Oor  1993-09

By Martin Aston

Translation and adaption by Bert van de Kamp

Sent to BEP by John Kortink  kortink@cs.utwente.nl


"Bjork. Her breakthrough, by now, has dino..."


Bjork. Her breakthrough, by now, has dino proportions. Will this 
Icelandic girl follow in Sinead's footsteps? [What a strange comparison]


   "It's again and again the same questions Bjork has to answer. What 
   are the other Sugarcubes doing now? Why did she choose Nellee Hooper
   (Soul II Soul and others) as producer of her first solo album Debut?
   Why did she change from indie to dance? Why doesn't she live in 
   Reykjavik anymore, but in London? Plus, obviously, the unavoidable
   'tourist-information' questions regarding the attractions of 
   Iceland." [Which never actually appear in the article(!), but read
   on]


'I constantly try to think of different answers' she says, 'There is not 
one truth. Things are not always equally simple. Different viewpoints 
are possible.'

The uncomparable, brilliant art-pop of the Sugarcubes resulted in three 
albums, after which the sextet decided to continue seperately. Bjork can 
now do exactly what she wants, without having to consider five other 
opinions. As a 'child star', she already made an LP at her eleventh. 
Debut thus isn't her first solo album, but it is the best. A unique mix 
of dance, jazz, pop, folk and ethnic sounds from all points on the 
compass: from Arabia to India and further. All of this drenched with 
that undefinable, excentric Icelandic spirit, that also made the 
Sugarcubes' music so special. Even though also singer Einar Orn has a 
new CD out, as one half of the Frostbite duo, Debut still confirms that 
Bjork was the primary ingredient of the sugarcubes-dish.

'We mainly worked together because of social considerations. We always 
had a lot of fun and the music always came second. That I didn't go solo 
before was because it seemed too easy and too cheap. Working with others 
was a bigger challenge, precisely because those others thought so 
differently from me: you could learn something from that. On your own 
you only have to deal with your own dirty laundry and your own worn out 
toothbrush. If you've had enough of something: away it goes. But while 
making this album I didn't feel I was being egocentric. I sacrificed my 
ego to the songs and the instruments and added the singing that they 
demanded. Unselfish, rather like a plummer that delivers a perfect job.'

   Nostalgia

Bjork denies that the lyrics of songs like Crying ('So much to 
share/People everywhere') or Aeroplane ('I miss you so terribly when 
you're away/.../I cross the world to follow my heart') have something to 
do with leaving the Suragcubes. Most of the songs appear to have been 
written before the breakup.

'I think I'll only be ready to write about that on my third album. Debut 
is an album full of nostalgia, a photo album of what went through my 
head in the last ten years. The oldest songs are One day and Crying, 
something you might be able to hear in the melancholic and introvert 
sound. The last few years of my life were the best: sometimes you have 
to learn something, sometimes you've learnt enough and you can apply 
that knowledge. I took a long time to develop myself. I grew up around 
two years ago, however... not really grown up, but that I had the 
feeling I was in control. I was lucky. In the Sugarcubes I could stay in 
the background and observe everything. I wrote my lyrics and little 
melodies and waited how the music would eventually sound. Through all 
the travelling I was also able to see how other bands function, which 
was educating.'

Bjork currently lives with her English boyfriend Dom (a deejay) and her 
seven year old son Siddri in West-London. 'I have all respect for the 
people in Iceland, but to make a record you need certain tools and for 
that you have to be in London. You have a luxury situation here: you can 
hire the best musicians in the world and the record company pays.

'I've just been back to Iceland for the first time in six months. It was 
strange, because I hadn't been away this long before, but it also gave 
me a good feeling, because I have so much of that country in me. I can 
almost speak about it in religeous words, even though I often felt 
misjudged in Iceland. I didn't feel I was part of it all. Like you love 
someone who is only interested in things that don't touch you and vice 
versa. That is what Crying is about. In England I'm a foreign housewife. 
I hang out a lot with the Indians in West-London, I get my food at the 
take-away Thai. I feel at home there. I feel happy there.'

   Chet Baker

There are two direct love-songs on Debut. One is Violently happy with 
lines like: 'I'll get in trouble real soon if you don't get here, baby.' 
The other one is a beautiful cover of Chet Baker's Like someone in love, 
with only voice and harp.

'I am crazy about the sound of the harp, not that angel-like sound, but 
the contemporary harp. I always wanted to sing a song with just a harp 
as backup. When we were mixing the Sugarcubes album Stick around for 
joy, the producer, Paul Fox, told me that he knew a woman who played 
jazz on a harp. Lateron I looked her up and I have fallen for her 
character. I didn't want to do a song of my own, because of the 
difference in generation, so I chose a song that we both knew. Chet 
Baker is one of the best singers of this century: so expressive and 
over-sensitive. He is the only singer with whom I could identify.'

Also in other songs there's busy experimentation. Venus as a boy has an 
Indian string quartet (recorded in Bombay) and The anchor song combines 
Bjorks roaring voice with wind-instruments, while There's more to life 
than this has been recorded live at The Milk Bar, a club in central 
London ('small idea of Nellee').

   Black Dog

Nellee Hooper's cooperation to the album came about more or less 
accidentally. They met through mutual friends.

'I actually wanted to work without a producer, but after I got to know 
him, we got on so well that I gratefully used his ideas.'

It wasn't the influence of Hooper alone that explains the strong 
emphasis on dance rhythms. 'I've been listening to dance music for over 
seven years. In the Sugarcubes I worked most closely with Siggi, the 
drummer. I hate most dance music, around 95 percent, but the other five 
shows great creativity. My favourite album at this moment is a record 
from Black Dog from Sheffield, ambient and pop at the same time. In that 
sense you can hardly call around half of the songs on my album 'dance'.'

How does Bjork see her future? Besides the 'millions of songs' she still 
wants to write and record she's currently working with Graeme Massey of 
808 State and with soul singer Omar. Also, together with Jah Wobble and 
an orchestra of sixty, she recorded the themesong of the film Young 
Americans (with Harvey Keitel), titled Play dead. On top of that she 
helps Nellee Hooper with his album. Her own band, seven men strong ('all 
of them adorable'), has the difficult task to reproduce the subtle sound 
structures of her album. And will the Sugarcubes ever make up?

'I have no idea. We had to get away from Iceland, because we were 
getting sick of the scene over there. We wanted to try another course. 
The first step has now been taken.'