MUSIC INTERVIEW
The Yin & Yang of Indigo Girls Emily Saliers & Amy Ray On The Differences That Keep Them Together
BY BRET LOVE
A
LITTLE BIT FOLKSY AND A little bit rock ‘n’ roll, Indigo Girls Amy Ray and Emily Saliers have always found strength in their differences. Sure, Emily has been pegged as the kinder, gentler, more spiritual Joni Mitchell acolyte, while Amy’s more intensely passionate approach was obviously influenced by punk-rock legends such as Chrissie Hynde and Hüsker Dü. But while many of their contemporaries from the late ‘80s singer-songwriter scene have faded from view (see: Suzanne Vega, Natalie Merchant), the Indigo Girls have remained potent and relevant for over 20 years and counting. Still, their road has not always been smooth. As self-proclaimed “opinionated lesbian folk-rockers,” they met with their fair share of resistance in the male-dominated music industry. Signed by Epic Records in 1988, the duo released a string of Gold and Platinum albums (including 1989’s Indigo Girls, 1990’s Nomads Indians Saints, 1992’s Rites of Passage and 1994’s Swamp Ophelia), becoming Grammy Award fixtures and Lilith Fair headliners in the process. But with the music industry’s sharp decline, they were unceremoniously dumped from Hollywood Records after just one album, finding themselves consigned to the indie world for the first time since 1987’s Strange Fire. Now the dynamic duo is back with their own label, IG Recordings, and a new album called Poseidon & the Bitter Bug that highlights their dichotomous nature via two CDs featuring acoustic and electric versions of the same songs. In keeping with that theme, we recently spoke with Amy and Emily in separate interviews, covering topics ranging from their musical compatibility and their struggles with sexism in the music business to career longevity and the upsides of artistic independence.
to the local scene.” AMY: “Being women definitely put us at a disadvantage. There are times when the trend is for more women to get played on the radio or get signed more frequently, but it’s typically just a trend, then there’s a backlash. It doesn’t serve women that well, because we’re not normally on par where the playing field is level. We didn’t focus on that and become bitter about being held back as women, but we definitely noticed it. You have to work a little harder, but that’s another thing we tried to turn into an asset, finding our community and playing for people who supported women in music. So it ultimately became our strength. There’s always sexism in radio and the media, except maybe for Top 40, but that’s not what we do.” ON THE CHANGES THAT HAVE ROCKED THE MUSIC INDUSTRY OVER THE PAST DECADE AMY: “You could write an encyclopedia about the changes in the music industry! (Laughs) Obviously the big thing was the corporate mergers and the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which allowed a company to own a lot of radio stations or media outlets. That really shifted things for musicians, because it created this sort of monolithic playlist in these various formats. If you were on it you were in like Flynn, but if not you were out of luck. It became harder to get on the radio and to get into print media, because all of the independent publications started disappearing due to lack of advertising dollars or got bought out
and turned into something different. So that limited our access, but the Internet started booming and gave us more access. I think it’s still working itself out, but I think the Internet is potentially great for independent musicians. The major labels went through a period of incredible greed and gluttony, with overblown budgets and overpaid executives and CDs that were too expensive, so they made their own bed. I think they focused on the wrong aspects of their companies, and those bad decisions are coming home to roost. I do think that, for all the negative things that have happened, there are a lot of positive possibilities that are happening. But I also lament the loss of community radio and independent print media.” EMILY: “When broadcasting was opened up to corporate purchase, it changed the face of radio forever. When I was coming up there were regional hits that spread across the country, and it was more interesting, less homogenized and less corporate-controlled. I think the loss of that hurt the music business, and it hurt when major labels didn’t jump on the digital bandwagon and continued to charge too much for CDs. And when we got signed, record labels were more about nurturing bands instead of kicking them out after one failed attempt at a Top 10 single. What’s interesting now is how with iTunes and downloading, everything is focused on singles. As a culture we seem to have shorter attention spans, and that’s reflected in the music industry as well.” ON BEING UNCEREMONIOUSLY DROPPED BY HOLLYWOOD RECORDS
