MJs Blog

My interview with Tori 2009 + beautiful photos

Hello everyone!

I once again had the pleasure to sit down with Tori. This time we met in Vienna and it was considerably more stressful than two years ago in Graz, cause she had a very tight schedule. Luckily, I had my dear friend Julia, who is a photographer, with me. Please follow the original link to see the photos in all their glory: http://pressetext.com/news/090509001/

Once again, I would like to offer you a raw English version of the interview. Note that English is not my mother tongue and that this is not the way I would like to see it published in a magazine or newspaper. I spent hours to get the German version right and it would be lovely if you check out the link above anyway, since any click on it counts here at work.

Interview with Tori May 2009 in Vienna

Martin: While the major labels take action against illegal downloads, many artists shy away from the controversial discussion and maybe even offer free downloads as a counter measure. Are the artists to lose out on all of this?
Tori: The possible danger is that if the public is naïve enough to think that when you go to a wine tasting you can put the bottle of wine in the bag. If you start doing that the vineyard is going to shut down. There has to be some kind of exchange. If you’re going to take a song, you need go give back - if you value it.

Martin: You could argue, though, that more people will show up at your concerts, if they like the music they downloaded.
Tori: That doesn’t keep the records going. That only keeps the petrol in the buses and the crew paid. To me, this is about respect. What if I came into your house and start putting shit in my bag? Wouldn’t you think that I’m crossing a line there? Where is my respect for your home?

Martin: But do you see a way out of this?
Tori: Consciousness. It’s not about rules. We’re talking about something far more serious here. This is about a generation trying to find a way to show value. If I’m taking from an artist and all I do is taking, then this is an unhealthy relationship and I’m a parasite. I don’t like the idea and I don’t think the public likes the idea either. At the same time it’s also about being respected by the artist. Neither side can take each other for granted. The artist has to make sure too that they are giving enough and acknowledge for the fact that everyone worked hard to be able to buy this ticket or special package. This is something every artist has to develop with the public. I think it’s a very individual thing.

Martin: During your last US tour you put recordings of many of your concerts online for sale shortly after they finished. Did that pay off and are there any similar plans for this tour?
Tori: It went very well. So, we’re planning something again, but it might be Europe this time. It’s a very involving thing, cause you have to work with the venues and promoters.

Martin: The new album turns out to be quite diverse in style.
Tori: Because the compositions were so diverse, it sort of set the blue prints for the building. Early on, Mark and I were hammering out concepts for arrangements. Then Mark and Marcel were hammering out sonic direction, so when all the players came in, they would be working within the blue prints. After having done American Doll Posse, for which I needed to have a more of a band kind feeling in production, something like this was encompassing twenty years of my composition style. Even though it wasn’t going back to “From the choirgirl hotel” it grabs styles from each period of my career.

Martin: Apparently, the role of the piano on the albums has changed quite substantially over the years. Where does she stand nowadays?
Tori: In making records, you have to grow and there is the composer side of the self that will not battle with the instrumentalist, but say ‘look, I have to compose things that are not just designed for the piano anymore’ and that’s the side that has been more blossoming in the record making process.

Martin: Your early albums seem to mirror your personal experiences and emotions in a different way than albums like “American Doll Posse” or “Scarlet’s Walk”, in which you take on different characters. As an artist, do you feel more detached from your private self than when you were younger?
Tori: I’d say that as a composer the process is similar in the sense that the experiences have to be there in order to write. Sometimes I don’t see, how people cannot see that. There is no way I could write the songs unless I knew them first hand. But talking about the details and the ‘whys’ and the ‘whos’ is just not going to keep you in a 20 year career and keep you having a personal life. It gets ravaged. I think I allow a lot and so much of me is out there in the open – completely. But how it is applied to my personal life just isn’t up for discussion.

Martin: Do you compose differently now than you did ten, fifteen years ago? With some of the new songs, it’s quite hard to imagine you composing them at the piano.
Tori: Yes, definitely. Songs like “Police Me” or “Strong Black Vine” might start on an organ. Within the process it gets tracked, so Matt and Jon can get their performances. But sitting back, listening back, we would find out that the keyboard doesn’t sound right or the composition doesn’t really offer enough room for the piano being the central character. But that’s fine. She’s always there and I’m always working things out with her as a conspirator. At the same time, the relationship between her and me is so secure that now I feel I don’t have to force to have the piano on everything.

Martin: In the “Little earthquakes”- and “Under the pink” era you were known to be a harsh editor, trimming down the albums to roughly 12 songs. All of your latest releases clock in over 70 minutes with 17, 18 tracks…
Tori: Yes, but then you got the b-sides, which have always been some of the favourites of the public. You don’t get that anymore. So if you’re working with a 12 song record nowadays then there was so much music being edited out that was worthy. Despite, I’m a very harsh editor more so. Cause you don’t know what doesn’t make the record!!!

