Tori Amos - Interviews Archive

Wall of Sound (US)
November 17, 1998

Tori Amos Considers B-Sides Album

After touring nonstop since the release of from the choirgirl hotel this past spring, Tori Amos has decided, after five records and four world tours, to take a brief respite from recording original material. Instead, Amos is contemplating the release of a live and B-sides compilation for Christmas 1999.

"There will be nine or 10 years of material represented in one kind or another," Amos tells Wall of Sound. "Some of the things I'm thinking about aren't fleshed out enough yet, so we'll have to work with them a little. But I really wanted to take a break from having new work, my writing, put under the microscope one more time. That can be exhausting."

Amos is also considering taking a break from recording original material because, after bringing her music to a full band for the first time on the new album and the current tour, she feels she's at something of a crossroads as an artist and songwriter. "I don't really know where I'm going right now," she admits. "That's why I'm not acting on anything. Playing live and capturing the live performance is where I have always integrated the records. Then what's next?"

As an intuitive and poetic performer, Amos is quite insightful and cautious about her work, and wants to make sure the next step feels comfortable to her as an artist. "After I make a record, it takes me a while to make it a part of my own body map," she says. "Sometimes I'm so detached from it after touring--even though a thread of me is in it--that it takes me a while to pull back and find out what it's about again, to make it meaningful. It's important to find out what these songs are trying to tell me, not just about my own experience but about a more universal experience. A lot of times you're translating your own songs and saying, 'OK, I know this sounds right, but I haven't really quite experienced this or I haven't seen that yet.' So sometimes I have to step back. That's why I'm thinking about this live and B-sides project, to give myself a little time to step back."

Amos releases her Complete Videos to stores today (Nov. 17). -Bob Gulla

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