Tori Amos: I realised I don’t need to feel like ‘supermum’ every day

Tori Amos says she discovered the “power” to write her new album by accepting her vulnerabilities and realising she does not need to feel like a “supermum” every day.

The American singer-songwriter, who lives in Cornwall with her sound engineer husband Mark Hawley, said there were days during the creative process where she felt she had “nothing more to give”.

However, the 58-year-old mother-of-one said she was inspired by the “muse” to persevere.

Her upcoming 16th album, Ocean To Ocean, due for release on October 29 via Decca, was inspired by her lockdown in Cornwall and the lack of control she felt over her own life.

She told the PA news agency: “You might be in a powerless place when you listen to (the album). I was in a powerless place when I began it. Because what is power? What is that?

“You have to be really brutal about the definition of that because power can’t be having power over somebody else, or because everybody wants you.

“When the champagne is flowing everybody is there blowing smoke in every orifice you have got. If that makes you feel powerful, it might – but it is a charlatan’s game my friend.

“When you are middle-aged and you are not able to hold things together, even if it is for a week, or a few weeks, and go: ‘God, I’m just going to sit in this chair because I’ve got nothing more to give – I have got to find it’.

“And I think the muses were very much, ‘OK, so the only way to find it is to be in your vulnerability, where you don’t feel like supermum this week’.”

She added: “People are always talking about, ‘What’s power?’ I say power is being able to say, ‘I’m on my knees’. That is power, although it’s not the type of definition you would think.”

Amos, who has repeatedly delayed her tour in support of the album due to the pandemic, said live performers had been “grieving” for their lost shows.

She said: “I think most musicians and live theatre people will tell you that when you are in the thick of kicking the can down the road there is a level of grieving because you just go, ‘when is this going to end?’”

Ocean To Ocean is released via Decca Records on October 29.