Interview with Indigo Girls Amy Ray - Amy Ray Interview

I spoke with Amy Ray in June 2008 via phone from a hotel room somewhere in Ohio while she was on tour with the Indigo Girls. They had just finished playing three dates with the True Colors tour. Amy and I talked about her relationship with co-Indigo Girl Emily Saliers, her new solo album and how the trans movement has influenced her life. Here is the Lesbian Life Interview with Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls.

Lesbian Life: Tell me about the True Colors Tour.

Amy Ray: Well, it was awesome, we did the first three shows and we had a great time. It’s an awesome tour. I think people need to check it out because it’s a really, really good show overall. The B52s set is really good. Cyndi Lauper set is really good. The Cliks are awesome to watch.

You and Emily have been together over 20 years as the Indigo Girls. As you both grow and change, how do you continue to find inspiration from each other?

I think it comes from just respecting each other’s space and writing and having faith in the process. That gives us security. I think the inspiration comes from the other person’s songwriting and how it evolves. A lot of it is the people around us and who we work with. People constantly build different kinds of bridges between me and Emily. That’s very important. I’m inspired by things Emily might do outside of the Indigo Girls and vice versa. You have to keep other musicians in your community and play with other people and constantly forge new relationships and seek out people who can teach you things and that’s what we do.

As far as how you work, do you come together to write songs, or do you write separately and then bring them to each other?

We write them separately and then come together and arrange them.

Has that changed over the years?

It’s always been the same.

It seems that over the years, yours styles have changed. It’s more evident what is an Amy song and what is an Emily song.

That’s true. I think it’s just what happens. As people write more they just get into their own language more.

Now you’ve got your third solo album out. (Didn’t It Feel Kinder, August 2008) How do you decide what’s going to be an Amy Ray song and what’s going to be an Indigo Girls song?

It’s just a feeling I have. Usually when I start writing it I can tell, does this feel like a duo song or does this feel like an Amy Ray song? It’s based on the musicians I’m going to play with and what I know I want to experience on a song, solo vs. Indigo Girls. Indigo Girls stuff, I don’t always know what we’re going to do, but I can tell how the harmonies are going to be approached. I can almost hear Emily in it as I’m writing it.

Is there a theme on this album?

Kind of. It’s not anything that I thought about in the beginning. What I’m tackling on this album thematically is ways of having compassion for people who are different from you, who speak a different language, have a different perspective. How to deal with anger and hate and betrayal and all those negative emotions that we have, and other people have towards us, and how to look at that from a compassionate place. I think that is part of the theme. I tried to focus on a certain musicality and a certain groove. My last couple records were more on the nose thematically. I didn’t want to do that this time.

It sounds different to me than your previous two albums.

Yeah. I used a producer, which I’ve never done, so I had someone working with me that really created a lot of challenges in a good way that brought me up to another level. I used a studio that sounded really good. It was a combination of technical stuff and musical stuff that created a different sound.

And you collaborated with a lot of the same musicians from The Butchies, Kaia Wilson and Melissa York.

Yup. Those two. They’ve evolved over time too. The last time I recorded with them was seven years ago and we kept in touch and played together, but Kaia had expanded and Mel had expanded on ways of playing and so their sound has shifted a little bit too.

You’ve been doing this for years and years, does it still feed you?

Yeah, if it didn’t, I think I’d quit. Because I don’t think it would be worth any amount of money to feel spiritually dead. There are definitely moments when I feel so tired of being on the road, sleeping in hotels. And then I feel glad that I even have a hotel, because I have friends who are in bands who are sleeping on people’s floors. As soon as I start feeling negative, all I have to do is think about some of my best friends and think about them sleeping in the back seat of a van and making their meals in a crock pot on the road and I’m like I have it so good. But it wears you down a bit, the traveling does. It’s just something to contend with. It’s the job part of the job.

I think you just find a balance, like how much traveling is too much. Because you don’t ever want to be playing in front of people when you don’t feel energized and present.

Are you going to be touring with the new album?

Yes, I will be going out in October. Indigos are touring through the middle of July and have a September tour too and then I’ll take a week off and start my solo tour.

Touring solo is so different because it’s in a van. It’s kind of grueling, but you’re really in control of your destiny the whole time. Being on a tour bus is great, but it doesn’t feel like the thrill of the open road. Being in a van can be a relief in some ways. You can roll the windows down and just go where you want to go. We split the driving. I love driving. I enjoy that part of touring. It’s fun.