• GAYRVA.COM
  • ABOUT
  • Mobile Site

GayRVA

  • News & Views
    • Headlines
    • History
    • Op/Ed
  • Arts & Events
    • Calendar
    • Photos
    • Nightlife
    • Submit an Event
  • Lifestyle
    • Food & Drink
    • Dating & Relationships
    • Health & Fitness
    • Style
  • Guide
    • Attractions
    • Bars & Clubs
    • Faith
    • Health & Beauty
    • Hotels
    • Legal Resources
    • Non-Profit, Volunteer & Activism
    • Real Estate
    • Recreation
    • Restaurants
    • Shopping
    • Support & Social Groups
    • Theaters
    • Travel
  • Calendar
  • Advertise
  • Bars & Clubs
  • Business Directory
  • Dating
  • Nightlife
  • Photos
  • Visit Richmond
  • Home
  • >
  • Amy Ray talks new Indigo Girls album, going digital, and being a new mom ahead of 6/21 Charlottesville show
  • You are not logged in.
  • LOGIN
  • Lifestyle

    Love Actually Won RVA...

    headshot
  • News & Views

    VCU Workgroup Issues Report...

    50089390_10156107044146239_418212188361064448_n
  • News & Views

    Side By Side Launches...

    46885833_2524775810896019_8941040149744058368_n
  • Arts & Events

    Muralist Emily Herr Puts...

    19554799_1315404795194820_7231491951325560953_n
  • News & Views

    University of Richmond Launches...

    IMG_5312
  • News & Views

    Diversity Richmond’s Third Annual...

    blackboldawards
  • News & Views

    Bipartisan Groups In Both...

    Official Portrait
  • News & Views

    Former Chesterfield County Schoolteacher...

    FullSizeRender-3
  • News & Views

    Trump Uses National Prayer...

    trump-national-prayer-breakfast-f-4
  • News & Views

    Trump’s Nominee to Replace...

    rao-booker-4

Arts & Events

    • Calendar
    • Photos
    • Nightlife
    • Submit an Event

Amy Ray talks new Indigo Girls album, going digital, and being a new mom ahead of 6/21 Charlottesville show

Brad Kutner
Brad Kutner
June 17, 2015
    • Tweet

    Read More: amy ray, artist interview, Indigo Girls, lesbian vocalists

    Indigo_Girls_364-Retouched_HIGHRES

    The Indigo Girls have been an important part of the folk music scene for 30 years, and their new album, One Lost day, and their new nation-wide tour, are ready to remind you of this fact.

    With a 9.0 rating from Paste Magazine, One Lost day, out now on Vanguard Records, is set to keep the bar high for the goddesses of folks, and in a recent conversation with GayRVA, guitarist, songwriter, and Indigo Girl Amy Ray gave some details on the album’s production and their new adventure into the digital realm.

    The Girls, Ray and Emily Saliers, hadn’t worked together on a record together in about five years, though both had solo projects and personal events which can be heard on One Lost Day.

    “A lot of life has happened, and a lot of the songs for me had been written over a big span of time,” said Ray in a phone interview last week. She said it was hard to really narrow the new album to one theme or story.

    “It’s everything from mass incarceration to relationship songs… it covers a lot of territory,” she said. “This record for us was as much about the process making it – learning how to dig in again and arrange songs together.”

    While the messages behind the songs might harken back to issues they’ve covered before, The Indigo Girls entered new territory in the studio this time around. This was their first real venture into almost entirely digital recording.

    “I worked in Garage Band [digital recording software] on one song on the last record… Peter Colins (their old producer,) didn’t work that way,” Ray said. “But that production was done more in person. But with Jordan [Hamlin], she’s young, and that’s how she works.”

    Ray said they would send Hamlin tracks and she would pop them into her production software. They would bounce tracks back and fourth through emails and build a frame around the early demos. “It was fun to work that way,” said Ray, who noted the digital experience saved them a lot of money and time. “And by the time we were in the studio, we had a really good idea of the arrangements.”

    For recording artists who have been around for more than 25 years, the entire digital process was new. Ray said she still produces her solo albums on tape, “Analog all the way,” she said with the vigor of an old-thyme southern country star. “The thing that was scary for us… was Jordan recording a framework… and then using that for record… it was backwards in a way. Even though its to a click track, so many things move around with us, we can play in tempo, but a lot of things happen.”

    Luckily, and through Hamlin’s talent, the final product worked out. They were able to use a lot of the early demo elements despite the new format. “We had to take a leap of faith,” Ray said, saying they had to respect Jordan’s vision entirely.

    “In order to work with her we had to let go at times and let her do her thing, and we did’t always want to do that.” she joked, saying she actually prefers the additional set of ears a producer provides in the creative process. “It was good for us… It helps me and Emily bridge our differences at times.”

    In keeping with the digital theme, the Girls plan to release music videos using snippets from fan’s recording the new songs at home and posting them online.

    There still a lot of the project up in the air, but Ray said the Girls were excited to bring the fans into their process.

     

     

    “They way our audience is, its already such a community,” she said, admitting they don’t get a lot of radio play and they count pretty heavily on word of mouth. Ray said the system used to be a bit more direct, with fan forums and people passing bootleg tapes between each other. Now, with Facebook and Twitter, the two musicians realized they had to dive in and modernize.

    “This time, we said “we’re making a new record, lets start at the beginning and do it right… not just do our thing in private. If we wanna keep community, this is how we do it. For us,” said Ray, who promised a mess of behind-the-scenes footage coming out later this year. Friend and filmmaker Kathlyn Horan flew out from LA to their studio to specifically capture these special moments.

