Just a little Tori Interview I found on her new album "Abnormally Attracted To Sin"
Tori Amos on New “Sin,” Old Songs: “I Don’t Agree that Music Is Disposable”
4/2/09, 5:02 pm EST
At her recent standing-room-only performance at this year’s South
by Southwest Festival in Austin, Tori Amos premiered songs from
her tenth studio album, Abnormally Attracted to Sin, due May 19th.
It’s her first studio LP since 2007’s American Doll Posse, and the
record finds the singer-pianist exploring familiar territory: power in
all its guises, be it sexual, monetary or political. “Before, we used to
think power was if you had a job and you had money,” she says.
“And if that’s our definition of success, then very few people have it
— the money part anyway. So [I’m] redefining what it means,
because power is also an aphrodisiac.”
Working once again with her husband, engineer Mark Hawley,
Amos says that the album’s production is key. “Sound is an
instrument,” she explains. “It’s not just, ‘Let’s jam.’ ” But visuals were
central to the record, too: the LP will be accompanied by a series of
16 “visualettes,” short films that Amos largely funded herself that
were directed by Christian Lamb. The footage, captured during
Amos’ world tour in support for American Doll Posse, actually
inspired the songs that would become Abnormally Attracted to Sin.
“I’d see montages of our life on the road,” she says, “and I’d shut off
the music, realizing this music is not the underscoring for what I’m
seeing at all.” Near the end of the tour, she started writing the songs
because she knew that Lamb’s films “needed another story. I said, I
wanna give people something that says my favorite thing: If it’s too
loud, turn it up. I wanna give people creative worlds to walk into so
that they are getting a sensory overload. You give people treasures,
not ‘How can I cut all the costs?’ ” Though the project took money
out of her pocket, it was important to Amos, she says, because
“people are just putting out the worst. And I don’t agree that music is
disposable.”
Her own music certainly has staying power — especially for the
die-hard fans that pack her shows hoping to hear early cuts. “I’m a
different person,” she says, “but the songs, the faces, the life
experience or the fantasies that you assign to certain songs in order
for you to perform them, and to let them live in you, change. So
when I perform them now, if I do ‘Winter’ or ‘Silent All These Years’
[both from Amos’ platinum debut, Little Earthquakes], I’ve surprised
myself what stories, what photographs come up in my mind. And
that’s why I do insert the catalog, because I don’t see it as my past, I
see the songs as timeless for me. It’s just my perception that needs
to change.”
Amos’ new music will be her first to come out on Universal Music.
She landed the new deal after stumbling into a label rep while she
was at lunch — with other, smaller distribution companies. The rep
passed her table, said hello and took a phone call from “my boss’
boss,” Amos recalls: Doug Morris, the Chairman and CEO of
Universal Music Group. As Amos was finishing lunch, she noticed
the woman still outside the restaurant, pacing and talking on her
cell. “And in that moment, my life flashed before my eyes,” she says.
“I thought, Doug Morris. He’s right there. We haven’t talked in 14
years. I miss Doug Morris. We didn’t always agree, but he’s still
passionate about music.
“I put all my mother’s training of manners and everything I know to
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bouncy
excited
silly
drained
mischievous
horny
annoyed
giddy
chipper
hungry
restless
hot
cheerful
cold
