There isn’t much that has left The Indigo Society feeling blue in the past year.
Just ahead of being featured in the Homegrown Spotlight on ALT 99.5FM/102.FM in December, the quintet of Brody Evans (vocals/guitar), Bryce Murphy (keyboard), Mattei Richardson (drums), Eden Coplin (bass), and Nate Owen (guitar) had released an EP and played in Goldstock at Sweetwater Sound. A local music night hosted by Purdue University Fort Wayne’s Gold Top Music Group, they impressed the record label enough to sign them. Now, they’re preparing for the release of their debut album, Diana Luna, on Sept. 15.
“I feel like there’s a wide range, lot of different styles,” Evans said of the album. “For some reason, I don’t know why, there’s a lot of celestial stuff. There’s lots of existential stuff in there. I was going through a breakup at the time, so there’s some allusions to that.”
Relationship in studio
Shortly before signing with Gold Top, The Indigo Society had released their Daisyface EP. Shortly after, they were signed and right back in the studio.
“It was almost a forced tension where, ‘Oh, we have a label now and they want an album,’ ” Murphy said.
Lucky for them, Evans is a prolific songwriter, and getting a new batch of songs took no time.
“We recorded a couple batches of songs before we even spoke with Gold Top,” Evans said. “I was thinking, ‘Oh, we’ll probably have a couple more singles or an EP,’ because a whole album is really expensive.”
Instead, those songs became part of the band’s first full-length album.
Another thing they had on their side was their experience of having recorded Daisyface at Sweetwater Studios, which is right where they picked up.
“We had started the album here, so I wanted to stay with the producer,” Evans said.
That producer was Jason Peets, who Murphy says is pretty high on the album.
“At the end of our last session, he told us this was some of the best stuff he had mixed himself,” he said. “That was super cool to hear. Having a producer that is really excited about your music is super cool.”
Having a producer at all was a pretty big deal for the band.
“I’m not good at mixing,” Evans said. “I don’t think any of us are good enough where I’d be comfortable enough putting it out. Even from our first single, I was like, ‘Let’s just go to the studio.’ ”
Band dynamic
In the studio, The Indigo Society followed a familiar routine, according to Coplin.
“With this band, Brody shows up and says, ‘Hey, I have this track.’ Then we say, ‘OK,’ ” she said. “We play on it and a lot of fun stuff happens because we’re into wildly different stuff.”
Murphy concurs.
“We all have wildly different tastes, but we all share the same respect for our influences,” he said. “Eden and Mattei are super jazz influenced in their playing, where Nate, Brody, and me are more contemporary rock, more ’90s rock as close influences.“
The dynamic has been working and led to an evolving sound.
“I feel like our sound changes a lot, from even last year,” Coplin said. “(Brody’s) songwriting develops very quickly and the demos you bring out change wildly from different stages.
“I would say the album we have now is an accurate representation of the now,” she added. “This isn’t an album we thought about writing last year. It’s not an album we could have made last year. This is very much a right now kind of thing.”
Singles that really pop
According to Evans, that “right now kind of thing” is pretty eclectic.
“I feel like there’s three kind of feels for the album,” he said. “There’s some indie rock. Then we have our shoegaze. Then there’s some acoustic songs on there.”
The first look into what Diana Luna would be was with the release of “Moonlight” in late July. A nice upbeat song, it was a strong candidate for a single off an album with some catchy hooks.
“I don’t go into it thinking, ‘I’m going to make a pop song.’ But when it came out, it was just like, ‘These songs have some hooks and they’re upbeat.’ Those end up being singles,” Evans said. “My favorite song is the longest song on the album, ‘Diana Luna.’ I’m giving it the album title because I feel like it’s the essence of the band right now.”
They went on to release “Rain” and “Grey Poupon” as singles for an album that is sure have something for everyone.
“To me, it’s equal parts anxiety and excitement,” Murphy said of the emotions going into its release. “When I listen to the bigger songs on this album, I get super, super excited.”
Regardless of its reception, Evans is happy to just be doing what he loves.
“I don’t ever get my expectations high, but that’s not really the reason I do it anyways,” he said. “(I do it) because it’s fun. Ever since I started playing, I’ve been in the hole with music.”
It’s clear he won’t be digging out of that hole anytime soon. Instead, he and the rest of the band will only continue to grow.
“My group dynamics class would say our EP was a product of us getting together as we were starting to learn to work together,” Murphy said. “The album is definitely a product of a more refined group process. I don’t think we’re fully done developing.”