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Interview with
INDI STAR

(19th October, 2023)

Interview with Stephanie Tang and Dave Bruce

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Photo – Ben Cope

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Dave – It’s Steph and Dave from Amnplify and we’re talking to the great Indi Star from the great state of… California, from the great state of California.
Indi – Hi. So every week the streets get cleaned and of course, right now, they’re right outside my apartment, sweeping stuff away, making a lot of noise. Perfect. Ha.

Steph – So Indi, I want to talk a bit about like your social media work, but then also how you then moved into music. Obviously you started with television, but when you were younger, you mentioned that you guys moved or your family moved from Massachusetts to LA. Can you talk us a bit about who kind of brought this idea up and then how you guys were like, yeah, we’re going to do this. We’re going to stay in LA. And then basically that’s kind of how you got started with Kidz Bop and doing all your singing and dancing.
Indi – Yeah, I so I was always a creative performer, I guess, ever since I was young. I started dance when I was like three.
And then when I was about like six or seven, I started piano lessons and I would audition with my best friend. We would audition for little plays that were going on at the time, like around our little town. And our parents or my parents realized that me and my sister both really loved performing and doing all that kind of stuff. So they decided to take a three month vacation in California and kind of scope it out and see if we really liked California. And if we did, we would move there. And we fell in love with California.
It’s kind of like you either hate LA or you love LA. And we loved it. So we decided to pack everything up.
We went back to Massachusetts and we sold the house. We packed everything up and we moved out to California. And it was really fun. So it was kind of like a new thing for our family. But it was really cool. You know, I’m really grateful to have done that. And I moved out when I was eight.
So it’s kind of just all I’ve known basically now. Yeah.

Dave – Just jumping in, just for the fans at the moment that might not know you, how old are you now?
Indi – I’m 16 now. So, yeah, I moved out when I was 8. I’ve lived out here for half of my life, soon to be more than half, actually. I’m turning 17, so it’s going to be more than half of my life, which is scary and crazy.

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Steph – And what was it about LA that really drew you guys in? Like, obviously, Hollywood’s there and that’s where a lot of the recording studios are. But was there anything specific that you guys were like, “yeah, this is kind of where we want to spend like a decent part of the rest of our lives?”
Indi – You know, it’s actually kind of funny. It was the whole like entertainment type of thing, you know, how you can succeed in LA more than you can in Massachusetts for acting, obviously. But a lot of it was like whether we just felt like home when we moved to California and we just loved it so much. You know, I was eight, so it’s kind of more of my parents’ decision, I guess. But I’m so happy we moved out. Our first winter in California, we went to the beach and we made this snowman out of sand because we were kind of missing like all the snow in Massachusetts. But we all made like a snowman and started doing stuff, pretending the sand was snow. It was fun.

Dave – How do you make a snowman out of sand?
Indi – Oh, it’s kind of like how you make a sandcastle. You just get wet sand and you just start like putting it together. And then my dad would find like sticks and then like stones and stuff to like make everything. It’s very similar to how you actually make a snowman. But I mean, my dad did most of the work because I was like eight years old.

Dave – That would have been a bit of a stretch in sunny California where everyone’s building sandcastles and then you guys have got a little snowman going on.
Indi – Exactly. I think everybody should build “snowmans” out of sand because you don’t get snow in California. So you got to make it somehow. Yeah. I feel like holidays aren’t like a giant thing in California, which is sad.

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Photo – Ben Cope

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Steph – And was it after moving to L.A. that you got involved in Kidz Bop?
Indi – Yeah, so I moved to L.A. when I was eight and I got into Kidz Bop when I was 11. I auditioned for it when I was like 10. So it was like a whole year of auditioning. I actually found out I got it around like November and then I turned 11 in December and then the next year came and that’s when I kind of started actually doing stuff with Kidz Bop. So I found out when I was like 10, just turning 11.

Steph – And how do you think joining Kidz Bop kind of shaped your vision and like what you wanted to do and how where you kind of got to now?
Indi – It definitely inspired me to start creating music. I was always very shy as a child and it was more my sister who was in the spotlight. I feel like it’s kind of changed. She’s kind of behind the scenes now because she’s doing hair and stuff and I’m kind of more in front of the camera. We’re both still kind of shy people. But yeah, being in Kidz Bop changed my life. Honestly, I wanted to start pursuing singing after that.
You know, I was still 11. I came out with my first song when I was 13. So it took a second.
But I got to learn how to be professional and to start actually learning what the industry is, which is super cool. And I’m thankful for that. But I love being in Kidz Bop.

