Amy Ray loves to break loose and speak her mind.

She’s performing solo this fall, free from the big-tour restraints and perks of the Indigo Girls, the duo that made her famous.

She’s getting back to basics.

“I work a lot faster when I do things alone,” she says. “I just don’t have the same kind of money or time. I usually work in really small studios, in people’s houses, in basements, garages, things like that.

“I like to do things for myself, and when something breaks, having to fix it myself, because I think it gives you a sense of confidence when you go back to the other things you’re doing, that you could – if you had to do it alone – you could do it alone. And that’s usually a pretty good feeling.”

Ray will play her style of indie punk rock with her band, the Volunteers, at 8 tonight at The Bottleneck, 737 N.H. She’s promoting her second solo album, “Prom,” which was released in the spring.

She’s taking a hiatus from the Indigo Girls, the folksy band she’s played in with Emily Sailers since 1985. The duo, which has sold 7 million albums and won a Grammy Award, isn’t breaking up. It’s set to resume touring in January.

Amy Ray, one-half of the Indigo Girls duo, explores issues of sexuality on her second solo album, Prom.

Ray, 41, says she likes the variety of performing contrasting styles of music.

“It’s definitely cathartic,” she says during a phone interview from her home in Georgia. “I mean, they’re both sort of cathartic, whenever I switch. It always feels a little bit liberating, just to break it up a little bit.”

No compromise

The music and the lyrics on “Prom” are certainly edgier than those you’d find on an Indigo Girls album. There aren’t any acoustic guitars here – it’s all electric. And Ray says she feels uninhibited to write about growing up a lesbian in Georgia and about gender issues.

“When I’m doing solo stuff, I feel free to just say (what I want) because I’m not going to worry about whether Emily agrees with me or not – that whole thing with a partnership where you have to compromise some,” Ray says. “I just can speak from a real personal place, and it’s going to come out – a lot of that graphic queer and anti-right-wing and anti-authority stuff is going to come out more.”

Not that Ray and Sailers haven’t done advocacy in the past. In fact, they’re known for their work on a variety of issues, including gay/lesbian rights, hunger, the environment and the Zapatistas, who are fighting for increased political representation in Mexico.

Interview with Amy Ray

• On how her solo crowds compare with those for the Indigo Girls
• On incorporating activism in her lyrics
• On being an activist for gay and lesbian rights in her home state of Georgia

That activism, Ray says, is one reason why the Indigo Girls Web site bio describes the duo as working “within the music industry, without ever being a product of that industry.” (Ray herself admits, however, that she doesn’t entirely agree with that statement – “I think that would be hypocritical,” she says. “I should’ve edited that bio.”)

She says she’s proud the Indigo Girls managed to support local record stores and avoid most commercial-radio posturing during their 17 years with the Epic label. Ray and Sailers recently parted ways with Epic, though, and Ray says they haven’t decided what they’ll do next.

“We got a lot of stuff done, and leveraged a lot of support that way,” Ray says. “But in the end, I think there’s a point where you are in danger of becoming too much a part of the industry and you need to get out and switch to a different company at least, and switch hopefully down to a smaller company.”

‘Oasis’

Ray says she likes Lawrence for its vintage clothing stores. The last time she was here, she, Sailers and environmental advocate Winona LaDuke attempted to visit convicted murderer and American Indian advocate Leonard Peltier at the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth. They were denied access but talked to Peltier on the phone instead.

Coming to Kansas, Ray is well-aware of the approved constitutional amendment banning gay marriage that divided the state in the spring. She also knows that Douglas County was the only place in the state to vote against the amendment.

“Keep it up, is what I’d say because I love Lawrence for that reason,” she says. “It’s like this oasis, I mean politically speaking. I think it’s a great place.”

Despite the gay marriage amendments that have passed across the country, Ray says she’s not discouraged.

“I think people can change,” she says. “I think that you have to talk to people from where they’re coming from, and you have to understand where they’re coming from. So I think if you live in a place, sort of an oasis in this more conservative area, it’s good to have dialogue with people that don’t agree with you and figure out why.”

‘Prom’ date

With “Prom,” Ray is both breaking new ground musically and returning to her roots. She says she chose the title and concept after writing the songs for the album, realizing the youth theme.

Even the photos for the album – featuring Ray wearing a variety of high school-related outfits, from a geeky sweater to a football uniform – are a throwback to her younger days. She borrowed them from former high school classmates.

And yes, Ray did go to her senior prom.

“I went with a girl, and I was totally in love with her, but we weren’t like … we didn’t really know what that meant,” she says. “We just kind of went as best friends. We kind of went together, but we were with a group of people. We all just had friends and whatever.

“I don’t really remember much about it. I always went to the dances and had fun and was pretty participatory, just kind of had a good time in the face of the normal kind of high school suffering that went on.”