Dutch TV 1994-05-23 By ??? "Pinkpop" Date: Tue, 4 Oct 94 16:19:01 +0100 From: sl169de@unidui.uni-duisburg.de (Derksen) Subject: To: blue-eyed-pop@morgan.ucs.mun.ca Hi there. I've transcribed a short interview with Bjo:rk after her appearance at the Pinkpop festival in the Netherlands on May, 23rd 1994. So it's not quite fresh, but as I very much liked reading other interviews on this list, especially from sources I can't get hold of, like foreign mags and older stuff being sold out, I think I should make this available to you. I hope this hasn't been done before, but I haven't seen it in previous postings. I don't know the name of the guy who did the interview, but it was broadcast on May, 23rd on dutch television. Before and after it they showed Bjo:rk performing "Anchor Song", "Crying" and "Violently Happy" at the festival. This is reproduced without permission. I've tried to transcribe this as literally as possible to preserve as much of the interview as possible. And I haven't switched on the "you know" filter during transcription. BTW, there should be a special character for Bjo:rk's rrrrrolling r (or is there already such a thing?), but I better didn't bother when thinking of the Umlaut dispute a few month back :-) Here we go (A is the interviewer, B is Bjo:rk): [???] : a word I couldn't understand [?] : don't know if it's the right word ------------------------------------------------------------------------ A: Are you ok ? B: Ye, ye. A: Did you have a good time on stage? B: Ye, ye, it was good. A: Why was it good? B: Eh.. you know, it's just a feeling thing really ... hard to describe really. It's like [???] it functions or it doesn't. A: So what goes through your head when you're on stage? B: Well, at the end of the day you just do your best, but what really made a difference was the people were really receptive [?] and really positive. At the end of the day that's the half of the concert. A: I could imagine that you would maybe be afraid to play on the festival today because there's so many heavy guitar bands and your music is so different that maybe the audience wouldn't be open for that, what were your thoughts on that? B: No, I think I've been playing music long enough to realise that if I'm having fun that's the only right way and not to be too worried about peoples preconceptions, you know. It's like a bonus if they like it, you know? I think it's healthy for them, just a little bit of "no guitar" music... Spices live up a bit. A: Yeah, I agree with you, but sometimes people aren't that openminded, you know? B: Em, I think people have lost... I think a lot of record company and business people have lost faith in people in general, because I think they're much more into adventurous things than people think, you know and it's proven all over, you know. I think mine is pretty easy but there's all this things that they listen to.. that polish composer... Gorecki (sp?) and all these people, and they're right into it, you know. A: Who is that, who's that composer? B: Henrik Gorecki? Yeah.. A: He's a modern classical composer? B: Yeah, he's a contemporary person, he went top ten the other day and that was peoples choice, you know. People are into exciting things, you know? These sort of unusual things, they want that, they want surprises, you know? A: How do you know that? B: Eh, because everybody's like that you know? Everyone. A: So what about Iceland. Did you go to big music festivals in Iceland when you were a kid? B: Yes, but they would play top40 music, the bands there and obviosly wouldn't be as big as this, maybe two/threethousand people. A: Aha. B: But they would mostly be just playing top40 music. A: Like cover bands. B: Yeah. Bands that will writing their own music in Iceland is really really difficult, it's almost impossible. A: Why's that? B: Because there's so few people there, they won't buy a record and and... It's like Icelandic people haven't got faith in their own music. They've got a minority complex. They think music from England or America is great but their own music is shit, you know? A: So the festivals.. they were like cover bands and they would play cover songs and... when did you ever go to a big festival? For the first time in your life? B: Probably at Roskilde, when I was 18... A: That's in Denmark, right? B: Yea, I was in a band and we played there. A: That was the Sugarcubes... B: No it's called Kukl. And I saw Youssou N'dour (sp?), which I liked very much. A lot of bands I didn't like so much.... That was very good. Youssou N'dour was brilliant, because there was all this musicians, like 15 people, but still play very dynamicly. I liked it very much. Really really quiet and then (making a gesture going "wah") really loud. A: And he has a beautiful voice... B: Yeah. A: He's from Senegal, right? From Africa... B: (nods) A: Ehm, one thing about your music is that you used to play in KUKL, and then the Sugarcubes, which was more or less guitar orientated and now you have lots of dance influences in your music right? B: Well it's not that obvious. Because Kukl for example was quite experimental, some sort of punk jazz I guess. And lots of bands I was in Iceland, like I've made some film music in Iceland on my own. With no vocals, but where I used synthesizers and drum machines and I guess the element that you would probably describe in my music as dance music is something I've gotten like from my youth, like from Brian Eno and Kraftwerk and DAF and all that scene. And I think people tend to treat dance music as something that popped up a few years ago which is rubbish because it's been there for decades, you know? And yes, I like using drum machines and synthezisers, if that's your question, but I don't think really my music is dance music as such because I don't think it's that dancable. It's made for.. it's domestic music. That's what I want it to be. A: But you're dancing to it yourself. I saw you on stage... B: Don't you dance in your house? (laughs) ... It's not like club music, that's probably what I mean. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ That' all. Tschu:ss, Sven. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sven Derksen sl169de@unidui.uni-duisburg.de "If you can hear me, lift your umbrellas 13 times" (Einar during cubes concert) ------------------------------------------------------------------------