Spotlight: Indiana

In our latest Introducing interview, we chat to Nottingham-based alternative pop artist Indiana about her career, and plans for the future.

S] Hey! How was Glastonbury – it looked like an awesome show for you? 

I] “It was a great show thanks! I still like saying ‘I performed at Glastonbury’…still can’t believe I did!”

S] What do you think about Nottingham’s music scene?

I] “It’s awesome. Simply put, there’s a massive amount of talent and really diverse.”

S] You had a letter from the Queen recently after you performed with The Script in front of her, what have been some of your other highlights this year?

I] “Definitely singing for the Queen and Glastonbury, but I recently performed on the main stage of my local festival Splendour. I drew a crowd of about 7000. It was mind-blowing, So overwhelming.”

S] What types of people and places are inspiring you outside of music? 

I] “Not much aside from Mothercare and Babies R Us at the moment, I’m eight months’ pregnant so that’s consuming everything outside of music!”

S] As an artist who is constantly developing her reputation, and has achieved a degree of success, what are your biggest challenges?

I] “Numbers! It’s been hard growing a social media following even having a relative amount of airplay and high profile gigs I am still being fairly unknown. These days an artist’s success is measured on the amount of followers or likes they have.”

S] Talk us through your creative process…

I] “I don’t often draw from passed experiences when writing my lyrics. They all start from somewhere but I like to tell stories. It gives me a much wider playing field, I can put myself in situations that I wouldn’t in real life.”

S] We get a lot of creatives e-mailing us from Yorkshire and the Midlands, asking whether they need to move to bigger cities to succeed? How do you find Nottingham for inspiration?

I] “I think the internet plays the biggest part in building an artist, it opens up opportunities for you to go to bigger cities for gigs or meetings with labels. I’d never gigged before I put my stuff on the internet, I’d only done about three gigs before I met with a label. However, this isn’t taking anything away from the fact that Nottingham is an awesome city, the music scene here is buzzing with talent and people wanting to nurture that talent.”

S] Talk to us about the Some Kind Of Nature clothing line? What’s your mission with that?

I] “Some Kind Of Nature is a clothing label I part own and run with my partner James, and Jono who is a close friend of ours. As a team we share a passion for art and design and our influences are wide and varied and include tattoo art, film, music, nature, boards, bikes and more. I enjoy seeing our drawings and designs make it from paper to garment and I get a real kick from seeing like-minded people wearing our clothes.

We have some big plans and are working on some exciting product designs, we also support some great local talent, including skaters, singers, bands and actors, all with a common style and approach to street wear fashion. I find this creative outlet really helps with my songwriting and production, I love seeing my visions come to life, whether that’s in a track, video or on an item of clothing.”

S] How do you feel like you’ve changed and developed personally through the music that you’ve made over the last few years?

I] “Once learning my connection with music and starting writing I have changed in many ways. It’s opened up so many creative outlets, I now write the scripts and treatments for my videos, design clothes and I’m heavily into the production of my music. This time two years ago I had no idea this was who I really am.”

S] You reference Gary Numan as an inspiration, is working with Gary in your aims for the future?

I] “Yep…we are in talks!”

S] What are your main aims for the rest of the year?

I] “In the time off I’m taking to have my daughter I plan to spend a lot of time in my home studio writing new stuff and experimenting with some new ideas.”