Indie. Is there a more outdated term than that? Are you able to think of from the top of your head a genre that is more out of place after the musical revolutions that forged the electronic music from the mid-’90s? After all, the 21st-century imposed from the beginning a paradigm to musicians, where they have to self produce by themselves without leaving their bedroom, thanks to an ensemble of digital tools that have made possible for a computer to sound like a well-produced band.
INDIE, NEW BLOOD
But, wait a minute, why are talking about indie music in the middle of 2019? Well, as it turns out, in the last few years a whole set of extremely young artists who perform indie music have begun to proliferate… but in their own (and renovated) terms. We’re talking about five of them who are here to change the rules of the indie game.
This eliminated from the start one of indie’s greatest distinguishing features: the production that could be more or less lo-fi (in fact, there’s nothing less lo-fi than that British indie music that has been well-packaged to burn radio formulas), but has always sounded analogue. Also, the fact that indie music was more about a visible band. With a guitarist, a bassist, drummer and vocalist. And, if we go further than that, we’ll also have to admit that indie music implied something that couldn’t be more obsolete: a type of optimism, a will to live, that, even when it was less cheerful, still made you want to take a bite at life.
And here we are, in the middle of 2019, talking about post-genre electronic music, to urban flamenco or a prime reggaeton. When even Bon Iver has switched to electronica, what’s the life expectancy of indie music? It just so happens that, against all odds, indie has decided to renovate itself and not die out. Suddenly, there’s a group of boys and girls who are pushing for recognisable indie sounds, even though they find themselves, at most, in their twenties.
This change, though, moves away from the band formula. Or, in other words, it’s the total disappearance of the band concept which in turn takes a chance on, once again, the boy or girl who works on their music all by themselves in their own bedroom. How they even take this creative solitude to their live performances without falling into total boredom is a whole different issue that should be addressed in another article. Because, in this text, what we want to talk about are these five kids who are making the indie label meaty and juicy again.
(SANDY) ALEX G. It doesn’t matter the number of albums that Alex Giannascoli releases, and they’ve already been six if we include the imminent House of Sugar. In his lo-fi, the eco coming from his teenage room’s four walls continues to reverberate. That is part of the charm of ( Sandy) Alex G.’s music, that has been able to gain validation from old school indie (to this day he’s signed to Domino) as well as the new vanguards (he has collaborated with Frank Ocean on two albums).
SNAIL MAIL. A Snail Mail, which is Lindsey Jordan’s stage name, has had G.L. Jaguar de Priests produce for her, as she has also toured with high-class indie bands like Waxahatchee, Girlpool or Beach Fossils. She also imploded in the past 2018 with her Lush album and was named one of Primavera Sound 2019’s most touching and emotional performances. All of this at the tender age of 19. Because women have always performed indie very skilfully. But now more than ever.
BOY PABLO. Everytime was the usual music video that went viral on YouTube and that inevitably made us think that, once the next usual viral nonsense came to be, you’d immediately forget about him. But that never happened. And, in fact, in just a matter of months Nicolás Pablo Rivera Muñoz, a Norwegian with Chilean blood that is known as Boy Pablo, showed that he’s a kid with enough skill to be able to self produce and sound amazing, but also with enough intelligence to surround himself with a band with which he can convey an undeniable spirit of fun.
JAY SOM. The Filipina Melina Duterte can boast about having one of the funniest stories when it comes to choosing her stage name. And that’s because Jay Som directly came from the online Wu-Tang name generator. Something like: what would your name be if you were in the Wu-Tang Clan? And her music, which she has shown on her most recent album titled Anak Ko, has nothing to do with old school hip-hop, but rather with a clean indie-pop that looks into the future.
CUCO. It might be that Omar Banos most often stays aways from the obstinate indie formula to fall into bedroom pop terrains. But that doesn’t matter: both terrains are close to each other. And, above all, in three albums that he has been releasing since 2016, Cuco signs soft and suggestive songs in which he not only mixes in a daringly natural way English and Spanish, but he makes you admit that genres don’t matter because what truly matters is warming up someone’s heart in slow motion.
