First Set: Scarlet's Walk
Mrs. Jesus
Pancake
Crazy
Interview with Tori
Second Set: A Sorta Fairytale
Carbon
Strange
Encore: Virginia
transcript
Host: Thanks for being here.
Tori: It's good to be here, thank you for having me.
Host: Well, can you speak a little French?
Tori: Pichon Comtesse de la Lande 97, oui. C'est magnifique ! C'est magnifique...
[Audience laughing]
Host: Well thanks for presenting this new album, which is the 7th one, c'est le 7 me. The name is "Scarlet's Walk", and it's a kind of story of a person called Scarlet. Who is that girl?
[Audience laughing]
Tori: Not thaaat girrrrrl...
Host: Haha! Well...
Tori: You know...
Host: The sister of Madonna?
[Audience laughing]
Tori: No. We don't know who Scarlet's sister is, but we do know that she gets a phone call, that's how it all starts. She gets a phone call...
Host: Yeah...
Tori: From a friend. In L.A.
Host: Yeah...
Tori: Who says "come"!
Host: OK.
Tori: So, she goes, and her friend is called Amber Waves.
Host: Oui...
Tori: And her friend is a fading porn star.
Host: Donc sa copine est une star du porno.
Tori: And if that's America personified or a woman or a bit of both, maybe that's...
Host: Yeah, you can carry on. Not very good lighting, though, you know, not good lighting porn star... And she needs her friend.
Tori: And she's -- she is at a crossroads.
Host: Yeah.
Tori: They go off together. And that's the first song. They go off together, um, as girlfriends do, one in trouble, one trying to help the other one, and then, it all starts for Scarlet because she ends up going across the country slowly, meeting other people, questioning what she believes and trying to find out who the soul of America is.
Host: Right.
Tori: And to do that, she finds herself going to the Native Americans quite a bit, trying to find out who she really is.
Host: There's a question about the soul and the spirit of America after the 11th of September. You know, there's a song called "I can't see New York". What changed after this day?
Tori: The story in "Scarlet's Walk" is... it has a mixture of many of those things. But at the core, this is an event that has made people now ask a lot of questions. And I think at the time we were shamed into asking these questions because if you ask certain questions out of your love for America, your love for her soul, then you must ask questions that need to be asked. However, the government shamed people.
Host: Why did this happen?
Tori: Many questions that need to be asked, always when a tragedy happens. And I think people now in America... There has been a betrayal from without, but there's also been a betrayal from within. And Scarlet's discovering this in the story. And it's bringing up a lot of things in her. . . . Well, it's very complicated because you see, there's been a betrayal from without yes, and that was that event. But there's also been a betrayal from within. And that is something now that we are having to look at. And when there's a betrayal from within, then you have to go to the core of who you are as a nation. And to do that, you must go back in time and to the Native Americans and what happened.
Host: And that's why at one moment in the album Scarlet come to places where Indians were killeds and a lot of things like that because a lot of-- Little Big Horn, Wounded Knee with the American government...
Tori: A Native American woman came to see me on tour. Quite a few of them did. But this one in particular said to me: "The White Brother that owns the land and the people that hold the land must come together now. For the sake of her survival." She had tears running down her face and she said, "Sadly enough, the White Brother only took the land. He needs to come now and take more." ...Scarlet goes to them and takes what they're offering, which is another way of looking at things. And it's also about nurturing. Being a nurturing force. If you're going to take that next step on the medicine wheel, as she wants to do desperately, then it's time for her to be a nurturing force and not just what she can take.
Host: So, what are the solutions in that album?
Tori: I think what's important is when what you believe in is coming up inside you. You also find that you make friends and you have loves like Scarlet does. And through the people she meets she begins to see how they see the world, and she takes them in. This is like a pilgrimage for her. She opens up to ideas that she wasn't opened to before.
Host: You're not really kind with men in that album. Scarlet is not.
Tori: Oh, you don't think so? I think she's very kind to them!
Host: Really?
[Audience laughing]
Host: But they get beautiful songs sung and written about them...
[Audience laughing]
Tori: ...and they're delicious. But you know, if you want to look at them, then let's look at them and one is a soulmate in "A Sorta Fairytale", and she isn't the fantasy that he wanted. Most of us, men or women, can never live up to the fantasy if that's what you have to be.
[Audience laughing]
Host: Is that album lots of things you've lived, you?
Tori: Well, I guess you know all the characters are based on real people and real events. And my feelings are in her.
Host: Your travel is a touring?
Tori: Yes. We were very excited about that.
Host: Yeah, so we're gonna see you on stage next February?
Tori: Yes.
Host: You're gonna be at the Zenith.
Tori: And I'll be Tori doing "Scarlet's Walk". And that means Tori gets to find songs that she's known for a long time...
Host: Oh really?
Tori: ...and they get to play with the new songs, and... Yes, because that's part of my personal walk.
Host: Thank you very much; and thank you for playing.
Tori: Thank you.
[transcribed by Tristan Alzial and Jeremy Unruh]
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