Read Tori Amos: Piece by Piece Online
Authors: Tori Amos,Ann Powers
Recoupable.
Okay just think of it this way. The record label charges you for pretty much everything. So if you get sent flowers, which my last record label did, don't be surprised if you get charged for them in your next royalty statement. I did.
Publishing is one of the most important aspects of the music industry. If I had listened to some of my former advisers way back when who are no longer advising me, I would have sold the publishing for my first seven records. The first record that would have counted would have been
Little Earthquakes
, so as you can count I would not have fulfilled the terms of the contract until 2006. Therefore, this contract would have included from 1991 to 2006—from
Little Earthquakes
through
The Beekeeper.
To put that amount of time in perspective, my twelve-and-a-half-year-old niece just said, “Oh my God, that's older than me!” And the crazy thing about all this is that I would have signed over fifteen years of my song girls for about the price of a Toyota. Now, I like a Toyota, but give me a break.
Signing that deal would have made me financially broke. I mean
broke.
So the question you have to ask yourself as a songwriter is whether
or not you think that you are going to have a successful songwriting career. If you do, then you need to think long term. If you don't, then you might want to take the money and run. Now what I mean by that is, if you're getting offered a big advance and you desperately need the money, then I know and you know that you're gonna take that money. But you see, there's a huge hook—the biggest chorus ever—in this song called the publishing contract. There's a little phrase that can even hook, catch, and grill the cleverest of mermaids or mermen … and that phrase would be
in perpetuity.
Okay for anybody in the music industry or anybody thinking about getting into the music industry, these two little words can change your whole life. Change your whole life. These two little words mean
FOREVER
, so just to explain it, let's talk about a for instance. Let's say that Tori signed that publishing deal back in 1991. Even though she would be getting out in 2006, which would mean that
The Beekeeper
would have been the final work for which the publishing company could have taken all her publishing money, that doesn't mean that she gets these songs back. If Tori leaves the publishing deal, this means only that she starts getting paid for the publishing on her next work, which could be in 2007 or 2008.
In perpetuity
means that the publishing company that Tori “signed with” will get all of the publishing money from all of her songs from 1991 until 2006, forever and ever. These songs do not revert back to Tori. The revenue from these songs does not revert back to Tori.
Now I will say here that if you're hot, you have more leverage during publishing negotiations. But I was far from cold when I was offered my publishing deal right before
Little Earthquakes
came out. If I hadn't had Al Stewart
(Year of the Cat)
jumping all over my case, and my mom and dad begging me not to sign my publishing away, then I would probably be working at Nordstrom in the shoe department. And I'm not dissing a job
in a shoe department. Me? Are you kidding? That could almost be heaven. But it's not heaven if you've sold millions of records on the back of your own songwriting, songwriting you would have signed away fifteen years previously to buy the equivalent of … what??? And for whom??? I certainly could not have secured myself a place to live. So remember those two little words,
In Perpetuity.
Believe me, they can cost you a hell of a lot more than those other famous two little words, “I do.”
This is very simple in the world of chicks: some are hoochies, some are not, and some should never try to be. It's no different from the idea of sports. Now, I can go on my little rowing machine four times a week, twenty-two minutes a time, and I can feel as if I flirt with the sporting world. Similar to the idea that a woman can put on something cute for her man, for those moments, and flirt with garments that a hoochie woman might be pushing. But never for one moment should you get confused. My little rowing machine and I cannot consider ourselves athletes. Wearing the same garment does not a hoochie woman make. So if you are a true hoochie woman, may garments below the navel always be in your future. If you are not, then please don't throw away your cotton zippy jacket.
As some of these songs were coming to me, I asked the gospel choir arranger, Wayne Hernandez, to come down to Martian and lend his vocal magic. He and his singers, the girls who I call “the gangsta-rinas,” are on four songs on
The Beekeeper
, including “Witness.”
Betrayal happens in strange ways and comes from strange corners sometimes. Some days life can feel pretty normal, so to speak. Then there are other days that make you think you've walked into something sinister, into a Hermann Hesse novel. I wish I could tell you that nothing surprises me anymore. But unfortunately that isn't true. Fame and money expose people for who they really are. Some are willing to do anything to keep it. “Witness” is a song written about this betrayal, and betrayal is always one of the seeds in the Garden of Sin-suality …
Phone rings.
“Hey, T.”
“Hey, you.”
“I need to give you some news.”
“Give me the bad news first.”
“It's all bad.”
“Okay I'm standing. Shoot.”
“They want —— from you.” (Some issues are locked up in confidentiality agreements.)
“Hmm.”
“Are you there?”
“Yep.”
“What's our response? Do you want your team's advice?”
“Yes, I want your advice, but not today. My response is—tell the team no one responds. I will not dignify their insult.”
“Understood.”
“I suspect they'll call back within six days.”
“Six business days?”
“Yeah, weekends count only for musicians and crew.”
“And accountants.”
“Fair enough. But never suits. I haven't seen a suit at a gig in a long time.”
“I wear a suit,” says Philip-the-Good.
“Nothing personal.”
We say our goodbyes and I hang up. And, sure enough, within six business days I get a call from Philip-the-Good.
Having been in the music business since I was thirteen years old, there are things I've been exposed to that I haven't seen, or that the accountants and investment bankers I've worked with haven't seen, in any other business. Which leads me to something I'm quite convinced about, and it's very unusual for me, but in this case I must argue with the playwright Congreve when he pronounced, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” I must rectify this by saying, “Hell hath no fury like a rejected entertainment executive scorned.”
