The Indiigo Child: Learning To Stay Present

On his new Memories EP, The Indiigo Child turns five years of emotional change, life in the Bay Area and lessons inherited from his family into soulful house music about learning how to carry the past without becoming trapped inside it.

For Daniel Knott, aka The Indiigo Child, Memories began with a simple idea: “If you live in the past, you’re going to be sad, and if you live too far in the future, you’re going to have anxiety.”

Behind that thought is a much longer personal journey. Over the past five years, Knott has experienced periods of sadness, depression, happiness and excitement, while confronting the pressure to reach certain milestones in his career, relationships and life. His new two-track EP, released September 25 via Waveform Entertainment, emerged from learning how much of that emotional weight came from concentrating on what had already happened or what was supposed to happen next.

“A variety of events over the past five years inspired, influenced and ultimately solidified this philosophy for me. During that time, I experienced every emotion from sadness and depression to happiness and excitement. Often, those feelings were triggered by dwelling too much on the past or becoming anxious about the future because I felt pressure to accomplish certain goals, whether in my career, relationships, friendships or life in general.”

“Memories, whether recent or distant, can bring us happiness or stir up difficult emotions if we do not learn how to carry them properly. One way I have learned to manage those feelings is by becoming more present, and that is what I was trying to capture in this song. It comes from a very real place, and I believe people will connect with its message.”

One period proved particularly important in changing that relationship with time. During the lockdowns of 2020, the usual distractions disappeared and the future suddenly became impossible to predict.

“For many of us, a defining period was the lockdown in 2020. It was the first time the entire world shut down. There were no distractions, no excuses and very few ways to escape the internal or external battles we were experiencing.”

“It gave us an extraordinary amount of time to reflect on everything that had happened in our lives up to that point. At the same time, it created intense anxiety because no one knew what the future held. It forced us to reevaluate every part of our lives, but more importantly, we had no choice but to focus on the present because the future no longer had a clear timeline.”

“I learned a great deal during that period, but the most important lesson was how to truly be present. I do not think I had fully understood how to do that before then. Memories was inspired by those personal experiences, and I believe many people have felt or still feel the same way. I hope the song can inspire someone who may be going through that journey now to become more present in their own life.”

The EP was also shaped by a much more recent chapter: Knott’s last two years living in the Bay Area. Lake Merritt in Oakland became particularly significant, with its weekend gatherings bringing art, music, food, families and different communities together around the water.

“Oakland is a phenomenal place filled with incredible culture, food, music and people. Lake Merritt sits right in the heart of the city, and it was one of the first places I had the opportunity to experience firsthand when exploring the East Bay. There is something special about being near a body of water while surrounded by a melting pot of people enjoying themselves together.”

“What stood out to me was the energy and the range of emotions gathered in one place. When you experience it in person, you understand. Everywhere you look, you encounter different forms of talent and expression from art and dance to food and music, alongside people simply enjoying one another’s energy. You might see a couple on a date, families having picnics or people soaking up the environment.”

That experience fed directly into East Bay, the second track on the EP, and into Knott’s broader understanding of what music can do when it brings people with otherwise separate lives into the same environment.

“I have always been fascinated by multifaceted spaces like Lake Merritt that bring together people from different backgrounds who might otherwise never cross paths. In that moment, they are beside one another, connecting and sharing the same space. As someone who deeply values community, that is the ultimate source of inspiration for my music.”

That instinct for translating lived experience into creative work stretches much further back. Knott grew up in a family rooted in performance, music, art and poetry, with grandparents involved in circus and show business. His grandmother, Elma Martin, was particularly influential in teaching him how to turn emotions into words.

“Growing up in a family where my grandparents were involved in the circus and show business gave me an advantage creatively. My grandmother Elma Martin, in particular, was very intentional about instilling art into my way of thinking from an early age.”

“One exercise we practiced frequently has had a lasting impact on my music and songwriting. In the morning or throughout the day, my grandmother would ask me how I felt. Before I could explain it, she would stop me and say, ‘No, I want you to write it down. Write a poem about it and make it rhyme.’ I did that so often that I became very good at translating my emotio

“Fast forward to today, and those exercises have become a superpower in my songwriting. When I create a track, I can usually write the lyrics almost instantly because I know how to access real emotions and channel them directly into the music. I thank my grandmother for that.”

“It is a powerful example of how the people in our lives can shape us while we are growing up. What may have seemed like a small or trivial exercise at the time became a critical part of my life and music career. That is just one of the many ways my family has influenced me and given me a creative advantage as an artist.”

That emotional directness has become central to The Indiigo Child. Since beginning the project in 2018, Knott has developed a sound that brings R&B, soul and cinematic textures into warm house grooves. On Memories and East Bay, melancholy and vulnerability sit alongside music designed to work physically on a dancefloor.

For him, those qualities are not competing with one another.

“Because most of my music is rooted in real emotions, the songs naturally carry a range of tones, vulnerabilities and messages. It is important for me to bridge the gap between emotion and the dancefloor, and achieving that balance is something I consider every time I create.”

“Beyond the grooves of Memories and East Bay, I hope listeners have an emotional experience while still enjoying the movement of the music. These songs, in particular, have the right balance to create a feel good dance experience while also encouraging deeper thought. They allow your body to flow and move while your mind connects with something more personal.”

Ultimately, Knott knows that the memories attached to these tracks will not remain exclusively his. Once the record leaves his hands, the listener brings their own history to it.

“That is my hope for the listener, but once you release music into the world, it becomes part of the soundtrack to someone else’s life and that can manifest in many different ways. Once it is out in the world, it no longer belongs only to me. I simply hope it aligns with whatever experience or emotion the listener is carrying.”

For an EP concerned with learning how to live alongside the past without remaining inside it, perhaps that is where the idea becomes complete. Knott has taken his own memories and turned them into something that can accompany somebody else’s.

The Indiigo Child’s Memories EP is out September 25 via Waveform Entertainment.