|
Oor (Dutch - “Ear”) Featuring Tori on the cover, and a
five-page article. The legs are spread behind the grand piano, the eyes focused continually
on the audience, a mischievous smile around her lips. As if she put the Kama
Sutra on music, TORI AMOS slides
with her sensual voice on an Eastern manner around the harmonies she evokes
with her piano playing. You can hear a pin drop. Tori sighs and groans and
brings the audience to a joint orgasm. by Hans van den Heuvel Due to the gigantic offering it is impossible to listen to everything which is
released. I knew about Tori Amos and how great she sings, and how she got many
colleagues on their hands and knees, slavering at her feet with her blue eyes
and nice derangeness. That her debut CD “Little Earthquakes” can be counted
among the highpoints of pop history I only discovered when I volunteered to
interview her in a fit of recklessness, and thus had to listen to all of her
material, including the recently released “Under the Pink”, with more than an
average interest. Tori couples the timbre and high voice of Kate Bush to the
power and intensity of Sinead O’Connor. She adds her own sensuality and
powerful personality. How deeply rooted that is, showed when we let her choose
questions out of a box of cards we use at special occasions. And believe me, a
talk with Tori Amos is such a special occasion. I WOULD NEVER WANT TO BE A POPSTAR. WHEN YOU’RE A POPSTAR YOU CAN ONLY
GET TO BE AN EX-POPSTAR, WHEREAS I CAN GO ON UNTIL I’M 65. (CHRIS REA) “I want to agree on that. In the end it all comes down to the music. A lot
of pop stars are not musicians. They don’t write their own material, they can
sing, they may have personality, but they’re not musicians. Someone like Bruce
Springsteen is a musician, a songwriter and a rockstar. His career goes up and
down, because people go through some periods of different fashions. I don’t
think it’s an indication that he’s less or more talented than Chris Rea.” DO YOU SELL YOUR MUSIC OR YOUR TITS? “Would you ask this question to a man?” ZZ TOP ALSO HAD TO ANSWER THIS ONE... “It goes with the deal, doesn’t it? I can’t see how you can separate the
physical from the musical. Creative energy and sexual energy are always from
the same source of power. Passion is, to me, he key word. Whether it’s passion
for music, for life or for love, it’s all passion. When I’m on stage, I feel a
lot of passion. I transform to the mango I would want to be. But my daily life
is somewhat sleeping. Then I’m more like a walking cactus. Men don’t even watch
me when I walk past them into a restaurant...” IS THAT WHY YOU WANTED TO GO ONSTAGE? TO GET MORE ATTENTION? “There are a lot of reasons to want to perform. Especially since it was
suppressed at home. Religion was an important theme, and music the only way to
express that passion.” SINCE YOUR SUCCESS YOUR MUSIC BARELY CHANGED. IT MERELY EXISTS FROM LESS
BRILLIANT IDEAS, WHICH SEEM VARIATIONS TO EARLIER SONGS “Hm. There are only twelve notes, so you have to know very well what you’re
doing to write more than twelve songs. If not, you will have worked out all of
your ideas very quickly. I have challenged myself for the second CD. I’ve done
things I’ve never done before: melody, harmony, phrases... Very interesting.
For me. And I’m only playing 27 years. As a musician you have to ask yourself
at the end of the day: have I been to places where I’ve never been before? Have
I been pioneering? When the answer is ‘not really’, you have to live with
yourself.” SOME PEOPLE DON’T HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THAT. “But I’m a monster to live with. It’s terrible. I was playing when I was 2.5
years old. I was a wonder child. While kids of my age were still pissing in
their beds, I was in the middle of heavy competition, trying to explore myself,
to grow. The tension and expectations were high. Until I had become a joke at
some point. For 14 years I have played in bars. Where people spill beer on your
piano, or shout that you should shut up. You have no illusions about fame. You
are glad you can even play your own songs, and not “Feelings” or “Send in the
clowns” for the umpteenth time. You lead a double life. You play in hotel bars
for a living, because no-one wants to pay you for your own music. Then you have
to hurry and change clothes in the car to rehearse with your band. I’m grateful
for the steps I have had to make. But I’m concentrated on the question: “What
will I do after this? How am I gonna challenge myself musically? “ CAN YOU SEE YOURSELF WORKING WITH A CLASSICAL OR JAZZ ORCHESTRA, LIKE
SOMEONE LIKE ELVIS COSTELLO? “Probably. I’m sure it must have excited him very much.” IT IS NOT OUR TASK TO LESSEN THE INVITED AT THE TABLE OF HUMANITY, BUT TO
MAKE SURE THERE’S ENOUGH BREAD ON THE TABLE. “Wow. I have nothing to add to that. Fantastic. To me this saying relates to
the Last Meal [You know, Christ’s one - MR], about food for the brains. But I
