Getting Candid with Indio Downey [Interview]

We sat down to interview Indio Downey about his exciting new solo project. Indio’s new single “Plastic Rainbow” is “a love song about a previous addiction. It’s an emotional rollercoaster that spans from fond memories to sadness and rage.”

He started putting out music under his own name for the first time in 2022, after spending years playing in bands. Son of actor Robert Downey Jr, Indio credits his parents for his early love of music, with his mother gifting him his first guitar when he was twelve.

We’re getting candid with Indio about focusing on his songwriting with this new project, drawing inspiration from punk music and the protest that it stands for, and opening up about his addiction on “Plastic Rainbow.”

You can find a transcribed excerpt of our interview with Indio below.

Name 3 Songs: You debuted with your solo project in 2022. What was it about last year that made you want to put out music into the world?

Indio Downey: Recently things have been really chaotic, given the pandemic. But I’m pretty creatively consistent, no matter what’s going on and music always gives me an opportunity to express the way that I’m feeling

So in all honesty, I think it was more just where I was at with my own creativity and writing and recording this album. It’s been a couple years in the making. So I think there was a part of me that just wanted to do something creative and record something and get it out there. 

A lot of us have these key moments in our personal relationship to music and our journey throughout life that shape who we are. Do you have a moment when you knew music is what you wanted to be doing?

There are certain bands out there that the first time I heard them – like Weezer. There was a period where I was listening to a lot of Weezer and that kind of rubbed off on me the whole songwriting part of that and that really influenced me to still do the heavy thing but also focus on songwriting.

You mentioned songwriting as something that you’re really focused on right now. Is this a new love that you found for you with songwriting?

You know, it’s in a way, yeah. I think the better I become at writing songs and the more I learn about it, the more I enjoy doing it. And before I was kind of doing both at the same time. And I think just songwriting is new.

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