Indigo De Souza is standing on the edge of oblivion. The metaphorical precipice that titles her fourth album finds her facing the future and the unknown, while the past is fully supporting her retreat back to safety.

The North Carolina native's latest diary entry into the world – and first for Loma Vista Recordings – leans into this idea even further. As Indigo explains from her homestead idyll over Zoom, "I think every moment in my life has felt like I'm right at the edge of this shift, like right at the edge of a change. And I've also been constantly surprised by the things that have come next." She doesn't view the word positively or negatively: "It feels like it's this opening to a new space," she adds.

Given how closely entwined her artistry is with her personal life, there is simply no divide: as Indigo moves forward and grows, so does her music. It's why she's often more prone to embrace the unknown, leaning into and over the metaphorical edge, even if that can prove difficult. "I've had to be open to it just because I can't control it, but I also definitely am someone who has a really hard time letting go of the past," she admits. "And I have a lot of deep-rooted trauma that informs a lot of my present and a lot of the way I move through the world."

Raised in Asheville, North Carolina, by her artist mother (who also designs all of Indigo's artwork), her self-released debut album came in 2018. 'I Love My Mom' introduced the world to Indigo's lo-fi and confessional charm. In 2021 came its critically acclaimed follow-up, 'Any Shape You Take' on Saddle Creek Records, which fleshed out her artistic vision with even more delving into her inner workings.

The Indigo of the last few years is undoubtedly moving in ways the Indigo of 5+ years ago couldn't have dreamed of. Her previous album, 'All Of This Will End', emerged from a period of isolation in her woodland retreat during COVID. "I was completely alone and was pouring these songs out," she remembers. But during this time, the change that was afoot would lead her down a different path. Upping sticks from Asheville, where she grew up, to a smaller town, Marshall, she began life anew. "I made all these new friendships and became a part of this totally new world that was more based in nature and working with my hands," she explains. But another change was on the horizon that would properly inform 'Precipice'’s direction.

Her latest is new territory for the predominantly guitar-focused alt-indie artist, whose ramshackle sounds house an inordinate amount of, well, herself. "I've been playing guitar and writing songs since I was nine years old, so I think that I've just always kind of used that space as a journal or a space to engage with my emotions in a healthy way," she explains. While still holding this idea at its core, it might be her most free yet. "I think it's the lightest, most vibrant album that I've made, and I feel really excited to embody the songs live and to keep talking about them."

This element comes from the brief period before 'Precipice' existed. She headed to LA to begin sessions with a selection of people she'd never met before, on an album that's since fallen to the wayside. Here, she met Elliott Kozel. "He was the first person that I was paired with, and we instantly had a beautiful connection," she says, "and a great collaborative space together. And I hadn't ever felt that."

Her first experience entering a truly collaborative space, it was this meeting that started her fourth album in earnest. "We didn't even say to each other, like, oh, we should make an album. We just kept coming back together to record," she laughs. With experience working alongside SZA, Yves Tumor and FINNEAS, Elliott helped bring forth a new iteration of Indigo De Souza.

"I have always wanted to make pop music, and I have always wanted to find someone who could help me realise that sound," she explains. "I think in my life, it hadn't really been quite time for me to make pop music until I met Elliott. I was expanding my horizons in a lot of ways, and it was the perfect time to open up to a happier, more fun sound."

With Elliott based in LA, Indigo would take trips out there to work on the album, an altogether different affair from her usual writing routine back home in North Carolina. This is something she notes as being one of those metaphorical peeks over to the unknown. "It feels like 'Precipice' came from me entering a new world after going to LA and then realising how much I loved being in a big city and how much I loved being surrounded by that much energy, that much creative energy and stimulation," she explains. "The last album was coming from a very insular space, and then 'Precipice' came from a very open, explorative space."

While this was all well and good, Indigo actually didn't take to LA at first. Recalling how she'd feel suffocated by the looming and fraying ways of the city, "Every time I would leave [home], I would I feel like I really missed the mountains and I needed to get back. Then, at some point, it started to change, like I fell in love with LA and realised that every time I was there, I felt this kind of collective strength." Adjusting to not being alone with herself and having to listen to her "darkest thoughts", "When all I can hear is my own brain and the hoops that it likes to jump through," she grins. "Eventually I started to really love being in LA and wanting to stay there longer and longer, and then I moved there."

For all this, the known and unknown, Indigo De Souza continues embracing it all. She's not one to box herself in. Even now, there's another new album locked and loaded, "and that album went in a totally different direction," she reveals. "And then I have other songs that I've been writing that feel more country or more folky. So I don't know. I feel like I'm always going in different directions. But the different genres or different kinds of making music never really leave. I also am really excited to make more pop music at the same time as I'm excited to explore other areas as well."

Growth and change are symbiotic for Indigo's music and life. It's why when Dork asks how she sees herself having developed on this sonic journey to 'Precipice', she ponders for a moment, before digging into the heart of how things really are. "A similar question would be like, How have I developed as a person? It feels like developing as an artist and as a person have been kind of the same thing," she reckons. "The older I get, the more able I am to process emotion and be present with it and be clear about what I'm feeling when I'm expressing it. I feel like that kind of shows in my music that everything has been sort of becoming more and more clear as time has gone on." And if her latest is anything to go by, the future can embrace the sad, the happy and the in-between while welcoming that great expanse below.