Stoli: Tori, Little Earthquakes, oh, the most amazing record. Oh, ok, and then Under the Pink, ok I just can't. Past the Mission, I can't talk. Tori, Lance, do the interview.
Lance: Hi Tori, I'm Lance.
Tori: Hi, Lance.
Lance: I can handle this, don't worry. I've got myself, my feet are on the ground.
Stoli: I'm pulling myself together.
Lance: Tell us something about the new record. Now, there's gonna be a new single that we're gonna get on Friday.
Tori: Oh, you don't have it yet?
Lance: No. Actually, it's not 'til the 22nd of December.
Tori: That's...
Stoli: Yeah, the 22nd is the radio airplay date.
Tori: Yeah, yeah. Ok, well...
Stoli: It's called Boys for Pele.
Tori: Boys for Pele.
Stoli: The single that we're getting is Caught a Little Sneeze. Or Caught a Lite Sneeze.
Tori: Yeah, Caught a Lite Sneeze. Yes.
Lance: Caught a Lite Sneeze, that's kind of an interesting name for a song.
Tori: Yes. Especially if he was a lite sneeze, not the flu, if you know what I mean, girls.
Stoli: So you're looking for the flu.
Tori: Well.
Stoli: Maybe a little something that'll knock you down.
Tori: Guys would like to think they're the flu, wouldn't they, but sometimes they're just a hachoo.
Female DJ: So true.
Stoli: I'm a pretty rough cold, I think.
Tori: Yeah.
Stoli: This guy never goes away, he's more like strep or mono or something, really.
Lance: It's like luggage, yeah.
Tori: Yeah.
Stoli: See, that happens. But now you did this whole new record, you produced it all by yourself.
Lance: In a church.
Tori: Yes, I did. In a church in Ireland.
Stoli: That's amazing. Describe like the differences between doing this and doing, working with producers like on the other stuff.
Tori: Well, this record... there's no censorship as far as um, jumping off cliffs musically, lyrically and arrangement-wise. Um, I pulled in the harpsichord for this record. I, the whole record was written because um, well basically my relationships were falling apart, with men. Whether they were friends, mentors, or the love at the time in my life. And so Boys for Pele is really the boys that have brought me to my fire, whether they have um, withheld or whether they've given. It forced me to have to stop trying stealing whatever I thought they had that I thought I didn't have.
Lance: Doesn't have anything to do with the soccer player, does it?
Tori: Well, it depends on who you want to steal from, doesn't it, Lance?
Lance: Ok.
Tori: But um, Pele is the volcano goddess in Hawaii.
Stoli: Hawaiian fire goddess.
Tori: Yes. And um, I went back to the church. I decided if I was gonna talk about claiming my passion, I'd go to the place where they taught you how to cut it out of you. So that's what I did.
Stoli: So you have no passion anymore?
Tori: No, I've begun to find it within my own being.
Stoli: Well and you have to recharge, too, after such an outpouring as making a record. You kind of drain yourself to make it, is that not true?
Tori: On some levels, but with this particular work, each song became a fragment of sides of myself. I think um, I think men will understand me, 'cause they did inspire this work, but I think the women will really hear me. No matter how strong you feel, sometimes you find yourself crawling on your knees 'cause that phone is not ringing. And you know that's it's slipping through your fingers. And you know that you're just not going to be able to get through that wall.
Stoli: Well, you know, I always feel as though, as a male, I probably, I've felt as though -- maybe I flatter myself -- I've felt as though I kinda got what you were doing just as much as like, you know, the female listeners. I like to think so.
Tori: I really... I hope that the men are open to this. Some of the British men -- I've just come off of all the British press -- and some of them come in asking me why I'm so aggressive and why I hate them. And what they don't understand with this record is it's about incredible passion and incredible desire and incredible need, and then love. And so...
Stoli: Some part of all of it.
Tori: Yeah, it's all got to be in there if you're being fair about it. But um... it's a fiery little record and I just ask the guys to be open to it, 'cause sometimes I don't think that they know what happens when they hang up that phone and just, you know, "Now is not a good time."
Lance: Well, Tori, I have a question to ask you. With this album, do you feel that a lot of men feel that maybe they misinterpret your aggressiveness for hate?
Tori: Sometimes I think so. Um, a lot of times I'm just so angry that I would let myself crawl. And I don't think that guys really know how much women look to them. Look to them to reflect being enough back as a woman in their eyes. I'm not talking about as a creative force or...
Female DJ: Right.
Tori: But I'm talking about um... Well, for me anyway, I would look to the men in my life to just feel like I was woman enough. That was a side of me that I really didn't feel confident.
Stoli: But yet, that almost seems as though that in any relationship almost the responsibility of both people to make them see those sides of each other.
Female DJ: Right, the relationship, yeah.
Tori: Yeah, but I don't think you're analytical when you're um, you've got your vampire's license and you need to feed and his neck is there and you're like, "I need what you have."
Lance: Wow.
Stoli: I've got a quick question for you, Tori. One of those tracks on your record is called Father Lucifer.
Tori: Yeah.
Stoli: Is that like, a devil song?
Tori: Well, in truth, I had to go have a cup of tea with Lucifer so that I could descend and he showed me hot to dance the tango.
Stoli: I usually just talk to him on the phone.
Lance: Stoli talks to Lucifer on the phone.
Tori: Fair enough, Stoli, he's got a mobile.
Stoli: 'Cause I don't have time to go have, he never clears his schedule for me to have tea.
Lance: But it's Tori, though, come on.
Tori: Well, guys, they're kinda screaming at me from the other room, telling me I have to go on to the next interview.
Lance: Alright, alright, alright.
Stoli: We understand, you're busy.
Female DJ: Well thank you, Tori.
Stoli: Tori, you've probably talked way over the heads of our listeners, but was a pleasure to talk to you.
Tori: I don't think I did at all.
Lance: Oh, you're overestimating our audience.
Tori: I don't think so.
Lance: We're in Chicago, you know.
Tori: [laughs]
Stoli: Thank you, Tori. It was a pleasure.
Female DJ: Bye.
Tori: Ok, guys. See you later. Bye-bye.
[transcribed by jason/yessaid]
t o r i p h o r i a tori amos digital archive yessaid.com
