut, like harsh cut cheeks is kind of like very drag inspired. Cause something else that inspires me, like apart from like rock and glam rock and all that kind of thing is like the drag kind of world. So like the kind of drag queen, like very harsh cut cheeks. And also it's very like kind of punk. It's like Siouxsie Sioux, like that kind of thing. This is weird. This is like toned down. Normally, normally I've got like a postage stamp of like just red lipstick on. But I was like, no, I'll be subtle today.
Oh yeah. I think it really suits you. You're morphing into a cartoon slowly but surely. Well, talking about cartoon, I saw that you like Barbie movies. What is your favorite Barbie like original style Barbie movie? I want to know.
Oh my God, stop. I'm so jazzed for this. Favorite Barbie movie. I think the greatest contribution to queer icons is Preminger from Princess and the Pauper, the villain from Princess and the Pauper. He is so coded, so camp. I can't remember who voices him, but he has an iconic voice. Princess and the Pauper is so good. I think Fairytopia was the first one I saw when I was little. I had a pink Disney bedroom and Barbie everything. Fairytopia and Princess and the Pauper are the top two. You can't beat them.
I love that. I saw that TikTok where you were talking about Barbie, and I knew I had to ask. I was at the stage in my makeup where I looked like a CGI character that was not rendered yet. It was giving haunted Barbie CGI. What is the most important or recurring theme that you can find in your music? Like what kind of message do you want to convey to your listener through your music?
Oh, that's so interesting. Because I think the message that I want to convey and the main things that I write about are quite different. Quite often. I think a lot of the songs that I've written and the ones that are the most like dear to my heart, like emotionally, are often about like the classic heartbreak, like painful experiences losing people is a lot of what kind of inspired the music that I perform the most often. But I think what I want people to take, like when they come to like shows or they like listen to my music is like just be completely unapologetic. And like, because I like to think that my music is for everyone who's ever been told you're too much, you're too loud, you're too emotional, you're too dramatic. Like, because that's stuff that I've been told like my whole life is like, oh, you're too much. You can see I'm quite like a loud person. I think everyone should just be completely unapologetic, like be too much.
Who cares?
You're going to die one day. Be loud.
Who cares? You talk about your quarter-life crisis. Is that like a bit of like a bit of that as well?
Definitely. Yeah, there was one of the songs I perform, I think every show is one, the title is very, very long. The title of the song is The Mirrors Don't Know Me, which is one that I've performed quite a lot, like at real events and I've performed at other gigs and stuff. And that was kind of inspired by, I went through like this really, really difficult period and then I came out of it and I almost felt like I was like 15, 16 again. And I think when you go through something really difficult, especially at this age when everything is really uncertain, I think that quite a lot of insecurities that you thought you'd gotten over come back. Cause I haven't cared about like people finding me annoying or finding me like, again, too loud or meeting someone in a club or a bar and being like, oh no, they hate me. Like, I haven't felt that way since I was like 15. I wasn't going to bars at 15. I didn't really have those concerns. And then I went through a difficult period and they all came back and I was like, why do I feel like I'm like 15 again? This is so bizarre. So I think for me, a quarter-life crisis isn't so much the problems you're dealing with at this age, but the insecurities you had when you were a lot younger coming back when you thought you had addressed them and processed them. They keep recurring, so I think it's more of a cycle than one moment of, oh God, who am I?
You said the message that you want to convey is not always the message that comes through in your music. Do you want to change that, or do you still want to continue?
I think there's some songs that when I do my, my like gigs with a full band, a lot of the music is much more like loud and like campy and like be loud, be unapologetic be like the most loud, unabridged version of yourself. The, the gigs I do with my band, I think are a lot more like that. Cause we are a lot more influenced by like the glam rock and like by the kind of eighties hair metal like that kind of, cause that's the stuff I love. And I think, I think more so now that I'm doing solo shows and kind of telling a story in between the songs, kind of almost trying to treat it like a very small one-woman show. So I think by telling the story of like how I got from this song to this song to this song, I think I am more bringing across the message of like, who cares if you're too emotional? Like you're going through a tough time, like be emotional, be dramatic if that's what you need to do, then do it.
What is a major red flag for you? It can be in life, relationships, or anything you think of.
A major red flag. For me, I think I immediately lose interest in people when they do the whole, you're not like other girls thing. Romantic or friendship, when someone tries to bond with you by putting down other people, that always makes me a bit suspicious. You shouldn't have to bad-mouth other people to make me feel good. What's your beef?
What's your secret beef?
New band name, even to go in the secret beef.
And if you could gain a new skill or ability instantly, like right now, what would you choose and why?
Oh my God. So this is actually, so, so like in dreams, other people like I can fly, I can do this, blah, blah, blah. For some reason, every time I'm in a dream, I can do parkour, which is so strange. It's like, I'm not the kind of, I do not look like the kind of person that would want to do parkour. But for some reason, like in all my dreams, whenever I'm running somewhere or trying to get somewhere, I'm jumping around buildings, hopping off walls. And then I wake up and I'm like, oh, I'll just get to work like that. But then I have to be like, oh no, I have to just get the tube. I can't backflip there.
Oh, that's so cool.
And then this is where I will edit, parkour. Parkour. Parkour. Which is me doing a really flimsy little flip off one of the tables. Essentially.
Just destroying your office, trying to do parkour. What's the best piece of advice you had before during your musician time or from your experience that you think you would like to share for people who are looking to aspire to become a musician? Or full-time?
I think advice that my mum gave me when I first started with music was, don't paint yourself into a corner. I was marketing myself in a certain way, and my mum said, don't box yourself into a corner. Don't put labels on yourself because then you're limiting the things people will call on you for. If you kind of don't put yourself under a label and just kind of let your name be your label So rather than, and I think that can apply with like genre, it can apply with like so many different things. I think, yeah, don't paint yourself into a corner and don't put labels on yourself when you don't necessarily need to. I think that's quite a good one because I feel like people are so keen to be like, I'm this kind of artist that's if you like this, this and this, then you'll love this. It's, I think it's more important to just be like, I do this. And if you like it, great.
In an era where there is more competition, the Internet, and everything else, how do you get more recognizable online while still not putting yourself in a box?
I think that's what's, yeah, that's what's so difficult is that, cause I mean like we all know like the music industry has changed so much in that like back in the day, it would be someone would hear your song on the radio and then like your music and then subsequently like you. Whereas now I think it's more people have to like you as a person before they'll even watch like a 10 second reel if you lip syncing your song on the tube, like it's so reversed now. So I think for me, I try and like to try and get people on board with like me and my music is trying not to be too genre specific or label specific and try and just be like, if you enjoy like more broad topics, like if you enjoy kind of the idea of cabaret. If you love spectacle, if you love stuff that's loud and unapologetic because then that can apply to so many different things. Cause I'm so inspired by like musical theater and like film and stuff like that, which isn't necessarily like the rock or glam rock kind of music that I enjoy making. So I think just trying to appeal to like the broader themes rather than specific, like if you like Aerosmith, you'll like my song rather than like, do you like stuff that's really loud and silly? Then you'll probably like me because then it's, you can reach a little bit more people. I think we'll see how that pans out.
And what's your favorite musical that you have seen?
Oh my God. I went to see Rent with my friends when I was about 16. Rent is probably my…