Grrrls: Viva Rock Divas 1995 By Amy Raphael "Interview" Subject: bjork interview - transcribed Date: Tue, 6 Feb 1996 21:23:48 -0500 From: Joanna Gaughan To: Multiple recipients of list BLUE-EYED-POP As I mentionned previously, I just purchased a book (copyright 1995 by Amy Raphael) entitled "Grrrls: Viva Rock Divas" (with a name like that, ya gotta love it...) It contains interviews and info about Courtney Love, Huggy Bear (?), Kristen Hersh, Liz Phair, members of Echobelly, Veruca Salt, Sonic Youth, Raincoats, Sister George, Belly, Doll, and of course Bjork. So here it goes: Ten minutes bofore the agreed interview time, I arrive, ring the doorbell and hear a child's voice shout, "Yes?" Sindri, Bjork's eight- year-old son, pokes his head round the side of the house and squints up at me. "Yes? What are you here for?" To talk to your mum, I say, and follow him into the small back garder. He sits down on a bench and spins his globe-cum-football, hiding his eyes under the peak of his blue baseball cap. "She's gone to the shops," he eventually says. "This is where I'm from," he continues, pointing at a tiny island north-east of the UK. "Iceland. This is where I've been." He points with dirty fingernails to Thailand, Bermany, Italy and a dozen more countries. He tells me the highest mountain in Euope, that Italy and France are at present arguing over a piece of land which separates them, and discusses different oceans and seas. I felt half his age. His mum comes down the alleyway and he shouts something in Icelandic to her. Bjork is holding a carrier bag, wearing a big red coat, a long, purple-grey satin dress, a light blue jumber and blue (no name) sneakers. Her hair is tied back, her face brown and freckly. Bjork and Sindri talk (fast and loud) in Icelandic, as she unpacks the food in the kitchen. She drops two pita breads in the toaster, pours some orange juice, slices the pita bread open, spreads cheese in them. Sindri easts his lunch outside, talking to a friend who's wandered in through the back gate. Bjork takes big bites of bread, chews a little then laughs, open-mouthed, befores she's swallowed. I feel twice her age. She chats about living near Little Venice in west London (she bought the house in summer 1993), the local weirdos and snobs, feeling content that Sindri is safe to play outside because of the huge communal garden they back on to; Sindri's vast encyclopaedic knowledge which he regularly recites, "without showing off, thank God"; searching out a good school for him. Pretty normal, huh? Bjork Gudmundsdottir does a convincing impression of a single mum in her late twenties whose debut solo album just happens to have sold two million copies - until she starts talking about music. Bjork, who was brought up in a hippie household in Reykjavik, can't remember a time in her life which didn't involve music. She attended a music school between the ages of 5 and 15, made her first album at 11 (simply called Bjork, it sold 7,000 copies and became a plainum record in Iceland - the country's population is a little over a quarter of a million). She was constantly in and out of bands, until the Sugarcubes formed in 1984. The group was never meant to be the indie success it turned out to be; Bjork, Thor (Sindri's dad and Bjork's former husband) and four other similar-minded musicians, painters, and poets sho were part of Reykjavik's alternative art scene, formed the band, got drunk a lot, had two memorable singles (the gorgeous, sensual "Birthday" and the hypnotic "Hit") and a couple of dodgy, waywardly experimental albums before splitting up in December 1992. What made the Sugarcubes special were the gasping, childish, untainted, almost naive vocals and the heart-shaped, cheeky, grinning face with a wrinkled-up nose behind them. Bjork was always giong to be more valuable alone than as part of the Sugarcubes, and moving to London and teaming up with producer and technical whiz Nellee Hooper (who previously lent Soul II Soul, Massive Attack, and Sinead O'Connor a touch of class) was the most astute move she could've made. When a few preview cassettes of Debut leaked out in early 1993, it was immediately clear that it was going to be one of the albums of the year. Bjork and Nellee Hooper had created a work of fractured genius, a quirky set of pop, clubby, and occasionally jazzy songs mixed up with soft, tender and simplistic love songs and a song spontaneously recorded in the Milk Bar's toilets while Bjork was out clubbing one night. *** That's it for tonight, kids! (This is the first 2 and a half pages out of 15.) A lot of this will be stuff we already know, but hopefully there'll be some new tidbits here and there and this might be a good intro for new beppers (and maybe helpful in