ON WHAT EACH PERSON BRINGS TO THE TABLE AMY: “Emily is a great musician. Her musical vocabulary is vast, so she can find cool intervals and unusual chord voicings. She’s a good songwriter, with a real knack for striking melodies and catchy lyrics, and we have slightly different vocal ranges that work well together.” EMILY: “Amy was the one who held down the guitar parts early on, but now she’s broadened her range to the point that she can do a lot of things very well. But I think the thing she’s best at is just rocking hard, even in her ballads and mid-tempo songs. She has a strength and an edge that’s very different from what I offer, and we wouldn’t be who we are without that.” ON THE DIFFICULTIES OF BEING WOMEN IN A MALE-DOMINATED INDUSTRY EMILY: “There was a lot of sexism and homophobia, especially early on. Amy really knows how to run a sound system, and that wasn’t appreciated by a lot of the guys in the clubs. Radio jocks can often be obnoxious and sexist, and record labels don’t know how to market opinionated lesbian folksinger-rockers, so there’s always a commercial aspect that never got fulfilled in the way it might have had we been a different kind of female band, but we never cared about that. To be honest, it hasn’t affected us much: We just did what we do. We were influenced by a lot of local female musicians, like Caroline Aiken, who really took us under her wing. We’ve always felt connected PG 20 • insiteatlanta.com • March 2009
EMILY: “We had a long relationship with Epic Records– they were good to us and supported us– but then it ran its course. I wanted to try a smaller label, and Hollywood looked like it had the resources to bring us to the next level, because as a band that’s been around 25 years there’s a way that you can plateau. They made so many promises and seemed so excited to have us, so when they dropped us it was like, ‘Screw this! We’ll be independent.’ Amy was totally happy, because she wanted to go indie a long time ago.” ON HOW BEING INDIE ARTISTS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 20 YEARS IMPACTED THE RECORDING PROCESS EMILY: “Being dropped and having monetary restrictions led to time restrictions in the studio. We only had our rhythm section (featuring drummer Matt Chamberlain) together for four days, so we ended up making the record very quickly, which I found quite exhilarating. We moved from one thing right to the next without belaboring over decisionmaking, just sort of feeling in our guts when it was right. [Producer] Mitchell Froom is really good at that, so in a roundabout way being independent proved to be exciting because of the energy.” AMY: “I think it subconsciously gives you a sense of freedom, but on a more concrete level we had to do it faster and on a lower budget, which was no big deal. When that happens, your community obviously steps up to the table: Southern Tracks gave us a good deal on studio time, Mitchell Froom gave us a good deal… everyone understood we were independent now and needed to make the record very quickly. On a business level it was easier in some ways, because we didn’t have to rush to make a certain release date or pick the best single. We were able to time it to our lives. You get to make your own choices and have more discretion.” ON HOW POSEIDON & THE BITTER BUG REFLECTS THEIR DICHOTOMY AS ARTISTS EMILY: “In reflecting on it, [the electric/ acoustic approach of Poseidon & the Bitter Bug] really lays out what it is that we do: We write songs separately, then we get together and practice them, and there’s a very organic approach that’s laid out in the acoustic version of the record. But we also enjoy collaborating with other players, plugging in electric guitars and rocking out a bit, and I think that’s reflected in the other CD. It just seemed like a natural thing, and since it didn’t take long to record the acoustic version, it was like, why not?”
I THINK WE’RE LUCKY. WE HAVE A REALLY GREAT CORE AUDIENCE THAT STICKS WITH US, LISTENS TO OUR MUSIC AND COMES TO OUR SHOWS, AND DOESN’T LOOK AT MUSIC FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF TRENDS.
ON HOW THEY’VE BEEN ABLE TO SUSTAIN CAREERS WHILE MANY OF THEIR PEERS HAVE FALLEN BY THE WAYSIDE AMY: “I think we’re lucky. We have a really great core audience that sticks with us, listens to our music and comes to our shows, and doesn’t look at music from the perspective of trends. From time to time, if we get a song on the radio or get coverage in more media, we may add to that base audience, but it’s that small core that relates to us that has sustained our careers. It’s made up of a lot of great people– teachers, poets, activists and authors– who are contributing to the world, and hopefully we’re doing that too, so there’s a lot of mutual respect. That’s a blessing, and that’s really hard to find.”
