With Margot Robbie belting out one of their songs on screen and an inspiring new documentary, It’s Only Life After All, the folk rock duo are gaining new recruits to their fiercely devoted fanbase
In 1990, as her duo Indigo Girls were heading to platinum-selling success in the US, Amy Ray founded her own label called Daemon Records, formed as “a supportive network for each other within it, almost like a co-op,” she says. She internalised this “ecosystem idea” from Fugazi’s Ian MacKaye and the Washington DC punk scene, as well as the 90s riot grrrl movement.
But the inspiring new documentary, It’s Only Life After All, makes it clear that Ray also learned quite a bit about the power of community from Indigo Girls themselves: the folk band she co-founded in Atlanta with high-school choir buddy Emily Saliers. The duo twice broke into the US Top 10, won a Grammy, and sold millions of albums in the late 80s and early 90s, and today remain a reliable, busy touring and recording act – even earning a high-profile spot in the Barbie movie. Community is woven into every aspect of their lives and careers: the women are principled activists and queer icons who have a fiercely devoted fanbase, and take great care to nurture these relationships via their art and direct action.
