MTV (USA) 1993-11 By Lewis Largent "120 Minutes" Transcript of Bjork's appearance on MTV's 120 Minutes (alternative music show) late 1993 by Mike Dunnagan. (aviator@cybernetics.net) I tried to write in the words exactly as they were spoken, so if things sound funny, it's the way they were spoken. It's hard to write things exactly as they were spoken. Lines that have dots in them ..... usually mean there is a slight pause, or an interruption. I hope you enjoy. LL = Lewis Largent (Host) B: = Bjork [] = my comments ;^) The show is already in progress, and after a commercial break, we see footage of Bjork in concert. I don't know if it's Sugarcubes music or her own. I know one thing, the vocalizations are GREAT. LL: Welcome back to 120 minutes. I'm LL and I don't think the woman to my right needs any introduction.... one of the more familiar faces in the world of music, who's picking her nose vigorously right now (he laughs) .... this is Bjork. B: [The camera moves to her as she is bringing her hand down from her nose. Her hair is down, little if any makeup, and she is wearing a white angora type short sleeve sweater, white stockings, and a short white skirt.] Hello. LL: Hello Bjork. You've gotta clear something up for me, because you were on the show a little while ago where we ran like little rolling segments of you where you talked about how the Sugarcubes were never actually a band, so they could never have broken up. How is that possible? B: [In a killer Icelandic accent, especially the word RUMORS] It's just a rumors that we were a band. It's kind of like if you know a girl really well and you would go all over the place and everyone would say you were married and everyone would ask you, you know... it's kind of like that. You can't really break up if you never sort of went out. LL: But you have three albums .... B: I'm making this more complicated aren't I? [she's laughing] LL: Yes. You've got 3 albums out, and 2 tours...... a couple of tours. I mean, that's about as close as a band can get.....touring, albums. It just wasn't like a 1-off [I have no idea what he was saying...this is a guess] or something? B: Yeah, but by the end of the day, the nature of what you do, it's how many hours and minutes you do it, but kind of what attitude you got towards what you are doing. [her accent has been subtle since the beginning, but now the british accent kicks in a bit] And what we were doing was being pretty sort of too serious or whatever in Iceland...... running a book publishing company, and sort of like putting out films [what films?] and being really really active. But the Sugarcubes thing was always like a hobby, like a holiday. It was always like "hey, we've been offered to go for 2 months in America. We get free air fare, free food, free drinks, we can even take our friends," all we have to do is pretend we are rock stars. "Great, let's go!" That was always the attitude, you know? LL: So, are you ever going to get back on that vacation? B: [wide eyed look] I don't know! We always get those offers. That's how it's always been and we kind of say yes to about half of them, and we kind of say no to the other half of them because we're kind of busy.....someone just had a baby, someone just got an important radio show in Iceland; all of that, plus I'm busy doing my thing you know? LL: You called your album, which is currently out now, Debut, but it's actually not your "debut;" it's your third album. B: [with a big smile] Yeah, I just wanted to stress the point that it's the first time it's my music. Because, um, again, it's like different point of views and my point of view is sort of how I do my things...it's...I love making music. It's my favorite and and what is more favorite is arranging it. But I don't really look at myself as a singer, you know? LL: Uh huh. B: [back to the Icelandic accent..especially the word TOOL] To say it's kind of like a tool to be able to do sort of my favorite thing....[LL jumps in] LL: An instrument in the whole musical........ B: Yeah, it's kind of like if you got a hammer and [? I couldn't understand her] you kind of want to build a house. But, so....so, I wanted to call this Debut because for me, in a way, this is the first thing I've ever done, and everything else has been sort of like a rehearsal and and it's my music....it's the debut of my music, you know? LL: We are going to look at Venus as a Boy right now..... B: OK! [she seemed really happy about that] LL: You're new video [Venus]...could you explain how.....was this your concept and.....were you actually making breakfast and going "god, this would be a great idea for a video"...............or did you not? [goofy laugh] B: I think me and Sophie, she's the woman who did the video, we kind of..I mean, most of the videos I kind of know what