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Emily Saliers talks Indigo Girls and the band’s new album, “One Lost Day”

If you’re anything like me, The Indigo Girls have been around for every major life event and are not going anywhere anytime soon. “Let’s Make Peace Tonight” is your “5 O’clock Somewhere.” “The Power of Two” is your “Unchained Melody.”

Everyone relax. I understand you perfectly.

The Indigo Girls new album, The Lost Day, is a continuation of everything we have come to expect, full of introspective lyrics, with some refreshing new musical differences. And the harmonies on this album-you know the ones-took my breath away.

We grabbed some time with Emily Saliers to talk music, lesbians and more.

AfterEllen.com: Emily, thanks so much for talking with me today, My name is Lianna, I met you eight years ago in Cathy Woolard’s office when she campaigned for congress in Decatur, GA.

Emily Saliers: I totally, totally remember that!

AE: You walked in and I was star struck and panicked. You said, “Hey, where were you the last time I came in?” and I blurted out, “I went to the mountains!” even though I had never, ever been to the mountains.

ES: [Laughs] Oh my gosh, you’re a dork like me!

AE: Congratulations on the new album!

ES: Thank you!

AE: It’s the 14th studio album, is that right?

ES: Oh gosh, I don’t even know. That sounds about right. 14th, 15th, 16th-something in there.

AE: That’s an impressive amount of content. How do you stay so prolific?

ES: Well, Amy and I both love music and we’re both participants of life, in all of its conflict and beauty, its complexity and simplicity. We love finding artists who inspire us, watching good movies, and reading good stuff, all that stuff stirs your pot.

I think we work hard on our song writing so we’re constantly working, making sure we are not repeating the same phrases, of course some of the themes are going to be the same, because that’s life. But yes, it’s been 35 years!

AE: And even yet, the newest album One Lost Day feels like one of your strongest. I did hear some new things in the music. I mean obviously as long as you two are singing, it is so familiar—but can you put into your own words what is different musically about this album?

ES: I think one of the factors of it sounding differently somewhat is working with a new producer. So Jordan Brooke Hamlin produced the record and she is a young woman, and she plays a lot of instruments, she is classically trained in French Horn. So there are some horns, some string arrangements on the songs we haven’t done before. And also we sent our stripped down demos to her and she mocked up and wrote up musical pieces that would fit with the songs, and we loved everything she did and those ended up being in the songs. So there’s a good deal of moodiness and darkness but also a very strong pop sensibility. We also played with new players that we haven’t been there before. So its like you said, we have the glue, our sound, but then we brought new elements in and there’s a cool new musical difference for sure.

AE: I know you’ve been playing symphony shows this year—is that where you got the idea to include strings in the record? And how did those shows came about?

ES: Well, we started using strings as early as second or third record maybe, and I grew up listening to classical music with my parents and have always loved strings. I think just to play the symphony, we got invited by the agency that puts musical groups with symphonies—because there are other artists that do it as well like Ben Folds, Brandi Carlile and other pop-rock artists, so we just got invited and thought it’d be really fun. We hired very good arrangers who wrote the scores to arrange the songs, and since it’s been going so well, we keep getting invited to be a part of different symphony seasonal presentations of these pop performances.

AE: Any plans to record that and put it out for people who are not able to make it to those cities?

ES: Yeah we really want to, but the biggest stumbling block has been union fees, its prohibitively expensive. So think about all the players and all that stuff, so we’re just trying to figure out a way to make it happen. I’m sure we will.

AE: Well, I will definitely contribute to the Kickstarter. And I know I am not alone.

ES: Thank you!

AE: Do you have a song, that you love to perform? And on the flip side of that, do you have a fan favorite that you’re all like, “Do I really have to perform this again?!”

ES: You know, you think the answer to that would be “Closer to Fine,” but we never get tired of playing it because everybody sings on it, a lot of times the opening act will sing the last verse or the crowd will sing the second of the last verse, so it feels rousing and different every time so I think it’s the song we play the most, but we make it different every time. We don’t play songs we don’t want to play honestly, we make a new set list every night. There are songs that mean a lot during a certain a period of time, then you move on to another that becomes your favorite, and it sort of switches in and out. Then you can write a song and forget about it. There are songs I’ve written ten years ago, that suddenly ten years later take on a new meaning and I get interested in playing them because of the new things it means to me. So it’s a bit of a mystery. We make sure that we’re never bored or tired or going through the motions ever, we try to keep it fresh.

AE: Even though you have fans from all walks of life, your audiences are full of people who just appreciate great harmonies and great music, but the Indigo Girls are still such a vivid cultural reference to, well, lesbianism.

ES: [Laughs] Okay, I can accept that!