Steph – Kidz Bop’s a very team oriented thing, whereas your music’s a very individual thing. How did you make the transition from not having to particularly rely on yourself in Kidz Bop to having to rely on yourself solely and judge yourself solely in in your music career? Because basically, if you live or die in music, it’s up to you. Whereas with Kidz Bop, everybody’s around, someone jumps in and out, you know, all that sort of stuff.
Indi – Yeah, I mean, it was definitely a big change because there was eight kids in Kidz Bop, like the eight main kids. And we all would go to the recording studio together. We all had to do school together.
We all had to be in the dance studio learning all the choreography together. So it was like we were all a big team and we all got to rely on each other. And it was really cool because I loved having like that friend group in Kidz Bop.
It’s a little bit different now because in the studio, I think I mentioned this before, but I am always the youngest in like every studio now that I work in. Like every team I work with is always a lot older than me, you know, because I’m only 16. So it’s a lot different with that where I’m working with producers and writers more one on one.
But I love that I get to experience both and that I know both sides. But yeah, I love working in a team.

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Steph – You mentioned you’re the youngest one in the room now. How do you make sure your voice is heard? So with your music video you’ve got for your latest single, ‘Hurt a Little’, how do you make sure that the idea that you had writing the song translates into the music video you’re doing?
Indi – My parents really helped me with sticking up for myself. Not like I have to stick up for myself in my team, my music team, because they all let me talk. But just in general, just sticking up for myself because that’s been a little bit more harder for me because I always have my siblings to stick up for me. But now that I’m going more into stuff on my own for my music, I have to be the one to stick up for myself because my parents aren’t always in the room when we’re making music. But I love my team that I worked with on the song. They really let me have a voice with everything. And I was the one who came up with a creative for the music video and I pitched it to my manager. He loved it.
And we started working on that and then obviously we have directors, producers, stylists, whatever, helping as a team, which I love. I don’t like being the boss of everything, even though it is my music video. I still like hearing other people’s input and like all creating something creative together.

Dave – Are you the boss? You know, sometimes studios can override, they just say, this is what we’re doing and this is the direction we’re going and we pay you and stuff. Do you have that? Or do you have your control of your outcomes?
Indi – I do. I’m so grateful that I do have control over that. I am not a bossy person at all.
But I love working with other people and I love hearing other people’s input. But I do have full control over the music that I release, which is really great. And when I was working on this in the studio, they heard my story is because I do have a lot of stories living in L.A. But they listen to all my stories and they really understood what I was trying to put into a song, which was cool. For any artists out there that are trying to get numbers quick and trying to take off quick, et cetera, it really does make a difference if you have some clout.

Dave – So you obviously had some clout with your Kidz Bop past and your followers, so that you had a right to speak and they couldn’t overpower you because you were a “star” already. I think that’s a good piece of advice for people. Don’t be in a hurry to get somewhere. Try and make sure that you have an ability to negotiate when you get there rather than just have the big guys tell you what to do. I just thought I’d throw that in. Yeah, that’s great.
Indi – I think I’ve always been like when I was younger. I was always, oh, people know better than me because I’m so young. So I used to kind of just like be like, oh, this is a song that you want to create. Like this is what you’re doing. Then I’ll be like, oh, OK, I guess so. So I always thought people knew better, but I’m slowly growing up, maturing and understanding what I like, which definitely helps to understand yourself and what you like for genres of music and stuff like that. So, yeah.

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Photo – Ben Cope

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Steph – And in quite a few of your songs, you talk about troubled relationships, either romantically or with friendships and then kind of just trying to be true to yourself. How do you get the inspiration for your music?
Indi – It’s very intimidating sharing thoughts that you’ve got inside. This is like my baby. You want to see what I’ve created and now I’m sharing with people. And I want you to help me bring it to life.

