From college football, to producing his own music, induhgo is here to take you on a trippy ride
How fitting, as the computer’s camera focuses on the artist’s face during our Zoom conference, that the light bouncing off his face would be the same as his stage name: indigo blue.
Clad in a dark hoodie with a cloud-like caricature drawn on it, a snap-back and a charming smile, induhgo is seated in his home in Woodbridge, Virginia. A beautifully embroidered quilt hangs in the back, rectangular shapes in both the colours white and, you guessed it, indigo blue.
“Yeah, my mom made this for me,” induhgo gushes. “It’s a passion of hers, to work in embroidery. And she decorated the whole place too,” he says, gesturing to his apartment chuckling. “Oh, who is that?”
My black tabby walks behind me, attempting to steal all the attention before any questions are asked — but induhgo doesn’t seem to mind. He gushes over the cat, chuckling a little as she cocks her head to the sound of his voice.
Q: So tell me how you got into music.
A: I mean, growing up, I was into music a lot. Like, I don’t know if you remember like Limewire. It was like Torrent before, you know, torrents and stuff. So I would always get my music from there and burn CDs, and try to find the exclusive songs and stuff like that. And then I guess that went by the wayside. And in high school, I just started listening to a lot of, I guess music that a lot of my friends didn’t listen to. I was really into Death Cab for Cutie, My Chemical Romance. Oh, John Mayer, Tyler, the Creator, just like a lot of stuff that my friends weren’t listening to. And then in college, I just started to just explore.
Q: What was the song or the artist that really marked you as an artist?
A: So I want to say 2011 A$AP Rocky came out with Live. Love. ASAP. And I thought the production on there was crazy. I think Clams Casino produced a bunch of the music on that mixtape, and I thought that was so sick. Like, I never heard anything like that before. And obviously A$AP Rocky was tight. Just the way he rapped was tight. And right around the same time I was getting into Tyler, the Creator. I’ve always been into music, but those are like the two artists that I really liked.
Q: Talk to me a little about the journey you went through to become the artist that you are now?
A: I played football in college, and once I knew that wasn’t going to be anything after college, I was like, I want to do something cool. I don’t want to just like, get a regular job. And obviously, there’s nothing wrong with that. But I was like, I don’t want to. There’s just the thought of getting a regular job freaked me out. I was like, I don’t want to do this shit like this. So I want to say around 2011, a friend and I made this group called French Indigo, because we both were really into raw denim. And like, the dye that was in a denim was indigo dye. And like the brand that we were really into was A.P.Cs. A.P.Cs, I’m pretty sure are made in France. So we kind of just did like the “French Indigo.” So it was like a combined thing. And so we would be rapping, and like we made a couple of songs, but I don’t think we ever like officially made a project. And then we just went our separate ways. And I just took the name Indigo.
Q: And how did you come up with the spelling, and made the group name your own?
A: I didn’t want to spell it just in the regular way like I-N-D-I-G-O. I tried to come up with like a different way to, you know, to do it. So I spelled it a bunch of different ways. I spelled Indigo like I-N-D-U-H-G-O, and I thought that was just like the coolest one.
Q: So how was it, going solo?
A: I knew I was gonna play football after college, and then I was like, I want to get into music. I want to do something cool. That was kind of like the start of me wanting to get into music. So yeah, then I bought my little studio setup. I bought speakers, a keyboard, and I was making beats in my dorm room. And then it kind of just went from there, and it was, I believe around, 2012 – 2013, I kind of just started taking it seriously. I felt like [having a team] was less pressure. I feel like when I started doing it on my own, it became more serious, but not in a good way. It was just like, I’m by myself. I’m making music. And I don’t want to say it became less fun, but you know, if you’re with somebody all the time, you’re feeding off their energy, it’s more of a collaborative effort. And it’s like, you go into the studio and you’re like, you’re hanging out with your friends. But as soon as I started doing it on my own, it was I don’t know, it’s kind of like weird. But then I went through a stage where, after we broke up, I was doing music on my own, I came back home from college, and I worked with a bunch of people. And maybe from like 2013 to 2017, I was working with people all the time, and I kind of got burnt off from that. I kind of miss it, but also, when you’re working with people all the time, you kind of take on projects that you’re not really trying to do, and I was getting into music friendships that weren’t necessarily genuine. It was just like solely for the music. I didn’t like that part too much. When I’m working by myself, I get to explore my own sound and don’t have to worry about anybody else telling me to do this or that. It’s like, my own little thing I get to create. So it’s cool.
