http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~marty01/fibjo/fibjo.html

Fiction  1998-11

By Nick Lisher


"Hunter gatherer"


   Nick Lisher talks to Björk about people, places and polar bears


Determined not to be charmed by her Icelandic tones and reputed 
endearing manner, I do my level best to approach Björk Gudmundsdóttir on 
a professional level. OK, so she may well be gorgeous, rich and 
talented, but I've got to be business-like about this one. However, upon 
talking to the most successful alternative female artist of the decade, 
all of my pretensions of professionalism are thrown out of the window. 
As it happens, despite the obvious lapse concerning the journalist 
assault some time ago, Björk is one of the most approachable and 
welcoming pop stars you could ever hope to talk to. Contrary to the 
popular belief that most musicians are completely up their own arses 
(unfortunately true in most cases), Björk's charm flies in the face of 
muso snobbery. This is even more surprising considering the gruelling 42 
gigs in 5 continents she has done over the summer, an experience that 
she describes as "gorgeous" (as she does most things). Björk's music, 
however, does not lend itself to the everyday humdrum of the gig circuit
 - no, that just wouldn't be Björk:

"We picked specifically lush places for the venues we played in. It 
wasn't the bigger, the rockier the better, it was more kind of like 
making the evening precious. There was a secret plan I had with my 
promoter that all of the gigs had to be by water, so a lot of the gigs 
were either on boats or by boats, on islands or lakes - or stuff like 
that!"

Rumours of Björk's proposed gig in Bristol have been confirmed. Again, 
it is intended to be something out of the ordinary - she is playing with 
the Brodsky Quartet, and tickets are very hard to come by. "It's very 
different - that's kind of them asking me to be a guest. They just do 
their songs or whatever and then I just come and join in - but it's 
going to be very different from everything I've done - just for the heck 
of it!"

Björk's skill lies in her ability to accentuate her idiosyncrasies. 
Rather than denying the insanity rumours - or even commenting upon them
 - she plays on them to such an extent that she becomes almost a parody
of herself. Take her new video. After deciding to release 'Hunter' - 
almost certainly the defining moment on last year's 'Homogenic' - the 
decision for what to put on the video was obvious; shave her head and 
turn her into a polar bear. "Well, I've been dreaming about it since I 
was a kid, and I'm a lucky bastard really because my job is a lot about 
dreams coming true."

Not what everybody would describe as their recurring dream, but then 
again, Björk's not just anybody. Her videos have always attracted 
interest. Not being one for bog-standard live footage a' la Oasis, 
Björk's videos include a dramatisation of a book that writes itself 
('Bachelorette') and a three bears style romp with the animals in 'Human 
Behaviour'. "In most videos, it's not really about me, and you kind of 
let loose. You kind of create a universe for the song, and then you kind 
of stick me in it. It's also a chance to get to know more gorgeous 
characters - most of the people that I have done videos with are quite 
precious to me, they are all geniuses but all in very different ways. 
It's one of the most exciting things in my life, just seeing how people 
function."

Soon these videos will all be available to buy on one tape. Björk 
defends this as not a record company cash-in, but rather a coherent 
collection that she has been planning since the beginning. "All of the 
videos I have done, I never wanted to come out because I wanted them to 
be together, and so basically there is going to be a video collection."

Björk's entire solo career has been based around collaboration. Although 
many saw 'Homogenic' as the most essentially Björk album to date, it was 
produced entirely with Mark Bell of LFO, and Björk admits that this is 
the way that she prefers to work. "I feel that it's just as much 
collaboration as it was before, but the roles have changed a bit and 
it's been very natural. I am a real sucker for collaborations, I love 
working with people, and the more different they are from me the better, 
because they will show me things that I had never thought of. I've been 
spoilt rotten, because everybody I have wanted to work with I have ended 
up working with. Me and Mark Bel, we met first in 1989/90, and we worked 
together in '96, so we stayed in touch for six years before we did 
anything together.

Björk's interest in collaborating musically is paralleled by her 
fascination for the people she works with, most of whom she openly 
describes as "gorgeous". Her extensive list of collaborators and 
remixers include Alec 'Atari Teenage Riot' Empire and Wu-Tang producer 
The RZA (rumours of these two playing with the Brodsky Quartet have been 
denied!).

"That's the thing, when you meet people you tend to fall flat in love 
with their character, and then you find out afterwards actually what it 
is you were meant to do together. Sometimes you are meant just to have a 
gorgeous chat."

Discussing this subject makes Björk profess to being "all dizzy". Not 
wanting to capitalise on this completely, I ask Björk about working with 
Leila, who has recently produced her own first studio album, to much 
critical acclaim. "I miss a little bit to work with women. I love to 
work with women equally strong as me. Leila was one that was gorgeous. 
We worked together for four years, but it was more like her playing 
songs that I had already written. I think we might work together again 
in a few years but on an equal basis."

After a while Björk confesses, "I'm getting all fucking daydreamy now," 
and so, upon wishing me a "gorgeous day" (what else?) we go our separate 
ways - home for me and back to the polar bear shaped cloud in the sky or 
somesuch for Ms Gudmundsdóttir. Bonkers or not, with 'Homogenic' Björk 
has come the nearest to coupling the most individual of voices with 
music fit for such divine shrieks. Come winter, when 'Alarm Call' is 
released, this will hopefully be realised by the masses. Until then, we 
have a number of excellent remixes of Hunter to be going along with, and 
who knows what Björk will come up with next? One thing is for sure, none 
of us whose dreams don't involve animal transformation will be able to 
predict what will happen. We can only hope that her continued enthusiasm 
(and geniality towards journalists!) rubs off on others. As far as 
Björk's media persona is concerned, she is often perceived as somewhat 
detached from the ordinary world - and this stigma is perhaps encouraged 
by her album covers, depicting her in lush computer generated worlds. 
However, what many people fail to realise is that this is actually an 
accurate insight into the mind of Björk. What separates Björk from you 
or I, however, is that she is in the fortunate position of being able to 
articulate this to the rest of the world.

The lucky little pixie!