Danish TV-1 1995-09-26 By Katrine Nyland Sorensen "Interview with Bjork", Danish TV-1, September 26. 1995. It was made while Bjork was staying at a Swedish castle, which was in April-May 1995. Bjork was interviewed by Katrine Nyland Sorensen. Interview transcribed by Stig Bachmann Nielsen. In a couple of places I couldn't make out what Bjork says exactly, so I've written (???). ---- [clip of Venus as a Boy video] I: When an artist wants to promote his or her new album, the most common thing to do is to meet the press in a hotel-room in a major city, you have chosen a Swedish castle in the country, why? Bjork: I'm used to working with quite small companies, and I've been doing so since I was 12, all these little punk bands and - do it yourself - and low budget and make the album sleeve yourself and glue up the poster yourself and borrow your dad's car and distribute the records yourself and - all these things. And then suddenly now Polydor sold lots of records of Debut, so now they want to spoil me. So I said "Oh yeah - sure". I think 10 years ago, because I used to be such an anti-snob when I was a punk, I would go: "No way I want to do..???", but now I've discovered that being an anti-snob is even worse than being a snob, because it's the same thing just opposite, but - apart from an anti-snob pretend he's not a snob. It's horrible. So when Polydor offered me a Swedish castle with a sauna outside and I can jump into the ocean afterwards - of course I said yes! I: So you feel much more like a star now when your record company invites you to stay at a castle? Bjork: Well, I don't know about the star thing, because I did a record in Iceland when I was 11, which became quite well known, so I became quite well known quite early and the kids in school wanted to be my friends and people recognised me in the street, but at the same time Reykjavik is such a small society, that they always put you in your place, you know. I mean, you can never be a star in Iceland because people will always see you in the bus once a week and (meet you???) in a shop and catch you farting walking down the main street, and things like this. So you can never get this distance of being a star. And even today when I go to Iceland and a taxi-driver pick me up, and he's like "Oh, don't you for one minute pretend you're any more important than me - I met your grandmother in the swimmingpool the other day and she says you never call her". So they put you in your place. So I've been used to it. I: A couple of years ago you left Iceland and moved to London. In what specific ways did you feel the difference of living in Reykjavik and in London? Bjork: Well, I always thought I would always live in Iceland, and I'm the most patriotic Icelander there ever was, you know, and it was very strange for me to realise that I had a mission that I felt I had to complete, because I think everybody sometimes in their life have to find out what they do best and do the best they can, that means when they're 85 and they got their grandchildren for a visit, they can say "Well, I had the guts to try once", you know. So I had to do that. But it was very strange for me to realise that involved in this was to move away, you know. But once I did it, because it took me many years to think about it, I was certain inside and felt good about it. But in London - I'm there just for a visit, it might be a long one, I don't know, just while this all last you know. But then I will go back to Iceland. I: The music business, especially in England, love to describe you as an alien from outer space. How has your reaction been to that? Bjork: Oh the English are so cute. They've got this disease, the imperialism-disease, they still haven't recovered from all the colonies they've lost I think, and they like to treat other countries like, you know, the tiger they have in the living-room on the wall - "I shot this tiger - it was me" - and they deal with me as well like this, it's like: "You see that girl I shot and hang her on the wall" or actually: "that I put there on the CD - from outer space - she's mine, I discovered her', you know, but - I can tease them, they can play this game if they want to, it don't bother me so much. [clip - part of Isobel-video] Bjork: Well, I like fairy tales simply because they are a good game to play with people, to show them what real life is like. And I think some of these fairy tales like - erhm - the classic ones that have lasted for centuries, obviously they've lasted because they're very good, it's the only reason - they tell you a lot more about life and the cruelty and the things to beware of or describe human nature in a very nice way. But I don't like fairy tales for escapism, I think that's not a good idea, actually it's one of the things I hate most - is escapism, you know. But supernatural - I don't know - I was brought up with a.. by a mother who was very hippie and she knows everything about tarok-chards and astrology and ghosts and aura, so when I was very young I was like... I can't stand occultism, and it's like: "Oh, we can't go because, you know, moon