INDIGO GIRLS

MMUSICMAG.COM
JULY/AUGUST 2010 ISSUE
Matt Odom
Q&A
Emily Saliers, Amy Ray
INDIGO GIRLS
Staring down the challenge of a live album together
WHEN THE INDIGO GIRLS BEGAN
compiling Staring Down the Brilliant
Dream, their first live album since 1995’s
1200 Curfews, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers
were pretty sure they knew what wouldn’t
be included: their signature hit, 1989’s
“Closer to Fine.” They were looking for
lesser-known gems and newer songs. But
then they stumbled on a performance of
the song featuring guests Michelle Malone,
Jill Hennessy, Julie Wolf and A Fragile
Tomorrow’s Sean and Dominic Kelly. It deftly
summed up the warm, cooperative feel their
live shows have always offered. “We grew
up playing in a bar, with friends joining us on
stage,” Saliers says. “We’ve been doing that
since we started, and I think this live album
is an extension of our sensibility.”
After two decades of major-label
success, last year the Indigo Girls released
their 11th studio album, Poseidon and the
Bitter Bug, on their own IG Recordings,
partnering with Vanguard Records for
distribution only. “There’s more freedom—
we think of things and then decide to do
them. It’s not a big process,” says Ray of
their return to independence. “It’s not that
a label wouldn’t want us to do a live record,
it’s just that it’s hard to make things happen
when you’re part of a big machine.”
In the midst of their many projects,
including an upcoming holiday album and a
stint on this summer’s Lilith Fair 2010 tour,
the Girls spoke to us about revisiting their
last few years on the road.
Why release another live album now?
AMY RAY: It had been 15 years and we
were between records. In order to do a live
record, you need quite a lot of time to listen
to things, and sort out what you want to
use, and mix. We saw a gap of time, and it
seemed like a good time to go through all
these recordings and see if we had a live
record in there.
EMILY SALIERS: Our front-of-house sound
man, Brian [Speiser], recorded all our live
shows from 2006 to 2009 and came up
‘When you’re playing live, it’s a mutual exchange
with the audience.’ –Amy Ray
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MMUSICMAG.COM
JULY/AUGUST 2010 ISSUE
How did you select the tracks?
SALIERS: Brian put together a huge list
of tracks that had come out really well, and
we made a list of things we were looking
for, more obscure tracks and a few different
things. He went through all of his recordings
and presented us with the first round. We
vetted our own songs first, which was a way
of saving time at the outset. Then we spent
hours listening and making notes—and then
chose the songs together. There are a lot
of songs on this record! We had to put the
brakes on eventually.
RAY: We would pick three or four versions
of a song and compare those, and whittle it
down until we had the shape of something
that felt right, that covered the territory, songs
that we hadn’t put down live. Then we looked
at what songs felt good, sounded good and
didn’t have mistakes in them.
Aren’t mistakes part of the charm of
live performance?
RAY: Mistakes are charming when it’s live
in the moment, but it wouldn’t be charming
to hear over and over on a record. (laughs)
So we try to balance that. If there’s a small
mistake that doesn’t distract from the song,
we don’t worry about it.
Did any particular tracks leap out
immediately?
SALIERS: “I Believe in Love,” which we
didn’t play that often with the band, and we
don’t play it with just me and Amy, because
it’s really a band song. I play the ukulele on
it. When we got a good take of that, it was
like, “Wow, I can’t believe we got this one.”
And that became a no-brainer. Other songs
had a lot of very good versions, like “Don’t
Think Twice” with Brandi Carlile. We did look
for a lot of band tracks.
RAY: A song we do acoustic a lot, but I
felt like the band version was always better,
is “Three County Highway.” It’s kind of a
slow country song, but the drummer
has a good feel on it. There was also a
recent show that, after we played it,
Brian said, “That whole show could be a
live record.” So we knew to mark that to
listen to.
Which guitars in particular do you
usually take on the road with you?
SALIERS: I play Martins on stage. I have
a D-45 that only 50 of them were made,
and I love that guitar so much. It’s very
different than my J-40 Martin, which is
kind of like the workhorse. I primarily play
that J-40 on Amy’s songs, and I play the
D-45 on mine. The J-40 is a little bit
more muscular.
RAY: I play a Martin 0-18 from the ’40s that
I’ve had since high school, and a Martin J-40,
which is kind of the utility. I play a D-35 on
Emily’s songs. My favorite guitar right now
is a Gibson J-45 from the ’50s. A Martin has
more upper mids, but on the Gibson every
spectrum is represented very well, so it’s
very versatile.
How have you changed as a live act
over the years?
SALIERS: I don’t think we’ve changed so
much in terms of spirit. Obviously we try
to get better. (laughs) We try to hone our
Do you feel like Indigo Girls is at its
most pure live?
RAY: I used to feel that way. But we do
things in the studio we probably wouldn’t
do live, just because we have other players
with us, and we have the time to develop the
vocals in a different way or try things that we
can’t necessarily repeat live. It’s a different
arena. It’s important to capture the energy,
but it’s also important to take advantage
of the ways that the studio is different.
When you’re playing live, it’s a mutual
exchange with the audience. When you’re
in the studio, your involvement is with
technology and equipment, and the way a
microphone sounds.
What’s the secret to your longevity?
SALIERS: There are a lot of reasons. Our
families grew up together, and we’ve known
each other since we were little girls. Also
we have healthy independent lives, so when
we come together, we’re not bored. It’s a
beautiful thing.
REUTERS/Chris Pizzello/Landov
with some really, really good sounding
recordings, even before they were mixed
and mastered. So given the fact that the
fans liked 1200 Curfews so much, we
thought this was a good way to present
a little slice of our history. Since the
recordings were good, we had a lot to
choose from.
At the 22nd Annual ASCAP Pop
Music Awards, Beverly Hills, 2005
‘We have healthy independent lives,
so when we come together, we’re not
bored.’ – Emily Saliers
craft and become better players, and we’ve
picked up more instruments along the way,
which keeps it more interesting for us and
the fans. Fifteen years ago, we didn’t have
the ukulele or bouzouki or harmonica or
banjo, so I think adding those instruments
has been positive growth.
RAY: One big thing is that we write
separately. That gives us our own little
creative space. But also, we know that
what we do together is the thing that we
can’t do alone. Musically, it works. We
got lucky.
–Katie Dodd
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