    Ray was excited to talk about her new record, but she was even more excited to talk about her now 1.5 year adventure with motherhood. Ray and her partner of 13 years, Carrie Schrader, had a daughter, Ozilline Graydon, not too long ago with the help of a close male friend.

    “I love it, I can’t even articulate how much I love [motherhood],” Ray said. Her and Schrader had been talking about it for years. “I’m super happy… we have fun together. It’s awesome.”

    I’ll be at (le) Poisson Rouge,NYC for theSecond Annual Feminist Ball!Friday, March 13!Willie Mae Rock Camp’s Harsh Crowd is gonna be there too!

    Posted by Amy Ray on Thursday, March 12, 2015

    Saliers has 2-year-old as well, but they’re still not sure about bringing the kids out on tour.

    “I watch at home and she has such a good time at home, and I’m like “do you really wanna be in a hotel room every night?”” Ray joked.

    You won’t hear much about Ozilline in the new album “because [motherhood] is so new, and for me it takes a while for information to make it into a song,” she said.

    But the death of her father shortly before the birth of her child did inspire some of One Lost Day.

    “To have the kind of loss and gain at the same time,” Ray said. “There were songs I was working on that I finished after going through that experience – so my daughter’s in it in a way, in that kind of ‘loss of innocence,’ which I was able to see more clearly because of having a baby.”

    While certainly not the first tour since the last album, Ray and Saliers had slowed down some. The Girls played some gigs with symphonies and spent a good chunk of time getting ready for the nearly year-long tour they’ve already embarked on. Expect the upcoming show to feature tons of new tracks, many you’ll hear for the first time.

    They’ve listened to fans for this new tour as well – Ray said there are about 4 or 5 songs they are relearning with their new band after many many requests.

    “That’s what the internet’s for!” Ray joked, saying she often finds chord charts for older songs online, transcribed by someone else. “It’s incredible… I can’t find my lost chord chart for something and there’s someone whose charted it out for me… accurately as well!”

    Americana/country legend Mary Chapin Carpenter is on the tour as well, someone Ray called an old old friend. “There’s some guitar tunings we cribbed from here,” Ray joked. “We love her as a person, we love her as a musician.”

    Check out the Indigo Girls when they come to Charlottesville on 6/21st, pick up tickets here, and check out their full list of tour dates here. 

      • Tweet
      ray

      Related Stories

      Indigo Girl Amy Ray Featured on NPR, Releases Country/Roots Record

      Indigo Girl Amy Ray was featured on NPR’s Mountain Stage to help promote the release of her new country/roots album, Goodnight Tender. You can hear her NPR performance of the song “Duane Allman” here – here’s what NPR had to say about the performance: “Growing up in Georgia, The Allman Brothers were one of the very [...]

      June 9, 2014
      • Ticket Giveaway: Indigo Girls May 31 In Norfolk (With VA Symphony), May 17, 2013
      • The Indigo Girl’s Amy Ray Talks Performance, Tattoos, and Grassroots Activism, May 16, 2013
      • A Conversation With Emily Saliers Of The Indigo Girls, July 23, 2012
      • Prev Photos: Gov. McAuliffe’s 2015 LGBT Pride Proclamation
      • Next Navy considers elevating discharge requirements for transgender service members
      • Topics
      • Back to top
      ACLU Babe's of Carytown Bob Marshall Carytown Discrimination Diversity Richmond DOMA Equality Virginia Fan Free Clinic Featured Fourth Friday GA 2016 gallery Gay Community Center of Richmond GCCR General Assembly Godfrey's History HRC Human Rights Campaign Lesbian LGBT LGBTQ Marriage Equality movie reviews Movies music Nations North Carolina Photos religious freedom Richmond Richmond Triangle Players ROSMY RVA theatre Same-Sex Marriage Transgender transgender bathroom use Trump administration tv jerry University of Richmond VA Pride VCU video Virginia Pride

      More News

      • 50089390_10156107044146239_418212188361064448_n VCU Workgroup Issues Report On Making Campus Library More Inclusive For Trans & Non-Binary Students
      • 46885833_2524775810896019_8941040149744058368_n Side By Side Launches Host Home Program To Combat Youth Homelessness
      • IMG_5312 University of Richmond Launches Trans-Inclusive Health Care Program
      • Recent Posts

        • Love Actually Won RVA Offers Support and Community To Survivors of Conversion Therapy
        • VCU Workgroup Issues Report On Making Campus Library More Inclusive For Trans & Non-Binary Students
        • Side By Side Launches Host Home Program To Combat Youth Homelessness
        • Muralist Emily Herr Puts Positive Spin On Female Masculinity With Virago Spirits Mural
        • University of Richmond Launches Trans-Inclusive Health Care Program
      • Friend Activity

      our partners

      QUICK LINKS

      About

      • About GayRVA
      • Advertise
      • Contact Us
      • Privacy Policy

      Arts & Events

      • Photos
      • Nightlife
      • Calendar
      • Archive

      Connect

      • YouTube
      • Twitter
      • Facebook
      • E-Newsletter

      Guides

      • Travel
      • Resources
      • Real Estate
      • Business Directory

      Lifestyle

      • Style
      • Health & Fitness
      • Food & Drink
      • Dating & Relationships

      Partner Links

      • RMCVB
      • Gungho Guides
      • GCCR

      Copyright (c) 2019 GayRVA.com | Website Developed By CO+LAB

      GayRVAout. spoken.

      Continue to GayRVA (X)