segunda-feira, 31 de agosto de 2009

Artigo: The Skinny - "Tori Amos: Reclaiming Sin"

Tori Amos: Reclaiming Sin

Posted by Paul Mitchell, Sun 30 Aug 2009

Tori Amos' glittering career has been a personal crusade, one which shows no sign of abating

“The shock is that there’s nothing shocking,” says Tori Amos of her forthcoming as yet untitled collection of solstice/winter songs due out in November. “It’s not a typical kind of seasonal record, where you’re just playing covers of old songs. It's about reworking them." She explains further that this reworking process is as old as the songs themselves: "When these songs came to America, a lot of the lyrics to old carols would get changed here and there. Some of them were taken from old pagan songs. So it’s really about finding the best bits and building on them from there.

Of course Amos is a singular songwriter in her own right, and it was unlikely this aspect of her creativity would be entirely displaced. "There are also some original compositions. There are tubular bells, concert bass drums, timpani, harpsichord, piano, full strings full brass. Yet it’s all surprisingly straightforward. There’s no, ‘She’s a Hussy, Merry Christmas’ on it, not this time.”

Amos has just returned from a gruelling 29 date trip around North America, and despite (at the time of speaking) there being a two week gap to the first of her UK shows on the Sinful Attractions tour, she finds herself immediately immersed in the production of this next release. Acknowledging her arduous schedule, Amos delightfully intercepts a nascent, rather clumsy cliché by playfully suggesting that there is “no rest for the very wicked!”

A more suitable segue could not be found for discussion of the album that is being promoted by the upcoming live dates. Abnormally Attracted to Sin, released this past May, is Amos' tenth studio album and treads familiar territories, those of religion, sin (of course), and specifically the dynamics of women’s relationships with these concepts. As ever, it's hugely autobiographical, the American composer has yet to shy away from the often-anguished, deeply personal baring of the soul that is almost her trademark. Discussion of one song in particular, I’m Not Dying Today, with allusions to a bout of severe depression, prompts a deep pause in the conversation. “I think that record came out during very troubled times. And so, when you have a minister’s daughter talking about sin, there are going to be many levels and layers to it.”

When asked if, after fifteen years of exploring the aforementioned themes in her work, whether aspects of her perspective have altered over time, she is oblique yet simultaneously forthright. “Don’t you think women have been dealing with these issues for hundreds of years, since the patriarchal authority decided what was sinful and that anything natural for women, giving birth for example, the sexual act, couldn’t be spiritual? There’s a segregation within the female psyche between the sexual and the spiritual… we’ve been splintered since our forefathers hijacked Jesus’ teachings and formed the early Christian church. I’ve seen how powerful the church is, particularly in the States. There is a real effort on the part of the right-wing and puritanical aspects of Christianity that tries to control the masses by getting people to buy in to their definition of sin. That’s basically the core of what I’ve been dealing with and it’s about constantly redefining that.”

Amos’ views on feminism are not restricted to interpretation from a religious/personal perspective. She notes wryly that her new home Britain “is an anomaly in that the class structure is such an issue for people. The primary issues in Britain would appear to be that you are less as a woman if you don’t come from a certain kind of family. This applies to guys too. But what I have noticed is that a lot of women that I meet in Britain feel as though it is very difficult to rise to the top here. I find that curious and I think that goes back to how the class system works; in a lot of ways society seems very male-driven and that’s where the power is held. So, it’s a different kind of patriarchal authority but it exists nonetheless”.

Given Amos’ record as an outspoken, actively engaged feminist, does she sometimes wonder if the intense scrutiny to which the lyrical content of her work is subjected might be eclipsing her talent as a composer, musician and vocalist? “Sometimes maybe the conversations about the subjects can overshadow the compositional structure itself. But think about it, there are some songwriters where there’s really no subject matter to talk about, and I’m not one of those.”