I want, so I can communicate quite easily with the directors what I want, but in this case it was quite unusual because I went in and told her "this is what I DON'T WANT." I knew very much what I didn't want. It's about a boy that's very beautiful, so we kind of like,..the first thing we thought was, let's not have a boy that is beautiful, so it ended up cooking in the kitchen. [she has this goofy look on her face because she realizes she there is more to it than she is letting on...she's smiling] It's a long story. LL: OK, here it is. The second video off of her Debut album, here is Venus as a boy. [they play the video. I like the video. It shows off her beautiful green eyes, and lyrics such as "his wicked sense of humor, suggests exciting sex," and "he's exploring the taste of her arousal, so accurate, he sets off the beauty in her," are so provocative] LL: It's 120 Minutes on MTV, and I'm LL. This is Bjork who is speaking with an English accent almost, [there's no almost about it] like here..... Are you living a lot in England these days? B: [she's grinning from ear to ear] Yeah, I've been living there for half a year now. It's just the first time I've ever lived somewhere abroad. [To escape the fame/boredom in Iceland?] To tell you the truth, I'm a bit of a CHA... CHAMEE... CHAMELEON. [she is unsure of the word, and he assures her of her pronunciation of it] When it comes to accents, I've been in America now for one day, and you try and talk to me in a week....I'll be like someone from Texas. [about that time, LL jumps in doing a really stupid impression of someone with a thick New York accent] LL: "Hey, how's it going over here, what's going on?" B: [she laughs] I can't control it; it's really bad. You should listen to me when I'm talking to Scottish people. It gets really spicy. [she seemed to enjoy this little segment] LL: Bjork is going to play a little later. We are going to have more conversation with her. I've got a lot of things to ask you about including that incredible video, Human Behavior, so check us out as 120 Minutes continues. [commercial break] [after the commercials, we are shown part of the HB video. I just love this video. It's brilliant IMHO.] LL: Welcome back to 120 Minutes, I'm LL and this is Bjork [who is shown scratching her nose] and you just saw a little bit of HB, which is such and unbelievable video. Did you see the Rolling Stone, uh, did the 100 greatest videos according to their critics and it has already ended up in the top 100....it was something like 96 or something OF THE GREATEST VIDEOS OF ALL TIME! Did you know that? B: [looking modest] No, I didn't. LL: Well, it did. It's incredible. Tell me about it. B: [she's looking up, as if to gather her thoughts] Well, basically, I, I kind of went through [? I couldn't understand this part] on Wheels and found Michel once.... LL: Michel Gaundry is his name.... B: Yeah, he's the guy that made the video. At that point, He just made videos with no money for his own band. He's like this drummer for a band; a punk band actually. And he made it with no money at all, and you could just see his creativity is so brilliant and his sense of humor is so subtle. [you can tell she really liked this guys work] He can make a video with no money at all, just a pile of rubbish you know, and sort of express himself with anything. So, I went to him in Paris and met him and told him kind of what I wanted, but to detailed, just the basics, you know, I wanted it to be about animals and how they look at humans, and how humans are so ridiculous and definitely the animals have to win in the end, because it's about [fucking] time [the F word was censored] you know and things like that. I wanted it to be earthy, like wood, like a handmade video you know? And then I just said "see you later," and he did everything from that point. He's brilliant [and in her best British accent] and he's quite a character as well. LL: He is absolutely brilliant. I saw, we just ran, um, like a Donald Fagan video that he produced and a Terrance Trent Darby are all like, we apply "breakthrough graphic," or um,...breakthrough video moniker things, and all of his videos have been breakthroughs..everyone of them, including yours. He's brilliant. So um, tell me about your album and Nellee Hooper and how all of that came about. B: [she's biting one of her finger nails and she starts off in her Icelandic accent again] Yeah, um....It's kind of been a secret affair of mine for quite awhile to do this album. I kind of sneaked around and when the Sugarcubes were touring, I would kind of like go and meet a person...Nellee played the hard and record with her for 2 hours in the studio like with, um, no money kind of thing. And like team up with? Lake [I couldn't understand this part either so it might not