Who? What? Where? Why? - singer-songwriter Toni Childs

Interview, June, 1994 by Brian Carmody

where?

wherever. Childs can make beautiful music just about anyplace, thanks to the mobile recording unit supplied by her record company. "I could drive to Louisiana and record a whole Baptist choir in their church," offers the singer. After trekking to India and England to record her new album, does Childs anticipate hanging around her California house awhile? "I want to buy a Winnebago and stick the unit in back, drive to Sedona [Arizona] or the Four Corners, and just sit there and write music," she says.

who?

toni childs, a singer-songwriter whose voice is both massive and magnificent, and whose songs fervently embody the fears, hopes, dreams, and desires we all bundle up inside and carry through our lives.

what?

The Woman's Boat

(DGC), Childs's third album, on which the singer gives new meaning to the term world music. Textured with intricate noises from Africa, India, and the Australian outback, The Woman's Boat is an experiment in aural expression. "In creating music," says Childs, "I've become more attracted to conjuring sounds, making something that reflects what is in my inner world." And what in the singer's inner world enables her to create songs like the lucent "Welcome to the World" and the ominous "Predator"? "I get little sparks of inspiration," she explains, "and then, somehow, I see an idea in a light that makes sense, and it pulls me in further. Who knows what that is?"

why?

"Something in me really needs to sing."