lifeblood: songs: backgrounds: i believe in love

2011-04-25: original spirits, the canberra times:

"we didn't have a lot of tracks with the band and i love that it's with the band," saliers says. "it's a song that was on the studio record [the 2006 despite our differences] but we didn't play it a lot live because it's actually very difficult to perform. it starts out at a tempo, then the drums kicks in, and when the drums kick in, it just sort of takes off.

"in the studio it was even difficult to adjust to, so live even more so, and then i play ukulele on it, so to play ukulele and sing my vocals, and [also sing] in harmony, is pretty challenging." she chuckles.

the song is a simple, truthful meditation on love. "after all that we've been through/i could not see giving up/ despite the picture of our coffee/ growing colder in the cups/i want to say that underneath it all/you are my friend." saliers says she had read a lot about love and relationships and the song was an exploration of hopefulness in the midst of the chaos of love. "through all the troubles, i remain optimistic about love lasting, so it's a simple sentiment but i tried to expand on that through the imagery and through the melody. and i wanted to have it upbeat, so it wasn't, you know, a dirge. i'm kind of prone to dirges."

----------

2006-12-07: emily saliers of indigo girls, song facts:

sf: so when did the "despite our differences" line become the title for the album.

es: we had a really hard time naming this record, the hardest one. and amy was just looking through lyrics, and she landed on that line. you know, it comes from a love song, but it's meant to point to the fact that while she and i are very different for obvious reasons, we've been able to maintain this career and friendship for 20+ years, and also in a global context how we can, despite our differences as peoples, or cultures, or countries, or whatever it is, we can co-exist without destroying each other. so that's the hope and that's the belief. and finally we just settled on that line.

sf: when you said it comes from a love song, can you elaborate?

es: it comes from the song "i believe in love," and that's just a song about personal struggle and relationship, and how you can make it work in the end, and just believing in the power of love despite the complexities of life that try to pull it apart.

sf: okay. and that's what i was going to ask you about next. if you could tell me a little bit about that one.

es: well, it's the first song i've ever written on ukulele, and i think sometimes the instrument you pick up can guide what kind of song comes out. i'm not going to write a rock song on ukulele, obviously, so the core progression felt sweet, and i always have sort of like a collective pool of thought up there somewhere, or things that i've written down. and the core progression just led me, for whatever reason, to just think about relationships, and using images of birds in the trees and what that portends, and the image of coffee growing cold in a cup to represent things growing stale or old or not vibrant. and then also explaining what happens, like over time how separation happens, but at the core of every strong relationship is the friendship. and the love. and when you strip everything away, all the complexities, that's what you have, and that's what i believe in.

sf: okay, so this is not about one specific person?

es: no, it's just like it's reflections on love and relationship.