Everything felt unknown and distant, Indigo De Souza goes deeper than she thought in her Music Video for Smog
SXSW Schedule:
March 15 - Audio Femme official showcase @ Central Pres. Church / 11pm
March 16 - KUTX morning broadcast @ Scholtz Garten / 9am
March 16 - FLOODFest day party @ Mohawk / 3pm
March 16 - Saddle Creek x Sub Pop official showcase @ Mohawk / 1am
March 17 - Wasserman day party @ Mohawk / 4:30pm
March 17 - Ari’s Take x LabelCoin official showcase @ Half Step on Rainey / 12:05am
Tour Dates:
3/11 - Birmingham, AL @ Saturn
3/12 - New Orleans, LA @ Toulouse Theatre
3/15-17 - Austin, TX @ SXSW
3/18 - Fort Worth, TX @ Tulips (Southside Spillover)
3/19 - Houston, TX @ Secret Group SOLD OUT
5/13 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court Block Party
5/17 - Madison, WI @ The Majestic
5/18 - Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
5/19 - Detroit, MI @ El Club
5/20 - Toronto, ON @ Opera House
5/22 - Boston, MA @ The Royale
5/23 - Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
5/24 - New York City, NY @ Webster Hall SOLD OUT
5/26 - Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom SOLD OUT
5/27 - Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom
5/30 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
5/31 - Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
6/2 - Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West
6/3 - Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel
6/2-4 - Chattanooga, TN @ Riverbend Festival
6/27 - London, UK @ Roundhouse ^
6/29 - Roskilde, DK @ Roskilde Festival
7/1 - Stockholm, SE @ Lollapalooza Stockholm
8/12-13 Seattle, WA @ Day In Day Out Festival
8/14 - Indianapolis, IN @ TCU Amphitheater at West River State Park *
8/15 - Columbus, OH @ KEMBA Live! *
8/17 - St Louis, MO @ The Pageant *
8/18 - Kansas City, MO @ Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland *
8/19 - Minneapolis, MN @ The Armory *
8/24 - Troutdale, OR @ Edgefield *
8/25 - Vancouver, BC @ Vogue Theatre *
8/27 - Bend, OR @ Hayden Homes Amphitheater *
8/30 - Berkeley, CA @ Greek Theatre at UC Berkeley *
8/31 - Los Angeles, CA @ Greek Theatre *
9/1 - Del Mar, CA @ The Sound *
9/6 - Las Vegas, NV @ Brookly Bowl *
9/8 - Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren *
9/9 - Santa Fe, NM @ Santa Fe Opera *
9/10 - Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre *
^ supporting Japanese Breakfast
* supporting Sylvan Esso
Last month, Indigo De Souza announced her new album All of This Will End, out April 28th via Saddle Creek. Today, she shares the album’s single, “Smog” along with a music video directed by De Souza herself – WATCH HERE. Indigo is also featured on New Music Daily on Apple Music.
Indigo De Souza on “Smog”
I remember writing this song during the peak of the pandemic. I was living alone on a dead end street surrounded by neighbors who were seemingly always mowing their lawns. I remember having a lot of anxiety during the day, navigating the newly awkward and uncertain experience of doing anything mid world freak-out. I was in an emotional state that felt like a cross between delirious joy and a real tired hopelessness. Everything felt unknown and distant. “Smog” is mostly about that strange time and how it felt in my house, alone. When the neighborhood was asleep, and all the lawn mowers stopped, I felt free to make anything and sing anything I wanted. It was my first time ever living alone. It brought me a lot closer to myself.
“I wanted to make something that felt like one of those dreams where you’re going through mundane life motions, and then you realize that you’re dreaming because something completely out of the ordinary breaks your reality. That’s kind of what the pandemic felt like for me. Like my whole life I'd been moving through this rigid societal system that felt really unfair and unnatural, and when the whole thing suddenly fell apart, I realized that all of the structures I’d been placed in were just made up. They weren’t as powerful as I’d thought. But what does feel powerful to me is the opportunity to fill life with intention, to foster community, to grow and learn from nature, and from each other.”
