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NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly talks with the Indigo Women, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, about their 1989 hit “Nearer to Fantastic” being featured prominently within the new Barbie film.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
As you might have most likely heard by now, Barbie is having a second. She isn’t the one one. She is sharing the highlight with a legendary singer/songwriter duo and their 1989 hit, “Nearer To Fantastic.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “CLOSER TO FINE”)
INDIGO GIRLS: (Singing) And I went to the physician. I went to the mountains. I appeared to the kids. I drank from the fountains.
KELLY: You recognize it. That is the Indigo Women.
AMY RAY: We had been each like, Barbie (laughter)? They wish to use Indigo Women in a Barbie film (laughter)?
KELLY: That is proper. “Nearer To Fantastic” is featured prominently within the new “Barbie” film directed by Greta Gerwig.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “BARBIE”)
MARGOT ROBBIE AND RYAN GOSLING: (As Barbie and Ken, singing) Nearer I’m to…
(As Barbie and Ken, screaming).
RYAN GOSLING: (As Ken) I am coming with you.
MARGOT ROBBIE: (As Barbie) OK.
KELLY: It’s such an thrilling time for Amy Ray and Emily Saliers – the Indigo Women – that we needed to name them as much as discuss it. We caught Amy at residence in Georgia, Emily on trip in Europe.
EMILY SALIERS: So I noticed it in a theater the place I could not even determine the way to order a popcorn, sat there in an assigned seat. We grabbed the final three tickets and could not sit collectively – my spouse, my good friend and I – and there have been Danish subtitles. So it was fully surreal. And I knew that the tune can be within the scene the place Barbie is driving out of Barbieland and into the true world, after which Ken pops up within the again seat and shocks her. And so they’re singing this tune. So I knew it was going to be in that scene, but it surely ended up being in three totally different scenes. So it was completely a complete shock, to begin with, to be seeing it premiering in that surroundings and, second of all, to have it seem that many instances within the film. And most of all, I beloved the film. I beloved it.
KELLY: (Laughter) Amy, the place had been you if you watched? Have been you residence in Georgia?
RAY: Properly, I’ve not seen it.
KELLY: (Gasps).
RAY: I am watching it on Thursday. I’ve a date with my companion, Carrie. We’re really going to take our baby, and her two dads are going. So it is going to be a double date with our 9-year-old to see the “Barbie” film. You recognize, it is too enjoyable to not go as a household. And so I’ll go see it in my little city, up in Dahlonega, Ga., at a theater shut by and, you recognize, cover my face behind the popcorn (laughter).
KELLY: Oh, my goodness. I – now I am beginning to marvel if there’s going to be followers queuing up now that you have previewed that you will be in…
RAY: (Laughter) Oh, there’s – that is not…
KELLY: …The cinema in Dahlonega on Thursday night time. You are going to have a gathering.
RAY: No, no, no, no. It isn’t like that. It’s going to be buddies. You recognize, it will be individuals I do know ‘trigger it is hometown.
SALIERS: Yeah.
RAY: It is all good.
KELLY: Yeah. I imply, simply to offer individuals a bit little bit of backdrop of why that is surreal – there – what? – there is a dissonance – I do not know what the appropriate phrase is. However Barbie, we all know, is that this attractive blonde. She has a stunning, blonde boyfriend, Ken. They’re, you recognize, the poster kids for not simply unreasonable magnificence requirements, however for heterosexual love. They’re straight. And there is Barbie, and we see her belting out this tune written and made well-known by you two – poster kids, if I can say it, for earnest, lesbian people singers. Is that truthful? I imply, it is completely good. How do you concentrate on this?
SALIERS: Properly, I believe that – we did discover out that Greta herself picked the tune, and that was such an honor and felt actually good to know that as a result of each Amy and I recognize and love her work a lot. I believe that once we discovered we had been requested to be any a part of the Barbie film, we knew that it needed to be subversive not directly and felt enthusiastic about watching that come to life on the display screen. And I believe, after having seen the film, I left – you recognize, my spouse and my good friend and I – we began speaking about all the problems that had been coated within the film. Ultimately, it is very thought-provoking, they usually requested questions on what it means to be human, to be who we’re and what roles we get compelled into being. And patriarchy and heteronormativity and all these issues come to play within the film. So having seen the film, it is actually no shock in the long run that she might need picked our tune, despite the fact that it is a thrill of a lifetime.