AE: It’s like, “Oh you’re a lesbian? You like the Indigo Girls? Shocking.”

ES: [Laughs]

AE: Maybe people don’t tell you that, but I’m telling you now. I can see how when you are first getting started, you want everyone to appreciate your music no matter what, but now that the Indigo Girls has become this lesbian cultural reference. How does that make you feel?

ES: That’s a really good question. I think at the very beginning no one was more fervent as supporters—besides our parents and families—than our lesbian community. So at the very beginning we owe launching to the loyalty of that following. And then we came out, we had always been out, but we started talking about it in the national press early on. I think I had fears of becoming pigeonholed, and as it turns out, we did become pigeon holed. But at this stage in my life, I see now how people have a need to generalize and categorize and do all those things that might keep them from feeling the full extent of our music; but to be honest with you the most important thing is that we were a part of the movement for rights for queer people, to be synonymous with lesbianism is awesome if it means that we were a part of that movement. That we made it less lonely for someone who didn’t have anyone else to relate to, who couldn’t hang out with any other gay people. So I don’t like being categorized and put into a box. But in this instance, because it’s part of that movement, and because I am a lesbian, it’s fantastic. Does that answer the question?

AE: It does it totally does, and it leads me to my next one too. My dad’s a retired southern Baptist minister, so I could just be hearing things, but I swear you have Biblical references in your music. Not in an overt way, preachy way, but I mean all the good stuff the church can represent—

ES: [Laughs,] No, it’s all in there!

AE: Good! I thought I was crazy, like, “Have I been so brainwashed as a child that I think the Indigo Girls are singing Biblical references?” But, after the Indiana pizzeria went on record for refusing to serve that hypothetical gay wedding, I wrote a piece for AfterEllen, “Who Said it, Jesus or the Indigo Girls

ES: Oh my god! You’re the one who did that? That was so awesome! Oh my God, I had so many friends send that to me. That was really great and hilarious. So flattering!

AE: Thank you! I don’t know if that’s purposeful, but when you sing things like “Shine my life like a light, ” or “The street person is my responsibility—”

ES: It’s true though, Amy grew up going to Methodist church and I grew up going to the Methodist church, my dad is a Methodist Minister, he’s a professor of Theology, so he’s a teacher, but he’s also ordained. So like you said, I appreciate the good stuff about the Church. My experience with organized religion was always good. I do have a problem with the more conservative Right that likes to dictate faith to me and to others that excludes people.

But, yeah, Amy and I both grew up in church going families and we learned that God is loving, and beyond that, the Bible is an incredible source of imagery and inspiration so we drew a lot from that. There are archetypal images, and powerful stories, and examples of things that could really take a song to the next realm. A lot of people early on thought we were a Christian band because of all the references we use [Laughs]. We still use that imagery somewhat, less now than some of our earlier material but yeah, we’re still people of faith, just all inclusive people of all faith, or of no faith, whatever, it’s your own journey.

AE: Okay—now for some lighter questions. What is your go-to karaoke song?

ES: Oh my gosh, great question! I don’t know …

AE: Because Fill It Up Again is my go-to karaoke song.

ES: That’s so funny! Okay, how about: “I Can’t Make You Love Me” by Bonnie Raitt.

AE: That’s a pretty good choice if you can’t sing your own stuff, I guess.

ES: [Laughs]

AE: Well Emily, I’ll let you go. But before I do, I have some readers wondering what advice you have for inspiring artists. You’ve been through a lot and seen it all.

ES: I can answer quickly that obviously everything has changed in the music industry but the reason why we play comes from a real place of love. So, have a place of love for your music and work hard at your craft to get better at it. You can’t just wait for the muse, it becomes your job, you have to be really dedicated to it. Then take advantage of getting your music out there. Do open mics, play with your friends, and if you want to pursue it as a career, stick with it and work hard.

AE: It almost feels like the drive to do any art is both a blessing and a curse—a blessing because when you create, it feels so great, but a curse in that you can’t be happy doing anything else.

ES: And that’s the thing. Amy and I never had aspirations to sign to a major label and to have a career like this. We started out by having fun, we got together in basements, played songs, played as a cover band, got fake IDs and played at bars, and then eventually wrote music of our own.

Little by little we built a career but it came from no aspirations except for taking the next step for growth. So all the dues they say that you pay when you’re in a smelly old van, driving for 17 hour straight, didn’t feel like dues to us. It just felt like music and it was awesome. I don’t think we could do 17 hours in a van now, I’m grateful we can rent a bus now, but it didn’t feel like paying dues because it was always great, it was playing music.”

The Indigo Girls are hitting the road this summer following the release of One Lost Day. To purchase the album and to check out when they’ll be in your city, visit www.indigogirls.com.

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