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Tori Amos interviewed by host David Dye. David: Quite often we have guests
on the World Cafe who are very interesting to listen to perform, but rarely do
we have a guest as interesting to listen to talk as Tori Amos. She has been a
regular World Cafe guest since her first album when very few people knew about
her. Well, that, of course, is no longer the case. On the day that Tori joined
us to talk about Boys For Pele, that album had just debuted on the charts at #2
as thousands of Tori Amos fans had to get that album on the day of its release.
We'll talk with Tori about the making of Boys For Pele which was the first of
her albums that she actually produced herself, well talk about the writing of
this record, which seems to be the freest of any disc so far, plus we'll take
some questions from Tori Amos fans from the internet...coming up, on the World
Cafe. And some Tori Amos music starts things off...from Little Earthquakes,
this is "Crucify." - "CRUCIFY" - David: I'm David Dye, this is the
World Cafe, and Tori Amos is our guest today we'll talk with her in a bit after
this, from Under The Pink. - "GOD" - David: An old friend of the World
Cafe has wandered into our studios once again ..or no, it was premeditated
after months of phone...no.. Tori Amos has joined us once again Tori: Hi, David. David: Hi, good to see you. Tori: Thank you. David: It's interesting, you were
here on the day...the first week that the album has come out here in the
States, and your fans have come out in droves to the record stores. That must
be really reassuring. Tori: Yeah. David: Well this new one, Boys
For Pele, is different in so many ways. Most of all, I would think for you, is
the fact that you were working solo in so many ways, with you as your producer.
You broke up with your boyfriend/producer. Tori: Well, we separated. David: Separated... Tori: Let's put it that way, yeah,
we separated. David: Did you consider working
with someone else or did you want to work alone? Tori: I wanted to work alone at
that point. I think after working with Eric, I really couldn't conceive of
another co-producer at that point. It was very much about me spreading my
musical wings and not trying to fill his shoes. David: A lot of the record is you
at the harpsichord, you at the Bösendorfer, you... Tori: At both of them together at
the same time! David: Yeah...at the harpsichord
through a Leslie, the piano through a Leslie. Just some wonderful, wonderful
sounds with the keyboard. That solo interaction is obviously what your concerts
have been about. Why did you do so much of the record that way? Tori: I felt like my concerts
have a certain vibrating feeling in the stomach...just a real primal kind of
feeling that I get from them anyway. And I wanted to take that to disc. I used
my live guys to record it, I worked with my live team. And I felt like the tone
of the Bösey, the tone of the harpsichord was so important. How to get that
thunder from the Bösey and how to get that real bite out of the harpsichord, so
that you're kind of not counting how much these guys made on triple scale, you
know what I'm saying? It wasn't about the production. I wanted the production
to just kind of fall over you like honey. I just wanted it to be kind of like a
wave. David: I wanted to play one of
the early pieces on the record, "Horses", which is one of the more
solo pieces. I want to ask you more about what the whole album is about, but
can you set up this song in some way. Tori: Well, I felt the day that
this song was coming...I'm talking about the recording part now... David: Right, not the writing, Tori: ...that I knew a Leslie
needed to come in there. And I talked about it with my live guys...my live guys
were very important on this record...and I said, "I think I'm feeling
Leslie," and so they said, "Well, give us a couple days," and I
said, "No, no. I think I'm feeling it by four o'clock." And we were
in County Wicklow which means we had to go to Dublin or we had to fly one in
from London. But we did get one from Dublin and it was probably the oldest
Leslie in Ireland (laughs)...Leslie cabinet, and they brought it in and part of
it wasn't working which was just fine. But they set it up in my little box
cause I recorded in a...I was in a little box while the instruments were opened
up to the church. David: Explain, yes, this was
done in a church. What was the name of the church? Tori: It was a church in Delgany.
And they had built this structure where I would go into and there were holes in
the structure...only holes that would fit the keys of the Bösey and the double
manual of the harpsichord and everything else was sealed up...except my pedals
of course came in but everything around them...it was sealed, so that the
sound...again, the instruments could work completely off the ambiance of the
church and my vocal wasn't drivin' down those microphones. So I knew that
"Horses" was coming and I knew that I had to get a Leslie, so finally
this rickety-rackety thing gets brought in, and we had to put it out in the
graveyard because we couldn't fit it anywhere in the church without it
interfering so they miced it up in the graveyard and they had little blankets
over the mic cause of the wind and the rain. And "Beauty Queen" and
"Horses" came in one take. It was all done as you hear it, live with
the pedal of the Leslie. - "BEAUTY QUEEN" - - "HORSES" - David: That's the way that Boys For
Pele begins with those two pieces recorded at once...in one take. Tori: Oh yeah. David: Wow, just beautiful. One
of the things throughout the record you hear, and it must have to do with the
mass of the instrument, you can hear your pedal work throughout the record,
kind of like as a little bass sub-statement or something. Tori: Pedal is so much a part of
my playing. David: Yeah. Tori: Because I'm fortunate
enough to play a Bösendorfer, which.. it doesn't matter if I'm doing the exact same
thing, when it's a Bösendorfer, you can really hear the nuance of what I'm
doing. So in truth it changes what I'm doing. David: The same question could go
for the harpsichord, though, because doesn't your whole technique on the
keyboard have to change for that? Tori: Yeah, it changes for the
harpsichord. That was a tricky instrument for me to, kind of, get shaped up on.
It took me a while to, really, I think, get comfortable so that I could develop
my own style and not just try and have a baroque style, and listen to records
and play like the records. I wanted to expand it and find my own, kind of,
rhythm with it. David: There's a lot of
harpsichord on "Caught A Lite Sneeze." Tori: Yeah. I have the buff stop
going so you're not hearing any guitars. You hear a little bit of guitar in the
bridge part, in the (sings) "right on time / you get closer"...that
part, and you just hear swells in the choruses. But all the percussive playing
is the buff stop on the harpsichord on one of the manuals while I'm playing the
other manual. - "CAUGHT A LITE SNEEZE" - David: "Caught A Lite
Sneeze" from our guest today. Tori Amos has joined us once again on the
World Cafe, and we're listening to some tunes from Boys For Pele. Why...two
part question...why record in Ireland, what about Ireland spoke to this record Tori: ...and I didn't know why. I didn't understand the parallel because usually things
are related in some way, but I don't always know why I'm getting such a flash
of something. what it turned out to be for me was the hiddenness in
relationships the hidden that had gone on...the way that I had been with men my
whole life was very similar to the hiddenness that I felt in the south as I was
growing up... things that are hidden... and part of what made up the south was the
christian church and that of course came from the old world so as I was getting
my lay-line happening I knew I had to go back to the old world because that's
where it came from I had to just get these certain elements to have that
frequency on the record. ***THIS TRANSCRIPT IS INCOMPLETE*** |