lifeblood: songs: backgrounds: blister in the sun

1998-02-19: violont femmes, the brisbane courier-mail:

"we do what we do," ray says when asked about the duo's longevity. "we experiment a lot and try not to stagnate. there's been a lot of great music made since we started. i listen to a lot of music of all different styles and i know how lucky we are to still be around. there's a lot of great bands that come and go.

"what keeps me inspired is other people's music. i have an independent record label that i've been running for seven years. it's all grass-roots, punk and folk music. whenever i lose inspiration at my end, i get it from that end. i don't ever run out of passion."

the indigo girls are commencing their australian tour this weekend in melbourne, with one show in brisbane on tuesday. amy says she and emily are looking forward to the jaunt because audiences were so receptive to the duo on their last visit.

"we're psyched to come back," she says. "it was so much fun last time. we hadn't been over to australia before and we didn't know what to expect. we were surprised to see people actually turn up to see us and sing along. the shows were great and we went scuba diving up on the great barrier reef after the tour. we saw silverchair in a small club before they really exploded on the scene.

"there were a lot of incidental activities arranged around the tour and it ended up being a lot of fun for us."

ray says the indigo girls have been on fire, of late. a recent two-hour show in los angeles featured matthew sweet and singer/ songwriter kristen hall as surprise guests. the crowd sang along all night and went into raptures when jackson browne and support act danielle howle and the tantrums appeared onstage towards the end of the show for a rousing rendition of the violent femme's blister in the sun.