Toriphile Steffi Meyer has translated into English a small article on Tori that appeared in the October 1999 issue of Amica Magazine in Germany. She warns that the translation is very loose and may not be 100% perfect. The article also includes a photo of Tori (shown below) and a photo of the "to venus and back" album cover.

Tori Amos
thinking and smiling:
"To Venus And Back"
wants to achieve both

Her fans call her Trauma-Queen, because in her songs Tori Amos, 36, deals with highs and lows of (the?) soul. That is not different on her new fifth album "To Venus And Back" (eastwest). "I am fascinated by the hidden parts of people", says the daughter of a Cherokee from North Carolina. The music doesn't (only) sound all that sad as one might suppose. The artist, who learned how to play the piano at the age of 2 has a Credo that sort of accompanies her during her work: "I want people to look twice, think twice - and then (to?) smile!". There were a lot of happy/smiling faces at Amos' "Plugged '98"-Tour. And since Tori wants to do something good to everyone the best tracks of those shows are available on a live-cd, that completes the "To Venus And Back"-package.

Read a review of "to venus and back" from the October 26, 1999 edition of The Observer (University of Notre Dame's student newspaper).

Read an English translation of the interview.

An Interview with Tori and Neil Gaiman was published in the October 10, 1999 edition of the Sunday Independent in the U.K. This is a must read! It was part of their regular "How We Met" column.

Tori Amos
To Venus And Back
(Atlantic)

Tori Amos has consistently blurred, moved, or altogether erased the line separating absurdity and profundity, from her cryptic/silly lyrics to her daffy interviews, all the way down to liner notes thanking "the faeries." Thirty seconds into her fifth solo album, To Venus And Back--a two-disc, two-hour set split between short-notice studio recordings and a 75-minute greatest-hits-live package--she's already uttered the words, "Father, I killed my monkey." But her capacity for tremendous musical elegance, coupled with her tremendous capacity for cloying bullshit, is what makes her a unique star, and the former tendency overwhelms the latter on her fine new collection. The studio set is consistently as pleasantly accessible as the best stuff on 1998's fine From The Choirgirl Hotel, whether she's indulging in pretty, catchy, bleary pop ("Glory Of The 80's") or the ambitiously arranged, eight-and-a-half-minute "Datura." The studio disc (subtitled "Orbiting") would alone be worth the price of admission for most Amos fans, but the second disc ("Live, Still Orbiting") certainly won't disappoint, either. Often eschewing her biggest radio hits ("Cornflake Girl" is here; "God," "Silent All These Years," "Caught A Lite Sneeze," and "Jackie's Strength" aren't), Amos deftly shifts tone, smartly mixing lively pop songs ("Girl") and solo-with-a-piano ballads ("Cloud On My Tongue," the previously unavailable "Cooling"). For every brief moment of twee cutesiness ("Mr. Zebra"), there are four of five moments of lovely grace or brisk pop. There's more than enough of all of the above to appeal to virtually everyone in Amos' large, broad assortment of fans. --Stephen Thompson

A review of "to venus and back" appears in the October 1999 issue of Attitude magazine in the U.K. Thanks to Nick for sending it to me.

Tori's last album, from the choirgirl hotel, boldly took the Amos sound away for complex piano-led odes to a new, fuller band sound, and to venus and back charts a similar course. Though not as focussed and wilfully diverse, venus still contains some stellar Amos moments - most notably the wild swagger of lead single Glory Of The 80s (very Ray of Light) and unfathomably sad 1000 Oceans. Still, if choirgirl failed to set the world's cash registers alight, there's little chance this will restore her fortune. Even the bonus live CD, recorded on last year's Plugged world tour, boldly omits any of her best known tunes (bar Cornflake Girl) in favour of curios like Cooling and the Berlin cabaret Purple People. Her huge cult following will booking their tickets immediately.

(3 out of 5) Adam Mattera

Attitude is also giving away 10 signed To Venus And Back CDs. Just name the Rolling Stones classic that Tori covered on the Winter EP.

Tori Amos To Venus And Back (3 out of 5)

She's most famous for being ginger, a bit mad and sounding like Kate Bush. Now she's still ginger, and still abit mad, but sounds a whole lot more like Madonna. Back with another collection of PMT favourites, The post-Armand Van Helden Amos has developed her style in a more dancier direction. The songs here are all big, big, big - the production is over the top and they have a grandiose quality. The lyrics are just as incomprehensible as before which adds to her charm, but now come with a many-layered, bass-heavy, trip hop backing. Bliss veers from sounding like Tricky with tits to a breezy, cheesy chorus, and Glory of the 80s is more traditional Tori territory, with thumping piano chords. Best listened to when you're feeling really miserable, it'll cheer you up just to know someone else feels worse than you do.

SKIP TO Juarez which starts where Madonnas Justify My Love left off and is just crying out for another stonking remix. The next Professional Widow.

SOUNDBITE Feminax-fuelled coffee table disco, like.

LB

Read more about the chat and a complete transcript.

