Tori Amos opens up about her new album, Prop. 8 and her ideal same-sex marriage partner.

by Lawrence Ferber

For her 10th studio album, Tori Amos pulled out all the stops and genres. Recorded in Cornwall, England, the sumptuously produced Abnormally Attracted to Sin offers a generous 17 tracks running the gamut from catchy, synth-soaked pop (“Curtain Call”) to trip-hop-ish torch song (“Strong Black Vine”), to guitar-soaked folk-rock (“Starling”), and vocally acrobatic ballad (“Police Me”). Amos’ voice and arrangements are truly in top form. A bonus DVD of footage recorded during 2007’s American Doll Posse tour accompanies the deluxe CD release, which Amos is currently supporting with an international tour (she comes to the Greek Theater in Los Angeles on July 17).

A Methodist minister’s daughter, Amos, who recorded the album with longtime collaborator and husband Mark Hawley, expressed frustration over California voters’ passage of Proposition 8 in a May 2009 interview with the U.K.’s Attitude magazine. Here she follows-up on that thought, ponders which woman she would marry in an alternate reality and shares the stories behind the album and its songs.

FRONTIERS IN L.A.: What makes the new album different or unique compared to the rest of your catalog?

TORI AMOS: Well, this is the 10th album, and I think that’s always kind of exciting. I’ve never had one before. I thought to myself, when I was creating the whole thing, that it was important the arrangements and musical styles covered and expanded. It wasn't just, OK, I’m doing an organic sort of record with everything tracked as live—a Birkenstock record. No. We’re bringing out high heels from the last 20 years. So it was really exploring me as a composer and all kinds of different architectural arrangements I’ve been a part of the past 20 years and some things I haven’t put together [before].

Is there a theme running through this album?

I think power is sort of a key here. Are you drawn to people who have power over you, are you attracted to that? You might be and don’t even realize at first that you’re drawn to people who want you to lose. Or for them to feel powerful you have to feel unpowerful. You can be involved in a collaboration or relationship and all of a sudden you have somebody who’s really not supportive in your life.

What’s the story behind “Maybe California?”

That is about a woman who questions if jumping off a cliff isn’t the only answer at that point in her life. While traveling around, I was noticing what certain mothers were hiding, keeping to themselves — grief. When people say there’s an economic crisis, I feel that’s just the tip of the iceberg because people’s lives have been torn apart. I found there were quite a few mothers that couldn’t fix, couldn’t give the job back to the husband or get the kids through school. [They] couldn’t make the dream come true, and were pushed to that point, so maybe “California” came from that place.

The song “Welcome to England” sounds like arena rock gone Bhangra. A touch of Eastern sound there.

[Laughs] Yeah, that’s good. That’s very England anyway. Believe me, it’s a good Madras.

You’ve said you were disappointed by the passing of Prop. 8 on the same day that Obama became president and don't understand how Christians have an issue with gay rights. Here’s a quote: “In a perfect world, you keep the Democrats out of your bank account and the Republicans out of your bedroom.”

Now we’re having to keep the Democrats out of our bedrooms, too. That’s my comment on Prop. 8!

Yet all these other U.S. states are making same-sex marriage legal now.

That’s right, and that’s because people are talking about it. I think a lot of people are not OK with this segregation. If you say to yourself, “I’m a Christian,” then you have to have the compassion that another person has the right to choose. A consenting adult. If the U.S. Constitution is supposed to protect everybody, it should protect gay people, too, or it isn’t for all men and all women. All men are created equal except—but it didn’t say “except.” I’m sorry, but that’s why the Obama thing was this victory and yet within the victory there had to be another group of people subjugated. That made me think, why did there have to be a win-lose? Why does somebody else have to be made powerless while another group is made powerful? And that goes back to the key of the record—about power.

OK. Meanwhile, what cover versions are you performing live these days?

I’ve just gotten interested in the ‘80s. We played “Flashdance” last night. We had an ‘80s dress-up party. I’m in the middle of a European/U.K. promotion on the way to the U.S., and I had a stop in Cornwall for three days [with my 8-year-old daughter Natashya], doing interviews while she’s in school, but at night we have these little moments, and last night was our Flashdance party and we had the best time. So I’m going to work up some songs from the last 30 years to be in the “lizard’s lounge,” which will be a moment in the show. You never know—I might have to do something from Flashdance—“Maniac” or something.

Here's a hypothetical question for you: Who would be your ideal female soulmate and partner in a same-sex marriage?

Georgia O’Keefe. I like her work a lot. I always have. The woman out of the rock thing. To me she was part earth, and as she got older she took on this presence to me of the desert, so I feel like if you marry O’Keefe you’re marrying the desert. It’s very poetic. It’s more than the person herself.

the details

July 17, 7:30 p.m.
The Greek Theatre
2700 N. Vermont Ave., L.A.
toriamos.com