Indigo Haze is an alternative indie band from Cheltenham, England. Comprised of four members Tom Bentley (Vocals/Guitar), Matt Yapp (Guitar), Will Davis (Bass) and Sam Burgess (Vocals/Drums). They met in university and realized the fusion of their talents would allow them to perform all over the country. Indigo Haze has played the notable Wychwood Festival in both 2017 and 2018. They released their debut single “Glass House” later in 2018 now they're back with their newest single “Lana”.
“Lana” is an incredible song about the passive attitude and naivety today’s society has towards love and relationships. The mysterious slow start is very alluring, when the guitar riff started I was impressed with the distinctive sound. The vocals are intoxicating and so unique. Indigo Haze has the ability to fuse their sounds together while also remaining individual. The arrangement of harmonically-rich vocals with the steady guitar, precise drums and killer bass make for a transporting and hypnotizing song. It’s evident that the lyricism was a carefully thought out process. Indigo Haze has the rare ability to be vulnerable and put themselves into their music for their fans to relate to on a personal level. My favorite part of the song is near the end when a woman is talking, being clingy, and eventually confessing her love. Staying true to the song’s theme of the meaningless definition of love that Millennials and Gen Z have created. I highly recommend you check it out! I believe that “Glass House” and “Lana” are a spectacular indication of the great things to come from Indigo Haze. This up and coming indie band is on our radar and we can’t wait to see what they do next!
Check out “Lana” here. Scroll down for our exclusive interview with Indigo Haze below!
Hi guys! Can you start by telling us more about how the band got together?
So we all met at university in 2016 and just seemed to all get on really well; I think we all met each other one-by-one and there was a bit of introducing each other into the group. It was somewhat of a drunken decision (in typical student fashion) to start making music together, but once we did it felt really natural. I guess our shared love and passion for music really helped us bond and we’re genuinely best mates, something that probably wouldn’t have happened without the band.
Who are your top three biggest musical influences that have helped shape your career in the music industry?
Cage the Elephant are very influential in the way they make use of so many styles and genres of music and blend them all into their own sound – there are so many bands making good indie music that it’s hard to have your own sound totally unique from everyone else, but I’d say they definitely come the closest!
We also take a lot of influence from bands like Foals, The 1975 and Two Door Cinema Club, particularly when it comes to vocal performance, but also in the way they combine space and ambience with catchy indie-pop riffs and melodies.
What’s the writing process like within the group?
I guess the majority of the writing is done by Tom (vocals/guitar) and Sam (vocals/drums) – especially the lyrics and arrangements of the songs. Pretty much every song starts off with little ideas coming from bedroom writing sessions that are gradually sculpted into full tracks. Matt and Will, who play lead guitar and bass respectively, write their parts over the top of the “bedroom demos” and add a completely different flavour to the song that wasn’t there before. It’s definitely not a case of one person writing every part for every song, otherwise there’s no point in having a band if you don’t collaborate during the writing process.
Tell us more about your newest single “Lana”. What inspired it?
‘Lana’ really represents a change in musical direction for us, taking us deeper into the atmospheric strands of indie-pop than we’d explored before.
The song itself is a comparison between love and lust, two emotions that I think people confuse a lot, especially when they’re a bit younger and still have a relatively naïve outlook on the world. It’s not necessarily a bad thing to live with a one-dimensional view of life, but the song looks at how people subconsciously take advantage of each other’s feelings and emotions when it comes to modern relationships. ‘Lana’ isn’t an insight into toxic relationships at all, it’s just an observation that some people can trick themselves into thinking they’re in love, when the reality is that they’re only interested in sex.
Will you be releasing a debut EP sometime soon?
Possibly towards the end of this year we’ll release an EP, but in the immediate future we’re focused on building our fanbase and until there’s a proper demand for it I don’t think we’ll turn our attention to EP’s and albums, but if we end up writing four or five tracks that we really love and work well together then you never know! I really love the idea of only ever releasing concept EP’s and albums – if we’re going to spend the time writing songs for multi-track releases I think it makes sense for them to all work collectively and really explore different aspects of one theme.
What's next for you through 2019?
We have a lot of new music in the pipeline that we can’t wait to release, definitely songs worth keeping an eye out for! We also have a few festival appearances lined up throughout the summer which are always fun!
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