Steph – Can you talk us through a bit about firstly how you got your inspiration for writing the music that you have? And then what was it like sharing these intimate thoughts, personal ideas with people and being unknown whether how it will be received?
Indi – All my music is based on true stories, so it’s like it is a little bit difficult, but I feel like it helps me more to release those things in like music form out into the public. I would never really go on to because I share my life on social media, but obviously I’m not going to share all of the most personal stories. That’s why I love music. I can just put it into that and share it so people understand. They don’t need to know every specific detail, I guess. But yeah, I mean, it was definitely very intimidating and like a little bit scary to go into the writing sessions and like tell all of these older people my stories. I’ve always kind of been better at communicating with older people like adults, because I’ve always worked in the business with older people. So I feel it was a little bit easier in that way that they all understood and they were all super caring and nice about all of these stories. And I would tell them some stories and they would be on my side, they’d be like, how would they do that? How dare they? And then it started getting into like them fighting with other people, which was funny. But yeah, I’m happy that I’m getting a lot more comfortable sharing those things because I don’t really like sharing a bunch of my personal stories.
I like listening to other people’s. I mean, music can bring that out, which is cool. Music’s a bit more of a subtle way to kind of talk about your emotions as opposed to just directly saying this is exactly how I’m feeling and this is exactly what this is about.
It’s a bit more nuanced and it’s a bit more definitely like a storytelling. You can interpret it how you want. Yeah, exactly.
It’s a little bit more everybody can relate to it and you make it kind of a little bit more general, not like super specific to the story, which is cool.

Steph – When you were writing your songs, did you ever think, oh, I should change this to make it a bit more relatable to other people who maybe haven’t experienced this or I don’t want to make it too obvious about this particular person or this particular event?
Indi – Was there a bit of that going on during the writing process as well? Yeah, I’d say the songs that I release are a little bit more of the songs that are a little bit more general, I guess. I have a bunch of other songs that I haven’t released that are a little bit specific that I don’t like too specific that I don’t really want to release them.
Or if I did, I would probably change some stuff. But these when I wrote them with a bunch of other writers, we kind of made it a little bit more general, not really on purpose, I guess. But those are just the songs that I released.
So maybe like in the back of my mind, but not like super on purpose, because I still feel like. They can relate to it and they can interpret it however they want, even if it’s specific to my story. And with the writers, obviously you were saying, pardon me, obviously you’re saying that most of the writers and all that are much older, etc.

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Photo – Ben Cope

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Steph – Do you find that the writing process is driven by you or it’s driven by them or it’s it is a pretty good mix of everyone?
Indi – Yeah, I think it’s a pretty good mix of everyone. Again, I love hearing other people’s ideas. It’s all my story. All of them are coming from my stories and my experiences. But I love hearing other people’s like lyric ideas or whatever it is into the song. So it’s definitely a whole team work process, but most of it is coming from me. I’m not not not not yet a diva. I don’t think I’ll ever be a diva.

Steph – You mentioned you’ve got a lot of material that you’re sitting on. So do you have plans to potentially bring some of those out and then put them into an album together?
Indi – Yeah, I don’t know because I have a lot of other songs. Those songs were created like probably a year and a half ago at this point, and I feel like it’s just a bunch of feelings that I’ve had in the past that I don’t really know if I would want to release because … I don’t know, it’s a little bit weird to me. I feel like I’ve gone through so many more experiences that I can just write about those and they’ll be more meaningful to me right now, I guess.
But I’m hoping to get in the studio soon and create more songs that I can release because I don’t know if I really want to release the older ones.

Steph – And with touring and stuff like that, obviously, being an entertainer, I’m sure you probably want to get out there and share your music. Is that is that something that you’re doing or contemplating doing? And when you do do so, how do you put together a show? How do you plan on putting together a show?
Indi – Yeah, I had a couple of performances that I did in the summer. I feel like the summertime is kind of more where it is. I don’t know. I feel like the summertime is more fun for me to perform because it’s like summer concerts and stuff. I work with my amazing choreographer and we work on a set to do and all these little funny or not funny, like more fun little like moves for my songs. I don’t like fully going dance mode when I’m performing, especially because I have asthma. So that’s not good. But I love creating a show to perform. It’s really fun for me.
So hopefully in the future, I’ll get a chance to go on tour or perform more.

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Dave – Boom, boom. Taylor Swift, you know, something like that.
Indi – Just a nice small tour around the world. Oh, just a small world tour. Yeah, of course.

