News: YLE Interview

Norna transcribed the YLE interview (broadcast in Finland by YLE and streaming on the web for Finnish viewers) and posted it to @forumz. Thanks for doing so!

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“Tori Amos, welcome to Finland for the first time ever.”

Tori: The first time, thank you for having me.

“There’s going to be a lot of smiling faces in the audience tonight.”

T: I hope so.

“That’s for sure. When you get the chance to play a country like this that you haven’t played before, do you think you’re more nervous or more excited?”

T: I think excited… because you… wait for years and years and years to have the experience and so… nerves are something that you can get to work for you or they can work against you and after all these years I’d like to think that it carries you seeing people for the first time, it’s like a first date.

“Yeah, um… There’s a huge fanbase over here in Europe and in addition to that you also live in the UK and record in UK. Do you feel perhaps more European than American these days?”

T: Well being here now in this side of things, um… for… it’s been such a long time now that… a part of my heart, yes, is on this side of the world. I think it gives me a different perspective of how things are. But, at the same time, if I weren’t from the States and I didn’t go back there a lot, I wouldn’t write about the same things as I write about. My bloodline is very tied to that country, so therefore I’m a guest in the UK and I know that. So I have… I spend time in both places to keep a balance and also, I’m a double agent, you know, I have to see what’s going on on both sides.

“Some of the Toriphiles catch every show of the tour, and then share their experiences with other Toriphiles, er, how do you feel about these, you know, the most fanatic fans of yours?”

T: Well… (pause) Sometimes I try and stay out of what that is. I don’t go on the internet and I don’t think it’s my business what people think of the show. You have to allow people to um… to have the experience and then… be liberal about it. And that means that I may vehemently disagree with what they think a song is about. So I’ve learned to over the years it’s really better to give the audience freedom how they perceive it, how they… If they think, for whatever reason, I’m having a really upsetting day because of a certain show that night, and it might have been the best day of the week for me but it was just the theatrics of the show, then you can’t, that’ll start driving you mad, if you start eavesdropping on to what people say. When I was little, I would hear about The Grateful Dead, and how people would travel and follow them around, and it seems to me that they held a space, and that’s really what I try and do, I hold a space for people to congregate and I try and conjure up every night more of a shamanic, native American, sort of fire ceremony. So within that people can take a journey, and as you well know, some people take these journeys with Ayahuasca, or with mushrooms or other things that enhance that kind of, um… experience. But I try and

“Okey. Right now these Toriphiles are probably asking, you know, is it going to be Clyde or is it going to be Pip tonight, I mean, which girl from the posse will open the show. So do you have a sort of system or do you make the decision, you know, depending on how you feel that particular night?”

T: Well, um… Clyde was going to open in Oslo last night, and yet, it was for me, as I was studying the land on my way from Copenhagen on up through the night, Santa was just there. And she was carrying Freyja, that energy. And when I walked of the bus, I looked up and there was a sign and it said Freyja, and I knew that Santa had to come. And Clyde was fine about it, she’s very supportive. And so, um… you have to be very much, er, more of a creator that is working with, I don’t know, it’s jazz really, you have to improvise. You have to change in a second, otherwise you’re not being present with the forces. And I don’t think you can really take an audience on a magic carpet ride unless you play it a little dangerous. So, I have my ideas about who’s coming tonight, but, there’s always room for the last minute, however, since I, since I got up this morning, um, I don’t know, I barely went to bed, I know who whispered tom e, and so, I’m very excited about that choice, I think it’s right for Finland, I think she’s right, she’s right for you guys.

“Yeah. We are really looking forward to seeing who it’s going to be. Other bands performing at Provinssirock this year is Velvet Revolver. I’m not sure everyone knows that you used to play in the same band with Matt Sorum. Um, could you tell me about that?”

T: Well, I guess… back in 1985, something like that, Matt and I were working together for few years. He was in lots of bands and I really grew a lot as a player working with him. There was this band Y Kant Tori Read that we were in and he did play on that record. I’ve seen him since then, he always comes to see me. And it’s really, it’s magical speaking with him because the crazy thing is that guy doesn’t grow old. That’s the amazing thing about him. He’s got a deal with the devil. I know he has. And she must be very beautiful, the devil.