which follow her since her first debut-album "Y can't Tori read" year 1988, say miss Amos "is one of the most intense and provocative characters in today's pop music. It is also true that her touching songs, her fine musicality, and her passionate interpretations, have made her a true cult artist for millions of fans all around the world."Her latest album, "From the choirgirl hotel", is a step further towards  the incredibly original dimension of this young North American singer and pianist.

Interview

Miss Amos, could you tell us how you began singing?

"In the beginning there was the piano. I began to play it when I was very young, my mother says I was about two and a half years old. Everybody considered me a prodigy child: I didn't have problems winning a scholarship given by the Peabody Institute, the famous Conservatory in Baltimore. But, since I was a child I almost always listened to rock, which I considered the music, they thought I wasn't suitable for studying classical music. If to this one adds my rebellious personality, profoundly naive, it is no surprise that they soon kicked me out of the Institute. I still wasn't twelve yet...".

How was your reaction to the expulsion?

"Very bad ! Music, for me, was everything, and I couldn't resign myself to the fact that I had to live without it. Luckily my father was very comprehensive. He was always very close to me. He encouraged me to follow through with my studies on my own. This was very helpful for me. You can't imagine the strange jobs he'd accept for me, to allow me to perform, strange gigs: like the ones in clubs for homosexuals. This was where my already independent personality, sharpened even more. So much that I decided to change my real name, Ellen, into Tori: which I definitely prefer".

And your music followed consequently...

"Right:. The course of my music coincides perfectly with my personal evolution. For me, music isn't just a passion, but a way to express my interior dimension, my feelings, my deepest thoughts. In fact I write what I feel. I sing with my heart, my stomach and guts..."

In fact some poorly spirited persons have sustained that in your live concerts sensuality is the main thing...

"It makes me laugh, just the thought of it ! Sensuality...what the hell does it mean ? Really, what appears to be sensual just represents my great desire to offer love ! And if within this love, there's space even for sex...well, it seems to me that it's just an obvious and natural thing ! There are still too many women that are ashamed to show their passions publicly. And too many men run like cowards when confronting their most intimate feelings".

Maybe this is the reason why you seem to have such a "physical" relationship  with your piano ?

"Certainly. For me, the piano, is a living creature, and often it may happen that I hug him and kiss him just as if it were my boyfriend! Furthermore, I think that its potentials still haven't been completely explored, the piano is the only acoustic instrument that can be percussive, it can play as an entire orchestra, or again it can be the source of incredible sound effects. It's an extraordinary instrument. The more you give it, the more it repays you with interests!"