Indigo Girls perform at Frederik Meijer Gardens

Indigo Girls singer Emily Saliers performs at Frederik Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2013. (Cory Morse | MLive.com)

Indigo Girls (Emily Saliers and Amy Ray) - kicking off the Ann Arbor Summer Festival Mainstage series on Friday, June 19 - have experienced a lot of change in recent years.

In February 2013, Saliers and IG manager (and Canadian) Tristin Chipman had a daughter named Cleo; and in September 2013, Saliers married Chipman. Meanwhile, Ray and her partner, screenwriter/director and teacher Carrie Schrader, had a daughter, Ozilline Graydon, in November 2013, shortly after Ray lost her father; and in January 2014, Ray released a country album, "Goodnight Tender."

But running tandem to these changes, additions, projects, and losses, Indigo Girls continue to thrive -- after three decades together -- and make gorgeous, harmony-laden folk music. Their latest album, "One Lost Day," was released on June 2, and in advance of their tour stop in Ann Arbor on Friday, Saliers answered a series of questions.

Q. I read that your daughter [age 2] is occasionally traveling with you now. Will she be coming with you to Ann Arbor?

A. No. Mine won't. I'm not sure what Amy's plans are. Little kids need their own patterns and their own routines and stuff. She's not a road warrior baby yet.

Q. Do you think you'll travel with her more as she gets older?

A. I think so. I think it would be a great experience for a kid travel like that, and get to be around music all the time.

Q. Does Cleo end up spending time with [Ray's daughter] Ozilline while you're working together?

A. Not a lot. We've had a couple of playdates, but our lives are so different, and our schedules are so different, that it doesn't work out often. Plus, they're too young to really play with each other that much yet.

Q. Has becoming a parent inspired you to write songs about the experience of raising a child?

A. Not specifically songs for and about the experience specifically, but having a kid changes how you see everything, and makes your heart more tender, and makes your compassion grow, which is all part of the songwriting landscape. So there's no doubt that having her around, and having experienced all that comes with being a parent, has informed that. But I can't really trace it.

Q. Have you pulled back on the number of dates you play while on tour?

A. I would say so. We're doing a long run in July, but three and a half weeks is about the longest stretch we do anymore. Having kids has focused us both on doing shorter runs, so we can spend more time at home and keep some sort of balance.

Q. You've said before that you often come up with album titles while in the studio. What made you decide on "One Lost Day"?

A. We had a lot of trouble coming up with this record title. When we did come up with names, we'd look on iTunes and find that there were three or four things out there with that title already. ... The woman who did the artwork, the graphic design for the record, she came up with name, pulling it from the song "Alberta." A lot of the record has travelogue vibe to it. It's about experience and memory and learning from past mistakes, so "One Lost Day" just resonated with a lot of the themes inside the record. And at that point, we said, "OK!" It's hard to name a record.

Q. It's been four years since the last Indigo Girls record ["Beauty Queen Sister"] was released. Did you and Amy make a deliberate choice to take a longer break?

A. You know, I think time just flew. We started playing some symphony shows, so we spent time choosing songs and arranging songs. ... And then we each had kids, so time just flew by. Then one day we realized, it's been a long time. We had new songs, and we were excited to go back into the studio, this time with a different producer [Jordan Hamlin] and different players. So I don't recall it being deliberate decision. It was just -- life happened.

Q. Amy's released a number of solo albums over the course of the Indigo Girls' 30 years together, but you're currently working on your first. Is this something you've wanted to do for a long time, or is this a new ambition for you?

A. It's something I've been talking about for a long, long time. Amy did some of her earlier records because she had this punk streak in her, and she wanted to do things that Indigo Girls weren't doing. She needed to get that out, because the creative side of her was not completely fulfilled by what we were doing with Indigo Girls. For many years, everything I was into really was satisfied by what we were doing as Indigo Girls, but over time, I developed a desire to make a solo record, too. Lyris Hung, our violin player, is producing it, and it's sympatico with the style I'm going toward, which is more about rhythms, more about grooves. I love hiphop, and I love R&B, so it's a bit of a kitchen sink project. We're doing things that we have no idea how to re-create live, but we've decided to do them, anyway. It's just the right time for me to make a solo record. I feel less scared about it. ... We hope to have it ready for spring 2016. I've got half the songs written and arranged, but it all depends on the touring schedule.

Q. Does it feel odd, after spending decades working with Amy in the studio, to be working on something without her?

A. No. It's not odd at all. People don't realize how much separateness we have in our lives. It's just another creative endeavor. It's just me being Emily, doing my own thing. I'll be out in public sometimes and out of nowhere, a stranger will ask me, "Where's Amy?" And I'll say, "I have no idea." ... [Working solo] is a totally different process. When Amy and I work together, we brainstorm and talk about the direction of the album and consider each other's musical sensibilities. ... And my favorite thing still is to play music with Amy. She's number one. But it's been super fun to have a side project, too. I'm learning a lot.

Q. I think that people who sing along to your signature song, "Closer to Fine," tend to believe you have a pretty jaundiced view of college ["I spent four years protrate to the higher mind/ got my paper and I was free]. Is that accurate?

A. I loved college. I hated high school, and I loved college. I think it's a song about getting too much into your own head in academia. ... The professor in the song is very cerebral, judging everything from a really romanticized, overly cerebral point of view; but that doesn't represent my my whole college experience. It's more about where I go to seek answers. I think the song's overall message is, 'Chill out.' We can gain knowledge from all kinds of different sources and experiences in our lives. Academics aren't the whole world; nor is the gym, or a bottle of beer or the bible.

Q. You guys have an extensive catalog at this point. Does this make it easy to skip some songs you may not want to play on a given day?

A. We make a new set list every night for every show, so we just don't put songs on that we don't want to play. If anything, having a huge catalog is tricky in terms of, what songs do we pick -- especially with a brand new record out.

Q. You're doing a show in July [Eau Claires Music & Arts Festival, in Wisconsin] where you'll play the entire "Swamp Ophelia" album. What's it like to deeply engage again with an album you made so long ago (1994)?

A. We've never ever done it before, so we don't know yet. ... A lot of songs from "Swamp Ophelia," we regularly play already -- "The Wood Song," "Power of Two," "Least Complicated" -- but I haven't played "Fare Thee Well" in at least five years. That festival is curated by Justin Vernon [of Bon Iver], and it's a really cool lineup, and we love him. ... As a fan, I'll just be excited to be there.

Q. You've talked about your ambivalence regarding social media. Do you think you're more comfortable keeping it at arm's length because you grew up in a pre-internet age?

A. That's an interesting question. ... I appreciate what social media can do for indie artists, in terms of finding your audience -- which would have been impossible when big record companies were in charge. ... But this notion of getting in touch with every single person from your past -- it just gets too noisy in my brain.

Q. Among the songs you contributed to the new album, which has the most personal meaning for you?

A. That's hard to say. ... The one that took the most courage to write was "Come a Long Way," which was a song affirming my belief in God. ... I'm a believer in a great benevolent force in my life -- that's my reason for being, and it feels really good for me to say that. But I love them all. They're new, so we're not tired of anything yet. Time will tell what goes by the wayside.

Jenn McKee is an entertainment reporter for The Ann Arbor News. Reach her at jennmckee@mlive.com or 734-623-2546, and follow her on Twitter @jennmckee.