Tori

Sparks

Dark,
Glamorous
And . . . Goofy?!
Wayne Hall

Songwriter’s Monthly - Feb. ’11, #133 http://www.scribd.com/SongwritersMonthly

I stumbled upon Tori Sparks by
accident. She popped up as a friend of
a friend on facebook. Intrigued by the
fact that she called a number of
musicians I respect her friends and
wowed by her profile picture that
suggested a darkly elegant backstory, I
reached out. Tori got back to me
promptly and said she would send over
her latest press kit.
THE SCORPION IN THE STORY arrived a
few days later and I immediately
slipped it into the player in my car
where it remained for several weeks
[the car being my favorite place to
listen to music]. The silken huskiness of
her soulful vocals roamed atop the
haunting, earthy twang of banjos and
Wayne Hall
Songwriter’s Monthly - Feb. ’11, #133
navigated the crest of the accordion’s
nostalgic swells making for music so
vivid that I could not only see colors as
I listened, but it left a dusty taste in my
mouth, as well. But that wasn’t the
“For some reason,
people assume that
musicians don’t
read . . . or can’t
read or something.”
reason I kept the CD in my car. The
woman can tell a gripping story! She
could make me feel — not just happy or
sad, but her music evoked other, less
typical responses such as concern, fear,
suspense, compassion and even
dread!
When I called her up to discuss how
she did what she does, I half-
expected to find a dark, introspective
artist with a nasty edge, someone I
wouldn’t want to cross for fear I’d end
up like one of the characters in her
songs. What I discovered was a
sharp, witty young woman with the
precise timing and delivery of a stand-
up comic.
“This is Tori,” she greeted.
I introduced myself and told her how
much I was enjoying her latest album.
“That’s a good thing as opposed to,
‘Well, I used to like that album . . .’”
she laughed.
The first question I asked was
something that I had been wondering
http://www.scribd.com/SongwritersMonthly
 “As a writer, the
bigger your
vocabulary is, the
more choices you
have.”
since my first listen to the intense
storytelling on the first track, “Do you
do a lot of reading?”
“I do,” she replied. “That’s interesting
that you would ask that about reading
because, for some reason, people
assume that musicians don’t read . . .
or can’t read or something. I read a lot,
especially when I was a kid, I read all
the time and I think that has influenced
a number of things for me. It made
school easier for one. Also, things that
you read alter your perspective on life
in general. I’ve received inspiration
from things that I’ve read, but it’s really
influenced my outlook on words — as a
writer, the bigger your vocabulary is,
the more choices you have. It doesn’t
mean you have to fill every song with
million dollar words, but maybe you at
least know what they mean,” she
Songwriter’s Monthly - Feb. ’11, #133
Matt Read
laughed.
“But beyond vocabulary,” I persisted,
“you have a style and a distinctive
voice.”
“Thank you. I love literary people with a
distinctive voice, so I think those are
the people I am drawn to and those are
the people whom, either consciously or
unconsciously, I have learned from.
Tom Waits is my favorite and he uses a
lot of imagery and has a very distinct
voice. I find it really boring to say ‘I
love you’ or ‘I miss you.’ You can say,
‘When you left me, it made a mess of
my life,” but that’s boring, right? But if
you say something like, ‘When you left
me, my heart fell out the bottom like a
rusted out engine,’ that’s way better.”
I pointed out the great line in Tori’s
http://www.scribd.com/SongwritersMonthly
song “Leaving Side of Love” that goes, protest,’ but that’s not nearly as
“But I broke a man in half once, he exciting.”
didn’t even make a sound.” I thought
for a moment, then added, “Actually, Tori packs a lot into every song. She
that song is filled with great lines, it’s
uses imagery, metaphors, characters,
probably my plot, subtext,
c u r r e n t w o r d p l a y,