Q: Do you miss working with other people?
A: Yeah, I do. Now I’m trying to get out of my little rabbit hole, and I’m looking forward to working with other people, collaborating and seeing what other people have. I get real stingy with my ideas, though, so that’s like another thing I’m trying to break out of. trying to be okay with what other people are, and what other people have to say about whatever we’re working on, and go back and forth. So that’s where I’m at now. It’s an interesting, it’s an interesting transition for real.
Q: So would you say that working alone, you feel more authentic to the music you set out to make from the beginning?
A: Yeah, for sure, I think, definitely. It allowed me to figure out what I liked. I got to listen to music that I enjoyed, and I don’t have to worry about anybody else’s input. So now that I feel like I like came into my own, I’m ready to go out, there’s so much I want to say. So one of the main reasons I wanted to work on my own was to explore my own sound, and I wasn’t necessarily really good at other people’s feedback. And music is like, super subjective, and coming from a world in sports, where I’m playing football in college, that was really objective. You know what I mean? Like, somebody is good, somebody is not good. It’s really easy to tell, but with music there are so many different styles. You know, something may not be good, but it’s not bad because it’s not good, it’s just not what you’re into. So like, a lot of the time when I was working with people, like that 2013- 2017 period, it was just hard to to tell what I was into, because I felt like, especially being a producer and working with people, I felt like I was trying to please, you know, the artists that I was working with, instead of figuring out what I want to do.
Q: So what makes you think now that you will be more open to criticism and constructive thoughts from other people?
A: I had to distinguish what the criticism was. I was getting criticism from people who didn’t know anything about like, art or music at all. They would just say, you know, they would hear whatever’s on the radio, and then try to compare what I’m showing them. And this didn’t happen often but it was enough to fuck with my head. So like, I’d let some close friends listen to my music and be like “Oh bro, you should make like a banger like you need to you need to make this, you need to make that,” and maybe that has something to do with the sports upbringing, where like you have a coach. The coach is the coach for a reason you know, more times than not, he knows what he’s talking about. So I think I had like that mentality, transitioning from sports to music, I think the time when working on my own, I needed to figure out what was like real criticism and what, you know, is just somebody spitting off stuff. There were times, though, I was like: “Man, maybe I do need to make music that’s more exciting.” But then I had to realize that there’s music like Lo Fi music, and there is a crowd out there that likes that type of music. So, yeah, it was just more figuring out which criticism was real? And when are people just like talking shit?
Q: So what would you say were things that you took from your sports upbringing that you apply to music, and things that you had to get rid of and update to fit the music world?
A: I guess, especially when I got to college, there really were no days off in sports. So when I first started doing music, I really took that mindset. That’s kind of another reason why I wanted to go and make music on my own for a while, was because I did treat it like a competition. I think healthy competition is good. But I would hear somebody’s music, and think “I need to make a beat that’s hard. I need to make something that’s just as dope as that.” And after a while, I mean, that’s cool, that’s like the basis of hip hop, but it can be kind of toxic after a while. It becomes all you’re thinking about. It got to a point where I didn’t want to listen to music anymore, because I would always hear another song and be like “Oh, I need to be doing that. I need to be doing that.” And I think that’s a direct result from sports, because you’re always sizing the other guy up. So I think like the work ethic part in sports is awesome, but just like the the constant competitive nature with sports, I think that doesn’t help with music. You got to find like a nice little balance, and find your own sound.
Q: So if somebody were to ask you how to describe your own music, what are the first couple of words that pop up in your mind?
A: Chill and trippy.
Q: You said music is subjective. But when you first put out your music, what message or feeling did you want your listeners to feel?
A: I’m kind of light hearted, I just want people to feel emotion that they’ve never felt before. I want them to start imagining, to relax, to contemplate being in a world of your own. Because I mean, that’s what made me want to start doing music. So I’m trying to give that same feeling to whoever listens to my music.
Make sure to follow induhgo on his socials, and stay on the lookout for more ethereal, dreamlike music to imagine yourself on an interesting ride.
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