Indy Yelich is Her Own ‘Savior’

You might expect an extroverted, spotlight-loving 9-year-old girl would only have eyes for one role in The Little Mermaid—the lead of Ariel. But not Indy Yelich.

“I was like, ‘I don’t want to be Ariel. I want to be Ursula the sea witch!’” the 26-year-old New Zealand musician recalls, about her first acting gig. “To this day, my mum always says she knew I’d become a performer because of that performance.”

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It would be easy to draw real-life comparisons from that pivotal moment. For half of Indy’s life, her superstar sister Lorde (real name Ella Yelich-OʼConnor) was the one playing the lead, at least on the world stage. And while it wasn’t until a decade after Lorde’s 2013 breakout single “Royals” that Indy released her debut EP Threads, her path into music started long before big sis snagged two Grammys.

Old home videos provide a glimpse of the musical fun that underscored Indy, Lorde, sister Jerry, and brother Angelo’s upbringing. It was an idyllic childhood in the quaint beachside suburb of Devonport, Auckland, where Indy spent summers jumping off the wharf, exploring the local volcano, playing hopscotch, and devouring fish and chips at Cheltenham Beach.

Mom Sonja was a poet who encouraged painting, pottery, and writing, while engineer dad Vic loved to sing and shaped Indy’s musical discovery while spinning records by James Taylor and Bon Iver. She was only 6 when she penned her first song. “The lyrics were, ‘I thought love was a cure. How come I can’t use it anymore?’” she laughs. “You don’t even know what love is at that age!”

Two decades on, it’s clear the Kiwi (a term for New Zealanders) has learned the hard lessons of love as she opens up about heartbreak to SPIN following a Thursday evening studio session in Los Angeles, where she’s preparing for the March 14 release of her new single “Savior.” The track was born from a toxic four-year relationship with an older man, which culminated in being dumped via phone on Valentine’s Day.

Six-year-old Indy may have thought love was a cure, but 26-year-old Indy knows love’s pain. Not that she ever planned on using love to inspire songwriting. Playing Ursula the witch cemented her love for the stage, while guitar lessons, Battle of the Band contests, and choirs grew her love for music. But she imagined becoming an opera singer or author, having scribbled away in diaries since childhood.

An international music career didn’t seem “possible” until Lorde’s phenomenal success opened Indy’s eyes to the possibilities. Suddenly, the Yelich clan were off to America to attend the Grammys, visit Disneyland, and rub shoulders with Katy Perry. “All this stuff happened to me so young, so my definition of success became an anomaly,” she says. “I saw success happen so young and thought, ‘Let’s give it a try.’”

While having a family member catapult to fame could challenge or change some families, Indy only has fond memories of the period. “I feel lucky it happened to me when I was about 15, not 10, because I had time to form my own perspectives and who I was. But it was definitely character-building. I was always loud and bright as a child, but it forced me to fight even harder to have my own perspective, voice and experiences.”

“I loved it though because I got to do cool things like go up to Katy Perry and tap her on the shoulder. But my family are also really grounded and just so Kiwi. We’ve got our feet firmly planted on the ground—when I’m 40, my mom will still have me unloading the dishwasher. So, I don’t know if there was ever a point where it was going to make our lives different.”

While Indy notes her parents never neglected her, 31-year-old lawyer Jerry, or 23-year-old engineer Angelo amid Lorde’s rise, it helped that she was a “typical middle child—loudest, naughtiest, and would never let myself be forgotten.”

With Lorde’s success having inspired grander dreams, Indy moved to L.A. to pursue acting at age 18, before New York won her heart. The bustling, vibrant energy invigorated her, whether it was by sitting in bars with a book, attending New York Knicks games, or lugging suitcases of laundry to the laundromat.

The creative stimulation meanwhile spawned two poetry books, sticky notes and Dudette, which helped her develop her artistic identity enough to feel ready to venture into songwriting. “Then it took a few years of doing sessions and demos and chatting away to people so I could get in rooms with them and learn how to write songs. Songwriting versus writing is still very new to me.”

“I wanted to work on my creative voice and figure out what I had to say first,” she adds about her unhasty transition into music. “I didn’t put music out until I was sure about it and my first song, ‘Threads,’ is still one of my favorite songs ever. I knew in my heart I wanted to give this a shot and I’m lucky to have this unique perspective and upper hand [of learning from Lorde’s experiences].”

