Tori Amos - Interviews Archive

MiniMax (Poland, radio)
Polskie Radio 3
December 23, 2007

Tori Amos interview

Presumed question: so are you working on a record now?

Well it's funny you ask me this; I mean normally, I would be making a record but this is the first time that I am not going to do that. I think after American Doll Posse, it took so much energy, um I wrote a lot of it when I was on the road looking at women. Yes, mostly American women but I was studying women around the world and trying to figure out how the people in power in America got back in again and so that was what pushed me to write that work and it was coming quickly so that record just we put everything into it and it took a LOT of time to make it and to record it and to do all the post production and one of all the records, that and from From the Choirgirl Hotel took the most, I would say, energy. So this is the first time in 15 years I am not making a record next year.

Presumed question: So what are you doing now then?

Well if I'm not working, if I don't have music in my life, I don't think I'm alive. So of course I've got something up my sleeve. The British National Theatre asked me to work with them and so I've been contracted by them to write a musical with the playwright Samuel Adamson who is an AMAZING playwright that works a lot with the British National Theatre.

Presumed question: Uh, do you really think that's a good idea?

Do you know today I was talking to some really well known rock critics in Chicago and one guy's called Jim and one guy's called xxx and they have this show and they've been around forever here they said, Tori you realize rock musicians have - it's a TERRIBLE percentage of success rate for musicals. I think one in maybe a BILLION chances here for me to do anything decent and I said, no I know, I know the odds are the chances of me writing Rocky Horror Picture Show are slim, or Jesus Christ Superstar but Tim Rice said to me long ago you HAVE to do this and my mom wants me to do it while she is still alive, so I'm gonna do it.

Presumed question: Is Cornwall a great place to work/have your studio/write?

Well, you know, Peter, I don't know. I think all my girlfriends were all in there sometimes and they love coming for a break or the musicians that are coming and you need to record and you need to work it's an amazing place to have a workshop because you can actually get something done. But as a composer to write my own work, I don't get a lot of inspiration there, that's why once I've written the songs I come back and I record them all, so most of our time is spent in the recording like I told you. For this next project because it's based upon the 19th century novel that's already been written and Samuel Adamson is having to sculpt it, we've been working on the story line and it's a collaboration together, you know he'll push me to think about a song here, a song there and we'll talk about characters that we need to add. So because it's a work that's existed for over a hundred years in its nucleus, it's a very very different project than having to write from scratch Scarlet's Walk or American Doll Posse and as you know Scarlet's Walk, a lot of it was when I was pregnant with my daughter and I was in the States and of course I was in New York on 9/11 and that is where it all began to come together really.

Presumed question: Where do you get your inspiration/ideas?

So (person's name), when I tour, because I see so many different people, hear so many different stories, the truth is so much more shocking than what we see on television. If you could hear the stories of some of the people that are sitting outside and listening for hours in the cold, it would you it would blow . your . mind. It would blow your mind. There are women out there that are taken to America as sex slaves and rented out by a family member but part of the family was so off their head or so religious that they didn't care- I mean the enemy is not out THERE somewhere, most of the time it is within the inner circle. The stories, they just, they rip my heart out. And so because of that it pushes me as a writer, it DRAGS me to another, I don't know, place of awareness and then the songs begin to come. So back at Cornwall it's not really a place, if were gonna write an album, I'd have to push myself, to get out and see the world and have some experiences, but if I'm sitting there woodshedding because the plot's already in place, it's a very good place because there's not a whole lot to do.

Presumed question: So when will the next album be? (Heard someone say in the background: Let's say it's a big question mark)

(Laughs) Maybe 2010. I know that I have to see this other project through and it will probably take me that long to come up with something worth listening to because, who knows, so much was put into this that I have to, ah, I have to collect stories, collect emotions and I realize that the musical is a very different form of expression and in it I am composer but I do remember the power of Jesus Christ Superstar, I remember West Side Story, I remember The Sound of Music, and whatever your feelings are about the type of music they just had such an impact on people, they MOVED people. And so you know it might be the first and last one I ever do but my mom wanted me to do it, and I want my mom and daughter - she's 7 now, my daughter; my mom - she's gonna be 79 - next year, I want my mom and my daughter to be able to sit together on opening night, that's why I'm doing it, it's driving me. But then I realize what the next work will be- it could be anything Peter but I really need to pull back and the record business is changing so fast, that it's almost better to pull back and see if it crumbles and see what it's going to do before I put my next work out then I'd like it to be in the next phase of where we are in technology. We have our own state-of-the-art studio; you realize we could mix it, master it and upload it-just in the backyard! And that might be the future, that might be where it's going for us.

Closing: Hi there everybody, this is Tori Amos. I'd like to wish all of you wonderful Christmas. And I want to send you a big hug over the airwaves. You're listening to Radio 3, MiniMax.

[transcribed by Karen/toritattoo]

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