Tori Amos - Interviews Archive

Music365 (US, www)
live online chat
October 28, 1999

live online chat with Tori Amos

Moderator: Okay, here's the scoop

Moderator: Tori is about to call

Moderator: Oh, here she is, I think

Moderator: Oh, false alarm. But anyway, they will be here soon. That's what the PR officers tell me.

(a few minutes later)

Moderator: here is she!

Tori: Hi

Question: You know how much we love you solo with a piano. Why don't you treat us to it very much on recent albums?

Tori: Sometimes as a musician, you're at different places creating and as a composer. The show tomorrow at the festival hall is all piano. Sometimes it feels right and sometimes I feel more collaborative.

Q: Are you actually a keen gardener, or more a gardener of the soul? Any handy tips?

Tori: I'm somebody who believes in hiring a good gardener. I have a good gardener in the tropics but she tells me Hurricane Irene knocked out my garden. Datura contains all the flowers in my garden, and I don't know which ones survive, so I have to go salvage them.

Q: Tori, you've been experimenting with a lot of electronics on the last two albums, any places on following in that direction or something completely new?

Tori: Electronics are the instrument of the last 15 years, so they're part of your repetoire, and I feel like it's better to know what they do rather than be ignorant of what they do, so you can choose whether to use them or not.

Q: Do you like Indian food?

Tori: Umm umm umm, depends if I'm seeing my husband that night

Q: Since the plan for releasing a live/b-sides album was changed when the new work unraveled itself, are there any plans in the future to ever release a b-side record?

Tori: When we approached the b-side project, we had to approach it holistically...there are over 50 b-sides. To start choosing which ones gets into pissing a lot of people off. We have to put a whole b-side box set, that's a big undertaking and not something I'm going to do until I'm by the pool for a while. Hold on to your rarities.

Q: Are you on MP3.com?

Tori: Not anymore...only streaming when Alanis and I were on the double show.

Q: Why do you reckon mermaids so fascinating to you, and (have always been) to “us” in general?

Tori: Let me think...many years ago I was reading this book about La Muria (bear with me on the spelling) and supposedly this was pre-Atlantis if you're talking to the medicine women. This one medicine woman in the states believed that there were so many stories about mer people associated with this place, whether it was associated with mythology or whether it existed, she didn't know, but the myth has existed for thousands of years.

Q: If you could describe your musical universe with five words, what would they be?

Tori: The bose is nine feet.

Q: I heard you are giving the Venus unreleased songs to a soundtrack maybe...is that true?

Tori: Not necessarily, I'm quite protective of them right now

Q: From all your fans all over the world: Where will you be going on tour next?

Tori: Touring...maybe Europe in March. You have to serve the Christians over the new year first.

Q: I know this is kind of personal, but I noticed you thanked Eric Rosse on your last CD, although he was kind of absent on the last two. How much a part of the new work is he?

Tori: He hasn't been a part. I haven't worked with him on the records since UTP, but he's such...let's put it this way, when you live with somebody for almost eight years, they show up “in these lines form time to time”.

Q: Tell us about your new look.

Tori: Do I have a new look? Suzanne Deeken, who designs for Ghost, created a lot of my clothes for what I'm doing right now.

Q: What do you do with all the many gifts you get from fans at your concerts?

Tori: The gifts... this is why we have so many buses and trucks. Usually, they end up in this special place in my parents' house because they have the space. They have a lot of space. I think it makes them happy. They're retired, they're packrats.

Q: When it boils down to just you and your faeries as companions, what kind of company do you feel you keep in the empty moments?

Tori: It's never empty because the faeries make sure... they're really there when the chips are down. That doesn't suck.

Q: What advice could you give to young people writing their own music today?

Tori: Hmmm...well, you have to clear on your intentions as a musician, and if it's to get played on the radio all the time, don't feel guilty about that, but it's a different skill than being a poet trying to follow in the footsteps of Neil Young. Don't be upset if radio doesn't play you. sometimes it crosses over, those crossroads meet, but not all the time. Be clear about what you want to do. You don't have to explain it to everybody. No guilt.

Q: How was your tour with Alanis and do you hope to work on tour with anyone in particular in the future?

Tori: I thought we had a good laugh she and i, we did 28 shows in the states, and we had a lot of challenges on our plate. And I think we worked with them. It's another to have worked with someone and still like them. I still like her.

Q: We know you're a big lover of wine. Can you make any affordable wine recommendations for your fans?

Tori: Wine...the good spanish reserves are really good now, the 95s. Really great. Australian Clarendon Hill, 94 and 95, Silver Oak, Napa Valley, the 95 is gorgeous. Really rick. I'm a big lover of pomerol, snoop and you can find pomerol deals. If you can get a 94, they're good drinking, if you can get an 89, treasure it. All of these are around $US40 out of a wine shop. The spanish reserves should be cheaper. I recommend people ordering out of Premier Cru from Oakland.

(the question was repeated here)

Tori: Read it and study the wines, order a case, mix it up and try things. Read the descriptions and trust your instinct.

Q: The single for Glory of The 80s got cancelled again for the UK...what gives?

Tori: All the recommendations are red

Tori: Les Pucelles Montrachay...these are $40 or so, but I'm really into white burgany. Kissler's always gorgeous. Sonomoa Cutrer, special vintage.

Moderator: Tori, check out the Glory question

(repeats question)

Tori: I'm the typist and I recommend Jackson estate Sauvignon Blanc.

Tori: I've got to go...call Prima Cru...order a catalog...don't make wine inaccessible. Make your own experience, don't be scared. It's good for you. Jesus drank it!

Tori: I'm saying goodbye....toodles...

Moderator: Ok, Tori is logging off now

Moderator: Thank you so much for coming to the chat everyone

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