Steph – Yeah. If you were to go on tour, like is there someone that you would want to tour with, like to open act up or like as a co-headliner of your tour?
Indi – I would have to think about that. I would love to perform with Phoebe Bridgers or I think she’s doing a bunch of performances with her three girl band, Boy Genius. That’d be super cool to open for or perform with. But yeah, I think probably Phoebe Bridgers and maybe Gracie Abrams.

Steph – That’d be cool. Yeah. And what’s kind of next for Indi Star? Where do you want to progress to? You do so much. You sing, you dance, you act and you’re really big on social media as well. Is there a particular part of that that you want to pursue more? Do you want to do more social media stuff? You’ve mentioned you really like Fashion Week. So are you wanting to do more of those sort of events or is kind of music where you’re wanting to grow?
Indi – Yeah, I love Fashion Week. I’ve been getting into it. I just did, I think it was my fifth season this fall. I can’t remember either fifth or fourth. But yeah, I would love to keep going to Fashion Week. I would love to perform at Fashion Week. That’d be super cool. I performed my first time going to Fashion Week, which was super cool. But yeah, just performing more, releasing more music. I would love to release an EP or an album, but I have nothing really like that coming up soon. So maybe in the next year. And then once the SAG thing gets resolved, you know, get back to working and auditioning and stuff like that. Just kind of going with the flow and seeing what happens.

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Photo – Ben Cope

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Dave – Did the writers strike have any effect on you?
Indi – Well, I was doing a bunch of auditions and then it just slowly stopped. So I would love to get back to that. And there are a couple of things that were like maybe gonna happen and you know, everything happened. But I’m just excited for it to all get resolved.

Dave – And are there any “Khloe Kardashian” brand opportunities coming up? Are you going to come out with a lipstick or have you got some sort of clothing line or something? Because obviously you’re popular and you would be a good brand ambassador. Any of that in the works?
Indi – Um, not anything in the works right now, but I would love to do something. I was thinking maybe like some sort of perfume because I’m obsessed with perfume and I love the cute little perfume bottle. So that’d be super cool. Or any type of shoe brand would be super cool. I would really want to work on it and really make it good and really make it me. So definitely not something soon, but something that I would love to work on. Well, you want to do it before you burn out.

Dave – I mean, seven, eight years now, you know, it’s getting, getting close. I’m joking. What would you say has been a highlight so far on this super long journey? You’ve done so much in such a short amount of time. It’s almost like, what else can you do next? Like, what else is there? But like so far, what has stood out to you as like, I can’t believe I’ve been able to achieve this.
Indi – I’m only 16 right now. I don’t know. There’s been so many things, honestly. Fashion week is just where I really thrive and I really enjoy it. So probably, probably the recent fashion week that I did, that was a really fun one. And just exploring what else I can do, I guess, with that. I did Paris fashion week, uh, at the beginning of this year, which was super cool too. But, you know, just seeing what else I can do with those types of things is super exciting for me. Yeah.

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Steph – Amazing. And for someone who’s kind of just starting out, who might have been, might be like a few years behind you on their journey. Do you have any advice for them as to, um, how to navigate the entertainment industry? If they’re like, oh, I just kind of sing in my room right now. And I really want to put my voice out there. What would your advice be to them?
Indi – Hmm. I, I honestly would say to just go for it and to just start posting content that you really enjoy and that you want to be known for, because if you stay consistent with those type of things, it will work out for you and people will start to notice. Um, I love creating like just videos of me playing the piano and just singing, uh, or like get ready with me type of videos.
Those are my favorite videos to make and like fashion content. But if you just stay consistent with that and you just go for it, also try to meet a bunch of people that love the same thing that you do, because then you can all be supportive with each other, which is super cool. I’m grateful to have known so many people that love the same things that I do.
And it just makes you have a little group that you can rely on. It’s all about engagement and kind of creating almost like a support network for, from your followers and your listeners.

Steph – How, why do you think people resonate with your music or that you’ve gotten the popularity that you have?
Indi – I don’t know, honestly, I’m like, I don’t, I really don’t even know. I really put myself out there and I really just show the real side of me, you know, I don’t really put too much out there cause still privacy and all that stuff. But I really, I don’t try to be fake. And if something’s on Snapchat, especially I have followers on Snapchat and I just post whatever I’m doing in the day because I don’t really try to hide anything. And I try to be real with everybody, which I hate saying I’m real with people on social media, but like I really try to be, and I try to connect with everybody on social media, which is, I don’t know, I guess.