is in libra" and all these things and I was like [sticking her finger in her throat like she's throwing up], get a life you know, so... But I think what happened is I was breastfed on several common sense things, so I believe in things like this if they're just *common sense*. I'm very common sense (???) things like this. And I believe that there is more than meets the eye, and one of these things is for example love, how can you scientifically describe or explain the fact that if you walk in a room and someone that you're in love with sits in the room - it feels completely different than if you walk in a room and you don't know anyone there. And that's just a fact - love *is* different and all these different emotions, you know, like, I think when people see a devil inside their house or someone is following them, it just means they feel very guilty, you know, you can always explain it with a common sensical way - or if there's a demon attacking them, it just means they're very scared or something, then they probably have a reason to be, you know. So, maybe you shouldn't take it so literally - like America tends to take it all very, the supernatural, like ghostbusters - and have green slime everywhere, you know - and that's supernatural. I: But do you still have a certain mentality in Iceland which we have forgotten all about in the southern part of Scandinavia? Bjork: I think an Icelanders got an interesting mixture, because only this century it kind of managed to pull itself from the middle-ages, because it was still a Danish colony, and at the same time it became very quickly rich in worldwar 2, and now is, I think number 5 by unit... is the fifth richest country in the world. So we still got all these kind of myths that maybe Denmark had 500 years ago, like make sure that this road goes around this rock because there's people that live inside it, like elves and things - and we have that in Iceland, very modern roads that go like this [shows a curving road with her hands] because there's elves in the rock you know. But at the same time we got like mobile telephones and BMW's and... still.. But what I really like about Iceland is they still believe that nature is a lot stronger than people, and people are just this [shows with her fingers] little in the whole picture and... Icelandic people just laugh at these people who are so worried about man is destroying nature and earth. What do they think they are? Man can never do that. Man can only affect this much [shows with her fingers], look at the whole universe, it's a joke, you know. What kind of arrogance is that to say man is stronger than nature? I mean, nature just laughs at them and sends earthquakes on them and shakes them a bit. [clip of Human Behaviour video] I: Now we're talking about nature and Icelandic culture, but there's a song on your new album called "The Modern Things". What's that song about? Bjork: Well, The Modern Things is me teasing my friends who's always going on about how technology is evil - like cars, they feel really guilty about driving their cars, you know, it's very bad. Using telephone and fax- machine is *terrible*. Watching television - uhh- it's straight from the devil, you know, and it bores me so much because all these things are very human, humans invented them and they're very human, and we should be proud of them. Of course it matters how you use them, you know, like the most typical thing in this century is nuclear energy, you can use it in a very creative way and you can use it in a very destructive way, but you've got the choice. Ever since some of the man decided not to be monkeys, and they went out of the trees they've been guilty about it, "uhh - maybe we should have stayed and eaten bananas in the trees", you know, and they always get this guilt-complex, I mean Noah's ark, you know, it's all.. we're all dying, you know it's always been the medieval, the witches, you know all these things, it's like evolution is supposed to be bad, and people are scared of it, like in the beginning of the century, they discovered telephone, and everybody were writing this article in the newspapers - furious - "we're never gonna talk eye to eye again, we're just gonna talk on the phone and stay in our houses for the rest of humankind", you know, but so much nonsense. So I decided to tease my friend and make this story about, that all the modern things they've always existed, they've been waiting inside mountains, and laughing at the dinosaur who controlled the world, and then the people just dabbling outside, it's their turn now, and they're gonna *come out* and multiply and take over and they're gonna crawl, all (these things) the walkman and the microphone and the telephone and then the mobile telephone, they're gonna crawl up your leg and go up and jump inside your ear and take over your *brain*! But it's just so ridiculous because, of course it will never happen. And if I get one more person that comes to me and says: "Computer music has got no soul in it" - I hate it so much, I'll be so mad if someone says that to me. Of course if there is no