Around the time they were set to release 1999's Come On Now Social, the Indigo Girls began mulling over the idea of once again making an acoustic-based recording.
Emily Saliers and Amy Ray had long departed from that method of music-making once their '89 self-titled debut -- featuring their signature piece Closer To Fine -- propelled the Atlanta folk-rock duo into everyone's psyche.
"As we continued making records that were more and more produced, I was always thinking, 'Wow, it'd be great to do something with less production.'
CONTRARY
"I'm just that kind of contrary person," a congenial Ray says over the phone as the duo gears up for the March 12 release of their eighth studio effort, Become You.
"I mean, it's fun to do huge, produced records but we simply didn't have the budget this time around. Besides, I do think some of the best records are these simple ones that cost a lot less to make. They're recorded quickly and they capture a moment."
Recorded last fall in the Girls' home town, Become You is a rootsy, harmony intensive disc that, while hearkening back to the early recordings, was deftly produced by Peter Collins, who was responsible for 1992's Rites of Passage and '94's Grammy-nominated Swamp Ophelia.
Ray says she and Saliers even toyed with the idea of having no extra instrumentation, just two women and two guitars.
"I didn't really want drums on it," Ray explains. "But Brady (Blade, our touring bandmate) is such a great drummer that he can keep it down to that roots level. I thought it would be a compromise, but in the end it wasn't a compromise at all. I love the way the band played rootsy."
Blade, bassist Clare Kenny and keyboardist/accordion player Carol Isaacs (that's her electric piano that bolsters leadoff single Moment of Forgiveness) will back the Indigo Girls' March 4 appearance at the Congress Centre, an Ottawa-Gatineau Pride Festival presentation.
Split between Saliers and Ray, the 12 songs focus on finding a common understanding in relationships, though Ray admits "we're so polarized in our songwriting that it's hard to find what the common thread really is."
Without a doubt, after 15 years together, friendship remains a commonality between the two, Ray says. Saliers was supportive when Ray ventured off last year to do her solo album Stag and form her own label, Daemon Records.
Says Ray, "Going out on the road with an independent release in my car, by myself, no crew ... it was something I needed to do. I had to get in touch with how to fix my own guitars and amplifiers.
"But we look at those things as adding to the whole Indigo Girls' collage of life. I'm sure Emily will do a solo record."
ACTIVISTS
And certainly social activism remains a core part of the Indigos' life. Ray admits the events of Sept. 11 were tragic, but one shouldn't lose perspective of other issues in dire need of attention.
"(President) Bush is able to get a lot of things by, legally and legislatively, that we don't notice just because we're too busy rooting for him as a warrior," Ray says. "All these other things are decimated because, well, 'it's for the war.' It's so weird the connections he makes.
"My focus is the reminder that we still have to think about nuclear issues. You can't just give up fighting the nuclear industry because all of a sudden there's a war going on.
"It's important whenever you get involved in anything to throw your support behind someone who's actually part of a community. You're just amplifying their voice."