don’t think everyone’s ready to take place at that table. There are people who
gulp down that bread, would like to shit it out on their chairs and then piss
off, going away from the place with their elbows. As an example: Pearl jam did
a charity concert to save Apache Mountain in Arizona. An Apache-woman did a
speech about the meaning of this concert. The audience was throwing this at
her, to make her go away from the stage! Then Bill Miller appeared, he was my
support act in the States and will join me at the European dates in fall. An Indian,
who sings about his people. They spat at him. Until he had to leave the stage
also. Eddie Vedder got so angry that he went on stage and spat back. And the
audience loved that! For all those people who came to the table, there was
enough bread. But look what they did with it! The answer is to give them no
more. They have to qualify before they can get a piece. Else let them starve. People have to take responsibility for the mess they leave behind on this
earth. But we behave in a dictatorial manner. Because you believe in different
things doesn’t have to mean it always has to be done your or my way. But it
turned out to be like that... You could think we would have gotten over that,
with the next millennium in sight, but that’s not the case. PEOPLE GET LESS TOLERANT. “It just stays the same. Nothing has changed. We have dips and hills of
openness, but look how fast that can change. The same people who were so open-minded
in the sixties were booing Sinead O’Connor at the Dylan concert. I’m sorry she
had to go through that, because it was very painful. But it was so significant
for the time we live in. You may protest in a way everyone thinks acceptable,
but if you do it differently... I really got a kick out of the way PETA, the
American movement for animal rights, protested against the use of fur. I’m not
a vegetarian, but I eat healthy and respect their opinion. I just don’t believe
in the somewhat fascist techniques they use. Spraying paint on fur is pure
terrorism! Now they were walking in g-strings, in Washington, with the motto: ‘We’d
rather walk naked than in fur.” NOONE WHO’S PART OF A CAPITALISTIC ORGANIZATION LIKE THE RECORD INDUSTRY
CAN PERMIT PREACHING KIBBUTS MENTALITIES. “Unless all the world is a kibbuts. When all the world would implode and you
would ask me to sing a song for you, I would say: Of course Hans. Can I have
some tomatoes from you? Because I need some for my salad. We’d exchange. I can’t
see how someone can say musicians may not get paid, while that person is paying
lots of money for cigarettes. De exchange system wasn’t that bad. Although even
the exchange system knew a certain hierarchy. Some people had more objects to
exchange than others. When you had something that a lot of others would want,
you’d get more carrots and tomatoes so you could make a bigger salad. Sadly I’m
not a very good merchant. That’s why I have a disastrous record deal. I was
signed in 1986 already. No one wanted me. So I didn’t have much to say about
it. Now I have to make six more records under this contract. I do
negotiate after each record, but I have no choice. When I want to make a new
record, they know they’ve got me. Despite this, I love Warner. It feels so
reliable. We have fought so much through the years. I feel like they have kept
me under contract because of our differences. Because they know I would piss on
their desks when I don’t get my way. But I try to stay fair. Also for my boys
on the road. They’re mostly men, I only have two women with me. We are with
thirteen right now, whereas I play on stage alone. They’re all needed to get
the show rolling. Even there is a hierarchy. The technician is the most
important one. Because without a soundmixer there is no show. You can do a show
without light, but not without sound. Even with the lights there is a
hierarchy. The one doing the catering is the mother of the crew. Even if it’s a
guy, he’s still fulfilling a mother role. The tour manager is the game ruler.
When they don’t do things his way, or we’re behind on schedule, he screams. At
the end of the line it’s me. Who pays everyone’s bills, who gets paid less than
everyone else. That’s no democracy, Hans. So if I have to take the reins, I
will. Because when you have to pay the bills, it’s your future on
the line. They can always go on to the next task. They get paid well, but it
always comes back to their way of working. I do love the people, they’re all my
friends. I even go out with them, something that most artists won’t do. But
after playing in bars for so many years, I don’t have that attitude of “I’m the
star, who do you think you are?” IT SURPRISES ME YOU DON’T DESCRIBE THE WOMEN IN YOUR CREW AS SISTERS. “I have something against sisters at the moment. Not my sister, whom
I like very much. But dominantly the women’s movement. Women have this facade
of fighting for the same cause, but can be so cruel, so slimy at the same time.
