She Likes to Watch

Indigo Girls member Emily Saliers talks about music, activism

The Indigo Girls, America’s favorite folk-rock duo, has always held a certain feminine appeal.

Long considered icons of the gay rights movement, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers have always had a fervent following among women. Both singer-songwriters identify themselves as lesbians. And they regularly play LGBT-geared events such as the True Colors Tour.

So it’s only appropriate that the Indigo Girls would play a big part in the fem-friendly dramedy “Boys on the Side.”

The 1995 film follows three best friends –  a lesbian lounge singer (Whoopi Goldberg), an uptight real estate agent (Mary Louise Parker), and a pregnant waif (Drew Barrymore) — who take an eventful road trip from New York to California.

The Indigo Girls appear several times in the movie’s second half, playing excerpts from their songs “Joking” and “Southland in the Springtime,” and singing “Feliz Cumpleaños” with the friends.

Both women also appeared in 2006’s “Wordplay,” the fascinating documentary about the notoriously tough New York Times crossword and the people who love it.

Turns out that the Girls are big fans of Will Shortz’s challenging clues, as are “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart, “The Civil War” filmmaker Ken Burns and former President Bill Clinton.

I recently talked to Emily Saliers about her music, her activism and her close relationship with her bandmate of nearly 30 years, Amy Ray. You can read the bulk of the article right here.

Below are some interesting tidbits that didn’t make it into the print edition.

How has your relationship with Amy changed over the years?

Back in high school we were pals. We hung out all the time. We took road trips together. We played music together all the time. We were just high school buddies. And then as it progressed into a very professional relationship, we just both started living our separate lives. That took its course naturally. It wasn’t forced.

Looking back I’m sure that’s why we’ve been able to remain excited about working together.

It’s like a good marriage where each partner is independently viable. So when you come back together you’ve got something to share.

We’re like family. We’re kind of like sisters.

When we’re together we spend a lot of time together – like when we’re on the road or when we’re practicing or making a record together. It’s a very, very good balance. Very healthy. A good relationship.

I adore Amy. She’s an awesome human being. It helps to not work with a jerk. (chuckles)

The Indigo Girls’ dedication to activism is well-known. Do you feel musicians are obligated to speak out about their beliefs?

I just think it’s the nature of singer-songwriters. You come into the world reflecting on what’s going on around there and music becomes your medium for that reflection. I don’t think it’s a prerequisite for an artist to have to have heavily thematic ideas in all the songs. I like a lot of bands that are just fun.

But singer songwriters, that’s what they do. They look at the world around them. They reflect. And the songs absorb those reflections. That’s what their music’s all about.

Have you always had that aspect to your music?

I have. I was born into the world sensitive and thinking about things. We were thought to ask questions in my family growing up, sit around the table and talk about stuff. So that’s always the kind of the artist I was going to be.

Was your chosen medium always music?

Always. I come from a very musical family. Both my parents play piano. My dad, he could have been a classical pianist if he hadn’t gone into the vocation of theology and ministry and become more of a sacred music guy.

We always grew up with music in the house all the time and all of us kids took lessons at one time or another. Music is just in our blood. My grandfather was a professional touring musician.

So once I discovered guitar, that was it. It was my path. I knew it from the time I was 9 years old.

What did you listen to back then?

The first record I ever bought was The Jackson 5. So it’s been very, very sad for me that Michael passed. A great loss of a great talent and, I think, a really decent human being.

We always grew up listening classical music and jazz because that was (my parents’) thing. And they had a Peter, Paul and Mary record and Kingston Trio, so there was some folk. But when I got into my own purchasing records it was people like Jackson Browne and Joni Mitchell and Stevie Wonder.

Many of those artists have a history of social protest.

It’s true. I think that we … were definitely influenced by other people who were those same kinds of singer-songwriters….

You’re active in so many causes: gay rights, Native American rights and the environment to name just a few.

W e’re looking at issues of social justice and trying to right some wrongs and make some changes that we feel are positive for everybody, ultimately. As a queer activist, you can see someone who is an environmentalist. It’s good that the queer movement makes progress for everybody and it’s good that the environmental movement makes progress for everybody. There’s definitely a commonality there.

If something strikes a chord in us and we want to get involved, we definitely get involved. We’re lefties.

What’s your take on the state of gay rights in America today – gay marriage in particular?

I feel like it’s snowballing now. All the New England states are going pro-gay marriage. I think Prop 8 will be defeated eventually and that people will be allowed to marry again in California.

There’s a lot of positive change going on right now. But ultimately until gay people are protected on the federal level it’s not going to mean that much. It means a lot personally to those who can get married in the different states but the fact that it’s not reciprocal or the fact the Defense of Marriage Act’s still in place … those are the huge things. Once we’re protected federally, those battles will have been won.

It takes patience and it’s a process. People’s minds are slow to change. You just have to be patient, keep your eyes on the prize and keep working….

When Obama won and Prop 8 passed, it was such a mixed bag. I wanted everything politically to be positive and then there was this huge blow to the gay community. But that’s life.

Sometimes it feels like one step forward and two steps back but you have to get some perspective on the advances that are being made. The movement is changing. Public opinion is changing.

Even if we’re not there yet, little by little, the polls increase. And the younger generation believes that everybody deserves equal rights and it’s not a big deal if people of the same sex fall in love and get married….

There’s a thing that Martin Luther King Jr. said about the arc of justice – it’s long and it bends but it bends toward justice. I keep that in mind even when I get frustrated at setbacks.

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The Indigo Girls play at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Performing Arts Center, 1 Grand Ave. in San Luis Obispo. Tickets are $32 to $48.

Call 756-2787 or visit the PAC Box Office online for more information.

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Photo by Jeremy Cowart, courtesy of IndigoGirls.com.