So, a tacit appreciation of the privileged position she enjoys as an artist who is taken seriously in an intellectual capacity? “Yes, it is, but I’ve worked hard for that position, dealing honestly and openly with my emotions whilst trying not to expose the people I love. It’s a thin line to walk; I’m not going to lie about that. My father once asked ‘Look, if I’d been a dentist, what would you have written about?’ and I just said ‘That doesn’t excuse your behaviour!’

Fonte: @forumz e The Skinny.

domingo, 30 de agosto de 2009

Artigo: The Sun - "Lady GaGa won't be around for long"

'Lady GaGa won't be around for long'
The Sun
August 26, 2009

By Tim Nixon

TORI AMOS fears LADY GAGA has a limited shelf life, hinting fans will soon tire of the quirky New Yorker's novelty pop act.

The Cornflake Girl songstress - who's been selling out venues since 1991 - struggles to visualise GaGa playing on the same bill as veteran rocker NEIL YOUNG two decades from now.

However, she admits the Poker Face singer's unique brand of "entertaining" performance art is a welcome antidote to the global economic crisis.

She told The Sun: "She's what I call a meteor - singers who entertain people for a while. Hey, there's nothing wrong with that.

"But then there are people like Neil Young who show up at Glastonbury 40 years into their career. And that's a very different kind of artist.

"Neil Young doesn't have to get his bum out on stage!

"The question is, will Lady GaGa be playing alongside Neil Young at Glastonbury in 20 years time?

"She wants to entertain people. Right now, half the world is depressed and they need to be entertained. So her timing's perfect."

Amos - who was the victim of a sexual assualt - remains grateful fame came later to her in life, because she was too busy dealing with her own demons as a teenager to handle the added pressures success brings.

As a result of her own traumatic beginnings, Amos can empathise with the likes of BRITNEY SPEARS, whose rapid rise to prominence as a teen triggered a series of very public meltdowns.

"For me, the best thing that happened is that I didn't have success like my father wanted me to when I was 14-years-old and I was playing clubs," she said.

"Thank God it didn't happen for me at that time. I probably wouldn't be talking to you if it had. I think it's really tough on teenagers when they have that kind of success.

"But you have to acknowledge Britney's discipline right now - being a mum and being out on the road.

"When you do that year-in, year-out since you were a teenager, it can become overwhelming."

Outspoken Amos has also sent out a warning shot to young female upstarts eyeing a career in the music industry.

The 46-year-old singer claims record companies are rife with power-hungry money-makers who exploit new stars for their own greedy means.

She said: "A lot of times you have a producer who will say, 'You're lucky to be having this opportunity.'

"Sure, there are a lot of other talented people out there, but you have to fight for your freedom.

"There's a side to this industry that nurtures divas who can't write. It's a big business. I produce the records. I don't hand over control to some really expensive producer who then talks to the record company and then tries to bend me to their will - for commercial purposes.

"But there are a lot of producers/co-writers who the only way they can make a living is if the divas are not producing themselves and not writing their songs."

Tori Amos' upcoming UK tour kicks off on September 6 at Manchester Apollo.

Her album Abnormally Attracted To Sin is available to buy and download now.

Fonte: @forumz e The Sun.

Artigo: Sunday Mail - "LIFE's NO FAIRY TORI"

LIFE'S NO FAIRY TORI
American singer says the recession inspired her new album... but hopes her UK tour will leave audiences feeling uplifted
August 30, 2009
By Avril Cadden

You get the feeling that not many people know the real Tori Amos - after all, she seems to change chameleon-like with each of her albums.

For example, the flame-haired songstress was Scarlet in the album Scarlet's Walk to tell the story of the native Americans, a subject close to her heart, as she is part Cherokee. Her American Doll Posse album was a reaction to the Bush administration.

However, for her 10th album Abnormally Attracted To Sin, which she has been touring in the States, Tori dealt with the darker themes of power, relationships and thoughts of suicide. But this time there were no dolls, no posse and no alter-egos.