Matt Read
favorite on m e l o d y, a
the album.” story arc,
emotion and
“Thank you. more. When
That’s one of asked if she
my favorite ever paused
songs on the to consider
record, as how complex
w e l l ,” s h e her material
n o t e d . is, she
“Sometimes responded,
people ask, “ N o ,” t h e n
‘Where do laughed. “I
you get your suppose I
ideas?’ I should think
don’t know, I about that
can’t control sometimes,
it. I’m not maybe I
sure if other should make
writers have it more
the same s i m p l e ?
experience or Living in
not, but I can’t control N a s hv i l l e , a l o t o f
whether the song that “It’s impossible not people want you to
I am writing right now write more simple
is going to turn out to to include yourself music and more
be one of the best in the process of simple lyrics for the
songs I’ve written or sake of the consumer,
one of the more
writing the song.” for the general
emotive ones or population. The thing
whatever. These words and things just is . . . I just want to write a song that I
kind of come out of my head. I do like want to listen to, you know? I want to
it when you can combine a literal with a write a song that I’m proud of.
figurative idea and in that case, it’s Sometimes I might say something
what really happened, but that’s just slightly simplistic in the lyric or,
one way of saying it. You could say, ‘I musically, it might be a very simple
broke your heart and you didn’t chord structure, but when I play it in
Songwriter’s Monthly - Feb. ’11, #133 http://www.scribd.com/SongwritersMonthly
front of people or when I’m singing it in
a studio, I want to feel proud of it and
know that it’s saying something I
needed to say — even if a song in
particular is not my masterpiece, I
needed to say what I said for a reason.”
“I just want to
write a song that I
want to listen to,
you know?”
“There is music that is intelligent music,
you don’t have to be a rocket scientist,
but you do have to pay attention just a
little to understand it. There’s also your
awful pop music that’s just really, really
bad, but for some reason people will
Songwriter’s Monthly - Feb. ’11, #133
buy that, too. In Nashville, you see
both. As a writer, you have to decide,
‘Do I want to appeal to the lowest
common denominator or do I trust my
audience and know that they are
intelligent enough to get it?’ It’s kind of
like a trashy romance novel versus a
book that maybe involves romance but
is a fantastic story, a real story,
something you can take with you and
learn from. I just don’t believe in
dumbing things down because the
audience is smarter than people give
them credit for.”
“You don’t dumb things down,” I said,
“you respect your audience, you take
them to places I don’t think they are
used to going in a song. For instance,
your opening track, “Tall Towers,” went
Wayne Hall
http://www.scribd.com/SongwritersMonthly
 “I want to feel
proud of it and
know that it’s
saying something
I needed to say.”
to such a dark place that it’s chilling. It
disturbed me!”
Tori laughed. “That’s good because
that’s what I want! As a writer, you
don’t want someone to say, ‘Oh that
was nice,’ you want them to feel
something. If you’re writing a song
about murder, then yeah, you want
people to feel a little chilled.”
“This album is all stories about people
you met on the road, do I have that
right?” I asked.
“The official line I’ve been telling people
is that it’s a concept album and all the
songs were written about people I met
on the road and based on true stories
that I was told while I was traveling.
Songwriter’s Monthly - Feb. ’11, #133
And all of that is true . . . but the other
thing, of course, is my own influences.
My own history in life and experiences
also informed the songs. It’s impossible
not to include yourself in the process of
writing the song.”
“When I listened to these songs, I
thought there was a lot more of you in
them than your press release let on,” I
divulged.
“To be completely honest, all the songs
were, indeed, inspired by people on the
road, but some of them were more
about me. But that doesn’t make a
good press release: Most of these songs
are about other people . . . and there
are ones about me,” she laughed. “That
just ruins the continuity, you know?”
http://www.scribd.com/SongwritersMonthly
“Can I print what you just said?” but it was delivered with such a dry
tone that it made you wonder. She can
“Yes. The record’s been out long be goofy, but she carries herself with a
enough that I’m not trying to impress striking elegance. There is a dark
people as much any more. On the glamour to her, but also a rootsy
earthiness. Amazingly, all of these
different aspects — as well as a good
“Without the silly clue of what her music sounds like —
part or the dark part are captured in the album artwork.
or the rootsy part or Before wrapping up our conversation, I
wanted to let her know how well I
the glamourous thought the artwork represented both
part, it wouldn’t be her and the album.

what it is.” “I really like that you see all those

website, there’s actually a little menu
button that says THE SCORPION IN THE
STORY [www.torisparks.com/story.html]
and if you click it, it tells you the story
behind every person that I met.”
“What would be the one song that is
the most revealing, the one that has
the most Tori in it?” I probed.
“ H m m , t h a t ’ s i n t e r e s t i n g ,” s h e
pondered. “There are many of them
actually.”
things in the artwork because that is
the way that I would prefer someone to
see this album,” she expressed. “You
can’t control how someone else
perceives your work, but that’s what I
would like people to see. There are a lot
of elements and they all come together
and they all are true and valid and they
are all part of the whole. Without the
silly part or the dark part or the rootsy
part or the glamourous part, it wouldn’t
be what it is. It’s not so much me

“You didn’t leave a string of bodies

littered around the country did you?!”

“Nah. . .” she said a little too casually.

“Well, there are definitely those days
when the promoters cheat you out of
money and I think, ‘They’ll never find
your body.’ But you can’t actually do
that because if it gets around that you
killed a promoter, they’ll stop booking
you . . . eventually.”
http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?
id=hyTjEIK1pMo&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=

Tori has a way of being many things at

0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=http%253A%252F
%252Fitunes.apple.com%252Fus%252Falbum
%252Fthe-scorpion-in-the-story
% 2 5 2 F i d 3 2 0 4 3 9 9 7 8 % 2 5 3 F u o

once. Her last comment was funny,

%253D4%2526partnerId%253D30

Songwriter’s Monthly - Feb. ’11, #133 http://www.scribd.com/SongwritersMonthly

 Matt Read
Tori will be touring the Midwest in
February and April. In March, she will
be hitting Arkansas and Texas as well
as other TBA states. While in Texas,
Sparks will not only perform several
independent showcases, but she will
also speak on a panel at the SXSW.
See www.torisparks.com for all
upcoming tour dates.
Songwriter’s Monthly - Feb. ’11, #133
thinking about how do I want
people to see me, it’s more
that that’s how I actually am.
“I feel the most
natural when I’m
doing all of it and
showing people all
of it.”
Instead of me just singing
twangy Americana stuff or
just focusing on the blues or
folk or the silly side of me, I
feel the most natural when
I’m doing all of it and showing
people all of it.”
www.torisparks.com
Extensive European tour dates will
be announced in the coming months
for the 2nd half of 2011 into 2012.
Tori’s upcoming fourth album is a
double-EP COME OUT OF THE DARK/
UNTIL MORNING [Roger Moutenot will
be mixing the record.] It will be
released in Summer 2011.
http://www.scribd.com/SongwritersMonthly