Orchestrated event marks 20 years since debut
By Christine Kearney |
October 28, 2012, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
TORI Amos has been performing in bars and clubs since the age of 13, but the pianist-singer-songwriter's new tour and album mark 20 years since her breakthrough solo debut album "Little Earthquakes."
Throughout October, Amos, 49, has been touring with songs from her new album "Gold Dust", which reinterprets hits from the past two decades, accompanied by the Metropole Orchestra.
Amos, a classically trained musician, talked about "Gold Dust" and how she has forged new paths for American singer-songwriters.
Q: How difficult was it recording and touring with "Gold Dust"?
A: It's been a thrilling journey - I have had to really learn that an orchestra is an entity - it's a creature. I have been calling it the dragon and the conductor is the dragon tamer. And you just have to ... ride and don't let go and you will be fine.
Q: Was it tricky to re-record and reinterpret old songs?
A: I had to realize that you are going to look at songs that you might have known for the last 20 years. You also have to look at who they were when you first met them, and who they have become. So much of the songs on "Gold Dust" now have a lineage because of other people's experiences, people stopping me ... and telling me their experience with the song.
Q: You're known for being open with your views and experiences with religion, politics and sexual abuse. Twenty years on, do you regret being so open?
A: I made a choice before "Little Earthquakes" ... that I wouldn't walk on eggshells as far as subject matter, and that I was really motivated by women. And it is humbling, intriguing, it opens my perception in ways that I never imagined it would over the last so many years.
Q: You've been hailed as very influential in shaping singer-songwriting. Do you think about that?
A: I keep focused on the next project, I keep focused on the one I am doing and where I need to expand as a composer.
Throughout October, Amos, 49, has been touring with songs from her new album "Gold Dust", which reinterprets hits from the past two decades, accompanied by the Metropole Orchestra.
Amos, a classically trained musician, talked about "Gold Dust" and how she has forged new paths for American singer-songwriters.
Q: How difficult was it recording and touring with "Gold Dust"?
A: It's been a thrilling journey - I have had to really learn that an orchestra is an entity - it's a creature. I have been calling it the dragon and the conductor is the dragon tamer. And you just have to ... ride and don't let go and you will be fine.
Q: Was it tricky to re-record and reinterpret old songs?
A: I had to realize that you are going to look at songs that you might have known for the last 20 years. You also have to look at who they were when you first met them, and who they have become. So much of the songs on "Gold Dust" now have a lineage because of other people's experiences, people stopping me ... and telling me their experience with the song.
Q: You're known for being open with your views and experiences with religion, politics and sexual abuse. Twenty years on, do you regret being so open?
A: I made a choice before "Little Earthquakes" ... that I wouldn't walk on eggshells as far as subject matter, and that I was really motivated by women. And it is humbling, intriguing, it opens my perception in ways that I never imagined it would over the last so many years.
Q: You've been hailed as very influential in shaping singer-songwriting. Do you think about that?
A: I keep focused on the next project, I keep focused on the one I am doing and where I need to expand as a composer.
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