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New Musical Express (UK)
December 16, 1995



Sneezy Writer

Tori Amos releases a new single Caught a Lite Sneeze on January 1. The single is taken from her forthcoming album Boys For Pele, and additional tracks include This Old Man, Hungarian Wedding Song, Toodles Mr. Jim, Samurai, and two songs which are tributes to Chas 'N' Dave, London Girls and That's What I Like Mick (The Sandwich Song).

The Album was recorded in Ireland and Louisiana and written during the end of her Under the Pink tour. She said many of the songs were about the break-up of her relationship, which lasted seven-and-a-half years.

She said: "My relationship finished during the end of the tour. I was writing in the soundchecks, in the bathroom and in the middle of the show. It's very strange when people break up because they don't want to be together anymore. You break open the champagne and say see you later. But it's different when you just can't be together. I think when you are with a soulmate it's not just somebody who you are hanging out with to blow time with. But you wake up one morning and you are making these gingerbread muffins for breakfast and you are dropping razor blades in them to just see how he reacts and you have to pull back and say hang on a minute. And that's really where the record stems from; it's being a woman alone and not being able to hide behind anybody else's personality. I steal fire from a lot of the men in my life and that makes it fairly difficult and bloody. I didn't allow myself to get angry and I needed to do that before I could kind of sit across the table and say 'OK baby, I'll make a margarita without using a lethal alcohol.'"

Boys for Pele was also produced by Amos. "I jumped off a lot of cliffs on this record as a writer, as a musician and as a woman. Until now, I haven't allowed myself to explore the part of me that could be so vicious and decadent," she said. "I'm talking about blood-lusting, about living through them, whether they can get to their dark side. Sometimes I think women need to be defecated on and yet you are negotiating your contract. Nothing was ever enough, not enough records, not enough fame, not enough men, not enough women.

"So I've begun to work with the extremes of my own personality, not with any shrink. I walk down Oxford Street while people are shopping. I just started observing the people and I started thinking about their fantasies, their imaginations, their needs and you have to figure that a lot of people don't experience that side.

"I think happiness is when you can let yourself feel every emotion you want to at any time instead of just being a lying little f---. People I see laughing all the time, check for razor blades in their anal-force underwear, because it's just a little lie."

photo by Kevin Cummins


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