“Smog” is the second track De Souza has released from her forthcoming album. In February she unveiled the album’s closer, “Younger and Dumber” a stunning ballad that reaped heaps of critical praise from the New York Times, Billboard, NPR and was awarded Pitchfork’s ‘Best New Track’ distinction. "It would be too premature to call it De Souza’s best work yet, but there’s so much catharsis in the track’s four-and-a-half-minute runtime that it feels inevitable that we will be talking about 'Younger & Dumber' for a long time," said Paste.
All of This Will End, the anticipated follow-up to her acclaimed 2021 breakthrough album Any Shape You Take, marks a warmer and unmistakably audacious era for her. It’s a statement about fearlessly moving forward from the past into a gratitude-filled present, feeling it all every step of the way, and choosing to embody loving awareness. Across 11 songs, the album is a raw and radically optimistic work that grapples with mortality, the rejuvenation that community brings, and the importance of centering yourself now. These tracks come from the most resonant moments of her life: childhood memories, collecting herself in parking lots, the ecstatic trips spent wandering the Appalachian mountains and southern swamps with friends, and the times she had to stand up for herself. “All of This Will End feels more true to me than anything ever has,” she says.
Indigo has announced a 2023 tour that includes a headline run, a stop at Austin, TX’s SXSW Music Festival and dates supporting Sylvan Esso. Tickets are on-sale now.
More About Indigo DeSouza:
“I was finally able to trust myself fully,” says Indigo De Souza of making her masterful third album All of This Will End. When the North Carolina-based artist released her compelling and explosive second LP Any Shape You Take in 2021, it led to a successful year of sold out tours and rave reviews from outlets like Pitchfork, the New York Times, and the New Yorker.
Indigo finds recent inspiration from community and stability. “Up until recently, my life felt chaotic,” she says. “Now, so much of the chaos is behind me. I have an incredible community, I love where I live, and I’m surrounded by truly incredible people who are dedicated to deep connection and joy. My music feels like it's coming from a centered place of reflection.”
Alongside the all-encompassing emotions captured in the album, it closes with the heartfelt and nostalgic lead single “Younger and Dumber.” One of the first songs she wrote for the album, the track began as a way of her speaking to her younger self. “While I was writing about the time when my music first started to take shape, it was also the worst time in my life and the most unstable I'd ever been,” she says. “I wrote this song paying homage to a younger self that didn't know any better. I was flailing through life, trying to make something stick, and coming to terms with being on earth.” The song is her most intentional yet, where she sings, “You came to hurt me in all the right places / Made me somebody.” Though the track starts as a whisper, it slowly unfolds to something cathartic and explosive as she belts out, “And the love I feel is so very real it can take you anywhere.” With the clarity that comes with experience and healing, Indigo treats her past self with immense kindness. It’s her most stunning offering yet.
Creatively reenergized from having these songs pour out of her so quickly, Indigo and her band went to Asheville’s Drop of Sun Studios with producer and engineer Alex Farrar, who also worked on Any Shape You Take. “We just clicked so hard,” she says. “We had such an organic energy flow and we felt really inspired by each other.” While she lets her band loose in the arrangements, especially guitarist Dexter Webb and drummer Avery Sullivan, these songs come from her own vision. “This time, I was more true to myself and refused to allow other people's ideas to shape what my songs sound like,” she says. “It also feels really special because Dexter was able to fully express his freaky alien guitar voicings, and played a larger role in the production.”
All of This Will End boasts songs that run the gamut of human emotion. There’s pain and sadness, sure, but there’s a triumphant spirit of resilience throughout. In many ways, All of This Will End has become a personal motto for Indigo. “Every day I wake up with the thought that this could be the end,” she says. “You could look at it as a sad thing, or you could look at it as a really precious thing: Today I'm alive and at some point, I will not be in this body anymore. But for now, I can do so much with being alive.”
