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Baltimore Morning
Sun Usually, when people in the music business talk about “the big picture,” what
they’re thinking about is long-term sales strategy - how to build a buzz around
an artist, how to generate momentum on a project, how to navigate the
transition from cult favorite to mass-market superstar. As such, it’s fairly
easy to imagine what those folks would see as Tori Amos’ next move. Thanks to
the fan-base she built with her last album, Little Earthquakes, Amos now has
all the earmarks of a cult star about to break big. Her concerts routinely sell
out, and her current album, Under the Pink, has passed the half-million mark
and is still selling steadily. So what music biz logic would demand is a new album in early ‘95, with a heavy
push on the singles and extensive touring. Amos, though, operates on a slightly
different agenda. Consequently, the only thing she plans to deliver next year
is a baby. “I’m targeting the next record for the fall of ‘96,”
she says, over the phone from a tour stop in Kansas City. “And I have a couple things on the back burner. I’ve done
something on the Leonard Cohen tribute that I’m very excited about, because you
know what an influence his writing’s been to so many. Then I did a duet with
Robert Plant, which I’m very excited about. It’s going to be on the Zeppelin
tribute that’s coming out in January.” She’s also writing the score for a BBC radio adaptation of stories from Neil
Gaiman’s comic The Sandman. Interesting work, all of it - but hardly the most
obvious career move. “It’s funny, because [Warner Music U.S.
president] Doug Morris, when he heard that I was
going to do this other stuff, said, ‘I could have thought of 10 things you
would do - like run off with the devil would have been one of them - before
having a baby and not doing another record right away.’ “I said, ‘Well, it’s about making a great
record, and I think [what is] going to help
me make more interesting work is if I feed myself on a personal level.’” Keeping things on a personal level is a central part of the way Amos operates.
Take the way she talks about her songs. Where other artists might speak of
album tracks or singles, Amos thinks of her compositions as “the girls,” with
each having its own needs and individual character. For instance, one of the reasons she uses taped backing tracks when performing
“God” and “Cornflake Girl” is that the songs don’t quite work as solo piano
pieces. The piano, she says, “is the glue holding
those tunes together, but it is only the glue. It’s not like the wood also.” But the other reason she gives has more to do with the kind of personality
those songs have. “You know how some songs can have
a party on their own, with a little book and a bottle of champagne?” she
says. “Well, these two girls have to have loads of
people there.” As such, Amos is able to maintain the kind of ongoing relationship with her
work that keeps even older material, such as “Silent All These Years” and “Me
and a Gun,” fresh each night. “I just think I’m able to understand ‘Silent’
now,” she says. “So the writer side of me is
going, ‘God, these songs are very current.’ They have a power that, at the
time, I didn’t really know how to translate on tape. “It’s the same with Under the Pink,” she
adds. “I think I’m doing [songs such as] ‘Icicle’ better than I’ve ever done on record, because I’m
growing into them. “So for my next step as a writer, well, I don’t
know where we’re going next, but I’m feeling pieces of it coming together.
Whereas Little Earthquakes was more of a diary and Under the Pink is more an impressionist
painting, this project is maybe a little bit of both and something completely
different. So I know that I need time to make it great, and I won’t put
anything out that I’m not really proud of.” Fortunately, Amos has some help on that end. “‘Silent’
is as current to me as anything I’m writing now, and it’s leading me by the
hand,” she says. “She’s saying, ‘That wasn’t clever enough, Tori.
That line isn’t good. You can’t do that. I won’t let it through my door.’” Amos laughs. “‘Silent’ is my doorkeeper,”
she explains. “She’s really stroppy about who comes
to the party.” Not that Amos has any time to party herself. “I’m a bit in a weird space right
now, because my body’s so tired,” she confesses. Finishing
the Sandman score while on tour has made a tight schedule even tighter for her.
“I’m having a keyboard brought in, in between waking up, getting a plane, doing
interviews, and going to sound check, and doing the show,” she says. “So I’m a bit of a lunatic right now.” Fortunately, there’s one Tori project she’s not in charge of: The Book of
Amos. “My father is putting out a pictorial
biography, through Music Sales, who prints all my sheet music,” she
says. “[Pictures] since
I was a little kid, of when I was at Peabody, and my recitals and stuff.”
Why? Amos says her parents thought it was important “to
show an accurate accounting of what really happened. There’s so much unclear
information, I think because I started so little. “So it’s not like you’re just getting pictures
of two years ago. You’re getting recitals from when I was 7 and 8. True press
clippings, from when things really came out. And rejection letters that I got
from presidents of record companies saying I’d never have a chance.” She
laughs devilishly. “We’re going to print a couple
of those.” |