formulating an FAQ). If any of this info is inaccurate, feel free to write in and correct it. BTW, is this in violation of any copyright laws? And how serious is that...? Until next time - joanna Subject: bjork thing transcribed part 2 Date: Wed, 7 Feb 1996 22:52:40 -0500 From: Joanna Gaughan To: Multiple recipients of list BLUE-EYED-POP "Solo Bjork is very different from Sugarcube bjork. As her own entity she has become a superstar, a 1990s package of songs, image, and soundbites - the Sunday Times Magazine (of the New York Times) went as far as running a headline in February 1994 which claimed that her "fans hail hail her as the new Madonna" and although they are musical chalk and cheese (?) there is something very knowing and even manipulative about Bjork. If her success is in part man (as in not woman) -made - Judy Blame, stylist for "The Face" and i-D, dressed her up; photographer Jean Baptiste Mondino shot her; Nellee Hooper produced, Graham Massey remixed - she has ultimately stayed in control. Perhaps she is an alternative Madonna, the child-woman to La Ciconne's whore-woman, deconstructing her clothing rather than Catholicism. Bjork's image seduced her fans and the media alike with its kookiness. People with nothing better to do talked about how her name was in fact pronounced "B-yerk", but then continued calling her "B-york" because it sounds less pretentious. Ms. Gudmundsdottir is the first to admit that she enjoys being thought of as kooky. "I like the weirdo tag I've got. It's quite flattering because it makes me seem more interesting than I am," she told Sunday Times Magazine. If she wasn't from this weird country where the sun sometimes shines for 24 hours a day, Bjork might not be quite such a mysterious curiousity - and her accent certainly wouldn't be peppered with its mad mix of Icelandic and London. Sitting on a chair made of wood and rope, Bjork fidgets constantly as she chats: squashing her face, sticking a finger up a nostril, wrinkling her nose and making loud phlegmy noises, pulling her dress up around her underwear, stretching the arms of her jumper, yanking on a bra strap. Her face is freckly, clear and make-up free. She is at her most intense when she talks about music, moving from hushed tones to loud and squeaky exclamations. She stutters and goes all coy when pushed to talk about her first boyfriend and uses a mystical, book-at-bedtime voice when telling the tooth-house anecdote. She pours strong coffee from a silver flask into two espresse cups painted gold then forgets to drink any. Looking around the living room -all whitewashed walls, stripped floors and big windows - she smiles and says it reminds her of a summerhouse. Sindri appears in the living room, singing something in Icelandic. He scowls at mum and walks out again. bjork is taking him to Regent's park Zoo - "you can't get too pc with kids" - and is running late. She opens a walk-in wardrobe and pulls out a pink, cropped babydoll dress, which she tugs over her satin dress. She tosses off her sneakers and steps into outsized hiking boots then takes the band out of her hair and shakes it free. Sindri sticks to shorts and a baseball cap. When they step out of the black cab in front of the zoo's entrance, Sindri is wrenching his mum's arm, anxious to see the animals, oblivious to people elbowing each other and loudly whispering, "Look! Look! It's Bjork!"" "Grrrls: Viva Rock Divas", copyright 1995 by Amy Raphael, published by St. Martin's Press Subject: bjork interview transcribed part 3, AKA Joanna starts to have doubts... Date: Thu, 8 Feb 1996 20:29:04 -0500 From: Joanna Gaughan To: Multiple recipients of list BLUE-EYED-POP hey beppers. sorry to entice you with a bjork interview only to leave you hanging, but i've been reading the aforementionned book ("Grrrls: Viva Rock Divas" by Amy Raphael, 1995 from St. Martin's Griffin) and i now feel that i am doing the author a great disservice by typing all this stuff in, possibly preventing all you beppers from buying the book. this was brought about when i read the introduction, which is an incredible 10-page history of women in rock (i use the term fairly loosely) and feminism and how the two tie together. there's a fair amount of info on recent trends as well, (grunge to riot grrl to hardcore to britpop, etc.) which surprised me. i also read the liz phair interview, which i thoroughly enjoyed. so, don't think i transcribed everything of interest - it was only the first few pages of a chapter on bjork, and the rest of the chapter is just bjork speaking, sans interviewer nonsense. i thoroughly urge you to get this book! if anyone's interested and can't find it, e-mail me directly and i'll pick it up for you; it should be under $20 including shipping. -joanna