Tunes I Found: "Mona" by Indigo Velvet

The second I heard the song “Mona” by Indigo Velvet it made me want to jump out of my chair and dance my ass off. The band is based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Their style of music is often described by writers as tropical pop, but there is much more to it. The song “Mona” incorporates some really fun uplifting African rhythms with a pop sound. When I listen to this song it makes me think of the type of music I would hear during the Summer Olympic Games. Definitely a great tune for cruising down along the beach on A1A in South Florida. Beginning 2017, Indigo Velvet was tipped as ones to watch by BBC Introducing and The Sun, the list of tastemakers championing the young quartet continues; Record of the Day, The Metro, Clash, Scotland On Sunday, The Skinny Magazine and more. Airplay includes BBC Introducing, Radio X, a spot-play on Radio 1 and live sessions on Amazing Radio and the Janice Forsyth Show on BBC Radio Scotland.

I sent the band a few questions that are part of the “Tunes I Found” series, and here is what they had to say:

1. What’s the story or inspiration behind this song?

We wrote the song with the idea of growing up as a teenager surrounded by young love and naivety. However, we wrote it in such a way, that hopefully, anyone listening will have their own personal thoughts and feelings about it. People connect with songs in different ways, and that’s one of the best things about making music.

2. For those that are new to your music, what is something you want them to know about you?

We write songs with the aim to make people smile, and hopefully even dance and jump around, reminding them of the summer months. We were recently compared to the tropical juice ‘um bungo’ (not sure if you had that in the USA?)! All the radio and media attention we’ve had to date has described us as ‘Tropical-pop’ and it has kind of stuck, we think it suits us.

3. Any tools or resources you can share with artists who are trying to “Make It”?

This is more advice, but just don't be a d*ck. Appreciate the people who are there to give you advice and help you along the way. We have been lucky enough to play with bands that we looked up to and have been fans of. We’re now friends with them and several have invited us to support them in their hometowns, which has allowed us to grow our fanbase around the UK rather than just focussing on Edinburgh or even Scotland, where we are from. So make friends with other bands, try and swap gigs with them and take on advice from people around you. Ultimately though, enjoy making music and playing, there is no definite right or wrong way of doing things just now.  

4. If someone wanted to reach out to help and support you, and spread your music. What is the biggest thing you need and what could someone do to help you with that?

Our aim is just to be heard by as many people as possible and enjoy our music. We hope to get the chance to tour outside of the UK soon too which would be amazing. We appreciate anyone that helps us in any way, from doing interviews like this, to radio play, promoters booking us for gigs, tour managers, fellow musicians and so on. It is all necessary to take your music to the next level and have the chance to do more with it. If you want to give us all your money, thats cool too, that'd help!

5. What’s your definition of making it?

We would love to be able to drop our 9-5 jobs and be able to tour constantly, showing off our music to as many people as possible. To play shows around the world is obviously the dream, but I think having a loyal fan base and people around you who actually care about you and your music is overwhelming enough, simply having a career in music, being a professional band is making it to us!

Share the Love and Follow them:
http://weareindigovelvet.co.uk/
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About this series:

This is a series of cool tunes I found on Soundcloud to help us remember why we started the careers and journey that we’re on. For me it’s music, so I’m sharing cool tunes I found. When I found these artists they had less than 5,000 followers on Soundcloud. I have no connection to these artist or any idea of who they have on their team. If you’re an aspiring student of the business trying to build a career in the music industry this could be an opportunity. Reach out, promote their music, book them an awesome show, help them with their socials, help them sell merch, or whatever else they may need help with. To find more cool tunes such as these and more, they’re all on a spotify playlist and some are reposted on our soundcloud page. The spotify playlist or soundcloud reposts will include some artists that have over 2,000 followers, but not the blog series. Hope y’all enjoy!
- Chris Goyzueta