It's not exactly typical for artists at the Tiny Desk to share their future burial plans, but that's exactly what Indigo de Souza does halfway through her performance. "I wrote this song about my love for nature," the singer-songwriter says, introducing the track "Not My Body." "I think that when I die ... what I want is to be composted and to become soil, and for that soil to be used to plant a tree, and I want that tree to be so big and strong."
"I don't know what kind of tree yet — still thinking on it," she says, with a few giggles from the audience. "A tree that people can visit and be like, 'This is Indigo!' Until they die and they can't visit me anymore."
It's beautiful, unvarnished sentiments like that — a desire to be reborn as a big and strong redwood tree — that mark de Souza's lyricism. The 26-year-old songwriter's music always emits a certain nakedness, as she chronicles the unknowing that often comes from being in your 20s. In a set built from 2023's All of This Will End, here these songs come paired with horns as her soaring vocals move seamlessly through beats of youthful despair and hope.
SET LIST
- "The Water"
- "All of This Will End"
- "Not My Body"
- "Younger & Dumber"
MUSICIANS
- Indigo De Souza: lead vocals, guitar
- Maddie Shuler: lap steel, piano, backing vocals
- Avery Sullivan: drums
- Landon George: upright bass
- Jacob Bruner: trombone
- Ben Colvin: tenor sax
TINY DESK TEAM
- Producer: Bob Boilen
- Director: Maia Stern
- Audio Engineer: Josh Rogosin
- Series Producer: Bobby Carter
- Videographers: Maia Stern, Joshua Bryant, Sofia Seidel, Estefania Mitre
- Editor: Sofia Seidel
- Audio Engineer: Kwesi Lee
- Production Assistant: Ashley Pointer
- Photographer: Michael Zamora
- Tiny Desk Team: Suraya Mohamed, Kara Frame, Hazel Cills
- VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins
- Senior VP, Programming: Anya Grundmann
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