Tori Amos - Interviews Archive

La Vanguardia (Spain)
September 18, 2011

translated from Spanish

Tori Amos: "It's hard to write about the beauty of violence"

The author of Boys of Pele (1996) points out that she has always been capitavated by mythology on her album, Night of Hunters.

Madrid. (EFE) -- The peculiar songwriter Tori Amos releases her latest album, a little gem of classical music titled Night of Hunters, a mythical tales of love and independence, with a present idea that "it is much harder to write about beauty than violence." Her new album, which is published next Tuesday, is the result of "challenge" that Deutsche Grammophon proposed to her to approach the musical geniuses of the past three centuries, such Spaniard Enrique Granados, the German Johann Sebastian Bach and Austrian Franz Schubert, from her perspective in the 21st century.

"I felt I had to preserve the purity of the originals, adding maternal sense to the compositions," said Amos (Newton, USA, 1963), who only used acoustic instruments on her new record, eschewing all electronics. With more than twelve million albums sold worldwide and numerous Grammy nominations, Amos is a pianist, composer and performer known for her fabled creations, which incorporate a high emotional charge to address such thorny issues as sexual abuse, misogyny and pornography, including Little Earthquakes (1992), her first album, as well as the dark From the Choirgirl Hotel (1998), the epic Scarlet's Walk (2002) or Midwinter Graces (2009).

From her imagination and the musicality of the songs suggested, Amos has woven a story that, steeped in the spirit of Irish mythology, traces the journey of a pair of lovers from the New World to the Old World to preserve their love. "It's much harder to write powerfully about beauty, than about violence. Writing about love requires a good writer," states Amos.

The author of Boys of Pele (1996) points out that mythology has always intrigued her, but never was able to develop a project focusing on Irish myths. In this case, however, she understood that Celtic myth matches well with classical music. Night of Hunters also raises the issue of power and "the destructive side of words, how they can become weapons." "You do not have to steal the power of another person, but to claim your own and become a force for good," says Amos, for whom it is important to cultivate the inner self, even as a couple, because it allows us to avail ourselves for ourselves.

She adds that thanks to Night of Hunters she has found inner balance and learned to shrug off the "uncomfortable" comments. "Now I can look someone in the eye and say, 'Do not think like.' And I do not care what people say about me when I leave," she says. The pianist says that the stories of love that transcends time and space continues to captivate today, because "for many people, it costs too much to keep a couple in the present."

"They think that relationships are disposable, that is is easier to get a new one," explained the happily married woman, indicating that it is still possible to maintain love, "but you have to work at it," she observes. Even after more than 13 years of marriage, Amos does not consider herself an expert on the subject, but says she has "learned a lot." "You have to know when the time is right to raise certain issues. You learn to create communication between your partner and yourself, already knowing when one needs space for one's self. Everything is about the balance between independence and keeping the romance alive," she says.

[source]

[Wikipedia: La Vanguardia]

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