"Brandy Carlisle celebrates the indigo girl's pioneering influence as a female musician, activist and queer idol.
In this year's "Women Shaping the Future" annual issue, The Rolling Stones interviewed 12 of today's most popular music artists and asked them to talk about the women who inspire them the most in their lives and careers.
Text: Yi An Editor: Peach
Brandi Carlile (American rock/folk poet) tells the story of what Indigo Girls (veteran female vocal duo) meant to herself as a young fan, including how indigo girls helped her early career and how they became close friends.
Brandi Carlile
The indigo girl's influence on my life was profound – not just musically, but as a radical queer. Despite all the difficulties and obstacles, the representation and exposure they have worked so hard to accumulate is very important to my life. I need them.
When I was about 13 or 14 years old, I came home from a friend's house (a girl who moved me very much, and I was very confused about it) and went back to find that my parents had rented a movie called "Philadelphia". I sneaked it into the bedroom and put it on my VCR to watch.
Poster of Philadelphia
Obviously, this is a story about a gay man with AIDS who was fired and abandoned by society. But he fought for himself and other LGBTQ+ people, as well as people living with HIV and patients, until the last moments of his life.
It was a dull subject, but it was so sharp to me that I felt my stomach was uncomfortable. Looking back, I realize that I was being inspired to do something that I was just beginning to understand.
In the movie, I hear the women singing a song "I don't wanna talk about it, how you broke my heart." So I asked for the soundtrack as a Christmas present, and that was the first time I actually heard about the Indigo Girl.
I was already a little musician at the time – I was particularly fascinated by Elton John, I started learning to play songs on the keyboard, and I started singing since I was 8 years old. But the Indigo Girls were a fork in the road for me because of them, and I went in a different direction, not just musically, and as I just pointed out, their later albums all meant a lot to me.
I met an indigo girl when I was 17. A friend drove me to Portland, Oregon, in the pouring rain, because I won a game and was able to meet them at the radio festival. I went to meet them with my first and only guitar at the time, and I got the autograph.
But I remember leaving very unsatisfied, I thought, "I have an autograph, but I want to be friends with them." I have to be good enough for them to hear my music and then they'll like me.
T-Bone Burnett
So the first thing I did when I got a little bit famous was to find a way to reach out to them and tell them I was going to record with T-Bone Burnett, and I wanted to invite them to sing along, and they agreed. I flew to Atlanta and then something crazy and excitingly surreal happened, we recorded together and even had dinner at their house!
Indigo Girls
When I opened my tour for the Indigo Girls, I was first exposed to an avid audience. Their tours didn't just go to major markets like New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, they also went to small places like Door County and Fish Creek in Wisconsin. They play where there is no music and bring it to everyone. In this sense, the Indigo Girls are the true evangelists who taught me to take an unusual path on tour.
Fans' admiration for indigo girls is different from that of other artists, because you see the most loyal fans, and their music has really changed the lives of these fans. This is not the same as the relationship between ordinary fans and artists. I knew then I wanted this relationship, I was 23 at the time and now I'm going to be 40, which is a very, very important thing for me.
I think fans also recognize that indigo girls are revolutionary, legendary musicians, and very few people have been able to do that. It stimulated me to chase them wildly, and like any other fan, I would never miss a show.
We were so close to each other, and now it's like family, and they know that I was a little Lala who was fascinated by indigo girls from the beginning. These women are so different, so striking, and they have a tacit agreement that their souls together determine their destiny.
But being self-contained is something everyone in the band needs to learn. So how can you maintain a true connection with others on a soul level while maintaining yourself? For queers like me, I realized that if it weren't for the Indigo Girl helping me take on these blows, my life path might be full of rejection and imitation.
Regarding progress, I have developed an ideology of anger and forgiveness because indigo girls have been blatantly rejected by mainstream mechanisms. They are imitated and ridiculed in ways that Simon and Garfunkel (the classic American male vocal duo) will never meet, no matter how ridiculous they may be in life. But the Indigo Girl has always maintained a sense of dignity, pride and positivity.
They're still making incredible music, and they don't have resentment or hostility toward the mainstream mechanisms that have left them marginalized for years, just watching people like me achieve higher achievements because of their encouragement. They never asked for honor, but it was what they deserved.
My drug for indigo girls was "Swamp Ophelia" when I was fourteen or fifteen years old, so when my daughter was fourteen or fifteen, I was going to play Swamp Ophelia for her. I don't care if she's gay or heterosexual, or radical or pacifist, whatever she is, she's going to find something. She will find something mysterious and feminine on this album, which is something to be proud of.
Brandy Carlisle and daughter
In the end, I'm glad they're all moms now. They're punk rock singers who have an incredible tenacity that surprises me, and now it's the coolest thing we can do when we sit together and give each other mom advice. It was like a strange experience of going around in circles and ended up in a place where I was proud to be their friend.
Link to the original article
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/brandi-carlile-indigo-girls-tribute-1126305/
Original author
BRANDI CARLILE