Interview: Durand Jones and the Indications on their origins and growth

Durand Jones and the Indications are a critically acclaimed soul group whose music blends vintage R&B with a contemporary approach to music-making. Their sound has been praised by NPR, Rolling Stone and Pitchfork, and they’ve performed live on CBS This Morning, Jimmy Kimmel Live and Last Call with Carson Daily.

Durand Jones and the Indications recently issued their 4th studio album “Flowers,” and they’ll be performing live in Indianapolis on September 30 at the Hi-Fi Annex.

WFYI’s Kyle Long spoke with vocalist Durand Jones to learn more about the band’s roots in Bloomington, Indiana.

This interview has been edited for style and clarity.

Kyle Long: The origin of Durand Jones and the Indications stretches back a decade to Bloomington, Indiana, where vocalist Durand Jones met the singer and drummer Aaron Frazier and guitarist Blake Rhein. Jones traveled to Bloomington from Louisiana to perform and study with the IU Soul Revue, a collegiate performance ensemble dedicated to preserving Black popular music styles including soul, funk and R&B.

I spoke with Jones to learn more about his connection to Indiana and the impact the IU Soul Revue had on his career.

Durand Jones: IU Soul Revue honestly gave me a chance to leave Louisiana and to continue my music studies. It is a life changing opportunity for many folks, the alumni, the list of all of the amazing soul musicians who have been involved with the IU Soul Revue is exponentially large. So, yeah, I think it's really awesome that The Indications are a part of that legacy too.

Long: During Jones’ time with the IU Soul Revue, the ensemble was led by Tyron Cooper. Cooper has a strong relationship with WFYI. He recorded a small studio session in 2017 and composed music for several WFYI documentaries. I asked Jones about his time with Cooper.

Jones: The very first thing I say is Tyron don't play no games in rehearsal. He is about it, about it, about it. He is serious with what he does, his craft, his art. One thing that he really wanted to instill inside of us when we were under his tutelage was that there's three main components of soul, which is the love song, the social consciousness and the party. And you will find those tropes within every single Indications record.

We really learned a lot from him, and we still try to embody those things to this day. So I'm very thankful for the times with Tyron.

Long: Durand Jones and the Indications are currently on tour promoting their latest album “Flowers.” I asked Jones about the evolution of the band's sound.

Jones: This record was a true collaborative process in every sense. This is the first record that we have put out in four years, and so, in a lot of ways, this was us giving flowers to one another, but also giving flowers to our fans, really leaning into the things that we have seen our fans really love and dig about us, and we really try to embrace all of our strong suits with this record. And so I'm very excited for the folks to listen to it.

This interview originally aired on WFYI’s Cultural Manifesto.