Martin: So, you’re saying that nowadays you rather put one or two songs more on the album, even if they don’t fit too tightly in the overall concept?
Tori: That’s right. Absolutely.

Martin: Thank you so much.

© Martin Jan Stepanek, pressetext.austria

Please support my work by clicking here   - photos of Tori included!!!

Tori Amos Interview Unabridged

I had the pleasure to do an interview with Tori two weeks ago in Graz, Austria. She revealed that despite writing her blogs she doesn’t live on the internet at all. She admitted, though, that a long time ago she actually googled herself. I also asked her about digital music and she compared the Music-on-the-iPod-with-little-headphones -experience to drinking wine from plastic cups. Last, but not least, there was some talk about politics and Live Earth.

The edited interview was published in German here: pressetext.austria

If you read the unabridged English version of the interview, please be so kind to click on the link above anyway, since that counts for me at my work. Bear also in mind that the English version I’m offering now is not how I would want it being published in a magazine or some newspaper. It’s meant for the Tori community and personal friends of mine only – like a raw, unedited bootleg, I guess... Please do not copy or use the interview somewhere else and always link to that blog. You're very welcome, though, to discuss parts of the interview and quote those in fan forums etc...

 Enjoy! Martin.

Interview with Tori, 06/27/2007

Martin: You were one of the first to put out your DVD on iTunes... what I also know is that you’re quite concerned about sound and quality. How do you feel when you think about all these people buying your (remastered) music on iTunes, listening to it over their iPods. Is that just a necessity you have to live with or are you sad about that from a producer’s point of view?

Tori: Let’s face it. You know, I think of myself as a medium vinyard. I can’t control, if people choose to drink the wine we make in paper cups – or plastic! yes plastic cups (laughs)– there is one side of you, who thinks, oh no! – but at the same time: do you want ... you see, my niece, who turned 15, only listens to these little things in her ears. My husband said to her: Sit down! Come in! Cause he has iTunes wired up through the whole studios – so whether you’re in the entertainment room or the big jacuzzi areas – these speakers come up – not necessarily massive, but your hair blows back, like in that one advertisement on tv... so, he’s played music for her. And she said: Holy fuck, what’s that!?? He said: that’s called sound! But she has no idea what it is. In her mind, everything is coming from these little tiny things in her ears. So sometimes you’re thinking: Ok, so, these people want to drive Pintos and they could be fucking driving convertibles Mercedes. But you can’t tell them how to listen to music. So, I have to supply the music, otherwise you miss a generation. And you also have to know the playing field is level. Everybody else is coming out of those tiny little things.

Martin: A few weeks back, I wrote about that wonderful YouTube-story, when you met the children’s choir. I just wondered how you felt listening to these children singing your songs. During that moment, did you think about your musical heritage, you know, if your songs may live on?

Tori: Sure. Every songwriter thinks about that. You can’t be a songwriter and not think about that. I think architects think like that as well. Are they going to demolish the building you created? To stand there that day... initially it was just one of those things that were on a list of a long day. „By the way, there is a choir that is going to be singing. I said: „Oh great“ – as I got my list for the day. I had gone into early morning radio. I had lunch with that guy at Sony and then I come in to that very different experience that was... disarming. I wasn’t prepared for it. Maybe it was good that I wasn’t prepared for it cause I didn’t know what to expect.

Martin: Had you actually watched the videos on YouTube beforehand?

Tori: Neil Gaiman had told me about this many many months ago – So, husband got me to sit down and see Carbon. So, I watched them do that on YouTube, months ago, and then it was just that lovely moment, and time passes and you move on. I don’t live on the internet. I try to create things that live on the internet, but I don’t. When I was standing there and watching them, and it wasn’t a performance that was just cobbled together. I mean, they really worked hard on it. They knew the music in and out. It made me see that the songs had made friends with these young children.

Martin: You said, you’re not the internet person. When I was watching the YouTube video I asked myself, if the internet does not indeed tear down a few barriers. I imagined Tori Amos, watching the YouTube video. And then, there is the choir conductor and all the fans watching the YouTube video too, or uploading it. If you wanted, with one click you could go to a fan forum or YouTube and read what everyone is thinking about your songs and your performances. So, how do you protect yourself from that? And have you ever googled yourself?

Tori: Yes, I did. It was a very long time ago, though. It’s a dangerous game. And I realised this a long time ago. You just realise that the personal me, who wakes up every morning, has vulnerabilities like the next person and relates to friends and life and your inner world, probably similar to you do. You have privacy, personal feelings about things. You cannot put that hat on. You cannot have that vulnerability, intimacy with your friends and things that are private and then google Tori Amos with that same hat. Because then the skin is off in front of mio. of people.

Martin: You mean, if you took part in this?

