Talking to: India Blue
For the past two years, India Blue has been building her career as a musician, performing as a vocalist, collaborating with other musicians, and composing her own music. In joining a collective of Glasgow based emerging musicians, India began to experiment as a musician with the styles of jazz, hip-hop, trap, and bossa nova, sparking her musical awakening. Shades, India’s debut single, was written over lock down, and is a blending of spiritual jazz with trap and hip-hop rhythms evoking cosmic sensations and reflecting the beginning of India’s musical journey, which has its roots in her recognising the power of creation.
We caught up with her and talked about her inspiration, learning the trumpet, and how her day job is her real side-hustle, not the music.
Tell us where you are based at the moment?
I am in London at the moment, South East London. I’m based in London but more based musically in Glasgow, that’s where I make most of my music.
So, is travelling up and down there difficult at the moment?
It’s definitely a bit tougher and is probably going to be on pause for a good while. I have a lot of places I can stay up there and I try and go up there every so often. I went to uni there so I have a nice community of friends in Glasgow.
What degree did you do?
I did philosophy.
And what got you into music?
To be completely honest music has always been the thing that has bought me the most joy. I remember singing when I was really young and just liking the vibrations and being in that space. I have always sung, but I went through a period where I was really shy and didn’t have much confidence, I just didn’t sing for most of my teenage-hood. I thought it was maybe something that wasn’t taken seriously, and focused my attention more on academic stuff.
Then when I went to uni I made friends with some really lovely people who turned out to be musicians and, yeah, that was my musical awakening I guess, meeting them. I just started slowly singing again, making it a normal part of my life again.
Were your family musical growing up?
My dad is a musician, so I feel that subconsciously that has had an impact, although our styles are very different. Back in the day he was into his rock music and I think as he has got older it has got more chilled and soulful.
What else is in your life apart from music?
I am a paralegal, on the side.
I love the fact you say you are a paralegal on the side, rather than the other way around!
Yeah! I feel like music is my main thing, and paralegal is my side hustle! So yes that's been interesting, I work in a court, it's an interesting job to have alongside music. I suppose it's good to have a balance of creative stuff and more real stuff.
Can you tell us a little bit about what inspires your music?
I love Donny Hathaway, he is probably my favourite singer. It’s quite different to the music I make but I love the soulfulness of his voice. I love Amy Winehouse as well, I am really inspired by her jazz influences, and her incredible voice. I think in terms of genres, jazz has been a big influence on the music I make, bossanova as well; I love Brazilian and Latin American music. A friend of mine Iona is a harpist and vocalist, although it's a genre I don’t really listen to often, I can still appreciate the beauty and purity of it.
In terms of what inspires me generally I have to say nature and space, I feel really inspired by going for walks if I ever have creative blocks, even if it’s just to my local park. I think that kind of thing, being in close contact with nature, makes me go inside a bit, and gets me in touch with my creative side.
What genre would you say your music falls into?
I would say jazz, because I think jazz is broad enough to capture all of the elements I explore in my music, because you can have cosmic jazz and more bebop jazz for example. I suppose mine is more on the spacey-cosmic side of jazz. I would also say I am inspired by trap and hip-hop; the grooves that those genres experiment with. I have kind of married those two together in a lot of the music I have made. Obviously, I think cosmic jazz is beautiful and enticing, but having those catchy rhythms as well is quite a nice combination.
So, the musicians you met at uni, they are the people who pull you back to Glasgow now to make music?
Yes. The person that I have been working most closely with for the last couple of years, Josef Akin, he is a keys player, I would say he sparked my interest in jazz. I think jazz was always something that I listened to but didn’t always realise it was jazz. I didn't learn a lot about the history of jazz and experiment with it before, so he has ignited that passion of mine.
He's also involved with a really amazing project with a few Ghanian musicians, although I don’t really experiment with a lot of afrobeat in my music it is definitely a genre I really love and would like to experiment with later in my musical journey.
Josef has got a couple of independent collaboration projects going on at the moment I am also involved in, we have some music coming out in January. He has got a bunch of Glasgow musicians together playing and that is really fun. It's a real experimental mix of afrobeat, jazz rhythms, latin house.
What is the big difference between the music scene in South East London, where you are right now, and in Glasgow?
I kind of feel like the south east London music scene is pretty incredible, I feel fortunate to be around some amazing musicians here. I feel like the presence of jazz music in south east London has flourished already and is already established, in Glasgow it is something that is emerging. Glasgow is less known for its jazz scene and I feel like being part of that at the moment is really exciting, as the scene there is growing.
