Mixmag 1999-12 By Tom Whitwell "Ready, Steady, Kook!" Unpredictable, universal, unique... She's Bjork. And nobody else is Bjork is late. "I was borrowing a book about choirs," she admits. "I'm really into choirs at the moment." Who could have predicted that a shy music nerd from Iceland would become one of experimental music's heroes, selling seven million albums without ever selling out? Were you pissed off when Queen Amadala [in Star Wars] stole your style? I don't know. People talk about things like that all the time, saying this or that has ripped me off. Thinking about that kind of thing is a waste of time and energy. What did you do for New Year's Eve 1989? I spent the first half with my family, and the second half getting plastered with my mates. It's what everyone does in Reykjavik. It's so small that you literally run between the parties in a blizzard and get really drunk. I'll be doing just the same thing for the new millennium. What was the high point of your decade? I write a lot of music when I'm walking in the countryside in Iceland. When you've been on your own for four to five days and you're walking, you climb a mountain and get a bliss on your own. There's not really much that can beat that. I've done that ever since I was a child, but it wasn't until five or six years ago that I started sharing these moments with people. It was a bit scary at first, but I learned that you can pick which moment you share and which you keep to your-self. You don't lose anything really. 'Joga' was one of the songs that came from that. Where's music going over the next ten years? I'm very excited by the internet. It's so gorgeous to go down the internet and find people just playing on their kitchen table in Texas or something. It's given a lot of eccentric people a voice they didn't have before. I've just found an interesting interview with Pierre Schaeffer, one of the pioneers of Musique Concrete. That would have taken months to find in a library. There's going to be more originality in the next decade. Eccentrics will rule. Sum up the decade in four words. Best yet to come. What's hot in Iceland? When I first went to live in London, Iceland was pretty dull, but now it's really active ; there are a lot of interesting new bands. For 4,000 years, Iceland has been obsessed with information. We seem to be really flourishing in this internet age. It's something that's very natural for us. How would a Mixmag reader pretend to be Icelandic? It's impossible. I've never seen a foreigner blend in with Icelandic people, it just doesn't happen. We really welcome people, but we're just islanders who've been together for 1,000 years. It's in our genes, we can't help it. It's in the humour, the way you look, the way you walk. Are you really buying an island in Scotland? No, but I'm really flattered by all these rumours - they make me out to be a very exciting person. I've had a dream since I was a child to buy an island and I have been looking at one here in Iceland. These are complex matters, island buying. There are a lot of forms to fill in. What's in your pockets? I don't have any pockets. What was the last good book you read? I've been reading a biography of Gyorgy Ligeti [a 20th-century Transylvanian composer who wrote some of the experimental music for 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Shining]. I'm also reading a lot of musicology books about orchestration. It's self-education, really. Where do you want to be in ten years' time? Sometimes, the right thing seemed to be to go and meet a lot of people, go to crazy cities and be stimulated. I've made gorgeous friends, really exciting characters, that no imagination could have made up. But in my next ten years I want to sit down with my laptop and concentrate. I've always had all these songs in my head since I was a child, and it's just a question of getting them out. I've just finished the music for 'Dancer In The Dark', a film I'm in, directed by Lars Von Trier. It's the best thing I've done yet. Now I'm writing songs for the next album. Who are you listening to at the moment? I really like Jega, on Skam. I wasn't too much into his earlier stuff, but now he's got it together. It's gorgeous. I obviously like Aphex Twin, he doesn't seem able to do anything wrong. And I really like Oval from Germany and To Roccoco Rot. When was the last time someone asked you for your autograph? It only happens when I'm abroad. People in Iceland don't give a shit, really, which is great. I DJed in Iceland with Jega a week ago and because my name was on the flyer, all these tourists turned up. These Germans turned up looking like they were going to Antarctica. They asked me for my signature and the Icelandic people looked at them like they were insane. You don't do that in Iceland, people don't put other people on pedestals. You meet the president in the supermarket there. Do you find anything attractive about being famous? Usually, I get violently shy around all that film premiere limousine shit. But it's fun sometimes. I go abroad on a bender, to awards ceremonies and things, and laugh at it all. You feel like you're watching theatre, then sneak home for six months. What was your favourite TV moment in the 90s? When I moved to England I discovered Steve Coogan and The Day Today. My favourite bit was when they bring the dead man alive again and Steve Coogan is remote controlling him to kill the guy who killed him. It's hilarious. Is your son Sindri like Saffy on Absolutely Fabulous, looking after an eccentric mum? Actually, I really relate to that girl because my mum was definitely like Edina. I guess a lot of kids who were brought up by hippies feel like that - they have to be the sensible one. I know you won't believe that, but it's the truth. Have you ever been in prison? Several times trying to bail mates out, but I've never been [inside] myself. Does it still surprise you when people buy your records by the million? Completely. With 'Debut', I was being incredibly selfish, and I took the demos to One Little Indian and they warned me I could only sell one- third of what the Sugarcubes did. I said I didn't care, then it sold more than anyone had imagined. What's the worst thing anyone said about you in the 90s? Being brought up in Iceland, I've been "the weird girl" from day one, I'm not used to people understanding me at all. If they misunderstand me or don't get what I'm on about, it's been like that since I was one, so it doesn't really hurt me at all. I can't ever remember things. And the nicest? Being called generous is a compliment. What was the last lie you told? Telling the gentleman who sent me here that I would be free at 1.30. Text-Box : The 90s according to Bjork ------------------------------------- Favourite album: 'Bytes' by Black Dog, on Warp. It's one I keep playing, it's just timeless. Single: I really like 'Alberto Balsam' by The Aphex Twin, although it didn't come out as a single. Club: Metalheadz at the Blue Note. It was so outrageous to see music in the making. It made you understand what it was like in the 20s when they discovered the Charleston. You'd see Grooverider throwing together two albums and getting a third thing. Then you'd see four guys leg it out of the club, going home, writing the song that Grooverider had inspired. They'd come back later that same evening, the same night, with this new song. Grooverider would play it and everyone would scream at the top of their lungs and either boo it down or explode with joy. It was the closest thing I've seen to a communal high. Stimulant: I have to be a hippy here and say nature. But in Iceland it's really not such a weird thing to be into nature.