http://www.mtv.com/bands/archive/b/bjork01/

MTV.com  2001-03

By Gideon Yago


"Björk: In Focus"


For a performer as endlessly faceted as Björk, you'd think it'd be easy 
to find a creative equilibrium between the mental and physical strain of 
a film role and her sonic spirituality. But after spending three 
wrenching years with Selma, the lead character of Lars von Trier's 
"Dancer in the Dark," the strain of containing her musical side was 
unbearable.

The rigors of film work behind her, Björk could once again shoot 
according to her own schedule - recording Vespertine, her first studio 
album since 1997's Homogenic. Then came the flood of accolades for her 
"Dancer" role, which netted her the Best Actress Prix at the 2000 Cannes 
Film Festival. Survey said she was born to act, but like Melville's 
Bartleby, Björk would simply prefer not to.

With Vespertine on the horizon - originally slated for May, it's now set 
for August - award-show season has refocused attention on her cinema 
venture. She nabbed Golden Globe nominations for Best Performance by an 
Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama and Best Original Song for "I've 
Seen It All," which she recorded for the "Dancer" companion, Selmasongs, 
with Radiohead's Thom Yorke. That song also got a nod from old Oscar; 
and while some say she was robbed of a Best Actress nomination, Björk's 
just glad to see she's been recognized for her music.

With the Academy Awards ceremony around the corner, MTV News' Gideon 
Yago talked to Björk about what we can expect to hear on Oscar night, if 
the movie affected her music, and how a night at the Golden Globes was 
like a day at church. Fade in...

Gideon Yago: At the Academy Awards, you're going to perform "I've Seen 
It All," your Best Song nominee from "Dancer in the Dark," with a 55-
piece orchestra. Is that a conventional orchestra, or is there going to 
be some interesting instrumentation in there?

Björk: I think it's just the orchestra they have there, but I'm going to 
have like a recording - a recording of electronic noises. The film 
soundtrack was built on the ... um, how could I put this? When I was 
collecting the audio world from this film, it became very clear that the 
film was very occupied with separating as much as possible [between] the 
real world and fantasy. I guess the orchestra sort of stands for the 
fantasy element. All the other noises in the film are as real as you can 
get, so they recorded [the ambient sounds accompanying] each scene of 
each song. That particular song I am going to perform at the Oscars was 
shot on a train track, so all the noises there are colors from the 
forest around it, like a river and hitting the train with a stick. It's 
a collection of about 40 noises, maybe. 

[LFO engineer/producer] Mark Bell [and I] put [together] a live mix, and 
how we did it is we cut, say, 40 tracks - we cut a twig on one, and a 
train on one, and maybe 10 different metal noises - and it's all real 
things, no bass or guitars or synthesizers. That [mix] would be the 
other instrument [during the performance]. They have been doing that 
sort of thing since 1950, like a musique concrète, I think they called 
it first. It's sort of from that world. 

I'm really excited [to perform]. I won many awards [and] I've been to a 
lot of [award] shows. This is the most exciting one for me. I'm not just 
gonna go and grab a fancy frock. It's about singing, so it's a 
completely different headspace, which is sort of why I'm doing it. I'm 
really excited. Really, really excited.

Yago: When you recorded "I've Seen It All" for Selmasongs with Thom 
Yorke in the studio, was there an instant click? What was it like, being 
in the studio with him?

Björk: We've known about each other for a while. [We were] always just 
about to do something together, and we were just waiting for the right 
situation. I was really excited about this song; I thought that I 
finally had a song that deserved his voice, 'cause he's definitely my 
favorite male singer in the world. I asked him, and he being the kind of 
guy he is, full of integrity &$151; there's not a grain of artificial, 
show-business behavior in him - he kind of insisted that he would turn 
up [in the studio] and be there for quite a while, so the communication 
in the song, the recording, was real and genuine. It wasn't just a turn-
it-on, you know, "I recorded my bit in Las Vegas and he recorded his..." 
you know, [like] we never met or something. It was the opposite, and 
that actually came from him, 'cause I was all just kind of being in work 
mode, "Yeah, we have to get it done," and he was all, "No, no, no." 

I guess that comes from him being in a band. At that stage, he just 
finished [Radiohead's Kid A], so he'd done three years of being in a 
room with five people, and it's all about communication. You can be 
playing a song, but if you're absentminded, it's not good. It's all 
about the actual effort you make to bond with someone.

So yeah, we sung for, like, four days, a few hours a day - maybe I'm 
exaggerating; I'm not sure, truthfully - until we came to that place. 
Because I think the way I sang that song was pretty [Björk makes 
explosion sound], and for him, it's a very different approach. He made 
me sing it differently. It's kind of more sensitive and more in touch, 
you know. I was very flattered by his effort.