This song is about takers. We all know them, either as people we have to work with or friends we find out about eventually, and sometimes it's a real shock to realize that when push comes to shove, all these people really care about is what's in it for them. In the end they don't even pretend to care if you're okay. Not if you're okay, or if the friendship is okay, or anything else. Can somebody tell me what is wrong with the idea of a win-win? Why does somebody always have to bite the dust?
Jeez. These days it seems as if it's getting harder and harder to get people on the team who really want to show that they value one another. People might say that they want to, but at the end of the day most of them care only about what they get out of it.
I remember a couple of years ago when one of the musicians said to me, “I think music should be free.” And I was just not in the mood to deal with yet another genius, but I did, and I said, “Well, you have made the question about where to send your check easy for me to answer.” “Um,” said the musician, “what do you mean?” I answered, “We weren't sure whether to send your check to your address or to your girlfriend's address, but now you've answered my question for me.” “I'm not quite following you, Tor,” he said. “Well, obviously since you believe that music should be free, then we won't need to send you your check.” The musician looked at me incredulously, and with shock in his voice said, “But I've just played my heart out.” I looked at him very calmly and said, “So you think you should get paid but music should be free?” “Well, yeah,” he said. “And so who do you think is going to pay you if music is free?” I asked. And therein lies the problem—everybody wants free stuff but nobody wants to work for free.
The truth is, all the people who have ever told me that music should be free still believe that they should be paid for their job, whatever that job may be. They are completely insulted when I suggest that they work for free as well. People usually get quite defensive at this point and say, “If I don't get paid for a day's work, then basically I'm being cheated.” And I look at them and say, “That is basically right.”
This musician sheepishly looked at me and said, “I guess I sound pretty hypocritical … but Tor, you're kidding, right?” And I said, “You mean about you not getting paid? Of course I'm going to pay you, because I value what you do. But do you want to know what scares me, and
I mean
really
scares me?” And he looked at me completely baffled and said, “No, what really scares you?” “The fact,” I said, “that you weren't kidding.”
It is personal.
When you care about your team, when the bonds have been formed and somehow this big ball of tape starts unraveling and tangling. I weep and would walk to Japan to fix it, but after you walk to Japan and it still isn't fixed, you begin to realize that each person has to want to look at his or her part and say, “Okay sorry—so that rupture is mine and I don't want you all tripping over something that only I can fix.” Unless you have the inner desire to walk the extra mile with your creative circle, then the circle will be breached. It will break. The circle's breaking aches. And it is personal. Sometimes we enter into a forgetfulness, thereby treating companions, creative compadres, as if they are taking from us when they are giving. And the decomposing of the harmonic structure that was in place has begun. And the cords pull—no,
yank—
in your gut. Oh my God, it feels like your ovaries are being yanked out with tweezers. Then every time it happens, you realize that you cannot make others want to look at their part in the discordance. You can say how it's affecting your relationship and what you're willing to do or not do. Then it's out of your hands. Completely out of your hands.
Kali, Sekhmet, Pele, Oya, Sedna—these mythical goddesses have taught me about not being intimidated by a destructive force. This can be a person on the crew. This can be someone working closely on a project. This can be administrative, management, the record company, or the agency. This can be someone in the audience. I've sat in the stink, the
spewing of someone's negativity. The Piss Christ was made of urine. Can a negative experience spark and inspire the Passion that is in us, maybe suppressed inside us, to rise up and out of “their” thoughtless remorse? Can we build something better? You know you must descend to ascend. Pass through the eye of the needle … If it's too loud, then turn it up. Yes. Sometimes a negative attitude that has spread can make everyone question and improve and reach for excellence. Value the opportunity. Sometimes it is just negativity in the end. The creative tribe cannot shoulder the negative cancer if at its core it chooses to stay malignant.
The intriguing thing about conflict in the creative world and the business of the creative world is what it brings out in people. You really don't know what a person is made of until conflict enters the picture and people are forced to choose sides. If there hadn't been people who went over and above what a friend should be, then I wouldn't be here writing this book. A lot of times projects get accomplished because of the tenacity, not of the big record Cheeses, but of the girls and guys who do the busywork at the record company. Without the Vicky Germaises, the Elyse Taylors, the Lee Ellen Newmans, the Linda Ferrandos, the Patti Contis, and the Matthew Rankins of the world, it would have been a very different story from what it turned out to be.
I call on Sekhmet when I need to stand in my own authority. She is the one who acts until certain policies are changed. Her spirit leads me when it comes to being able to have force—and I don't mean like Obi-Wan Kenobi. I think the patriarchy would say that Sekhmet's plan of action was a rampage, whereas I say that it was about saying no to wrongdoing. If someone who already has power is going to hold people hostage, well, two can play at that game.
I am always willing to discuss things before laying down the line. If you don't want to take the high road, it doesn't mean I'm going to go away.
If you don't want to come to the table and define terms, which I feel Sekhmet was willing to do, we can play another way.
I can definitely be a battle-ax. That's a side of it. Madonna has that side; so does Chrissie Hynde, even successful women who project a sweet image, like Sarah McLachlan. The women who have impact must be willing to pounce when it's appropriate. If you're going to take on the music business, you need to find that red energy somewhere in you.