Well-known for her hit Professional Widow, which was remixed so memorably in 1996 by Armand val Helden, Tori is currently writing her as yet-untitled 11th studio album, before embarking on a tour of the UK which brings her to Glasgow on September 8. On her latest album, the 46-year-old singer, who lives in Cornwall with British-born husband Mark Hawley and their eight-year-old daughter Natashya, says she was simply reacting to events around the world.

Tori said: "I was writing Abnormally Attracted To Sin when I was out on The American Doll Posse tour and things were beginning to break down around the world. I guess it isn't a concept record, it's just a woman with red hair singing these songs.

"It just happened that way. I think what is happening in the world guides the work. When I wrote Scarlet's Walk it was important to take a journey across the US, which had already been invaded before 9/11, because a lot of Americans were fixated on the fact that 9/11 had been the first invasion on the mainland. We as Americans needed to remember that and it's not taught in the schools.

"Sometimes I do take on a persona in order to tell a story but all the songs really come from personal experience, even on American Doll Posse."

During her recent US tour Tori witnessed the results of the downturn in the economy and while the experience led her to release a more stripped-down album, it also had an influence on her upcoming tour.

She explains: "I think we needed a change of administration, there's no question about that. I've toured the States and lots of people have lost their jobs but we are only now feeling the effect of decisions which were made years ago.

"I've never experienced such an unknowing from one day to the next, so I've tried with the band and the crew to develop a show where people leave feeling as if they have more energy. I made a pact with myself that the shows would be incredibly grounding and joyous.

"Although the show takes you through dark places, I felt that the work needed to reflect the tough times, but also to help people see that in these instances they can find their strengths and be able to prioritise what is really important, and not to be afraid of life changes."

The album's title Abnormally Attracted To Sin comes from a line in the musical Guys And Dolls and Tori explains that figuring out who you are attracted to and why tells you a lot about yourself. The song Ophelia speaks of women stuck in the well-worn pattern of continually attracting the wrong men.

She explains: "As I wasdoing the research for this, I found that women would be attracted to a guy who didn't respect them and would want to have power over them by withholding praise or support, and yet the women would keep going back to them time and time again." Tackling the theme of power in a world where familiar structures are breaking down, Tori is concerned at how much power gets abused.

She said: "People that need to have power over other people are just abusing their authority. They are not powerful people, truly powerful people are people who don't need to take something from another person because they can generate it themselves within themselves.

"This is not about money, this is about something that can't be taken from you. You can't lose it in the bank or on the stock market. It's taken me years to really value and redefine what is a powerful person and be attracted to those women and men, instead of being drawn to people who can have power over you if you let them. Also, because they are negative you try to please them, turn them around and the reason they have power over you is that you can never totally please them."

Although serious and thoughtful, Tori does love a good laugh and it's her husband Mark that makes her giggle the most.

She said: "He's very funny but he's really appropriate. We get on well because we don't have a similar path. I grew up in the States, he grew up in the UK, our references are very different. He doesn't have a religious kneejerk reaction issue and I don't have a class system issue. It's good because we don't get fussed about the same things and can make the other one laugh."

When she talks of her family, the kooky persona we identify her with disappears. She conjures up a lovely image of her parents being like old oak trees, strong and protective, sheltering the whole family.

She said: "I saw them in Washington DC at the show a couple of weeks ago. We had an 80th birthday party for my mum. My dad, who's 81, read this poem he had written about waking up every morning and realising that he was with the love of his life. To see these two people who are in love as much as a couple of teenagers who think they have found their soulmate was special.

"My mother says they've built this beautiful garden together, sometimes it's had weeds which they've had to get rid of and they've had to tend it but they have a lush, beautiful thriving garden. They've had their 60th anniversary and it's taken them that time to build it."

That family stability is something that resonates strongly with Tori and she loves taking her daughter on tour with her.