Amos's fans will be able to double their pleasure and double their fun this fall when the singer/songwriter releases her double-disc To Venus and Back. The album feature live tracks from her recent tour, as well as 12 new studio selections, including "Glory of the '80s," which may or may not be a reference to the artist's inglorious past as a big-haired metal babe. [www.tori.com]

Also on the web: A Dent in the Tori Amos Net Universe may be modestly titled, but it is the fan site to explore for everything Tori. [members.aye.net/~mikewhy/index.html]

The October 1999 issue of Jane Magazine contains a one page interview with Tori. It includes a large photo. Some good stuff here! Thanks to Staci Brooks for sending it to me. Shana (lady delirium) sent me the photo, which you can see below. Click the photo to see it larger.

Some of you believe that Tori Amos is a tormented prophet from Elysium. Others think she is nuts.

Q. You've said that the songs you write just sort of come out of you. What happens when the juices arent flowing?

A. You have to be like a hunter and go out and track it. I use a bunch of different things, like visual art and books. I have a pretty extensive library, from cookery to spy novels - whatever.

Q. Do you know Kid Rock's music?

A. No, but I know his A&R guy.

Q. He and Mary J. Blige both thank God in their liner notes. What deities would you thank?

A. Well, you've gotta wonder which God they're talking about. The Chistians think they're the only ones-when they say God, its their God. I don't see the divine force as these religions. I think these are all demigods.

Q. Okay. Well, Mary J. has a ton of sunglasses. Do you hoard anything?

A. Shoes and lip gloss. I get the lip gloss in shipments...And the shoes collect themselves. I just pick them up, like some people pick up nailpolish.

Q. Do you have any nasty habits?

A. I've been known to have Tourette's syndrome when I meet people in the music business. I'm intolerant of rudeness. Record company people get lazy and think they they're above the law, and artists forget that being a moron just because you're successful might get tiring quickly.

Q. I've noticed that you mention fairies a lot. Um, what exaclty are they?

A. It's a broad term for hte spiritual world. If you believe in the spirit world, you believe in it, if you don't, that's your arrogance,. But if you go to Ireland and talk about fairies negatively, you'll get punched out.

Q. What's somethign that people would be surprised to learn about you, Tori?

A. Maybe that I don't hate Christians. I just have a problem with what they haven't claimed - the dark side of Christianity...If Jesus were alive today, he certainly wouldn't be a member of the Christian church, Because, in the name of God, there's a lot of blood on the ground,. And correct me if I'm wrong, but that isn't exactly "Love your neighbor as yourself."

Q. You've said that you had childhood fantasies about Jesus Christ, What do you fantasize about now?

A. A good night's sleep.

The October 1999 issue of US magazine (issue 261 with the cast of "Friends" on the cover) contains a brief interview and large photo of Tori. Thanks to Karla Canales, Tyler Morgan, Heather Cook, and Aaron for giving me details and to Karla Canales and Aaron for scanning the photo, which was first seen in Rolling Stone magazine in 1998.

There is a Faces & Places Up Close article on Tori:

"TORI AMOS - Pop's Perennial Pixie Celebrates Marriage, 'Venus' and The Muse

Your new album, 'To Venus and Back,' features 22 songs - 12 new tracks and 10 live versions of old songs. You're very prolific. Do you write for a set number of hours a day?

No. I'm usually racing my little Toyota truck and ordering good wine, hanging out with my friends [in England, where Amos moved in the early 1990s]. But when the muse stalks me, I start hunting her. She forces me to go out there with my bow and arrow, and sometimes I get it and sometimes I don't.

Your work is very confessional. Your last album, 'From the Choirgirl Hotel,' dealt in part with your miscarriage in 1996 - the child you conceived with your then future husband, Mark Hawley. Will you try to get pregnant again?

I don't know. I mean, she was a real being to us, and we say hi to her sometimes when we're taking a walk at night. [Her spirit] might be in another woman's tummy by now, but I don't feel like I'm shared something that changed our life - in a good way - because we began to appreciate that we have each other, that we have another day to be together. I'm starting on this new tour [with Alanis Morissette], and I'm really enjoying being a woman, being married and seeing where that takes me.

Your work is also idiosyncratic, and you write notoriously obscure lyrics. Do you ever feel the pressure to write a mainstream hit?

I have never chased the curve. A lot of people will try to dilute you - give your music a nose job or a little bow tie: "Don't perspire now; shave under your arms." But I'm a small vineyard. And I'm not willing to sacrifice the way I make the wine to get into Safeway. You know what I mean?

- James Ireland Baker

The article is accompanied by the photo that was in last years Rolling Stone ...the close up of Tori's face with her eyes wide open and a flower in her hair. The caption reads "NEVER-ENDING TORI: "There is always room for uniqueness," says Amos.

There is also an ad for "to venus and back". It reads "2 sides of Tori" and "the otherworldly double album of new studio creations and transcendent moments captured live". It's the same photo of Tori that is in the inside of the Bliss single only in the purple tint.

Alternative Press

See The Great Photos From This Issue And Read The Article.