News: Tori Article in Brisbane Mail

“I’d been reading different books on the psyche and how we as women all have these ancient character types in us. Before Christianity became the central ideology the women were much more complex, so I was really drawn to this. We have different percentages of these women in us, but every woman can apply this to them. I’m just showing you my process.”

Aunt Sally sent in the link for this article, which ran in the Sunday edition of the Brisbane Mail in Australia.

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Meet Team Tori
By Sally Browne

WHILE other artists shy away from the concept album, Tori Amos is embracing it with open arms. Five pairs, in fact.
For her latest album, American Doll Posse, Amos has created five characters to share the spotlight.

Each character, based on goddesses from the Greek pantheon, has her own look and style and is “responsible” for different songs on the album. It’s a bit like an alternative Spice Girls, all played by one person.

Let’s introduce them. They are Isabel, an outspoken, politically-minded photographer, inspired by the goddess of the hunt, Artemis. Clyde is an idealistic yet delicate artist, based on Persephone, queen of the underworld. Pip is a tough nut, a militaristic sex-pot, who represents Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war. Santa, the cheeky girl’s girl, is inspired by the goddess of love, Aphrodite.

Then there’s Tori, herself a character, who draws on the mother goddess Demeter as well as the god of wine, Dionysus.

Amos says creating herself as a character was hardest of all, but she’s an important part of the show, which will soon be going on the road for a world tour, including dates in Australia.

The posse can be seen in the clip to her latest single, the upbeat, catchy Big Wheel, which represents a return to the pop market for Amos. The girls even have their own blogs, which can be tracked down at www.toriamos.com.

Amos says it was the music that was behind the birth of the American Doll Posse. While writing the album, she felt many different voices emerge.

“The musical styles were so varied that I began to think there has to be a correlation somewhere, so I looked to mythology,” she said.

“I looked to the Greek pantheon where there were many women who were part of the divine feminine but had their own individuality. And I patterned my girls loosely on a few of these women.”

The posse represents the many aspects of the female character, which Amos, who grew up in a religious American family, says cannot be pinned down to traditional stereotypes of Madonna and whore.

“I’d been reading different books on the psyche and how we as women all have these ancient character types in us. Before Christianity became the central ideology the women were much more complex, so I was really drawn to this. We have different percentages of these women in us, but every woman can apply this to them. I’m just showing you my process.”

It’s not the first time Amos has explored the idea of character. In the booklet to her 2001 CD Strange Little Girls, a collection of covers of songs by men, she dressed up in outfits representing characters in those songs. Dressing up is a female trait she has embraced heartily.

“When I see Santa’s wardrobe come in I get a little jealous,” she says with a smile in her voice. “‘Cos, you see, I would have never chosen that for myself; it’s way too feminine for me. And yet this project has forced me to be open to expressions that are more feminine, not feeling that I am less of a warrior, by opening up to this femininity.”

And how about Amos’s husband, British sound engineer Mark Hawley? Does he have a favourite character from the American Doll Posse?

“Well, he’s being clever,” she says slyly. “He wants a date with all of them. And I’m considering it. I don’t know, though, he might have to work very hard on this one. The way he sees it is he loves all of them. He said to me, ‘I can be monogamous and have all these women; every guy should try it.’.”

American Doll Posse is out now.