We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Indigo Mateo a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Indigo, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I’m an Aries so taking risks is the way my life has mapped itself out in many ways.

But when I was 22 I took a risk to take a trip to California, and this started me on a whimsical, transformative, sometimes scary journey. A trip to California might not be considered too risky because what’s not to love between the weed the women and the weather? But for me this was a specific time where I made this decision and it paved a future forward for me. I got the invitation to fly out to Cali a few weeks after I experienced rape in New York, just before my college graduation. Upon going through that, I came to the truth that I wasn’t going to be able to find the room to heal if I stayed home in my same patterns and surroundings. So I took the trip and have lived there ever since. This risk led to a job offer, the emergence of my musical identity, the emergence of my cultural identity away from white assimilation institutions, a marriage, and now a baby… needless to say it was a life altering moment for me.

Funny enough, it was the moments I didn’t take the bet on myself, that I fell short of my goals, and where I have harbored regrets and resentments. When it comes to finding my voice when I’m in a room of people who will fight for theirs to be heard… what will I do to make sure my legacy is preserved and my values are protected?

In order to help me make better life decisions and know when to risk and when to play defensively, I started asking myself a question..

“If a story book of your life was written, at this point of the story, what does it say that your character does?”

At many points of my life I have asked myself this, what does my character do at the season finale? And that’s what led me to… get up and perform my songs, flee a toxic relationship, walk into a prison visit, marry my soulmate, and carry a child into this world.

A place where my heart wants to take more precise risks is in my art. To me, taking risks in this department is really believing in self beyond all doubts, all naysayers and all perceived competition in this industry. Because art has never been an industry to me… it’s been a companion, a life force, a reason to jump and land exactly where I’m meant to be.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is indigo mateo, and somewhere along my journey I realized my voice and songwriting abilities had the power to spread my experience of healing, or speak on my experience of grief and struggle. When I moved from New Jersey to Oakland in 2015, I found myself being a regular protest and movement singer, bringing an aura of hope and unity during the low and high moments of community organizing and culture building. One of the things my music speaks on is sexual violence and recovery from it.

In 2016 I started a group called soul showers (indigomateo.com/soulshowers) where survivors of sexual violence “heal in the sun” by transforming unworthiness and revenge into self edification and an international dialogue on ending rape culture.

To listen to my music is to begin to understand my mind and the feelings that color my story. In 2018 I linked up with Question Culture and with richie reseda, we produced my first album, intuition. Then, through the pandemic, we put out my second project, Singleplayer. Both of these are walks through my journey as a Puerto Rican- Honduran- Salvadoran American lover girl, a survivor of rape, an activist, a reader of Audre Lorde, a survivor of emotional abuse and a friend, girlfriend and wife of my formerly incarcerated husband. My next album will explore my path into motherhood.

I still have more to learn, and more to offer, as my healing gets revealed to me with every challenge and triumph that comes my way. To keep up with me and my work check out @indigomateo and @soulshowers 🫶🏼

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Unlearn: there aren’t enough resources available for you to accomplish your goals.

It’s a common thing for folks to feel like resources come first and the idea should then follow, instead of the other way around. I had to unlearn this to get closer to my goals as an artist as well as a founder of a healing space, “soul showers”. When survivors tap into abundance and luxurious joy, powerful things happen.

We live in a capitalist society where the propaganda constantly tells us that we are the problem, not the solution, and that we have so many things wrong with us that we need many reinforcements outside of ourselves, outside of our spiritual lives, to improve our conditions.

I recently learned this lesson with my birth story. I was so convinced that I should go the cheapest possible route in order to “save money for the baby” and totally disregarded my preferences, my experience and what my heart truly felt would be the most profound birthing experience for myself and my baby. A note to mothers: care for yourself and your baby will benefit. Long story short… I was on the phone with OBGYN after OBGYN and things were not going my way… that’s when my husband snapped me out of my healthcare woes and reminded me that a birth center was my original dream, and he got in touch with the right people (kindred space LA). I went to one prenatal circle with them and felt like I could do anything. I knew that was the right decision for my family. Often we run our businesses with the utmost ambition but we let our family lives fall short, we let our self care fall short. Needless to say, I floated out of my circle with the midwives and fellow third trimester mamas, and went and bought myself a gold chain at the Slauson swap meet to celebrate. To me, that’s my continued promise to never settle because “we don’t have the money.” Not only did we have and get the money to provide for an out of hospital birth, but we got our doula paid for and I got a chain. So who says you can’t do all the things you desire? I say you can!

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

It’s tough to think of people as non-creatives. I think the human soul is creative. People who don’t claim creativity— I bet you can find an artist within you and appreciate that part of yourself more. Just like I’m not usually seen as an A Type person.. I have my moments where I’m the one who does the math in my head right, or where I’m the one who requires a detailed plan, silence, or rigidness. I think we pigeon hole ourselves a lot and fail to see that while our differences are to be celebrated, there’s a lot more that unites us that goes overlooked.

Society needs all of us, in all our complexities.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.indigomateo.com
• Instagram: @indigomateo
• Facebook: Indigo Mateo
• Twitter: Indigomateo
• Youtube: Indigo Mateo
• Soundcloud: Indigo Mateo

Image Credits

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