For her tenth studio album, Tori Amos pulled out all the stops and genres. Recorded in Cornwall, England, the sumptuously produced Abnormally Attracted to Sin ( Universal Republic ) entails a generous 17 tracks running the gamut from catchy synth-soaked pop ( "Curtain Call" ) to trip-hopish torch song ( "Strong Black Vine" ) , to guitar-soaked folk-rock ( "Starling" ) , and vocally acrobatic ballad ( "Police Me" ) , while Amos' voice and arrangements ( yes, including her Bösendorfer piano ) are truly in top form. A bonus DVD of footage recorded during 2007's "American Doll Posse" tour accompanies the deluxe CD release, which Amos is currently supporting with an international tour.
A Methodist minister's daughter, Amos, who recorded the album with longtime collaborator and husband Mark Hawley, expressed frustration over California voters' passing of Proposition 8 in a May 2009 interview with the UK's Attitude Magazine. Here she follows-up on that thought while also pondering which woman she would marry in an alternate reality, as well as the story behind the album and its songs.
Windy City Times: Hey Tori, amazing album. So what makes AATS different or unique compared to the rest of your catalog?
Tori Amos: Well, this is the 10th album and I think that's always kind of exciting. I've never had one before. The idea of it always made me think, "Wow, I wonder if that's achievable," especially maybe in 1997. With the industry the way it is right now where labels and the public and the media don't necessarily stay with an artist after the third album, they just want the next new thing, to be able to have a 10th album. … I thought to myself, when I was creating the whole thing, that it was important the arrangements and musical styles covered and expanded. It wasn't just, OK, I'm doing an organic sort of record with everything tracked as live—a Birkenstock record. No. We're bringing out high heels from the last 20 years. So it was really exploring me as a composer and all kinds of different architectural arrangements I've been a part of the past 20s years and some things I haven't put together [ before ] ."
WCT: Is there a theme running through this album?
TA: I think power is sort of a key here. Are you drawn to people who have power over you, are you attracted to that? You might be and don't even realize at first that you're drawn to people who want you to lose. Or for them to feel powerful you have to feel un-powerful. You can be involved in a collaboration or relationship and all of a sudden you have somebody who's really not supportive in your life.
WCT: What's the story behind "Maybe California?"
TA: That is about a woman who questions if jumping off a cliff isn't the only answer at that point in her life. While traveling around I was noticing what certain mothers were hiding, keeping to themselves—grief. When people say there's an economic crisis I feel that's just the tip of the iceberg because people's lives have been torn apart. I found there were quite a few mothers that couldn't fix, couldn't give the job back to the husband or get the kids through school. Couldn't make the dream come true. And were pushed to that point so maybe "California" came from that place.
WCT: The song "Welcome to England" sounds like arena rock gone bhangra. A touch of Eastern sound there.
TA: [ Laughs ] Yeah, that's good. That's very England anyway. Believe me, it's a good madras.
WCT: What's the chance we'll get a Kate Bush/Tori Amos duet in the future? The song "Police Me" is so there.
TA: I don't know that's going to happen. We've never met. I thought one day about doing a duets record and that down the line that could be something … I don't know.
WCT: Would you be up for meeting Kate?
TA: No. That would be frustrating! [ Laughs ] No, that would be fun. I must tell you, doing songs like "Police Me," that was big fun.
WCT: Your statements about gay marriage and Proposition 8 received a fair bit of coverage on the Internet …
TA: Did they? Because I don't read the Internet.
WCT: Yes, you said you were disappointed by the passing of Prop 8 on the same day that Obama became president and you don't understand how Christians have an issue with gay rights. Here's a quote: 'In a perfect world you keep the Democrats out of your bank account and the Republicans out of your bedroom.'
TA: Now we're having to keep the Democrats out of our bedrooms, too. That's my comment on Prop 8!
WCT: Yet all these other U.S. states are making same-sex marriage legal now.
TA: That's right, and that's because people are talking about it. I think a lot of people are not OK with this segregation. If you say to yourself, 'I'm a Christian,' then you have to have the compassion that another person has the right to choose. A consenting adult. If the US constitution is supposed to protect everybody it should protect gay people, too, or it isn't for all men and all women. All men are created equal except … but it didn't say except. I'm sorry, but that's why the Obama thing was this victory and yet within the victory there had to be another group of people subjugated. That made me think, why did there have to be a win-lose? Why does somebody else have to be made powerless while another group is made powerful? And that goes back to the key of the record—about power.
WCT: Here's a hypothetical question for you. Who would be your ideal female soulmate and partner in a same-sex marriage?
TA: Hmm. God. It would be a combination probably. Could I think about that for a minute? I need to put that in my brain.
WCT: OK. Meanwhile, what cover versions are you performing live these days?
TA: Well, that could all be changing because the '80s bug is getting me. I've just gotten interested in the '80s. We played 'Flashdance' last night. We had an '80s dress up party. Because I'm in the middle of a European UK promotion on the way to the U.S., and I had a stop in Cornwall for three days [ with my 8-year-old daughter Natashya ] , doing interviews while she's in school, but at night we have these little moments and last night was our Flashdance party and we had the best time. So I'm going to work up some songs from the last 30 songs to be in the lizard's lounge which will be a moment in the show. You never know—I might have to do something from Flashdance! "Maniac" or something!
WCT: Time's up. Have you figured out which woman you want to marry?
TA: Well, who do you think I should marry?
WCT: You could marry your alter-ego Pip—there would only be one of you so it would be economical. Stevie Nicks? If you want to change someone you could always marry, say, Margaret Thatcher.
TA: No. I'm not marrying her. I don't know. Georgia O'Keefe. I like her work a lot. I always have. The woman out of the rock thing. To me she was part earth and as she got older she took on this presence to me of the desert so I feel like if you marry O'Keefe you're marrying the desert. It's very poetic. It's more than the person herself.
WCT: Have you been to a gay marriage?
TA: Never—nobody's invited me.
WCT: We've got to get you to one soon.
TA: Play something from Flashdance.
WCT: And let's finish with the question du year. Are you Facebooking or Twittering?
TA: Everybody knows I'm Twittering, but I hope you know the difference between when I'm [ the one ] Twittering because Chelsea and I Twitter together so she gives you all the information about the Tori world, which most people know before I do. But when you're hearing about food in Berlin, that's me.
See www.toriamos.com for tour dates and more information.
