Musik got to speak to Matt from North West band Indigo Youth.
Their music is feel-good and fun, drifting from lush pop to 80s esque ballads.
How are you feeling about your new single?
We’re ’feeling’ great (if you pardon the pun). We love every song we write but ‘Feeling’ is a special one and I think it’s some of our best work, it’s a little more understated than the rest of our catalogue, it has a really lush and warm sound, but it’s also quite easy-listening.
I think we’ve struck a great balance between the staple ‘Indigo Youth’ that people are familiar with and a vibe which whilst still in keeping with what we’re all about (fun pop music) is a little different and fresh.
I think in general it just feels like we’ve upped our writing game, and the response we’ve had from our fans and across social media to the track really reflects that.
We’ve gotta thank Steel City Studios too, who recorded and produced the track for us, they played a big part in helping us to bring our vision to life.
We’ve always loved the idea of a song being neither happy nor sad, but being somewhere in between – ‘happy-sad’ if you would and that’s very much the case with ‘Feeling’.
The song opens telling the story of falling in love, and how that feels, and initially sounds very feel-good, but it shifts to the realisation that the feeling isn’t reciprocated, which leads to heartbreak.
It’s bittersweet, and is a pretty personal song to myself with it being inspired by my own recent heartbreak.
Musically we wanted a song with a real summer feel, and something a little more dreamy. We tend to write quite empowering ‘in-your-face’ ballads, and we do still have – as we do with all our tracks – the Indigo Youth staples: the vocal hook, the harmonies, the catchy guitar riff,
the keyboards, and so on.
Overall the vibe is more chilled and easy listening. It’s just got a feel good, bouncy tone which sounds lovely and lush, whilst proving somewhat of a conflict to the sad lyrics. We’re penning it our bittersweet banger of the summer.
What’s your song writing process look like?
It varies really, but usually it’s pretty laid back! We will crack open a couple beers, and just have a jam and see what comes about. Usually it does start with a riff on the guitar or keys, or an idea for a vocal hook, and grows from there.
The song started out as essentially a jam between myself and Dan. I had the chord progression on the keys, Dan came up with that killer guitar riff, and we just built the whole song around those components.
Due to various projects and a busy schedule the song ended up sitting on the back burner as an instrumental demo for a good twelve months, and it was only last Christmas we decided to revisit it and the timing kinda worked out with me having something to write about lyrically.
That’s what we love to do, take a simple idea and let it develop organically and it’s great to see all our different ideas and writing always ending up with that classic ‘Indigo Youth’ sound.
Have a listen to their sound of the summer below.
