Spotlight: A Seasoned Debut from Indio Downey
INDIO DOWNEY RELEASES “DUME”—which is one of five tracks off of his upcoming EP, Cigarettes in Bed. Both sonically and lyrically, it’s the most distinct track on the EP. Driven by pulsing drums that are easy to follow, the track engages with fear by accepting it: “Doom, are you gonna take me to your room / Tie me up and never cut me loose / I don’t mind, bring me to your garden / to the darkness.”
“‘Dume’ is about the fatal attraction of self-destruction,” Downey tells me. “Doom is my biggest fear and within the context of the song, it’s a metaphor for my past addiction, but I switched the spelling to ‘dume’ as a play on Point Dume in Malibu.”
The rest of Cigarettes in Bed, set to release in 2024, is a similar expression of Downey’s most personal experiences. It may be his debut EP, but Downey has been creating his entire life. After a musical childhood and time in bands The Dose and Indio Ink, Downey has cultivated his solo style.
You can hear his experience and admiration for the craft in each track on the EP. Whether it’s the sincerity of his lyrics or his voice that can be both soft (“September”) and sharp (“The Other Side”), Downey brings an intelligent flair.
Fans of classic rock, ’90s grunge, and modern-day alternative bands will be impressed with his faithful takes on the genres. Altogether, Cigarettes in Bed is the opposite of “garbage on the radio,” as Downey sings in “Plastic Rainbow.”
“I wanted to set a tone for the EP that had dark moments but was mainly uplifting and romantic,” Downey shares.
This is clear on the first track of the EP, the title track, which introduces a comfort factor permeating the project. Downey sings about “waking up … underneath the antisocial waterfall,” prompting a call to a like-minded person who says, “I’m already on my way and feeling exactly the same.”
So one of the EP’s major themes is the relief that comes from understanding. At the same time, such comfort is bittersweet as Downey takes inspiration from personal difficulties. Cigarettes in Bed is neither optimistic nor pessimistic — it represents the whole.
The following track, “Plastic Rainbow,” was produced by Simon Oscroftand at Steakhouse Studios where Downey and Oscroftand tracked live drums and recorded a scream for the song. It has a nostalgic sound, telling of Downey’s influences, including The Pixies, Sex Pistols, and Weezer, all of whom have had a significant role in shaping his personal taste.
In the music video for the song, Downey cleans up in a corner store, performing and working at the same time. He dances with someone who might not even be there at all, mirroring the lyric “dancing in our heads” from the title track. On curating the EP, Downey explains that his “main goal was to make the EP strong while still building enough suspense for the album.” Overlapping imagery between songs gives Cigarettes in Bed a satisfying symmetry.
Another major theme is conclusions, particularly of distressing situations in which music becomes a tool. In the music video for “September,” there’s something unavoidable about passion. Downey finds guitar picks in a bowl of cereal, a mic in a doorway, and cymbals in a dish rack. Again, the essential that is music appears in regular spaces.
“Music has given me an opportunity to create, vent, and express myself,” Downey says when I ask him if music finds its way to him when he needs it most. “I’m not sure I would have made it through those times without it.”
He also reveals that the inspiration for “September” originated from The Hanged Man tarot card before evolving into what it is now. Sometimes “hanging upside down,” as Downey sings in the song, and sometimes upright, the card can represent uncertainty and shifting perspectives, amongst other personal interpretations.
In “September,” Downey rhymes all of the following with the month: misremember, feel better, surrender. They’re emotionally potent associations, and the song becomes an illustration of working through uncertainty and struggles, just as The Hanged Man may imply.
“September” is the most thought-provoking track on the EP. “I’m not just some loser prescription abuser,” Downey sings. It’s sincere and heartening — the type of song you’d listen to when you need to remember hope.
“One of my biggest goals as an artist is creating something that makes people happy,” Downey shares.
In terms of his process, the music comes before the story of a song for Downey. “The Other Side,” the vibrant finale of the EP, highlights this musical ability. The song is unworried and has a detonative chorus that acts like a celebration of sound.
“It’s one of the only songs on the [EP] with a [guitar] solo, and I love being able to let loose live,” he says.
When I ask Downey what he looks forward to following Cigarettes in Bed, he says, “Making a new music video.” So there is more to come, and we’re all the better for it, because artists like Downey keep authenticity in music alive.