KELLY: Amy, how about you? How are you eager about this?
RAY: I consider it as manna from heaven at this late level in our profession to have one thing like that occur with a director that is any person we actually respect. It is simply flattering and an honor and for it to be a part of a – kind of an try and dismantle among the notions round Barbie. I – you recognize, I’ve all the time felt like, youngsters – they kind of take toys like that, they usually do what they need with them. I imply, like, we used to play with Ken and Barbie and put Ken along with Ken and Barbie with Barbie. And I performed with GI Joes and…
KELLY: Yeah.
RAY: …You recognize, for me, I all the time give credit score to kids for with the ability to simply discover their method by these items. I simply suppose, like, it is good to consider these items. And we’re in a world proper now the place there’s, like, this backlash in opposition to all of the progress that the LGBTQ neighborhood has made. And it is nice to have one thing in mainstream tradition that kind of hints in any respect the subversiveness that we should be eager about as a result of we’re in the course of a time when there’s a lot hate being thrown at individuals which can be othered. And that is only a nice, mainstream, humorous – I imply, what a fantastic solid. And simply to be even a bit a part of it’s – for me, is a second.
KELLY: I really like that mind-set about it as a result of, I imply, you are nodding at this, however individuals haven’t all the time been type. The Indigo Women have been the punchline of jokes. Y’all had been out and queer and open about it earlier than that was wherever close to as mainstream as it’s now. I used to be going to ask if this appears like revenge. It sounds extra like redemption. Am I listening to that proper?
SALIERS: I imply, I might by no means say revenge. I might say validation. The tune is identical tune it was when it obtained recorded in 1988 and got here out in ’89. It is the identical tune. It is simply the instances which have modified and the evolution of thought that has shifted, despite the fact that Amy mentions the backlash, which is harsh. However identical tune all these years later – not revenge – only a very fascinating have a look at what occurs with human beings. It is simply type of weird the way in which issues shift and alter.
KELLY: Properly, and the way nice – you talked about you might have a 9-year-old daughter, Amy, who you are going to take with you to see this. How nice to have a brand new technology of ladies and hopefully their brothers and man buddies, too, strolling round with this tune caught of their head the way in which I did (laughter) as a child again within the Nineteen Eighties.
RAY: I imply, it is so candy. And the tune is such a fantastic tune and a fantastic singalong. And, you recognize, that is the type of factor the place it is like – you hope generations, you recognize, move it down to one another and the neighborhood simply expands as a result of it is all about that. It is all about individuals sharing music and feeling good and pleasure and feeling good about themselves and simply, you recognize, realizing life is a – generally is a lovely factor and attempt to consider in your self.
KELLY: Properly, I by no means ask singers I am interviewing to do that ‘trigger I by no means wish to put y’all on the spot. But when I kick off the chorus, would y’all be a part of me and sing us out?
RAY: Yeah, positive (laughter).
SALIERS: Certain.
RAY: How are you going to kick it off? Do you might have a guitar, Mary Louise?
KELLY: I’ll sing it to you, after which you are going to bounce in and hopefully cowl me up. Right here we go.
(Singing) I went to the physician. I went to the mountains.
SALIERS: (Singing) I appeared to the kids. I drank from the fountains. There’s a couple of reply to those questions, pointing me in a crooked line. The much less I search my supply for some definitive…
AMY RAY AND EMILY SALIERS: (Singing) Nearer I’m to nice.
RAY: (Laughter).
KELLY: Yoo-hoo (ph). That was Emily Saliers and Amy Ray, the Indigo Women, speaking to us about “Nearer To Fantastic.” Thanks a lot to you each.
SALIERS: Thanks, Mary Louise.
RAY: Thanks, Mary Louise.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “CLOSER TO FINE”)
INDIGO GIRLS: (Singing) I went to the physician. I went to the mountains. I appeared to the kids. I drank from the fountains. Yeah, we go to the physician…
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