Early Years
As a child, Indiana's mother taught dance and her father worked in the aluminium industry. Her musical introductions stemmed from a rather rigid religious upbringing, because of this there are obvious gospel influences in her music today. Indiana suffered from a strong speech impediment in her youth. She underwent years of speech therapy where her therapist would ask her to write poems at home for her to practice singing to help overcome this condition. Indiana claims that her therapist encouraged her to become involved in music and is responsible for her development as a songwriter and an artist. This is where her love of songwriting began and developed. As a youngster, she taught herself to play her grandmother's old upright piano by ear. Between the ages of 12-16, she wrote and recorded hundreds of songs on a Panasonic tape-deck with a friend. The Sunday Herald quotes Indiana saying, "I was five when I wrote my first song, about my cat, Herbert, who was hit by a train".
At university, Indiana studied music and physiotherapy. In 1991, she won an all-American title and National Dance Association dance championship in Dallas, Texas.
Read more about this topic: Indiana Gregg
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