Tori Amos - Interviews Archive

WRRV, New York (US, radio)
"The Edge" 92.7, 96.9 FM
December 13, 1998

Tori Amos interview

DJ: She's just not a girl and her piano anymore, nope Tori Amos has just wrapped up her first tour with a full fledged backing band, and she liked it so much she said she's gonna do it again. I'm Tom Calderone and this week on The Edge we're gonna here all about Tori's Plugged 98' tour and about her plans for the future which include lots of new music. [Then he tells about other groups on the show...] But before we do all that we gotta talk to Tori, who says touring with a full band has made everything better including those long bus rides in between gigs.

Tori: I like the life on the bus after the show. It was really lonely when I was on my own. Even though Johnny was with me, in the beginning you have to drive town to town, just me, Johnny, and a sound engineer. And ummm, I think Johnny and I were a little love each others company, I think he was bored with me and now I have the guys, and we're all pumped up. So when we get on the bus together we're not on separate buses yet. We may do our Guns N' Roses thing I think maybe next tour when we all need separate buses and separate minders.

"God" is played, from the CD.

Tori: When you are on you're own and you're playing and say oh I don't know how many shows we did on Under The Pink tour but it was just me and a paino and so was Little Earthquakes. So say 150 shows each tour by yourself, anytime you take a swig of water or anytime you need to breathe it's down time, there's no time where I can just breathe. The whole show stops. Now, at least I can look over at Matt and for 8 bars. I can, you know, put loin clothes on. [that's what it sounded like she said]

"Spark" is played, from the CD.

Tori: You're mine for 2 hours, you're in that seat so you're a bit of my prisoner. So it's kinda like slow torture, which can be nice so if somebody understands what they are trying to do with you and I think I understand what I'm trying to do with an audience.

"I'm On Fire" is played, from the CD.

DJ: That's Tori Amos doing an acoustic cover of Bruce Springsteins "I'm On Fire" and you can find that one on VH-1's Crossroads CD.

(Commercial)

DJ: Tori Amos may be done touring for a while but that doesn't mean she's not going to be working. The singer has a couple of new projects in the works, Tori says she'll be spending the next few months working on a double live album of B-sides and live tracks. She says her touring crew recorded every song on the Plugged 98' tour, and they plan to start sift through all the performances in February. After that Tori will start pulling up B-sides to remix for the album. She's not sure what she'll include yet, but she did promise at least one or two brand new songs in the set. The double album should be in stores by next Christmas and if that's not enough Tori for you the singer's already started writing new songs for a new studio album. Tori wants to record the album with her band and she says she's having a great time writing music with her band mates styles in mind, now if only the lyrics were that easy.

Tori: Music is language to me. That's really my first language and words are something I'm not always so good at. I just try and translate into words what I'm feeling from the music, so it's never as pure as the music.

"Caught A Lite Sneeze" is played, from the CD.

Tori: I am not a formula song writer which is I guess a negative and a positive because if I had a certain way of working maybe like that... umm, it wouldn't be so confusing to me sometimes, but I really don't and yet I think a positive of it is you have to know when your words are good and the music'c crap, or the words are crap, and the music's good. If you don't have a formula then you can go, you know part of this is working and part of it isn't. I'm not held hostage to my formula working.

"Cornflake Girl" is played, from the CD.

Tori: Let's be honest with each other, being a good song writer I think you've got to be objective and you have to be an observer of life. It can't just be about you and your life. You know it has to be... there is only so much you can excavate of your psyche. You have to be able to look over at other people on the beach, arguing and see the tension. You have to look over at a little girl, you know, standing with her lil' beach ball and trying to get her mother's attention because something weird's happened. Her mom's too busy putting on sun tan oil and trying to attract young boys, That is your song.

"Silent All These Years" is played, from the CD.

DJ: That song is also a video featured on Tori Amos' new music video collection which features clips of "God" and "Jackies Strength".

[transcribed by Marc (the remix kid)]

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