Dave – I think we live in the influencer age, especially with Tik Tok in the last couple of years. You come across as interesting and confident. You said you’re shy. I don’t know where that comes from, I haven’t seen that at all in anything that you’ve done. You’re bright and attractive and you’re a perfect person to follow in your realm. So I don’t think it’s any secret why you are the way you are and all power to you. And the fact that you have asthma potentially makes you an influencer for people that have that and get restricted by it because it doesn’t seem to restrict you too much.
Indi – You know, actually when I was in Kidz Bop, for one of the training things, they would make us run around the entire dance building and sing as loud as we could, um, to build up that kind of like stamina while we’re dancing and singing at the same time. And I was always the one that was like falling behind cause I had asthma. I was really bad. And I had like my inhaler and I would just start like running and I was like basically dying, but it’s okay. Cause that kind of helped me. Um, you know, cause we would literally have to run around the entire dance studio building. But yeah, that really, that was one of the things from Kidz that stuck with me and really helped me like, just know that I can get through it.

Dave – Well done. You’re courageous, you know, on of those people prepared to put themselves out there. And so I’d say all power to you. Keep up the good work.
Indi – Thanks

Steph – Thanks for your time today. We really appreciate it. All the best in the future.
Indi – Thanks to you both. See you when I get down under one day soon.

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Photo – Ben Cope

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Follow INDI STAR
Instagram | 1.2M Followers 
TikTok | 1.2M Followers / 39.1M Likes
YouTube | 446K Subs / 9M+ Views
Twitter |17.9K

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Photo – Ben Cope

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About INDI STAR

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Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Indi began dancing at age three and is trained in tap, ballet, hip hop, and jazz funk. With a passion to perform at an early age, Indi was determined to chase her dreams in the entertainment industry. At just eight years old, Indi relocated to Los Angeles and began training at Gray Studios drama school. A few years later, Indi booked her first guest appearance role on the popular web series Teens Wanna Know (2017). 

At just 14 years old, Indi is quickly rising to the top with her impressive range of creative endeavors.  Best known for playing “Kimmie” in Nickelodeon’s Henry Danger, “Brandy” in Betrayed, “Chloe” in My Haunted House, and herself in Q Wonder. She then landed the role as a series regular playing mean girl “Paris” in the Brat TV’s series Charmers about a coven of teen witches attempting to defeat an evil demon with their powers that is haunting their camp, Whispering Sky. Indi is also known as a recurring dancer in Netflix’s popular Dramedy Dead To Me (2020). 

Formally a member of Kidz Bop USA/Canada where she has toured and performed around the Country, Indi broke out as a solo artist in 2019 and has released 6 original singles to date and has amassed over 2.5M followers on her social media channels. In 2020, Indi joined popular social media collective Vibe Crew and has also been recognized as part of the popular social media influencer group The Squad collaborating on content with her friends. On her Youtube Channel and TikTok she posts videos showcasing her bubbly and upbeat personality, fun challenges, dance trends, day in the life, fashion videos, funny reactions, fan favorite pranks, etc! 

After a variety of successful music releases under her belt, Indi is excited to share new music with the world, starting with her single “Hurt A Little” premiering September 15th, 2023.

Along with her many artistic projects, Indi has been a lead in national commercials and campaigns with big brands including Samsung, Marvel, Hasbro, among other national toy companies appearing on Nickelodeon and Disney Channel. Indi aims to inspire Gen-Z and beyond by promoting self-confidence and passion for her crafts. She is also interested in philanthropic endeavors, such as Autism Awareness, Racial/Sexual Equality, and Save The Earth. 

Indi has previously partnered with brands such as Nickelodeon, Casetify, Starburst, and One A Day Vitamins. In her free time, Indi loves to spend time with friends, doing yoga, Pilates, kickboxing, boxing, weightlifting, cycling, hiking, skateboarding, swimming, surfing, shopping, gaming, and dancing. She currently resides in Los Angeles, CA with her family!

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Photo – Ben Cope

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AMNPLIFY – DB