Amy Ray Issue #24

The Georgia singer-activist talks about the making of Prom and being independent as a musician and business owner in Bush’s America

By Jessie Nelson
Published: June 1st, 2005 | 12:44pm

Whether she’s touring with her band, the Indigo Girls, running her independent label, Daemon Records, or making her own music, Amy Ray is a powerful force.

Following her first solo release, 2001’s Stag, on Ray’s second album, Prom, one of her goals is to communicate with young people, from the perspective of a gay woman growing up in the South. On Prom, Ray works with drummer Kate Schellenbach (formerly of Luscious Jackson) and guitarist Donna Dresch (formerly of Team Dresch), whose sounds enrich Prom’s rocknroll feel.

What is the concept of Prom?
I knew I was going to make a second record, and before I thought about how I was going to do it, I always start writing songs first. I let the songs create the concept. At some point I knew that I was writing songs that had similar threads and themes. There was a cohesive picture in the end: rural and sometimes suburban with a lot of references to youth and high school with some political overtones as well. Musically, I knew some of the people I wanted to play with, because I had made one record already. There were some people I worked with on the first record that I wanted to work with again. Once I had an idea of who I wanted to play with, I just started jamming with them.

What was it like working with Kate Schellenbach and Donna Dresch?
It was great. Donna came in at the end and played some — she’s amazing. … I had always looked up to what Team Dresch had done. Kate is a great drummer, someone I’ve played with off and on for years. I feel like she kind of upped her own ability. She just came out with these parts I had never heard her do — she outdid herself.

Is Prom a vehicle for you to speak to queer youths?
It’s less speaking to them and more about being inspired by them. I don’t have anything to say to a queer youth person that they don’t already know about certain things. I think it’s more important when talking about queer youth to listen, than to speak, unless I’m asked the question. There’s always going to be generational differences about what language you have at your disposal. The language that queer youth articulates with and has is great. It’s a gift born out of brave people living where it’s scary to be gay. My heart goes out to the movements where it’s still really dangerous [to be out].

Daemon Records is a small label. Do you think that the independent music industry has taken itself into its own hands?
Daemon Records is funded by my career with the Indigo Girls. If some of the projects break even, it’s a not-for-profit record label. I know the ones that aren’t going to and that’s OK. It’s like giving someone a grant because you believe in what they’re doing. I think the independent music industry — it’s a good time for us, on some level. On an independent level, with independent media and labels, record stores can build coalitions. I think it’s a struggle against the corporate system. Technology is sort of on our side with the Internet. We can benefit from things due to technology that can help, such as Internet radio stations and record labels. On the other hand, with the commercial industry, the radio conglomerates are out of control. We can’t play anywhere anymore without it being a Clear Channel show. The [mainstream] media is just impossible: racist and sexist and homophobic. The mainstream music industry is kind of a mess. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I think it will change.

Some people feel that the concept of art as activism has never been more relevant than now. Do you agree?
I’m an artist who’s an activist. Art is not always my activism. I think live music is activism — you’re bringing people together and they engage with each other, they’re moved. I’m an activist in other ways, where I might do political work that has nothing to do with what I do as a musician. My label is meant to be an activist label. I think to put out an independent record — to do something where you’re really asserting your identity as a person — you’re not being compromised by imaging or someone who has control over it.

If you were starting out now, do you think you would have the same experience breaking into the industry?
I don’t know. I hope so. I think when we first broke into the industry, we definitely weren’t as good as we are now, songwriting-wise. I think we got a lucky moment. We were already building a following and doing everything on our own. I think we’d start out now doing the same thing. We were just playing every gig anywhere — we just played. The thing we had on our side was that we were young. It was just a lot easier when we were 19 years old. I think there’s still a lot of things we didn’t have back then that we have now. House concerts exist now and all the Internet stuff, the ability to just put your own records out. When we did it, we put out our own records, but it was expensive vinyl; there were no CDs yet. It was a hassle to carry around cassettes. I think now there’s so much you can take advantage of, but it’s harder to book gigs now because there’s a lot of bands. The club world and college radio used to be really our scene, and it is now something major labels use. There’s so many bands that they have to use up the resources that indie people have. I think that’s just the nature of there being so many bands. It’s so hard and competitive to get gigs that you have to create your own opportunities.

What issues do you think are at the forefront right now in terms of gender politics under the current conservative regime?
With Bush, it’s like he’s so far back. I think there’s two different discussions going on in the presidential world — if it’s even possible to exist as a gay person. And there’s discussion on the streets, but if you tried to talk to Bush about transgender issues, he wouldn’t even know what you’re talking about. Or it’s like where I live, where people are still afraid to call themselves feminists. The kind of political discussion that happens depends on where you live and what access you have to information. To me, transgender and gender discussions are really important. When you’re talking about gender, you’re not talking about who you sleep with, you’re talking about who you are. It’s very freeing and beautiful. I was talking to a straight-man writer and he was like, “This is great, the straight world needs to talk about this.” He got it that it’s a queer discussion that has to do with something bigger than who we sleep with.