lifeblood: songs: backgrounds: from haiti

amy ray quote from 2012-01-17: indigo girl focuses on 'power of ... mystery' in solo career, red and black

"[that song is] a lot about countries where we've tapped for resources and we've used in one way or another," she said. "the positive thing is that we've tried to help or influence in some way, but there's always a kind of hidden negative agenda too. i was thinking about that disaster and just how strong the people were there and that we had a lot to learn from them and from other people in other areas that go through such big monumental disasters and are able to pull themselves up."

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amy ray quote from 2012-03-01: amy ray digs deep into the lung of love, glide magazine

one thing i've noticed about lung of love is how there's a real focus on your own involvement in the songs and their meanings. there are fewer "story" songs- where you're chronicling the world of someone else, like on "rural f*ggot" or "ghost of the gang," and even when it comes to politically-fueled pieces, you've engendered yourself into the cause by using "we" (like in "from haiti") rather than "you" (like in "war rugs"). does that come from how collaborative this process was?

that's an interesting observation. i think there's something that happens when you work and play with the same people over a number of years. even when i'm writing, i'm sure it's impacted by the fact that i've collaborated with many of the same people in my solo career since i started. there's also a level of comfort that's been established now with those artists, and so there being more personal songs i think comes from being able to put myself out there with these people but also that there's a more communal feeling with this work.

one thing that was intentional about this record was that i wanted it to be like i was sitting in a room and talking to someone directly, and not trying to make it wax poetic or too obscure- i'm just trying to say that these are the dreams i'm having, and this is what i want to do together, so let's talk. i think good songwriting is about really communicating, and i think it takes a lifetime for some people to figure out how to do that.

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amy ray quote from 2012-08-31: amy ray shares her lung of love, jambands.com

on this new record there's a song like "from haiti," kind of influenced by chumbawumba and the clash and patti smith and stuff. but it doesn't go in that direction as much as something like [the album] "stag" would have or maybe some of the songs on "didn't it feel kinder."

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jpg: going back to the new album, i wanted to touch on a couple of songs. we mentioned "from haiti" earlier. when you were writing that did you have to work to make it from, based on the title, a commentary on the sad situation there into what it became - a rebellious, "we're not to be pitied" number?

ar: it wasn't hard for me to think of it that way because i had been thinking about the history of haiti and how it's a lot that they have been through and that patronizing relationship that we have had with them over the years. then, i saw this group of photos that this photographer jeremy cowart took. he went down there and he took a bunch of photos. he sold them and he gave the money to different organizations there.

i was online looking at his photos and they were very strong; people rising above. i started that song from that perspective, of them talking to us, telling us what we need to hear. it wasn't very hard for me to sit in that place because i had those photos that i had seen in my head, just listening to what they had to say about their situation over the years and what they had kind of overcome. corruption aside, all that stuff that we highlighted in america in the news, just the pure spirit of the people.

we're so young, this government and country in some ways, spoiled in some ways. i think there are other things we can learn. i was just thinking about that.