Today we’d like to introduce you to The Electric Indigo.
Hi The Electric Indigo, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
The band began in 2018. Rhythm guitarist, Alex Whitehead, and Lead Guitarist, Matt Goetz, were lifelong neighbors who grew up on the same street in Newport, Kentucky. Matt began playing guitar in high school after hearing David Gilmour of Pink Floyd for the first time.
After attending the music school at Northern Kentucky University for two years, he left to begin his career as a studio session guitar player, music teacher and sideman for local bands. It was around this time that Matt longed for his own band to express his creativity. His first call was to Chicago drummer and percussionist, Matt Cinquini, who immediately uprooted and moved to Newport and the duo began to jam. Around this time, rhythm guitarist and former neighbor, Alex Whitehead, moved back from Boulder, CO to the Newport area. Alex, upon hearing the duo’s musicality during a practice, was added to the mix and the trio began playing live. Tej Arole, a recent high school graduate and budding guitar virtuoso from Walton, KY, was a co-worker of Matt Goetz at Willis Music.
After some convincing, Tej took on the bass to add the much needed foundational element and the structure of the band was complete. After a year of live shows and songwriting, the first album was recorded in June of 2019 and released later that year. The pandemic followed and forced the band to adapt, upping the practice schedule and focusing on social media, the band’s profile began to grow. The last element that we always needed was keyboards, enter Alex Angel. Angel, a fellow Walton native and high school bandmate of Tej Arole, took over the Hammond Organ and the band’s sound has gone to the next level.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
We are lucky in the sense that, everyone is very focused on music and what we are creating, so we avoid many of the pitfalls that plague artistic endeavors. The biggest obstacle has been the pandemic. The shutdowns have sent a ripple effect through venues and bars that’s been felt by everyone. The uncertainty has made it really hard to put a schedule together, along with venues being short staffed. From a creative perspective, the shutdown helped us immensely because we took a step back from having a weekly set to pump out and could just focus on getting tight as a band. Now, the frustration is wanting to get out and show everyone.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Inevitably, your original work is going to reflect your influences in ways. The beautiful part about the artists that have influenced us is that you can hear their influences in their work. As we work together to create new music, our creativity and influences are melding together to create something that is entirely us, but also a reflection of what made us love music in the first place.
What makes you happy?
So, it’s been called many things, the Allman Brothers called it, Hittin’ the Note, I’ve heard it called the Buddhic plane, but there is something to playing music together live. When all five of us have perfectly sub-divided the music and we all seemingly know the next move of the other, all the little things we are all doing become this tidal wave of sound. I can only describe the feeling as some kind of drug.
Pricing:
- $15 for shirts
- $35 for hoodies
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theelectricindigoband/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Theelectricindigo
Image Credits
All Indigo artwork by Davey Parrot. Photo credits to Andy Knolle. Live at Radio Artifact artwork by Radio Artifact