While comparisons to Lorde were inevitable, Indy was never hesitant about following in her footsteps. Writing and releasing music simply felt “natural” and necessary. “I would regret not expressing myself if I didn’t do this. I don’t want to be 80 years old and have been too fearful to express myself because of what people may say. My sister gives me good advice because she’s experienced the industry and my mom’s an artist as well—we’re a family of artists, so it’s like create or die!”

Lorde’s advice has been invaluable to Indy. Having released three records, topped the charts and toured the world, Lorde, 28, has urged Indy to trust in her personality, experience and musical instincts.

“Especially if I’m in a room full of producers and I think something sounds good and they think something else sounds better,” she says. “It’s about trusting your artistic vision, sound, and ability to enunciate what you’re going through. Learning how to advocate for my art has really helped me. I’ve had to fight for a melody or guitar part to be a certain way. It’s a skill that takes time to learn, but it’s so important for young women to have it and to also have role models—especially someone like my sister. Having her guidance has helped me so much with remembering to protect my art and remembering it’s my art.”

Indy also credits her New Zealand background for instilling traits which have proved beneficial in the cutthroat music industry, like talking to anyone and not taking herself too seriously. “Kiwis are just chill. Things don’t faze them and applying that to life is nice.”

It was en route to New Zealand that Indy couldn’t help being fazed by the devastation she’s now sharing in “Savior.” What should have been an exciting flight home to release her first EP turned into a “shell shocked” 13-hours in the air after her ex dumped her before she boarded the plane. “There were all these rom-coms on the plane and I was like, ‘I cannot watch a rom-com,’ so I watched Shrek … which turned out to be a rom-com. I felt like I was going to break down. I ended up watching a documentary about birds.”

The split was a long time coming and while Indy, who’s currently single, holds some good memories from the relationship, her biggest lesson is simple: “Don’t date divorced men in your 20s.”

“When you’re in your early 20s and forming your adult voice, it’s easier to have your hand held by someone instead of learning who you are,” she says. “But sometimes there’s a power imbalance, especially if they’re 10 or 15 years older. They become more like a guardian than a boyfriend.”

The destructive nature of the relationship dawned on Indy as she started feeling like she had to choose between her partner and her professional ambitions. Loved ones tried to warn her. “But it was for me to figure out. You’ve got to let people learn the hard way.”

Family supported her as she landed in New Zealand heartbroken. Vic lovingly made her kiwifruit and cheese platters while Sonja shopped for her favorite treats. “My sister helped me the most,” Indy adds. “Both my sisters. Being best friends with your sisters later in life is a different story to growing up. They just understood.”

The split inspired lyrics like, “I thought it wouldn’t hurt, but it feels like dying,” and “You were my savior, I was the prey.” Penned with friends on a rainy day in L.A. and brought to life with guitars and violins, the toe-tapping tune is both heart-rending and empowering.

Hearing the extent of Indy’s pain through “Savior” was a jarring experience for her family. She pauses before emotionally recalling playing the song for Vic. “He looked at me and had a hard time speaking. Then he said, ‘Wow. I didn’t know that’s how you felt.’”

With “Savior” lyrics now plastering billboards across America, Indy’s nervous about vulnerably sharing her private pain with the world, but feels she owes it to the song. “Reliving a long period where you were naive and not the person you are anymore is scary, but I had to get this song out. It took me a year and a half. There’s 17 different versions. But I’m proud of the maturity in it. As the song evolved, I evolved, so it reflects my personal growth.”

Indy teases “Savior” is part of a bigger project which involves more new music. Her dream collaborators include Chappell Roan, Lola Young, Holly Humberstone, Olivia Dean, and Cleo Sol. In between musical endeavors, she plans to study psychology.

And while New York has proved her own savior, making her feel “more alive than ever,” she’s unsure if it’s her forever home. She’s only been back from New Zealand a few days when she chats to SPIN, yet it’s clear she’s already homesick as she longingly recalls margaritas nights with her parents, gas station pies, and having her siblings together. “I’m more homesick as I get older. So annoying!” gripes the singer, whose nostalgia for Devonport inspired previous single “Hometown.”

But while home may be half a world away, she holds the words of loved ones near, especially Sonja’s greatest advice. “She always brings up the Ursula story and has a little video of the performance,” Indy chuckles. “She tells me, ‘Always act upon that 9-year-old girl up on that stage. You owe it to that younger self to pursue the arts.’”

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