be accurate] who actually lives in New Jersey and is like one of the greatest artists, you know. I think, and all these people are collecting recordings, so I had already recorded like half of the album and I wanted it to really spicy. Like you got drum machines, and synthesizers, and harps, all the extreme beautiful sounds of the world you know. And then I just met Nellee Hooper out of accident. LL: Is it HOOPer or is it HOPPer? I've always called him .... B: Oh, you say what you like! LL: Tomato, tomato [there are two differ ways to say this. The british say it like TOMAHTOE, while most americans say TUHMAYTOE] B: Yeah, it's that kind of thing. But, in his own native country, he's called HOOPer. But he's like one of those kind of extreme guys you know, as well. He's kind of like "hey, let's jump off that cliff" you know, attitude and I just ended up asking him to do the whole thing with me. LL: We're you a Soul II Soul fan? B: Um, like, respect, but they were just a bit too good taste for me. I like ..... LL: A little too commercial or a little too mainstream? B: I love commercial. I love pop. It's one of my favorite things of all time [yeah sure] you know? But it's kind of when it becomes too good taste.... LL: It's not offensive enough? B: Not offensive, but kind of has to [she then reaches over and appears to scratch at him and she gnarls her teeth] a little you know, sort of tease a little you know? LL: OK B: Not too cozy. LL: OK. We've got more with Bjork, including your band, um, her band who we are going to see. And you've got a lot of different instruments going along in the setup. [he's looking over at the stage where they are setting up] I can see violins and various keyboards..... check it out. It promises to be a very, uh, interesting experience and more conversation with her as 120 Minutes continues. [they show a Blind Melon video and then return to Bjork] LL: It's 120 Minutes and this is Bjork who is going to play a little later. Tell me about your band. I met the guy that arranged the strings on your album, and tell me about everybody in your band. You've got quite a mix of people on this album. B: Yeah, um, when I, when I recorded the album, I mean, 90% of it is kind of me on the keyboards, and Nellee doing loops. It's done mostly sort of through computers. LL: Um huh. B: I didn't really intend to play it live at all. It's kind of, was a complete accident how well this album has gone you know? So, so, I decided "Ok, I've got a chance to get a live band together," lets do it different than the album. Because it has to be sort of original, you know? I don't want to imitate the album because I can play every song on the album in 20 different arrangements. I really like things like that, all those remixes and all those things you know? LL: Um huh. B: So the band, we sort of play with electronics and 6 piece, 7 piece band. We've got a percussionist from India, a drummer from Turkey, a bassist from Barbados, and quite some....and the keyboardist is from Iran. [she was positively proud and it showed] LL: How did you find all of these people!? B: In London! LL: There's just all....... B: YEAH, It's like a Benne...... LL: It's a cultural hotbed.....A BENNETON AD! [he had interrupted her when she was trying to say Benneton] B: Yeah, walking around the streets of London, you would never believe it. It quite, because it's not like that in Iceland at all. LL: There's a um, sort of ambient, almost techno sound to your album. Is that, are you listening to that type of music right now? Is that sound influencing you at all? B: Yeah, I think the only pop music I've listened to in the last 5 years is what most people call dance music. Don't agree so much with that title, but, and, and, especially the more experimental stuff. I, I like it a lot. [she was really mellow here and for the rest of the interview] LL: Because you have UltraMarine which I guess who you picked.... B: Yeah, yeah. LL: to open up your tour and they are sort of that sound. B: Yeah, um, I, uh, I love their stuff you know. LL: So tell me about the tour; all six dates of it. It's kind of a short tour. How come you are not going out longer? Is that long enough for you? B: Well, I've got a KID.......and he could always travel with me before. Unfortunately, kids have to go to school. And then when you tour, you have to kind of like leave em behind. It's quite a not so pleasant concept really. LL: Yeah, yeah. B: So, I try to go out for just as short as possible. LL: Oh, that's? [I think he said gracious] of you. B: [She lets out this odd, almost sarcastic laugh] LL: Ok, Bjork is going to play live and that promises to be a great experience, so stick around as 120 Minutes continues. [they break, then when they come back, she does an acoustic version of Come to Me.]