Independence and activism: Indigo Girl Amy Ray’s own words
By Mike Barajas
October 2, 2008
For Amy Ray, college was a time of really finding who she was, both artistically and politically. During those years, Indigo Girls, her band with longtime friend and collaborator Emily Saliers, had just begun to take off, and she fell in love with the independent college music scene and the politics, ideals and activism that came with it.
The Indigo Girls, who are set to play at Ohio University’s Memorial Auditorium tonight at 7:30, have tasted a wide range of success and recognition since their days at Emory University in Georgia. (Alt.country artist Kathleen Edwards opens the show.)
Though the folk-rock duo now has a Grammy under their belt and two major record-label contracts in their past, Ray explained she’s still drawn to the independent music scene, and “that’s really more where my heart is.”
After being on Epic Records for the better part of a decade, the duo switched to Hollywood Records, a label under the Walt Disney Company, to release their latest album, “Despite Our Differences.”
Ray explained how the switch to Hollywood made her uneasy from the start. Signing with the label, she said, “I wasn’t totally into that, but I was willing to make a compromise.” The switch was something that Saliers really felt the band should try, Ray said, so the duo went with it.
During their tour to promote the album in 2007, the label suddenly dropped the band. “When that happened,” Ray said, “there wasn’t even the bat of an eye.” After having tried another big label, Ray said the band was absolutely ready to release their next album independently.
The Indigo Girls are now a fully independent band, and plan to release a new record in February 2009, their first independent album since the band’s years right out of college. Ray said, “The whole big label thing just really doesn’t fit totally with our politics.”
Having grown up and gone to college in towns with thriving independent scenes, Ray said DIY bands are “less about profit and more about art.” Having control over everything you put out, she said, “influences the music with something that’s just different for me.”
“There’s just more soul; it’s just more creative; it’s more about good songwriting and a unique perspective,” Ray said.
Ray even created her own independent, not-for-profit label in the ’90s for just those kinds of musicians. Her label, Daemon Records, has been an outlet for some musicians for which “there just aren’t as many opportunities out there,” such as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) artists, Ray said. The label has also released four of Ray’s own solo albums.
Even apart from the topic of sexuality, Ray said that many artists still don’t have the same opportunities because of things like race, citing an all-black rock band that she invited to come work with her label. “I don’t know what it is,” she said, explaining that what draws her to certain acts might just be “that outside art perspective.”
Ray’s past as being part of an independent, outside perspective prompted her to become a community activist early in her life. She said in college, the Indigo Girls began playing benefits and working for different causes in the community.
“It’s just kind of the way we were raised,” she said, adding that deeply engrained in her and Saliers from an early age was the idea that “part of what you do in life is engage in your community and help.”
Explaining that being an artist and an activist often go hand in hand, Ray said that she and Saliers realized early on that as musicians they could be amplifiers for others and their causes. Ray and Saliers, who both identify as lesbians, have long been at the front of the fight for LGBT rights and have been viewed as icons of the movement.
Ray said it’s difficult to see herself in that light, as a role model for the LGBT community. “I’ve been helped by other queer artists who stand up for who they are,” she said, adding that she hopes she does the same for others.
Ray explained that people within the LGBT community need to see people who are comfortable with their sexuality and who they are. “To me, when I meet those people, I’m totally empowered by that,” she said. Ray said she’s hopeful that she can provide people with that same sense of empowerment.
Among other causes, the Indigo Girls pioneered Honor the Earth, a group that’s dedicated to creating support and education for native environmental issues. Being involved with environmental activism is something the band has always found important, Ray said. Honor the Earth, she explained, works heavily with native and indigenous populations who she said have previously set many precedents for environmentalism, “precedents for government accountability and corporate accountability.”
The Indigo Girls are also working with a project called Head Count, which registers voters and makes sure they have access to the polls come election time, Ray said. In this election season, Ray stated that she’s still fixated on the Iraq War and the consequences of a botched foreign policy.
Talking about the presidential candidates, Ray said, “Obama, for me, has my ear. He’s a lot more receptive to the changes in [the issues] that I work with.” Environmentally, she said she feels John McCain is too much a part of the fossil-fuel world.
Though Ray said she’s always been devoted to pro-choice and gay-rights issues, she said those aren’t the things at the front of her mind when it comes to voting this election. “I feel like as people, we can influence those social issues in a big way,” she said, regardless of who’s in office. However, she said problems like the environment, foreign diplomacy and war could only really be addressed and fixed by elected officials, which is why it’s so important to vote with those issues in mind.
Ray admitted that music can be separate from the activism, adding, “I think there’s a place for both.” Though there can be a disconnect between life as a musician and life as an activist, Ray said that the causes she champions for are always there, somewhere in the back of her mind, somehow informing everything she does as a musician and artist.
“We love playing college campuses,” she said, adding that she meets so many active students who are helping pioneer some of the very causes she’s become so involved with. “I think we meet the cream of the crop at [colleges],” she said.
Reflecting on her own time in college as a student, musician and activist, Ray said it was a time to get involved in causes that really matter. “You have so many resources and people available to you – you have a mini-revolution at your fingertips,” she said.
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