Tori Amos.

In the hours leading up to her recent one woman show in Brisbane, Tori Amos

took the time to do some press for her seasonal album, Midwinter Graces. Her second release for 2009, Midwinter Graces comes hot on heels of Abnormally Attracted To Sin.

Whereas Abnormally Attracted To Sin appeared to divide opinion, fans and critics alike have almost unanimously greeted Midwinter Graces as a return to form, recalling the song writing flair and orchestral backdrop used so effectively on her breakthrough record Little Earthquakes and her landmark Under The Pink.

Amos, who was motivated to create Midwinter Graces at the urging of her one time mentor Doug Morris, has referred to the work as being more about spirituality than theology.  

Basic tracks were recorded at her Cornwall studio, while overdubs were added in various locales as Amos toured AATS. Alongside re-workings of traditional carols, Amos wrote stellar new tunes, among them, ‘Snow Angel’ and the big band effort ‘Pink and Glitter’.  

Relaxed with a cup of tea and the ginseng capsules she swears by, Amos explained her song writing process.

"I usually write walking down the street," she begins, "or in the shower. I don’t need an instrument to write on, I can write it in my head."

"Sometimes melodies come with words attached and you don’t know why. [The song] might be coming 17 bars in. You just know that this is part of the DNA of a song."

Amos describes a technique whereby she taps into something ethereal as opposed to bashing away at the keyboard waiting for a breakthrough.  

"When you’re in a co-creation relationship with songs, that’s very different as to when you see yourself as the only creator," she explains. "Some people may be the only creator. I’ve met people who are ‘jobbing’ songwriters. They sit down in an office with a piano and they can listen to a pop tune and write one like that. I’m not saying that’s not being creative; it’s just a different kind of process. I’m interested in translating these songs that are alive in another dimension."  

Amos admits that writing can be a waiting game, but she has her methods of drawing the songs from the air onto the page.

"Sometimes it’s a little bit of both," she says of the push ‘n’ pull. "I can tell you times when I’m just going about my business, in between shows, and it is there. I have to grab a napkin and write it down before I forget it. It takes over everything. Then there are times when you think that’s ‘it’s’ in the room, you’re almost positive, but you have to work for it a little bit."

"When I say in a ‘room’, it could be a hotel room, not necessarily a home environment."

"When I’m in a routine as wife and mother, I’m in a different place mentally. I travel a lot in order to write. I trigger myself to be open and aware so [I] don’t fall into the same song."

Amos admits that adding a new song to an already hefty seasonal cannon wasn’t a simple task.

"I think it’s tricky, but, the good thing about it is, because I’m a minister’s daughter I understand the theology. Whether I adhere with it or not isn’t the conversation. I don’t agree with all of it. But, because my dad got his doctorate in theology from Boston University, I was also exposed to other cultures and other ways of thinking and, to be fair to my dad, he admitted to me when I was thinking about doing this that Charles Wesley had admitted to taking music and, in his words, put the Christology to it. He said ‘You need to do the same thing’. I said ‘Thank you for giving me your blessing’ [laughs]."

Morris was the prime mover in setting Amos’ ambition for the project alight. So where exactly does a 70 year old Jewish man sit in picture?

"Doug wanted me to do a seasonal record that pulled on my classical training; he said he didn’t want me to just do covers. He wanted me to write new stuff. He wanted it to be beautiful. He said ‘I’m a Jewish guy and I’m left on the outside of this most of the time’. We talked and, he’s getting old and, he was my mentor. He knew I was a minister’s daughter, he said he knew how I felt and said I could bring inclusiveness to people who didn’t necessarily believe it, and we could recapture the carols back for all of us that have been left out."

"He said if you believe in extreme Christianity you can’t be a part of it, but parts of the carols that we know have been hijacked from sea shanties and drinking songs. The Christology has been put to these ‘pop’ songs of the 1500’s. Then ‘they’ took ‘their’ songs and put what they wanted on it. I thought, let’s be part of a tradition and take it, not hijack it, and have variations on the theme. Let’s take the portion that includes people and then maybe ‘edit’ the piece that marginalises a lot of people and bring in more a re-birth of life."

"Because I was brought up with so much of that music, I’m not saying I’m an authority, The Oxford Book of Carols is an authority, but I feel like I know the material. I wasn’t intimidated, but I also took it very seriously what thin ice I was on. Doug admitted to me ‘You’ve got a 70-year-old Jewish guy on your left and your mother, who’s partially Native American, but very serious about her faith, and you’ve got to please us both’. That is not an easy task."

"I think that’s the reason this record is unique. I couldn’t do the catalogues the way they were written and have the catalogue that I have, which is about the emancipation of women, and I felt ‘if it’s too loud, turn it up’."

"At times I was pulling my hair out with that Oxford Book of Carols under my arm and I was reviewing all of that history that I started studying at twelve years old in order to survive in a puritanical Christian home. I had to research other cultures to understand there was life before Christianity. So, that helped me with this project. In a way I’ve been researching this project since I was a young girl."

Midwinter Graces is out now through Universal Music in both standard and deluxe format.

Sean Sennett

ENDS