soul in computer music it means nobody put it there, you know, and computers aren't supposed to put soul into music, not more than a guitar, you can't just look at a guitar and ask him to write a song for you, it's a tool, it's like knife and fork, and if people who make music with computers want to have soul in it, they've got to put it there themselves you know. And if they don't want to have soul in it they don't put soul in it, you know. So - there you go. [clip of Violently Happy video] I: You've been working with a lot of people from the dance scene, some of them are Underworld, Tricky, Nellee Hooper. What's so fascinating about the dance music and the dance scene? Bjork: Well, I don't think I make dance music. The music I make is for headphones in your house, but I think that some people think it's dance music because it's got a drum-machine. And sometimes I don't really get that one because, OK, so tango is not dance music, but Venus As A Boy is dance music, ohh- OK, but I don't think it's dance music, but I'm dealing with drum-machines and I like them very much, because I like to be brave enough to deal with now, and brave enough to (write?) pop music about now. So I close my eyes and walk down the main street where I live, and listen to all the fax-machines, the cars, the people, the weather, the babies, the birds, the animals and I make music out of this. So if I wouldn't use noises, like from telephones or from machines, I would be lying! I wouldn't be writing about 1995. But I also have to use voices and laughter and wind and all these things. So that's why I use synthesizers and drum-machines. Not because I'm making club- music, because club-music is something completely different, and I really, really respect that, that's one of my favourite (kinds of) music, but I'm not making that. I: You're mixing so many different styles on your albums like techno, house and hip-hop and some of the songs even sounds like you've recorded it with a big-band from the forties. What's the most important thing to you when you build up a song, is it a good melody-line or a good atmosphere? Bjork: Well, a song is simply about expressing how you feel. And the way I deal with it, is I write a song, and then I become the songs slave. I decide to give the song whatever it needs, and this is... So in a way I'm two characters - at least, I'm probably a lot more - I write songs and then I look at the song I give it whatever it needs. For me, musical style like jazz or classical or minimalism or clubmusic or hip-hop - all these things - they're just style, they're like clothes, you know. When you meet a person and you really want to communicate or maybe even fall in love with a person, you ignore the clothes, you ignore the face, you just look for their character. Same with a song, you know. So the musical style is just a tool to help you to express your song. But the melody line is obviously very important for me, and emotion is very important, there's no way I can fake. And, I don't know, the only way I can simplify this, it's most important what you're trying to express, the rest are just tools to help you to do that. [clip of Army of Me video] Bjork: I started travelling with a band when I was 16, called Kukl, around Europe, and at that stage I couldn't even sing in a language, I couldn't sing unless I would take my shoes and socks off, and I was barefoot on stage, and I would just go "AOAOWHAUW", and words were just were just lying, because they weren't pure emotion. Then I learned a little bit about words and maybe they're just a tool, you know, you mustn't take them too literally, they're just a tool to explain your emotion. And then I would travel abroad, and then I would be singing slightly "AOAOWHAUW"-noises and slightly in Icelandic, and then I would realise - OK - maybe it would make things easier if I give them hints, maybe this song is about happiness or the next song is about... feeling to be raped. So maybe I should just put "happiness" once in the song and next song I should put "rape" in it just once, just to kind of [snaps her fingers] make it easier for them, because they just hear the song for like 3 minutes or... because it's very important for me that people can sympathise with how I feel, and in the same way, I love to sympathise with how people feel, and that's why I am on this planet, to exchange emotion and communicate, you know. And then when I went more and more abroad and after a while the band I was in, Kukl, me and the singer Einar, later the Sugarcubes, we would sing in Icelandic in Iceland but sing in English in other countries, not because we love English, but because it's the language of the moment, that the most people understand. So now, it's irrelevant, for me language is irrelevant, you know, as long as you understand me it's fine. I could easily do this interview in Icelandic and be very stubborn, but "-- (Icelandic part here)----" - so we wouldn't really get very far, you know. So I prefer to speak English, because for me emotion is more important than language. [clip of Big Time Sensuality video]