ANCHR's Artist of the Week: Indigo De Souza

Photo by Charlie Boss

I recently saw this week’s ANCHR Artist of the Week, Indigo De Souza, play a support set with Lucy Dacus at Thalia Hall. These days, it’s so easy to be distracted by literally everything, even when you’re at a concert, but Indigo just has this magnetic ability to her music and stage presence that grabbed and held my undivided attention throughout her performance.

Indigo De Souza grew up in a small town in the North Carolina mountains and has been playing guitar since she was nine. Since then, she’s relocated to Asheville, NC and put out several singles and two full-length records.

Indigo released her sophomore album, entitled Any Shape You Take, in August of 2021, which features singles like “Real Pain” and “Hold U.” The record really expands upon Indigo’s multifaceted creativity, with every track embracing a different tone and mood—it’s like a sonic (dare I say) shapeshifter of a project. Indigo talks about the broad scope of the album saying, “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.” As listeners can experience as they travel through Any Shape You Take, Indigo says she never embodies one particular genre and that “all of the music just comes from the universe that is my ever-shifting brain/heart/world.”

The shifting nature and adaptability in Indigo’s style feels especially fitting with all the change going on in the world today, and these songs make a perfect soundtrack for anyone going through their own evolutions. On top of her incredible songwriting, Indigo also produced Any Shape You Take, alongside Brad Cook, Alex Farrar and Adam McDaniel.

Indigo De Souza will be on the road all across the country this summer, and if you’re in Chicago like ANCHR, you have not one, but TWO chances to catch a show in July. First, she’ll be performing in support of My Morning Jacket at Northerly Island, and she’ll also be playing Pitchfork Music Festival. She her full tour schedule here, and tune into the “Hold U” music video below.

ANCHR's Artist of the Week: Divino Niño

Sheeta-Kuri-Ooah! ( I am not sure what that means but it sounds like a great salutation.) As I'm sure many of you Chicago music lovers were able recognize, that is a lyric from the title track of Divino Niño's album Foam.

Photo by Alexa Viscius

Divino Niño is a five piece rock band based in Chicago composed of Camilo Medina, Javier Forero, Guillermo Rodriguez-Torres, Pierce Codina, and Justin Vitorri. Forero and Medina were buds as young children in Bogota, Columbia but when Forero's family moved to Miami, the two had lost touch… That is, until one day, Medina's family also moved to Miami, and fate had it to where he and Ferero reconnected when they recognized each other on the bus. In Miami they attended the same church where they had the opportunity to perform before an audience and experience the high of performing live. Years later, the pair moved to Chicago for college and their new independence granted them the opportunity to discover secular music like The Beatles and The Beach Boys, which thankfully for us, began the formation of Divino Niño.

Foam is a lovely album that should be on every vinyl collector's list. All ten songs are exceptional. “Melty Caramelo”? Bop. “Coca Cola”? Bop. “Maria”? Heart Break Bop.

Before anyone asks, yes, Divino Niño did make Perez's Best of 2019 with their song “Foam.” It was a hit amongst my fans. Full disclosure though, they sing in both Spanish and English— so if that turns you off, grow up. It's 2021 and all of us should be able to groove no matter the tongue. I love that we here in Chicago get to have our own Latin music group that we get to claim. Even cooler is that they actually sound great. With the present popularity of Latin-American artists being so high, i.e. Cuco, Omar Apollo, and the Marías to name a few, Divino Niño add a beautiful psychedelic rock ambiance to the current prevailing musical climate. I have yet to catch them live (I know, I know, very unlike me), but I'm pumped to finally get the chance to check them out at Pitchfork this fall.

Snag your own copy of Foam here, and get tickets to Pitchfork fest here.