Exclusive Interview with ‘INDIGO DAYDREAM’

Nick Cheshire, a multi-instrumentalist from Devon in the UK, created Indigo Daydream, an alternative rock, dream-pop project that envelops thought-provoking lyrics in a sea of ambient guitars, synths, and samples. The release date of the new single “Room on My Cloud” is September 16, 2022.
A lockdown experience the artist had inspired the creation of Indigo Daydream. After suffering a head injury, He resolved to make something good from a trying experience. Indigo Daydream was formed as He lay in an MRI listening to the strange beat of the machine during a scan. He wants to make music that has a strange edge. similar to waking from a dream.

“Slow, slow down, you’re moving at sixty seven thousand miles per hour,” begins the song Slow Down. It is accurate to say that the earth is currently traveling around the sun at a speed of 67,000 miles per hour across the boundless cosmos. As it encourages the listener to slow down, the song Slow Down serves as a gentle reminder of exactly how quickly we’re already moving. Slow Down, which draws inspiration from artists like Tame Impala, Ride, and Mazzy Star, expands on Indigo Daydream’s prior albums with post-rock and dream pop influences.

Real NASA Earth from Space imagery is used in the Slow Down music video, which has also been entered in the NASA Cinespace Short Film Competition. We occasionally lose sight of the fact that we are occupants of an organic spacecraft called Earth in our frantic, fast-paced lives. “On our satellite of land and sea, tearing over the boundless void.” Check out the exclusive interview below:

1. Can you tell us a bit about how Indigo Daydream came into being?
INDIGO DAYDREAM: Indigo Daydream was created following an experience I had during lockdown. I came up with the name whilst laying in an MRI machine listening to the surreal beat of the machine. I wanted to create something positive from a challenging experience and so Indigo Daydream was born.

2. Did you have any formal training or are you self-taught?

INDIGO DAYDREAM: My Dad had a left handed acoustic guitar and taught me the chords to a Donovan song. I just kept on playing. He later picked up an old piano and I spent lots of time trying to make interesting sounds with it. It’s about the same now!

3. Who were your first and strongest musical influences?

INDIGO DAYDREAM: Indigo Daydream’s music draws a lot of influence from the 60s and 70s, as well the alterernative music of the 1990s together with alt-rock and drean pop artists like Tame Impala, Ride and Mazzy Star.

4. What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?

INDIGO DAYDREAM: Like falling backwards in slow motion into a cloud. I’m trying to make music with a surreal edge, like waking up from a dream. I love writing and so I think the lyrics reflect a depth of feeling that I hope listeners will relate to. The music combines synths, samples and fuzz fueled guitars. I enjoy adding unusual samples to songs, like the sound of an MRI, a thunder storm, people talking. It adds a surreal nuance to the music.

6. What’s your view on the role and function of music as political, cultural, spiritual, and/or social vehicles – and do you try and affront any of these themes in your work, or are you purely interested in music as an expression of technical artistry, personal narrative and entertainment?

INDIGO DAYDREAM:

I’ve read that music and musicians thrive during times of political upheaval. A kind of response mechanism. Music is powerful and has the ability to influence how we feel and what we think. Indigo Daydream’s music is not overtly political, but there are subtle references in there. “Slow Down” is a song about the Earth’s beautiful journey through space, but I think it ignites a thought process about the environment, climate change and the need to slow down as a people in order to look after the planet we all call home. The music video uses real NASA footage of the Earth from space. I wanted people to see and think about the planet we live on and travel through space upon. We don’t often think about the Earth in those terms. If encouraging people to think is political, then to that extent, my music is political.

7. Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfilment as the amount of work you are putting into it, or are you expecting something more, or different in the future?

INDIGO DAYDREAM:

I’m at the beginning of my journey musically, having released my first single a little over six months ago. I’ve been amazed by the response so far, from plays on the BBC to the feedback of listeners. I’m excited about the next phase and the evolution of my music.

8. Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song? Do you usually start with a tune, a beat, or a narrative in your head? And do you collaborate with others in this process?

INDIGO DAYDREAM:

It really is different every time, but I usually hear a few words with music in my head and build the song from there with my guitar. I often lay down an acoustic version of a song in the studio and build on that, later removing the acoustic version and replacing it with synths, samples and reverb-drenched guitars.

9. What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?

INDIGO DAYDREAM: That’s a tough question, but I think it was losing my best friend as a teenager. He had a hole in his heart and had undergone a surgery to fix it, but one day we were out together and he just lay down and never got up. He was a very cool guy. Everybody liked him. It’s had a profound impact on my life and I think about him often. Maybe I’ll write a song about him one day. His name was Joel.

10. On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?

INDIGO DAYDREAM: The birth of my son. He’s the most perfect thing in my life and I’m extremely proud of him. I have actually written a song about him that’s still in the mixing stage, but I hope to release it later this year. It’s always the people that have the most profound impact on our lives.

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New single “Room on My Cloud” is out everywhere on September 16th.