The Indigo Girls came about at the same time as other women with guitars -- Tracy Chapman, Melissa Etheridge and Suzanne Vega -- but unlike their contemporaries, the lesbian folk duo has never stopped producing albums. That staying power has made the Indigo Girls cultural darlings who extend beyond the granola, Birkenstock-wearing sort.
This week the group released their 14th album, "Beauty Queen Sister," a moody mix of violin solos and lyrics that waltz between birthday card inscriptions, heartache and theological musings. Frontwoman Emily Saliers sat down with HuffPost to talk about their loyal fan base, growing up and what happened to REM.
This is your 14th album, does this one feel any different to you?
When I think about the record, I think the songs hold together really well and I think they mark a certain maturity in our writing or just reflect this time of life.
Of the world or of your personal lives?
Both. I mean, we’re always commenting on the world, so we’re still commenting on the world. But you still have your smattering of love songs and they do reflect our time of life. You know, we’re officially middle-aged and I just think it’s reflective of that.
How so?
The song "Feed And Water The Horses" talks a lot about that which will take care of you, which in my belief system is God. So, for me, it’s about being in a relationship with your spiritual gift-giver and you have to nurture it.
Is it hard to keep a hopeful outlook while staying politically informed?
I think [Amy Ray and I are] both optimists by nature, we believe that very powerful change can happen when people put their minds and hearts to it. ... It’s very difficult to be hopeful right now, in this country because, politically, we’re a mess and it just strikes me as a particularly hateful time in American culture. And, as a gay person, it’s very difficult to live in a country that won’t protect your civil rights and it’s just like, "Come on! What kind of country are we really?" So, that’s tough, but to be honest, the songs are cathartic in that you’re able to sort of purge all those difficult feelings and get them in a song and, for some reason, it makes you feel a little bit better.
How are you able to constantly produce?
We have very separate lives; we don’t live in the same town and we have our own sets of friends and Amy’s just finishing up her fourth solo record and I co-own a restaurant, wrote a book for my dad and Amy owns a record label. So we have different, individual projects that keep Indigo Girls stuff very fresh for us because when we come back together, we’re always excited. And we do little things like make a new set list every night so each show is a little bit different from the one before and that all keeps us productive because everything feels fresh.
I’m sure you’ve heard about REM and Michael Stipe did the guest vocals on two of your previous tracks. How have you guys avoided band strife?
Well, there’s only two of us. I think it’s more difficult when you have larger numbers to keep it together forever and ever. I sort of feel like those guys maybe just ran their course. They’ve been hugely successful and have all kinds of outlets and opportunities to do whatever else they want to do. For us, I think, because we do so much in our individual lives, it’s not like we put all our eggs in the 'Indigo' basket so we don't burn out.
It’s amazing because you've been playing together forever.
We've been playing together for 30 years -- we started in high school. We just started as buddies; she played guitar, I played guitar ... and we just got together after school and started learning songs and it was a blast and that’s how it became a career.
How have you created such a loyal fan base?
Well, we’ve been around long enough that the first generation [has] had kids, so that sort of spreads it exponentially. And the songs are thoughtful and I think that our fans are really into the lyrics. Some people listen to music for music and some people listen for lyrics, I think our fans take our songs with them sort of like a travel log. I’ve heard people say it’s like a sound track for them and I think that’s because our fans are just the same kind of people we are.
"Beauty Queen Sister" hit stores Oct 4.