“I honestly got chills when I heard it for the first time.”
Listen…
Darkness Calling isn’t supposed to play favorites and blah, blah, blah. But hear us out…
Some Faith is just so fucking cool.
They didn’t pay us to say this. It’s just the truth. Vocalist Indigo Baloch and producer Brian Sikes Howe have been working quietly over the past year on their very first album, and we can’t wait to hear it in full. In the meantime, they’ve given listeners a taste with their first single: “The Pain Has A Purpose.” Without a doubt, it’s one of the best discoveries we’ve made since this site opened, and we can’t wait to hear what’s next.
Of course, we had to learn more about this new project. What are you waiting for? Keep scrolling!
DARKNESS CALLING: You've been working together on music over the past year, and your first single, "The Pain Has A Purpose," released at the start of September. What can you tell us about the evolution of this song, in terms of the writing and production process? What led to it being chosen as your first single?
INDIGO: “The Pain Has a Purpose” was the second song we wrote together, but honestly is the song that best represents the band. When we started making music together, it was just after the Saturn retrograde last year ended. I had just lost a great friendship from my life, lost my job, and my cat of 17 years had just died. I had completely fallen apart and given up. So I went home, tried to recuperate, and find some hope in living when it seemed the universe was against me.
Then I did some reading on Saturn retrograde. Saturn is a cold planet, but a wise one. When Saturn is in retrograde, we find ourselves pushing through an onslaught of pain, but it all has a purpose to direct us where we’re meant to be. There’s no sugarcoating what you’ll go through, but it’s all to make you stronger. In fact, we’re going through another right now — that started in May — for perspective. I was feeling pretty lost, but then Brian and I started concocting the idea for Some Faith. When I got back to Pittsburgh, I knew this was exactly the cathartic release I needed and that Saturn was pushing me to this. So I do find it pretty cosmic that it’s all come full-circle.
Here we are again, in a Saturn retrograde, but I’ve learned to navigate it now. I’m stronger now and more prepared. And just as we started this last time, now a year later, we’re releasing everything.
“I had completely fallen apart and given up.”
BRIAN: When I was just starting to put this track together, I had sent Indigo a rough demo of the first 30 seconds and not even 10 minutes later, she had sent a vocal demo back to me with the same vocal line that she opens the song with now: “The Pain Has A Purpose.” I honestly got chills when I heard it for the first time. Not only because I thought it sounded so dark and powerful, but because of how quick she was at finding the perfect story to tell for the music I was producing. We were just getting to know each other creatively and I found her workflow very impressive. I don’t think it took us more than a week to finalize the whole song.
DARKNESS CALLING: Can you tell us about the origins of Some Faith? How did you two get acquainted and begin this project together?
INDIGO: Brian and I have known each other vaguely for years through the Pittsburgh music scene and similar friend groups. Whenever we saw each other, we definitely gelled and got lost talking about Depeche Mode, TMNT, and all the other things we mutually love. Like I said, I’d gone home to sort of find myself again and then I saw a post from Brian asking about a stand-in vocalist for a show. I messaged him and we ended up talking larger scale, and about starting a whole new project together.
Brian started mixing up some cakes (what we call our songs before they’re polished) and sending them my way. I’d listen to them on a loop until I had lyrics — though it often comes pretty quick. I’d say we’re pretty solidly in sync. I’ve been in other bands before but never had such a connection with my writing partner. Brian is hands-down the best person I could ask for as my bandmate. I feel insanely lucky.
BRIAN: At first, I honestly had no idea what to expect from the whole situation. I had never heard Indigo sing before and she was probably more familiar with my sound as a hip-hop artist, so we were both walking into this situation pretty blind. We both had very similar inspirations and ideas for this project though, so it wasn’t very hard to get the ball rolling. Within a month of us starting the band, we already had three or four tracks in the works.
“We were both walking into this situation pretty blind.”
DARKNESS CALLING: I have to say, I genuinely love the sound. It's dark and hypnotic, but it also has a bit of tongue-in-cheek sass to it, as well. Can you both tell us about some of your influences in developing your sound?
INDIGO: My influences are very much 80’s/90’s darkwave and pop, etc. I love Depeche Mode, The Cure, The Smiths, Garbage, Hole, Placebo, The Cranberries, New Order, Talking Heads, Tears for Fears, The Cardigans, No Doubt, Throwing Muses, Portishead, Kate Bush, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bowie… I could go on forever, so I’ll stop myself now (if you think that you’ve heard this one before).
I would also say that Brian and I have both definitely bonded over a mutual love of Paramore, as well. Our interests are very similar and definitely have a broad range. Before the pandemic, he and I were going to co-DJ a dance night together called TRL Night — all 90’s bops.
BRIAN: I’m sure that saying we’re fans of bands like Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails pretty much goes without saying. They’re basically The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix of every dork with a synthesizer! Modern Pop acts like Purity Ring, Grimes, and even Dua Lipa have all been huge influences for this project, as well as some other newer, “darker” stuff from bands like Youth Code, The Soft Moon, and Priest. We both love so many different styles of music, and it’s been really fun to watch it all come together in these songs.
DARKNESS CALLING: Has the pandemic affected your ability to work together, or was it mostly a remote process from the beginning?
INDIGO: At first, it definitely threw a wrench in our plans. We had planned to release everything sooner and even had three live shows lined up. It pushed back our music videos and we had to change some things — but overall, I think we needed the extra time to perfect everything and take it slow. I think we can both confidently say now that we’re happy with where everything is, and we feel more sure about releasing it.
BRIAN: At the beginning of the pandemic, it was a little more difficult to be creative. A lot of distractions and uncertainty made it really hard to focus. But as Indigo said, we took advantage of the extra time, and now we're back on our regular recording schedule, finally releasing material and getting to meet awesome new people like you! It's a great feeling.
DARKNESS CALLING: What's next for Some Faith? Is this all leading to the release of an EP or LP?
INDIGO: So much more. We have months planned ahead with so much to share. And both actually! We’re planning to release two EP’s which will become the first and second half of a future LP.
BRIAN: Yeah! We have a lot of cool stuff in the works that we'll be dropping over the next couple of months starting with another single and music video on October 1st. We don’t want to spoil too much just yet, but all will be revealed soon enough!
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