INDIGO DE SOUZA Releases Debut Album 'Any Shape You Take'

ANY SHAPE YOU TAKE  OUT TODAY VIA SADDLE CREEK ON TOUR NOW!

Photo Credit: Charlie Boss

“De Souza [is] an undeniable force.” -Pitchfork “It is a love song, but it’s not just about romance — “Hold U” is about living fully with your emotions, and embracing the love that emerges from being in community, too.” -New York Times “It always amazes me that someone can take their pain and turn it into not only healing energy but a catchy tune with a positive force, and that’s what Indigo De Souza has done with a song powerfully titled ‘Kill Me’” -NPR’s Bob Boilen, All Songs Considered "Intense lyricism sung with a vibrant casualness... Her voice is confident and unrelenting." -Stereogum, Artist To Watch "Ferocious and vulnerable in equal measure, the musician's nervy new album is one of the year's best."  - The AV Club “[Any Shape You Take’s] second single "Hold U" is further proof of its sky-high potential.” - Billboard “Indigo De Souza captures hearts with her unruly vocals and stinging lyrics deliver" - Nylon "The Asheville rock singer/songwriter’s sound is marked, more than anything, by an honesty and intensity of emotion that is genuinely difficult to fathom, and that’s especially true on her remarkable new record" - Paste “A bittersweet and super catchy song filled with heartfelt emotion and comically exaggerated sentiment.”  -The FADER, The Best Rock Songs Right Now "It's‌ ‌the‌ ‌kindest‌ ‌and‌ ‌most‌ ‌empathetic‌ ‌quasi-breakup‌ ‌record‌ ‌you'll‌ ‌likely‌ ‌find‌ ‌this‌ ‌year;‌ ‌a‌ ‌manifesto‌ ‌on‌ ‌the‌ ‌resilience‌ ‌of‌ ‌love‌ ‌in‌ ‌the‌ ‌face‌ ‌of‌ ‌bone-shifting‌ ‌transformation.‌" - Exclaim

Today, Indigo De Souza has released her new album Any Shape You Take co-produced by De Souza and Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Waxahatchee). The album is available everywhere via label home, Saddle Creek. On Any Shape You Take, Indigo De Souza explores the human relationship to change, the rigid forces that prevent it and ultimately the freedom that comes with it. “The radiance of self-compassion, an openness to change, and communication—sit at the heart of Any Shape You Take,” says Pitchfork. “I wanted this album to give a feeling of shifting with and embracing change. These songs came from a turbulent time when I was coming to self-love through many existential crises and shifts in perspective,” says the artist. De Souza is currently on tour in the US in support of Any Shape You Take. Tonight she’ll play a release show in her hometown of Asheville, NC at the Grey Eagle. Highlights include The Masquerade in Atlanta, GA on August 29th, Baby's All Right in Brooklyn on September 25th and The Regent in Los Angeles on October 15th. Tickets are available now. Purchase, download or stream Any Shape You Take HERE.

"REAL PAIN"

“KILL ME”

“HOLD U”

