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Radio FM4, Vienna (Austria, radio)
October 1, 2002

Tori Amos interview and live performance



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setlist

Scarlet's Walk
Mrs. Jesus
Pancake
A Sorta Fairytale
Virginia
Strange

transcript

Tori Amos interview

Tori: Ok, hello there. Are you the first question?

Michael: No, no, I'm just recording it.

Tori: Oh, you're recording it! What's your name?

Michael: My name is Michael.

Tori: Hello, Michael! OK, first question, hello!

Tobias: I'm still kind of breathless from your performance but the question would be: Did the touring change for you now that you have a family and are they going to join you on the road?

Tori: Wow, yes, it changes to the point where, I used to really like sleeping on buses and I don't know what that's like anymore. Mainly because when I come off after we're playing, hopefully Tash is sleeping, that's the idea. But usually I find that she's watching 'Harry Potter' or something else and everybody else has fallen asleep so I think she's an insomniac toddler. So I don't know what the road holds for us but we will be travelling together, she and I, and her Daddy gets to be on the engineer bus, except on nights off, figure that, yeah.

Tori: Ok, can you hear me?

Tori: Yes, what's your name?

Tobias: Tobias.

Tori: Tobias? Ok.

Tobias: Of course, now I have a better question in mind since I wrote it, but I will stick to the rules.

Tori: No,no,no,no, ask a better question.

Tobias: Well, I'll ask the one I wrote before.

Tori: Ok, knock yourself out. (?)

Tobias: Ok, sometimes we write texts or diaries or whatever and when we take a look at it, at them, many years after, sometimes we get frightened or we shake our heads because we had a really distorted picture of life or anything like this. Do you also have this feeling when you take a look at the lyrics from older songs or when you hear them?

Tori: Sometimes, yeah. But I really have that feeling when I look at my diaries I mean, you know, the thing is, I'm supposed to be a songwriter, that's what I'm supposed to do, ok, half the time so you figure that some of the time, you know, you do edit yourself and then you don't edit yourself and I think you have an instinct as a songwriter at a certain point. And if you're any good, hopefully, you edited what you should have and didn't edit what you shouldn't have and hooray! But sometimes, yeah, I look back and I go: 'Wow, I was really rocking on those mushrooms, wasn't I?' You know, pink elephants, I don't know what I was doing, but at the same time sometimes I go: 'Yeah, but you know, those experiences, there is nothing wrong with them'. Sometimes I think symbology comes to you in the oddest ways and sometimes when I'm being so, I don't know, structured, sometimes I miss all that so I have to, kind of, keep pushing myself as a writer to get in my tool box and have emotional mushrooms, if I can't find any anywhere in the crew bus. But I can't really do that much now cause I'm a Mummy and things change but you find other ways, you find other ways of doing your research and making sure that symbology is a part of your work, that's really important to me. Is that the end of your question? OK, you did good!

Tobias: Hi, Tori!

Tori: Hi!

Tobias: Yeah, basically as everyone, I'm walking through life year after year and I think everybody's sometimes taking a little look into the future. I'd just like to know what your goals, what your dreams for the next coming years are?

Tori: Wow. Well, I guess if I answered that honestly... It is sometimes you do interviews and they look at you and go: 'Hey, can we do a fluff interview? Just do a fluff' This is one of those moments when I wish you were saying 'Can we do a fluff?' but I don't think that's really what you want. And so I really hope, I really hope that there is a generation somewhere that rises up and realizes that the decisions we make in the next couple of years are gonna affect us in ways I think that some of us know are really scary. Exactly. So, yeah, my wish is that they'll realize their power because they're very powerful, the gap generation but I don't think they realize it yet. And for the fluffs I hope that I still have a lip gloss by ...

Tobias: Hi, Tori!

Tori: Hi!

Tobias: My question is which description fits best to you and why: European settler in America, Native American, or American settler in Europe?

Tori: Native settling European American... Help, oh dear! I don't know but I gotta tell you something that really freaked me out. Last time I was in Paris I had been dreaming about French fries. Pomfrites, right? Train me! I don't do that much anymore you know I've tried to deal with all that. But I was dreaming about it. I've been in Germany so one would dream of Pomfrites, you just would. So there I am, in Paris, I'm sitting down and I'm like: 'Yes, 7 days on the road, here I am!' And you know what they bring me? Texas steak fries. That says it all, huh? Anybody, is this the.. ? Hello! What's your name?

Tobias: My name is Sylvia.

Tori: Sylvia.

Tobias: And I'm interested, if you were to write your own biography, what would be the five most outstanding events in your life that most precisely highlight your career?

Tori: Probably getting a piano, probably discovering lip gloss, probably hearing stories from my grandfather about his beliefs and spirituality, probably becoming a Mommy and probably my ???

Tobias: Hi, Tori.

Tori: Hi.

Tobias: You once were asked in an interview about things you would take with you on a deserted island. The piano was not on the list, why?

Tori: She would warp! Maybe, he'd warp too, though. Maybe she's ??? What did I say on my list? Did I say what I would take?

Tobias: I can't remember, sorry.

Tori: Was I alone?

Tobias: I don't know either.

Tori: Was he cute? Ok. I'd take the stool, though.

Tobias: The last question. It's no personal question, just when is your next official concert in Vienna? Do you know that?

Tori: Johnny? We're working on it. We come to Europe right after the first of the year so we'll be trundling (???) You know, we love coming here so I'm sure it will happen. Right Johnny? It will happen. It will happen. Ok, everybody, come visit us though, you know, I get lonely!


[transcribed by Karolina Kucinska]


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