She said: "This is her fifth world tour. She's been touring since she was a year old. Before I went on stage at Radio City in NewYork City she said, 'You know mummy this is a really big deal. You must be really excited. It's one of the most special venues in the world to play. Were you ever here when you were my age wishing you would ever play it?' "She had been Googling. I told her I was there as a teenager with my dad, he had on his dog collar, carrying his bible and I was trying to get a job at the Sheridan. I was told they didn't need any teenage piano players. Tash told me to tell the story and say I couldn't get a job at the Sheridan but now I'm playing Radio City - and I did, I told the story."

Tori plays Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, September 8.

(c) 2009 Sunday Mail; Glasgow (UK). Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved. A service of YellowBrix, Inc.

Fonte: @forumz e iStockAnalyst

sábado, 29 de agosto de 2009

Artigo: JamBase - "Tori Amos: Welcome to Her World"

Tori Amos: Welcome to Her World
JamBase
August 26, 2009

By Nancy Dunham

Tori Amos tells everyone the song "Welcome to England," the first single off her new album, Abnormally Attracted to Sin (released May 19 on Republic), is just a story. But when asked if it isn't really something more specific, perhaps a love song to her husband, she hesitates.

"I don't usually like to answer those questions," said Amos. "I tell everyone it's just a story and I happen to know the people in the story. But yeah, that one is kind of obvious. It is [a love song]. But it's also more."

As fans know, Amos made her name by barring her soul. Her songs have fearlessly exposed a host of personal issues ranging from her love life to her childhood to her rape. Ever since Amos' breakout album Little Earthquakes (1992) listeners have heard intimate details about the artist's life. Consider "Silent All These Years" from that album. It was the B-side to "Me and A Gun," which many radio stations declined to play because of its graphic imagery. Both songs are moving – some would say blood chilling – accounts of Amos' rape. In the years since Little Earthquakes Amos' songs still revolve around her main topics – religion, sexuality and abandon – but seem less confessional and more distanced. That's perhaps never been truer than on her new release. Instead of the songs about her rape, the cruelty of childhood ("Precious Things") and even a scorned romance ("Blood Roses"), Amos' new material is moving more toward the observational tone of "Cornflake Girl," which she wrote about betrayal among women.

Amos credits her 1998 marriage to Mark Hawley, her musical collaborator, for helping to center her life. One impact Hawley made was to convince Amos to move to England where they could maintain more privacy in their personal relationship. That's another point explored in "Welcome to England."

"It's tricky sometimes when you are not in your home country... and you followed somebody else to his world. You lose pieces of yourself behind [you]," said Amos. "Then you wake up thinking 'Wait a minute. I have to make sure I bring my own perspective and who I am.'"

Amos has always worked hard to establish her independence. She was a child prodigy playing piano at age two and composing music by age five, when she entered the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Her time at the acclaimed musical conservatory - where she was given a full scholarship - was cut short when she clearly voiced her preference for pop and rock music and declined to follow their intensive instructions.

That feistiness continues to this day, Amos said, even when she's working with Hawley. But that just brings more passion to the music.

"When you're collaborating with somebody in a creative way you won't always agree and get along," said Amos. "The situation is sexy and it's an interesting way to be inspired." Of course, the intensity is adjusted a bit more now than perhaps it was in the past. Although Amos and Hawley work at her home studio in England, they also balance parenthood. Their daughter Natasha – called Tash – turns nine in September. "I remember one time we were [quibbling] about music, excited about an idea, and when we walked in Tash said, 'Look at you two. Leave it outside,'" recalled Amos. "I think that was one of those moments when you realize she's getting older now and we have to keep conversations like that in the studio and step into the roles of mom and dad when we're home."

Musician, mother and good friend are all terms that Amos uses to identify herself. The one role she is hesitant to mention though is of partner with Hawley. That's why you won't hear her discuss the relationship – except perhaps for in "Welcome to England" – in her music.

"Our relationship is really private," she said. "Mark and I have our own things between us. He was always insistent on the privacy and now I understand why. It has been the right choice, the wise choice. It is kind of special to have a relationship that only the two of you know about."

That sort of privacy is crucial to Amos now that she has a family to consider as she continues to stay at the top of her career. One way she works to keep perspective is to avoid reading reviews of her work.

"I have an understanding with the work and I have an editing system in my life that is very good," she said. "I know a lot of critics hated 'Haystacks' when Monet [painted it], so it doesn't really matter does it? Their perception is their perception." That's not to say, though, that Amos is a recluse or keeps her family sheltered from her public life. At a recent Washington D.C. concert, Tash was seen and heard cheering on her mom during the show. Amos speaks with pride about how Tash is able to relate to grown ups - talking about Coco Chanel and other mature topics - and working in the catering area of her mom's tour.

"Because she is around so many adults she is able to relate," said Amos. "Each year she has a backstage theme, picks out a different wardrobe. This year it's Tasha Chanel, all black and white. She works and saves her money to buy her clothes. We don't expose her to some parts of the business; she does have a balance and we do protect her. People who come to the shows, though, know she needs some privacy and time to grow up. They're respectful of that."

And what about respecting Amos' privacy?

Amos said she insists on it as a way to balance her life and remain enthusiastic in the business. "My songs are so personal," she said. "I need a very private side to balance that." Yet she's also not afraid to sing about topical issues like politics and women's rights.

That was clear in Amos' 2007 release American Doll Posse, where she assumed five different female personas. That was a time of national, if not global, frustration, she said, and the record echoed that unrest in the heat and passion of the music. Now that the political climate has changed, Amos found it was time for some musical beauty.

"It's time for beautiful melodies," she said. "The sounds [of "Welcome to England"] were created around the feelings and working around the song structure; the structures were demanding certain arrangements. It came out sexy and modern."

The way Amos approaches song is much how she approaches life and how she portrays herself onstage. "No matter what artist you are, you have to play to your strengths," she said. "When you try to be someone you are not, like me in a g-string or sending out for champagne... that's not who I am," she said. "When I go see artists, I expect to hear a certain point of view in the world. I believe you are what you believe. But, I also think there's a time and place for everything. When I'm picking up my daughter from school I don't talk about the things I might discuss during a business call. It's all about balance."

Fonte: @forumz e JamBase.

sexta-feira, 28 de agosto de 2009

[Scans] Sinful Attraction Tour Tourbook

Obrigado Michelle por compartilhar. Para quem quiser adquirir o tourbook da Sinful Attraction clique AQUI.

segunda-feira, 10 de agosto de 2009

Comunicado aos Toriphiles

...os fãs (na verdade, umas 4 pessoas ou menos - como sempre!) da comunidade do Orkut, Tori Amos Brasil, estão se mobilizando para trazer Tori ao Brasil com sua nova turnê ainda este ano, através de e-mails para algumas produtoras que talvez se interessem em trazê-la ao nosso país. Isso se os fãs também mostrarem interesse. O membro da comunidade, Brunσ, postou emails para contato de algumas produtoras. MANDEM E-MAILS!

CIE Brasil
Departamento Artístico
aalves@ciebrasil.com
Assessoria de Imprensa
imprensa@ciebrasil.com

Planmusic Entretenimento Ltda

Telefone: (5521) 2540-5075
FAX: (5521) 2540-5075
Av. Ataulfo de Paiva, 135 sala 1410
Leblon - Rio de Janeiro - RJ
CEP 22440-901

arte@planmusic.com.br

Mondo Entretenimento
mondo@mondoentretenimento.com.br

Abstratti Produtora – abstratti@terra.com.br

Infinnity Produções – infinnity_prod@yahoo.com.br

DUETO PRODUÇÕES E PUBLICIDADE LTDA.

R. das Acácias, 114 - CEP: 22451-060 - Rio de Janeiro - RJ
Tel: 2540 5959 - Fax: 2239 6903
dueto@pontocom.br