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Photo: Charlie Boss

There is nothing close to as refreshing North Carolina-born and bred singer-songwriter, Indigo De Souza. Born to break the status quo, the freshly arrived indie rock artist has been writing songs since the ripe age of nine and began self-producing her music in 2016. When it comes to the art of creation, De Souza does not hold back. Her lyrics are simple yet reveal bounds about rediscovering love, navigating loss, and embracing change. Her music is akin to releasing every painful heartbreak through one satisfyingly uncontained scream.

Growing up, De Souza often felt out of place and desperately tried to fit in with her peers. It wasn't until after moving an hour away from her conservative hometown that De Souza began to embrace her love for music. A fellow artist, her mother gave De Souza encouragement when it came to finding herself in music, providing the score to her childhood home in the form of artists like Lucinda Williams. Her mother's influence is also reflected in De Souza's current work, with her mother's vibrant psychedelic artwork featured on the cover of De Souza's albums. Not only does De Souza remind everyone in her song "Kill Me" to "Call your mother / Tell her you love her," she also titled her debut project, I Love My Mom.

De Souza's latest release, Any Shape You Take, introduces a notably positive perspective while staying true to her honest and cathartic lyrics. Inspired by the simplicity of love that lives in everything around her, De Souza captures the essence of how all types of love, from platonic to romantic, can become a safe space. She shares how her song "Hold U" is about "how sacred relationships can be and how often they're not treated that way in the world."  

As someone who is starting to understand the power of healthy love, she says that "through finding a lot of love for [herself, she] somehow manifested the kind of love that [she] deserved from people because [she] was treating [herself] in a good way." De Souza's single "Die/Cry" speaks to having so much love for someone that she would rather die than see the person that she loves cry. Any Shape You Take highlights De Souza's impressive ability to masterfully find the balance between discussing hopeful themes of love while still dealing with ideas of grief and loss.  

De Souza has a way of articulating feelings that often feel difficult to pinpoint. Her lyrics are simple yet incredibly honest while maintaining an indie rock sound that feels refreshingly novel and raw. As someone rediscovering what love looks like for herself, De Souza offers a fresh perspective on what it means to accept and embrace change.