In London there is more diversity, or there may be in Glasgow but it is less accessible. Before all of this which is happening at the moment, you could go and watch live music in London from so many different cultures and genres, whilst it isn’t as easy in Glasgow.
What should we be listening out for at the moment emerging from Glasgow?
There is a band called corto.alto in Glasgow who I discovered through a saxophonist who also plays with Josef Akin; it's a big collective of Glasgow musicians, about 20 of them, and they are amazing. They are going to make a real presence in the coming months. Also 'GABO' (Glasgow African Balafon Orchestra) are another incredible group of musicians to look out for.
As well as being a vocalist, what else do you do in your music? Do you play any musical instruments as well and are you involved in the production side?
I mixed and mastered my latest release with an engineer up in Glasgow; that was an amazing experience, it was good to direct that process.
In terms of actual musical instruments, about a year and a half ago I picked up a trumpet, because it got to a point where it was like “how have I not yet learnt an actual musical instrument when music is such a massive part of my life?’. So I decided to learn to play the trumpet, to dedicate a lot of time to learning an instrument, learning the theory of music, and experimenting with another sound. I thought it would be a great way to learn more about jazz, learning an instrument that is used so much in jazz.
So it's early days, it's been tough, and it is tough every day, it is a challenge learning an instrument. But it's been great, and hopefully in the next year or so I should be able to perform with it live. I think it's such a nice thing to be able to sing and then bring a whole new timbre and create a whole new atmosphere with another instrument.
Do you write your own songs as well?
I do. I have been working really closely with Josef, he will do a lot of the production stuff, but I send him my ideas of what will improve the song before adding vocals, like changing the keys. Then I will listen to it and improvise and let whatever comes into my head to come streaming out. It's interesting, often there will be a story that I have subconsciously sang, and then I will just write down whatever I think sounds nice, or whatever idea I have sung about.
What sort of life experiences feed into your creativity?
I feel like since lock down, the kind of things that I sing about have changed quite a bit. Throughout lock down I spent so much time in the park being in nature, staring at green and the sky, having such a high level of contact with nature and the universe, the beauty of the universe. I feel like that has transpired now in my art; I sing a lot about that and having that relationship, being one with my surroundings and the vastness of it all.
What sort of things were you writing about before?
I had always loved singing and making music but it was quite difficult for me to sing in front of people, so I think I was just trying to sing about things that I thought people wanted to hear. Maybe I would sing about love, about relationships, even though I don’t feel like that has been a big part of my life, it didn’t resonate with me as a topic, but I just thought “oh, that's just what everyone sings about, so that's the avenue I need to go down”. I feel like I was singing about things that others could relate to rather than what actually resonated with me.
I think it's that realisation that it needs to be something that comes from the heart, when creativity really goes off and starts happening, isn't it?
Exactly! I feel like you have just got to be as honest as possible with yourself to be happy and make art that you actually love. You obviously want other people to love your art, but I don’t think that should be the primary thing.
It's like a lot of things in life, if you start expressing your real self you start finding your tribe, don’t you?
Yes, it always works like that!
How is it in 2020 being an up and coming musician? I know you say lock down has really helped you connect with what you want to get across in your music, but I know for a lot of people it has been really tough as well. How have you found navigating this new world we are in as a musician?
I feel like I have tried to see it in the most positive way possible, by just kind of keeping my head down and really digging deep into my creativity, rather than thinking about going out into the world and being musical and gigging.
It has been a time of introspection, deep creativity, and dedicating myself to my craft in that way. I've been trying to read a lot of self development books as well to stay focused, to not look too much to the future and what is going to happen, to stay present and make the most of the moment that we have right now and seize it.
I think the best thing we can do is try to create beautiful work and share it with each other and help each other out.
So you have your new single Shades out, how is that going?
It's been really good, I have had some really nice feedback. I am quite relieved as I have been sitting on it for a while, and it's been an interesting journey, so I am really happy to share it with the world. It's kind of weird, I feel like I have listened to it so many times, and it is really good, but I am kind of working on the next one now, trying to put my energy into that now.
What else is coming up for you?
I am part of another new band in Glasgow who are called 'Farratu'. We will be releasing something next year so definitely look out for that! I suppose really just going back up to Glasgow as soon as possible and getting involved in all of the collaborations up there. It is going to take a bit longer than it usually does, but I think after Christmas that is what is next for me.