Amos gets back to garden with "Beekeper"
Amos gets back to garden with 'Beekeeper' August 28, 2005 BY BRIAN ORLOFF Tori Amos calls her la-*test*-('") tour the Summer of Sin. It's a moniker that, salacious connotations aside, reveals a lot about what's been on her mind. To those familiar with Amos' 13-year career, it's hardly a surprise that the motif of sin -- and the crisis between sexuality and religious identity -- surfaces in her penetrating work. "Icicle," for instance, a song on 1994's "Under the Pink" album, fuses images of masturbation and Bible study, and "God" troubles the chaste, female ideals with which Amos, a minister's daughter, was brought up. These issues are even more pronounced on her most recent album, "The Beekeeper," a 19-track affair that reimagines the Garden of Eden story with special attention to the role of women and sin. She dubs that marriage "sinsuality" in a song that is the the album's thematic backbone, "Original Sinsuality." But some critics have taken issue with "The Beekeeper," calling it ponderous and more subdued musically. Its tone is not vitriolic; it's reflective, but Amos still has provocative things to say about the state of the world. She also explores similar themes in her autobiography, Piece by Piece, which she co-authored with music critic Ann Powers. The book provides insight into Amos' long career, including extended chapters about her struggle to stick to her musical vision despite quibbles from business executives. After an intimate, recital-like concert a the Auditorium Theatre in April, which found Amos accompanied only by her Bosendorfer grand piano, keyboards and some vintage organs, she returns Wednesday for a larger, but still solo, show at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. Calling from her Florida home, an affable and often funny Amos chatted about her fascination with sin, how she stays in the game of the music business and why it's OK that she's not a firebrand, raging woman anymore. Q.Tori, is there a reason why you're continuing to tour solo? And why are you calling it "Summer of Sin"? A. The solo tour was going really well, and people seemed to want to see that show at this time. But right now because the concept of "sinsuality" ... whether you believe it or not, the bottom line is that we've been taught to believe that a woman was blamed for our fall out of paradise all those thousands of years ago in the Genesis myth -- so I felt that there needed to be a real marriage of sexuality and spirituality within the being. So it's very intimate, this concept, and I've chosen female acts to come and perform before I take the stage. Q. You've really zeroed in on the political climate. With all the religious messages swirling out there in political contexts, the idea of sin resonates with people. A. I believe that ideas either work or they don't depending on what's occurring in the outside world, so as a musician who tries to chronicle time with these performances, it's responding to what is happening in our world at this time. And the word "sin" has become very much a part of this. It's not just a religious term anymore. It is used now by our leaders, so I felt that it was essential that we merge with sin and we bring it in. We welcome it into our bodies. And that's how you transmute it into "sinsuality." Q.In "Piece by Piece" you talk about your role in terms of the music industry. How would you characterize that role today? A. The understanding that you must come to as a musician/performer is that anyone who is giving you a suggestion, you have to see their motive. And much of the time the motive is not to make great art. Much of the time people equate success with economic return instead of with self-respect. I have to take my stand against this kind of thinking all the time. You have to be willing to be told that, "If you're not willing to take our suggestions, because we think you need to wear Chinos" -- which I've been told many years ago -- "then we won't support this record." I have had my record shelved and not supported, but then I go out and tour and you get to the people yourself. Sometimes it's a very hard road to take, but you can wake up with yourself in the morning. If you're going to make this choice, you're not going to turn around and get applause from everybody. You have to realize that sometimes it's a very lonely road at first. You also have to tour and make yourself available -- the music available -- to the public. I think I stay in the game by making sure I'm not solely dependent on one outcome. I think the touring side has been the strength for me, honestly, because it's independent of everybody. But the music business is totally different from music, and you have to be able to stand as sort of a warrior , and I'm a lioness, so there's a part of me that instinctively knows when the hunter is coming with the gun, or when the tourist is coming with the camera, to come after my cub. And these are my musical cubs. Q. Part of staying in the game is responding to criticism. A lot of criticism lately, mostly by male critics, argues that you cannot be a happily married mother and still be a compelling artist. How do you respond to that, and how do you think your composing abilities have changed? A. I don't care. It doesn't affect me at all, because at 41 years old I'm not about being an angry woman. I think that must really burn some guys up. I'm not angry with men anymore. They don't affect me in that way. I forgive them. And maybe that's really hard for them because I'm free of being controlled by my anger over their behavior. Now that is the phoenix out of the ashes. But women are coming in droves because they want it. As a composer, I'm not interested in what anybody thinks because you have to know your music very well. If the director of the Prague Orchestra wants to talk to me about structure, then I'll talk to him. But I think to be angry at 28 is probably where you should be. To be controlled by that at 41 is tragic. And I think what bothers everyone is that I didn't become a tragedy. I'm not a victim anymore, and I think that's very hard for some people to take.