Yago: "Dancer in the Dark" has all this critical acclaim behind it: your 
Golden Globe nomination, the Grammy Award nomination. You got an Academy 
Award nomination for Best Song, but do you feel you were snubbed by not 
getting the proper recognition in the Best Actress category?

Björk: I don't think [so]. When I was nominated, I was actually really 
surprised. I felt really honored. I guess I've always been really aware 
of the fact that I come from Iceland, and we have a different culture 
there. 

I went the week before [the Golden Globes ceremony] to Harlem, to see a 
gospel ceremony in a church. It was so excellent for me, coming from 
Iceland, being a fly on the wall [watching] everybody having an outer-
body experience. Wanting to have the moment, one time in their life, 
when they'd unite with God; trying hundreds of times. Then a couple 
would actually walk through that wall, [and there was] an urgency and 
hunger for that high in the room. Then I [went] to the Golden Globes, 
and it seemed like the same kind of thing. This is with full respect, 
because there are fewer more beautiful things than a gospel choir and 
the people having outer-body experiences in Harlem. I can't imagine many 
things that are more beautiful. I actually went to Harlem thinking - 
being sort of a European snob - that it would be an artificial thing, 
but I was actually really, really touched by it. 

[At the Golden Globes,] you would sit there with people - I just did one 
film, you know? - and these people did films maybe all their lives, 
sacrificed everything for it. Maybe a group of 10, sitting at a table, 
and this was the one chance in their life when they could possibly unite 
with what they believe in - and you can't really point a finger at other 
peoples' religion; it's not my world at all, and I'm just grateful that 
I could witness it - and when people won, they completely had an outer-
body experience, and when they lost, it was so tragic. Maybe [they were] 
people who have been trying to do something for 50 years, and that's the 
one thing they've always wanted. You know, they all wish they were born 
in that society were their parents were [and] their parents were [and] 
their parents were. Nobody in my family even knew there was such a thing 
as "Best Song" or "Best Television Series" or something. Then a week 
before this happened to me ... this isn't an Iceland thing, you see.

Yago: You're coming in as an outsider.

Björk: For sure. I mean, anything else would be a lie. I could be going 
to, say, the Olympic finals, and it would be the same thing for me, no 
disrespect. I mean, all the music things I've been to those loads of 
times, that's a different box all together - I've got opinions about 
[those] things. I think, "This guy's a better drummer than this one." 
But I didn't know anybody [at the Golden Globes], and I think these 
people are very genuine. They were all in the bathroom kind of 
preparing, and there were a lot of human feelings going on there. I felt 
it was very human, and I felt like there was a lot of heart there. When 
certain people lost and other people won, they were all kind of 
excellent with each other, and very graceful. There was not one nasty 
cell in there, or at least I didn't see it.

Yago: The things that must go on behind closed doors, though.

Yago: How did making "Dancer in the Dark" shape your next album, 
Vespertine? What's changed since Homogenic?

Björk: Homogenic, for me, was very emotionally confrontational and was 
very dramatic, both in the melodic sense of the strings and the 
distorted beats. Everything on 11 ... a lot of steroids in the air. 
Vespertine is sort of the opposite. Very introverted, very quiet and 
calm and peaceful, and at peace with one's self.

After being obsessed with reality and darkness and always thinking 
everything else is bullsh--, you know, suddenly thinking to invent a 
paradise isn't necessarily a bad thing. I used to always think that was 
escapism. This record is very much about inventing your own paradise, 
but underneath your kitchen table, so it's very secretive. It's sort of 
about being on your own in your house with your laptop and whispering 
for a year and just writing a very peaceful song that tiptoes. It's all 
about reaching those euphoric highs and those ecstasy moments, but with 
no outside stimulates. All it takes is inside you. I'm quite aware it's 
an artificial paradise, so it almost went Disney at times - you know, 
when you see pink Bambi jumping about? Those types of things. I don't 
think there are very many pink Bambis on Homogenic. 

[Vespertine is] sort of a winter album for me. I think Homogenic was 
very summer, very hot, burning desert. Maybe 'cause I did it in Spain; 
it might be something as simple as that. But this one's like ... those 
days when it's snowing outside, and you're inside with a cup of cocoa 
and everything's very magical. You're euphoric, but you don't speak for 
days 'cause you don't want to.

Yago: You don't want to disturb the environment.

Björk: Yeah. I started writing the themes for Vespertine before I did 
the film; some of the songs I wrote last month. I'd be lying if I said 
the film didn't affect Vespertine. It affected it in a way that 
everything was emotionally brutal, so on 11. ... Part of [that] is a 
solution: to reach a high by putting everything on 11. For sure. But 
also as important, you can reach that euphoric high that everybody's 
looking for, in Harlem or in Hollywood.