Two months ago, LA-based singer Eriel Indigo released âEvery Little Thing,â a pre-summer pop smash that recalls the encouraging words of Bob Marleyâs âThree Little Birdsââalbeit in more contemporary lingo: âEverything little thing is gonna be aight.â In her follow-up track, âWonderland,â Indigo maintains her encouraging tone while veering down paths that are both more personal and more fantastic. The song and its accompanying videoâpremiered today on Nerdistâexplore the colors and oddities that have always made Wonderland such an intriguing destination.
Like Alice, Indigo grew up questioning her reality. âI suppose my music and art inherited quite a bit from my upbringing,â she explains in a press release. âSound healing and revolution are in my blood. I was raised in an environment of outlaws and I learned to question everything, all the while acknowledging our innate connection to each other, to all beings and all things.”
The “Wonderland” video is a psychedelic manifestation of that “innate connection.” “I used to dream of her shrouded in technicolor flame / a rainbow body of pure, unequivocal love,” Indigo says during her opening monologue. What ensues are variegated dreamscapes of sparkles and Indigoâs âfractured sisters of selfââwomen that seem to represent the many layers of identity a single person can encompass. Over the course of eight minutes, the sisters explore a âmulti-dimensional map of space and timeâ and head down the âlong cosmic runway back to each other.â It’s a kaleidoscopic fairytale full of bejeweled crowns, beautiful women, and a baby whose significance is imparted by some kind of oracle. Told with eloquent prose and a prodigious vocal hook, Indigo’s “Wonderland” is equal parts self-realizing epic and banging pop anthem.
Indigo’s debut EP, Elevate arrives on March 30, and for  a very trippy story from this inscrutable figure, check out a brief email conversation with the artist below.
Nerdist:Â What is the latest thing you binge-watched on Netflix?
Eriel Indigo:Â Fringe. Iâm a sci-fi junky, and find the genre to be much more exciting and closer to reality than any mundane drama series.
N: If you could only dance to one album for the rest of your life what would it be?
EI:Â Midnight City by M83, because Iâve heard it a thousand times and Iâm still ecstatic every time it comes on. Plus the whole video series may be the coolest thing an artist has ever created.
N: What are ingredients on your ideal burrito?
EI:Â EVERYTHING but the kitchen sink, please… with cheese, hot sauce, and ENDLESS limes to squeeze.
N: What are the visual references that inspired this music video?
EI:Â Some of this imagery came from a powerful plant medicine ceremony that I experienced; 5-MeO-DMT to be exact. Warning! Do not try this without the presence of an OG shaman and a group of other grounded seekers.
The inner adventure carried me through a state of being that I can only describe as God consciousness. It would be difficult to delineate this voyage clearly to someone who has not taken part in the experience themselves, as much of the journey is feeling based rather than purely visual. I could probably write a healthy dissertation on the thing, but that will come later. In an effort to not get too insanely wordy, Iâll just sum it up in a steam of consciousness list:
A prayer to re-balance the divine masculine and feminine
My own experiences with sentient beings
Inter-dimensional travel
Re-integration with oneâs higher and lower selves
Worship of the Earth mother by her children
Balance and respect amongst all races and species
Being a light worker on Earth i.e. The Ground Team
Honoring the light divine feminine
Calling in power for change
Sacred ceremony invoking other worlds who have evolved more than we have
Elemental magic with Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, Lightning and Cosmos
The feminine aspect of God: The mother, The Daughter and The Holy Spirit
Vibrational healing
Rainbow/Light body activation
Sacred sexuality
Revolution
Evolution
Love
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IMAGE: Artist