Tori: Yes. You must have a detachment from the personal you and the creative force that is you. The personal me chooses not to engage in that. Because I have to have and lead a life that is like you would lead your life. You have your friends and people have an opinion on your work. You have an editor. You have a team of people you work with. You don’t have to be judged by mio. of people, when you wake up in the morning. (Tori imitates postings: I didn’t like her shoes... and how she did that song last night...and dadada.... my god!... you never get out of that door. This is where the personal me made a decision that the professional me, the creative force, has her team of people and knows there are ways how I monitor projects.

I have a think tank. I have safety nets, where I sit down. Neil is one of my think tank people and I like to think I’m one of his. There are a few in my life... to make a long story short... that’s why you have to discipline yourself with that, because you have to look at what your work is and where you wanna take it and where you want the shows to go. You can’t get into listening to everyone, because otherwise you could become a compulsion and then you start changing things that are really good about what you do. I’ve known singer/songwriters that you don’t hear a lot about anymore, because they started listening to everybody and they decided to change this about themselves and that about themselves till there was nothing recognisable left. So they became vapid and their career was gone.

Martin: During your concert in Prague you did that touching improvisation on the revolution in 1989 in Czechoslovakia...

Tori: I had been saving Velvet Revolution, the song, until we came to Prague, because that was why it had been written. It had been written, because of where we are in America now and that we really need that spirit to take over our masses. And so it sets up the song Dark Side of the Sun. So, I had been thinking about where we were going to play this. When the tour started, I said, it has to be played in its birthplace...

Martin: So, do you believe in music as a political or revolutionary force or a catalyst for political change in the sense that it really can change how people think about politics? Or do you think it is just a resemblance of what’s going on at the moment?

Tori: Well, it can chronicle time, clearly. And yet, as it’s mirroring what’s going on, sometimes it’s the match that you throw on the kindling that sparks conciousness. And sometimes it’s not just one piece of music. Sometimes it is a barrage. You get a spark here and a spark there and I think we’re beginning to see that again, like we did in the 90ies. We had it at different time periods, where you have music periods reflecting the time. If you really look back at your American history. George Bush’s father had been reigning when Grunge was on the horizon in its infancy. When I was writing Little Earthquakes, the father was in power and I wrote a song called Sweet Dreams, which was about the father And we have a song on this record that really adressed the American people about the son. And Dark Side of the Sun. And father’s son. There is a lot of this, what would you say, it’s a parallel to me to the Roman Empire, of how lineage and power had been passed on in the land of the free of all places now. We’re living that, we’re dealing with that now. It’s very poetic to me how it’s occurring, the parallels.

Martin: There are a lot of these big political music events like Live Aid or Live Earth happening. Do you think that it is relevant or important that you have these big shows? Or do you believe that in terms of reflection on political issues the music itself is more important... that the message should be encoded within the songs?

Tori: They do different things, don’t they? These big events.

Martin: Cause you have never really taken part...

Tori: No, usually, I shy away from that. But I don’t have any negative to say about it. I just think that it has to be the right fit. But I don’t have anything negative to say. But those events, it’s the event that is important, sometimes more than the specific music. The musicians sometimes are there to give attention to the event. And what you are talking about is there is music that is encoded and written in order to shake the foundations of the status quo.

Martin: And you believe in that?

Tori: Of course I believe in that. Because I believe that there are two factions and it is a war of ideals now. You can’t be for the emancipation of the masses and controlling the masses. You can’t wanna control them and how they think and also want them to be liberated. It doesn’t work this way. You’re on one side or the other. The way I see it: Those that are behind the Right Wing Christian movement are very much about encoding people with limitation. With categories. With stereotypes. With compartmentalisation, paradigms. They walk into them and they fill a slot, so therefore they’re not really investigating their own mind and their own opinions and who they are. But they are choosing to become what the authority would like them to become. And as you well know, how you control a person is by dividing and conquering them.

Think about the women – if you have the women put in these boxes – so there is the career women – there is the tart – there is the mother – the artist – then you have them really amputated from the wholeness of the divine feminine. That’s one reason why I chose to bring the different character types from Greek mythology into now. Because I feel these stereotypes for women in the States are so diluted and watered down. The career women is usually very non-sexual and a bitch. The tarte is usually fixated with her little jewels... no nickers on... and Catherine Deneuve does not come to mind. These girls don’t carry Aphrodite in any way. They are just completely non-threatening and vulgar. Then you have the mothers and you think: Hey, wait a minute! Why do we associate mothers without being sexual? I mean, they had to do something in order to get us here! (laughs) And it doesn’t have to be „vulgar“. It doesn’t have to be that way. In my mind there was such a dilusion of the Aphrodite archetype since Christianity took hold – mythology for the magdalene and the mother mary. It’s really simplistic.

© Martin Jan Stepanek, pressetext.austria

So... that was it. She also mentioned, how having a six-year-old really changed the way they tour, as they have to get up now in the morning and go out to town with her. She said, she actually enjoys it a lot, cause they see much more from all the cities nowadays.

Needless to say, it was a wonderful experience to meet her. As I wrote above... if you want to support my work, please visit the original interview here.  Thanks!