Music
Watch Indiana bare her soul for a stripped session
The UK singer performs Solo Dancing and Only The Lonely exclusively for RedBull.com.
Indiana in session for Red Bull
© Greg Barnes/RedBull.com
Her hit single Solo Dancing (taken from debut album No Romeo) is a disco-inflected ode to the power of one. But Indiana, aka Lauren Henson, isn’t the carefree singleton the world of dance-pop has supposed her to be. The 27-year-old from Nottingham fits writing, recording and shooting album covers in freezing LA swimming pools around two children, and got her big break courtesy of her true love’s record collection. So why is there so much darkness in her music?
Did you enjoy stripping back for Red Bull? The further I got into my album, the more writing in a studio suited me. But it’s nice to think they work as straightforward songs. I was actually really ill for that session. You know Phoebe on Friends when she has a cold and her voice gets all sexy? I was trying to feel the sex appeal of the croak!
Why does studio writing suit you? The relationship I have with music is really electronic. On Spotify I have songs I’ve saved because I like a bass part, or the way a vocal is broken up. There’s no such thing as a new idea. With Solo Dancing, the reference was Chromatics’ Tick of the Clock, that pulsating bass and then the break in the middle. But I got a guitar at Christmas from my wonderful boyfriend James, so I’m trying to write more on that.
Watch Indiana perform Solo Dancing exclusively in the player below.
3 min
Indiana - Solo Dancing
Indiana performs Solo Dancing exclusively for RedBull.com/Music.
The opening line of your debut album is ‘You ripped the heart of me open, I’ll rain a thousand curses on your soul, all your sons and daughters will be broken, from now on and ever more…’ You’re angrier than heavy metal! Why? There are some light points but there’s a lot of menace and attitude on the album. I remember saying I wanted Never Born to open it, and my label and manager were like, ‘Are you sure? It’s a bit of a statement’. I think there’s a part of me that, if I hadn’t found music, would probably be on the news and in prison.
Have you ever tried to write a straight-up love song? There’s a song called Ink, which was written for James. There’s a line in it; ‘our love is indelible, just like the ink upon your skin’, ‘cos we’re both covered in tattoos. That’s as sweet as I can get. It’s one of his least favourite songs, he thinks it’s boring. James was the one who said ‘You should do something with this talent you’ve got’. He played me Gabriel by Joe Goddard when we were first dating. I covered that, and that’s where it all kicked off for me. The guy who wrote it, John Beck, got in touch and we started writing.
How did you develop that falsetto? I lost my dad quite traumatically when I was 17, and when we were writing the album John said to me; ‘Your dad left you with something, and that’s your voice’. Because if I tapped into the hurt, then this voice would come out, a rasp or a quiver. If I was just singing along to the radio it never happened. I feel so much more grounded through getting into music, I feel it was a healing process. And at the end of that process, I had this voice.
Watch Indiana perform Only The Lonely exclusively in the player below.
3 min
Indiana - Only The Lonely
Indiana performs Only The Lonely exclusively for RedBull.com/Music.
There’s a lot of darkness in dance music at the moment. But you’ve been through something so much deeper than a break-up [Henson’s father, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, committed suicide – her moniker is a reference to the Indiana Jones films they used to watch together]. Does that experience make you more powerful or more vulnerable as a pop singer? I don’t think I could just put everything we went through into a song. I take on roles and tell stories, and it’s my tone and delivery that comes from what I went through when I was younger. But I would like to think it makes me stronger as an artist, and gives me more integrity. And I want to be able to let other people know that there is light at the end of whatever sh*tty tunnels you’re going through.
What kind of place is the music industry for a mum with two young children? It’s not made for us! If I didn’t have children I’d be living in London, socialising with other musicians, making the most of opportunities. I’m proud of that, because my music has done the work for me. But it has been harder, there have been knockbacks. Hopefully I can show other young mums that you can have a creative career and children.
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