Indigo has always grown up in a world of contradictions, raised in a small conservative town in the mountains of North Carolina, but with a Brazilian Bossa Nova guitarist father and visual artist mother (who created the album art for both her debut and Any Shape You Take). Her mother encouraged her to channel her shyness and feelings of being an outsider into art and bought her a guitar. She began playing guitar herself at 9 and writing songs by 11. Art and music pushed her to seek out a broader community and to also pursue her own internal exploration. Moving to Asheville at age 16 gave her the community and freedom she was after. It also brought her to a renowned group of musicians including Brad Cook, who together with De Souza produced Any Shape You Take. With Cook and engineers/producers Alex Farrar and Adam McDaniel, Indigo recorded the new album at Betty’s, Sylvan Esso’s studio in Chapel Hill, NC allowing her to move past the limitations of a home studio. After the self-release of her debut album I Love My Mom, De Souza went out on supporting tours for Alex G, Beach Bunny and Hippo Campus. Her incredible stage presence helped develop a community of dedicated fans. The album has clocked nearly 8 million streams to date. At the forefront of all of De Souza’s projects is her magnetism—her unique quality of spirit that is both buoyant and wise and the freedom she gives herself to explore all of her multitudes. With Any Shape You Take we see an artist fearlessly pushing boundaries and relaying her journey of self-discovery in frank terms. It’s this admixture of honesty and pliability that makes De Souza one of the most exciting artists to watch this year. TOUR DATES Sep 19 - The Masquerade - Atlanta, GA Sep 20 - Cat's Cradle - Carrboro, NC Sep 21 - Songbyrd - Washington DC - SOLD OUT Sep 22 - PhilaMOCA - Philadelphia, PA - SOLD OUT Sep 24 - Elsewhere Zone 1 - Brooklyn, NY - SOLD OUT Sep 25 - Baby's All Right - Brooklyn, NY - SOLD OUT Sep 26 - Brighton Music Hall - Boston, MA SOLD OUT Sep 28 - Big Room Bar - Columbus, OH Sep 29 - Beat Kitchen - Chicago, IL Sep 30 - Beat Kitchen - Chicago, IL - SOLD OUT Oct 01 - 7th Street Entry - Minneapolis, MN  Oct 02 - Slowdown JR - Omaha, NE Oct 04 - Globe Hall - Denver, CO Oct 08 - Polaris Hall - Portland, OR Oct 09 - Vera - Seattle, WA Oct 11 - Bottom of the Hill - San Francisco, CA Oct 13 - Voodoo - San Diego, CA Oct 14 - Constellation Room - Santa Ana, CA Oct 15 - The Regent - Los Angeles, CA Oct 16 - Rebel Lounge - Phoenix, AZ Oct 20 - Ruins - Dallas, TX Oct 23 - Mohawk (Indoors) - Austin, TX Oct 24 - White Oak Music Hall (Upstairs) - Houston, TX Nov 15 - The Grey Eagle - Asheville, NC Nov 16 - The Grey Eagle - Asheville, NC   8/26 with Ex Gold and DJ Ohh No Honey 8/27 with Truth Club and DJ Ohh No Honey 8/28 with Truth Club 8/29 with Truth Club and True Blossom 9/21 - 9/26 with Horse Jumper of Love 9/28 with The Ophelias 9/29 - 10/1 with Dan Wriggins (of Friendship) 10/2 - 10/24 with The Slaps   Faithful to its name,  Any Shape You Take changes form to match the tenor of each story it tells. “The album title is a nod to the many shapes I take musically. I don’t feel that I fully embody any particular genre—all of the music just comes from the universe that is my ever-shifting brain/heart/world,” says Indigo. This sonic range is unified by Indigo’s strikingly confessional and effortless approach to songwriting, a signature first introduced in her debut, self-released LP, I Love My Mom. Written in quick succession, Indigo sees these two records as companion pieces, both distinct but in communion with each other: “Many of the songs on these two records came from the same season in my life and a certain version of myself which I feel much further from now.”  Throughout Any Shape You Take, Indigo reflects on her relationships as she reckons with a deeper need to redefine how to fully inhabit spaces of love and connection.“It feels so important for me to see people through change. To accept people for the many shapes they take, whether those shapes fit into your life or not. This album is a reflection of that. I have undergone so much change in my life and I am so deeply grateful to the people who have seen me through it without judgment and without attachment to skins I’m shifting out of.” Lead single “Kill Me,” written during the climax of a dysfunctional relationship, opens with the lines “Kill me slowly/ Take me with you.” This powerful plea, that begins within the quiet strum of a single electric guitar, is diffused by Indigo’s ironic apathy—a slacker rock nonchalance that refuses to take itself seriously: “I was really tired and fucked up from this relationship and simultaneously so deeply in love with that person in a special way that felt very vast and more real than anything I’d ever experienced.”  Across the table from that irreverence sits the sincerity of the single “Hold U,” a more energized, neo soul-inspired love song that substitutes apathy for a genuine expression of care. “I wrote ‘Hold U’ after I left that heavy season of my life and was learning how to love more simply and functionally. I wanted to write a love song that was painfully simple.” Growing up in a conservative small town in the mountains of North Carolina, Indigo started playing guitar when she was nine years old. “Music was a natural occurrence in my life. My dad is a bossa nova guitarist and singer from Brazil and so I think I just had it in my blood from birth.” It wasn’t until moving to Asheville, NC that Indigo began to move into her current sound, developing a writing practice that feeds from the currents that surround her: “Sometimes it feels like I am soaking up the energies of people around me and making art from a space that is more a collective body than just my own.”  “Real Pain,” one of the most experimental tracks on the record, is Indigo’s attempt to make that phenomena more intentionally collaborative. Starting soft before dropping down into a cavernous pit of layered screams and cries, “Real Pain” collages the voices of strangers—audio bites Indigo received after posting online asking for “screams, yells and anything else.” “Hearing these voices join together and move with my own was really powerful. The whole record was a release for me. And I hope it can be that for others.”  At the forefront of all De Souza’s projects is her magnetism—her unique quality of spirit that is both buoyant and wise. While her backing band has undergone shifts between releases, her sound has stayed tethered to her vision. Any Shape You Take is the first full-length album that Indigo produced herself. Teaming up with executive producer Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Waxahatchee, The War on Drugs) and engineers/producers Alex Farrar and Adam McDaniel, Indigo recorded the album at Betty’s, Sylvan Esso’s studio in Chapel Hill, NC and finished it with additional production and mixing at Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville. Moving past the limitations of a home studio, Indigo could finally embody the full reach of her sound: “It felt really exciting to lean into my pop tendencies more than I have in the past and to trust my intuition to take the songs where I felt they should go. I had the tools to do it and collaborators who were willing to go there with me.”  “I feel very much like a shape-shifter with my music, I’m always trying to embody a balance between the existential weight and the overflowing sense of love I feel in the world.” It is exactly this balance that Indigo strikes in her Saddle Creek debut, Any Shape You Take. A listening experience that gives back, as you shed and shape-shift along with her.   Any Shape You Take is out on August 27th via Saddle Creek.

INDIGO DE SOUZA ANY SHAPE YOU TAKE SADDLE CREEK AUGUST 27, 2021 PRE-ORDER 1. 17 2. Darker Than Death 3. Die/Cry 4. Pretty Pictures 5. Real Pain 6. Bad Dream 7. Late Night Crawlers 8. Hold U 9. Way Out 10. Kill Me WEBSITE | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK