Help Filmmaker Samantha Hale "Map" Tori's Music

Samantha Hale, director of Map the Music, is raising money so she can head out on the road with Tori this winter to talk to her and her fans about the connections between music and love. To make Map the Music 2, she’s currently raising $5,000 over at Kickstarter. If you pitch in, you can get any number of cool rewards, from a limited-edition DVD of the finished movie to a personal phone call from Hale herself. The deadline to contribute is December 1.

BBC Radio Interview

Tori recently visited the BBC Radio studios and did a brief interview about Night of Hunters, including why she didn’t write any songs based on the work of female composers — and how she used a famous composition to lash out at her dad once upon a time. You can listen to it in this YouTube clip, which Maria sent our way:

The AV Club Interview

I began to see that people were having a relationship with the songs, and I was really kind of a scribe for the consciousness of the songs to express themselves. And it took me a while to get it, but once I did, I found it really freeing. Because I thought, “You know, you’re a part of this, people aren’t directing this at you, don’t be confused, you don’t need to feel strange. This is people having a relationship with the song, and they’re choosing to tell you about it. They don’t have to tell you about it, Tori. So feel privileged that they are confiding in you.” And that took me a little while to get, but once I got it, I must tell you it was great feeling, like you’re part of a community.

The Onion’s AV Club has a new interview with Tori online today. In it, they show specific song clips or videos from throughout her catalogue and ask her to respond to them in some way. It makes for fascinating reading, but also makes it more difficult to duplicate here, so head on over there to check it out. Cheers to Christian for the link!

Boycotting Trends on Tori's covers

Tori loves her cover songs, and Alex Ramon, blogger at Boycotting Trends (and writer for Wears the Trousers and Pop Matters), recently turned his attention to Tori’s history covering other people’s music. The piece is a fun trek through the music Tori has covered over the years, from “If 6 was 9” to “Whoomp (There it Is)” and “Running to Stand Still.” Ramon writes, “An Amos cover is not necessarily an act of tribute to the song in question, nor does it represent a simple diversion for her from the “real graft” of original composition. Rather, it is a more complex encounter between an extant text and an artist who is expert at approaching songs from unusual angles and infusing them with her unique spirit and interpretive skills.” Click over to read the whole thing.

The Advocate Interview (October 10, 2011)

Check out Tori’s interview with gay rights newspaper The Advocate’s Matthew Breen on the new album, on the interplay between gay rights and Christianity, and on her relationship with Mark. You can read a brief article here and watch the Q&A below:

Thanks, lilfaerie, maria, and mkgtweety!

Tori on Polish radio

Tori and the quartet performed a small set at the Polish Radio 3 studios today, treating the audience to “Fearlessness,” “Star Whisperer,” and “Shattering Sea,” as well as a brief interview. The segment will air live at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning, Polish time, and also online. You can listen by going to this Web site and clicking at the top where it says “Trojka.” Thanks to Maciej for all the details!

The Corriere della Sera interview (October 11, 2011)

During her visit to Italy, Tori visited the news agency Corriere della Sera to talk about her new album, her career, the impact of Kurt Cobain’s death, and much more. The questions are in Italian, but Tori responds in English (with subtitles!). There’s also some nice live footage of her performing “Suede” with the Apollon Musagete Quartett. Check it out:

Thanks, Maria, Misha, and lilfaerie!

Yoav Opening Tori's South Africa Shows

According to announcements on Yoav’s website and Facebook page, he’s going to be opening Tori’s shows in South Africa. Lucky fans!

Q&A: Is Tori Doing Meet and Greets This Tour?

Question: Do you know if Tori is doing meet & greets on this tour as she has in the past? — Jack

Answer: She is, yes. But as always, only when there are no conflicts, scheduling or otherwise. (The otherwise could be anything ranging from bad weather to security issues.) So there’s never any 100% guarantee. You just have to go and hope.

For anyone wanting to know how meet and greets work, check out our “M&G Info” link under Useful Tour Stuffs in the righthand column over on the Tour page. We haven’t updated it yet this year, but meet and greets have worked generally the same way for years. The info should at least get you where you need to be when you need to be there. And if anything’s working dramatically different this time around, we trust people will let us know so we can update.

The Wall Street Journal Interview (October 6, 2011)

Tori sat down with the Wall Street Journal’s Jim Fusilli in a conversation on Night of Hunters, The Light Princess, and much more. Several of you wrote in with the link last week, but I held off posting it because I actually couldn’t get it to work on any of the browsers I use. If you’re in the same boat, you’re in luck, because now it’s on YouTube as well:

Cheers to Mau, Matt, Lauren, and Maria!