I trust my male friends a lot more than my female friends. Men just want to get
along with you. They won’t nag about the fact things are going so well for me.
They’re happy about it. Whereas women will try and give me a complex of guilt.
Make me uncertain, make me doubt myself. So that I don’t dare go on stage,
because I’d be afraid to have no success. Then they’d be happy, because then we’re
all rats in the same cage again. Only independently working women I like. There’s
mutual respect there. I don’t want something of them , and vice versa. They’re
not jealous, cos they have their own lives. There are different layers in women’s
relations. What happens for instance when you like the same man? Or sometimes
it isn’t even man-related. Careers, self-esteem. Hierarchy is everywhere, Hans.”
ROCK MUSICIANS AREN’T THE MOST CLEVER PEOPLE ON EARTH. IF THEY WERE THEY
WOULD HAVE LEARNED A REAL JOB. “But they do have the best parties” WHAT, BESIDES ALCOHOL, HAVE BEEN THE MOST IMPORTANT INFLUENCES ON YOUR
MUSIC? “Suppression. As a kid you don’t analyse things that much. You react very directly:
‘I don’t want to play with those dolls, I don’t like those people. I’m
bored. I will go and play the piano. Goodbye.’ I never wondered: ‘Why do I want to play the piano? Kids
are so direct, they don’t have to justify or defend themselves. They just don’t
want to do certain things. ‘I don’t want to play Ravel today. I love John
Lennon. I want to listen to his record.’” HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT BEING COMPARED TO THE BEATLES? “I’m never compared to the Beatles.” YOUR MUSIC IS AN IDEAL MEANS OF LETTING THE YOUTH GET IN CONTACT WITH
QUALITY POP IN THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE HITPARADE. “I hope it gives them some idea that you can do a whole lot more with the
piano than just playing church music on it. The piano had a hard time in the
last 15 years.” WHILE THERE ARE SO MANY KEYBOARDS IN POP MUSIC. “Now you offend me. The piano says: I’m no synthesizer. I’m nine feet tall
and have very long strings. It’s a whole different instrument. Pianists are no
keyboardists and vice versa. Sometimes they do change. Most synthesizer players
haven’t got enough strength in their fingers to play the piano. You develop
that. And you have to keep it up. When I don’t play for 3 weeks, I lose my
technique almost totally. That fast. It’s such a difficult instrument. DO YOU KEEP A DIARY? “No. What happens, happens.” IF YOU COULD PICK A HAREM, HOW WOULD IT LOOK? (Big grin). “There is a certain exterior that I fall for, that’s true. But
it would be more important though how my harem would smell. One can gamble on
which guys one would like most, but I would choose someone else instead anyway.
Man doesn’t differ that much from the wolves, in making choices. It happens
instinctively.” IF YOU HAD TO INTERVIEW YOURSELF, WHICH QUESTION WOULD YOU DEFINITELY NOT
ASK? WHAT WOULD YOU ASK INSTEAD? “Do you have an hour? ‘What do you think of your new album?’ What a stupid
question. ‘Does it bother you when you’re compared to Kate Bush?’ Next one: ‘How
does it feel to be a female singer/songwriter?’ WHICH QUESTION WOULD YOU ASK INSTEAD? ONE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN ASKED? “Do you think you have a responsibility to release the work of which you
fear the public isn’t ready for yet?” WHAT WOULD BE YOUR ANSWER? “Would I have a career if I did?” IT’S FUNNY YOU SHOULD SAY THIS, COS A LOT OF PEOPLE SEE YOU AS VERY
OPEN... “Everyone draws a line. One will go further than another. I am doing things
of which I fear that if I release them they will be miscomprehended so
heavily... There are subjects where people build a wall for in advance. They colour
red before you finish your sentence. They don’t want to hear it, for fear of
something terrible. Something ugly. The Rape Crisis Centre refused a donation
from Nirvana because of the song ‘Rape Me’. Nirvana said they were attacking
raping in that song. But the RCC just says: keep your nose out of things you
know nothing about. We think it’s offensive, we don’t want your money. I first
didn’t like the song either. But the more I listened to it, the more I
understood. I understood the typically American feeling of saying ‘Hit me if
you dare, motherfucker, because if you do you won’t walk out of here alive.’
Except a raped woman will never say ‘Rape me,’ that is everything she fights
against. When I’d write a song like ‘Rape Me,’ I would be very aware of the
consequences. I’d have to be as specific as possible. And be prepared to defend
it. But if your intentions are true, you must be prepared to do this. To resist
the eggs being thrown at your head. Eggs of women who are afraid to go out on
the streets.” |