Winter Oyster  1995

By ???


"[unknown title]"


Imagine a cross between Punky Brewster and a young Elizabeth Taylor, mix 
in a little Zen and a pinch of Mongolian dynamo, and there you have the 
Icelandic Indi-princess, Björk (Byerk). She radiates a calmness and 
honesty attributed to those well into their declining years, but don't 
be fooled. Somehow in her youthful 28 years, she's managed to grab hold 
of that allusive grip on life and she's not letting go. She appears 
serene as a kitten, but you get the impression, if crossed, she'd raw 
like a lion. Now, with a new album on the horizon, she's back where she 
belongs.

Since the tender age of 11, Björk's been singin' and screamin' the 
blues, beginning with her 'real' debut album of young adolescent pop 
songs which instantly flew up the charts in Iceland. Next she headed the 
thrash, anarchic sounds of The Sugarcubes, and in between having a baby 
(her son sindri is now eight) even dabbled in the calm tradition of 
Icelandic folk songs with the album, Gling Glong. Next came Debut, an 
experimental fusion of funk, jazz, rock opera and dance music, 
personifing her haunting, melodic, bungyjumping vocals. And now she's 
back, with a new single 'Army Of Me', and an Impending album due for 
release in June.

Her role as pop demi-goddess has catapulted since the release of Debut 
and landed her cult-hero status both in the mainstream and alternative 
arenas. But where does she see her role in the fickle, here-today-gone-
tomorrow world of pop music. "I don't look at it as some planned thing. 
I think pop music is very chaotic and I think it is a collection of 
accidents. I just happen to be one of them. Pop music is supposed to be 
about real life, if it all sounds the same then It is an illusion. No 
one can lead a life like that. No one can plan their life, it just 
happens. My turn-on now may be different to where I end up. I can't 
analyse it too much because I would be taking away jobs from journalists 
or historians or musicologists. It's their job to analyse. People call 
me lot of things, you know, at the end of the day it's all about being a 
pop artist, about making pop music. I just do it."

And at the other end of the day, the image Björk portrays is 
uncategorically, Björk. Certainly no illusions there. "I've done this 
long enough to know that nothing else satisfies me as much as making 
music. I look at media people and photographers as making a documentary 
about me rather than trying to create an image from illusion. What the 
public thinks affects me, but it doesn't change my decisions. It doesn't 
alter what I do. The energy and drive I have is because I love to do it 
and I want to do it. If people like what I do, that is a bonus, I'm 
still the one who is having a great time," she remarks, with a wicked 
twinkle in her wicked eye.

Uncompromising in her artistic ideal, Björk regards her freedom of self-
expression as of the utmost importance, her struggle for independence is 
her raison d'être, her driving force. "I realise it's about accepting 
you're always going to have some limitations, but once you do that, then 
you start feeling free. It's a bit of a game, because what makes you 
feel free today may not make you feel free tomorrow. It doesn't matter 
what you do, there's always going to be a difference between what the 
world wants you to do and what you want to do. I thank god because 
that's why there is such a thing as individuality. it really exists."

When she talks, her husky, muted speaking voice drifts periodically from 
a heavy Icelandic accent into a cockney drawl, brilliantly disguising 
the lilting, disarming tones of her singing voice. Every few seconds she 
breaks into a quiet hum, and while some of us find solace in cigarettes, 
Valium and meditation, her spoonful of sugar is her infinitive singing 
voice. So, while many fans listen to her music as a form of therapy and 
divine inspiration ("lsn't that sad," she laughs), her personal tastes 
range the gamut. "I listen to all sorts of music. I get crazy 
obsessions. The last one I had was for Stockhausan, and before that it 
was Indian film music. I always think there is one more song I haven't 
heard. Since I was a kid I've always been like this."

When Björk pontificates about the meaning of life, an unnatural calmness 
possesses her. While she stares, apparently bored, out the window, those 
around her find themselves hanging on to every word. Ah! but this is 
also an illusion, for when probed as to how she has developed the art of 
looking like she controls the universe, she snorts in amusement. "I 
would just call it having experience doing interviews. I'm just as 
confused as the rest of you. I've travelled a lot, I've been travelling 
nonstop for seven years now, and I guess when you do that you lose the 
obsession that the grass may be greener somewhere else. You kinda figure 
out that if you're sad and miserable in Nicuragua, you're gonna be just 
as sad and miserable in Timbuctoo. You know, the clich, that 'It's all 
within you' and all that shit."

But what gives her the power to write such intimate and powerful lyrics? 
Another snort! "I don't know. Um. It's like eating, sleeping, fucking, 
laughing. If you don't sleep for a week you become a little strange. If 
you don't eat for a week you become even stranger. For me, if I don't 
sing or make tunes, it's like one of my physical needs is not being met. 
Everybody has these needs. Some people go and play squash, others get 
drunk, some people have sex with strangers. Everybody has a different 
way, and this is just rny way to keep sane."

For any other female solo performer, the struggle for fame and fortune 
would surely have been an uphill battle. "I've been really lucky," she 
says. "I've never thought of myself, and I still don't, as either a solo 
artist or a female artist. Not even an artist if we want to get down to 
it. I simply love making music and what attracts me to it is the 
opportunity to work with other people. I get to know one person and that 
is brilliant and exciting, and we mix and become the same person. We 
become obsessed with each other. When I begin to feel I can't learn any 
more from this person, I go and look around until I meet someone else. I 
think at the end of the day the fact you are in a certain band, or, this 
time around, that I'm Björk, is just a cover, it's just the form I work 
in. It's still the same target."

Having discounted herself from the realm of female or solo artist, words 
tend to allude as to what category to place her in. But as usual she has 
all the answers, "I'm just a person who likes to work with other people 
making music. That's most important. What has happened over the years is 
that I've developed the ability to decide when I work, with whom I work, 
how much money I spend and what kind of music I do. You have to be 
pretty stupid not to learn to give and take in life and go a bit further 
in different directions. Now I'm the one who makes all the choices, and 
if that is what being solo is all about, then yes," she mutters 
reluctantly, "I guess I am."

Most pointedly, she says, "I have labelled myself as an anti-feminist 
feminist, and I think it suits me well. The whole female thing is very 
important to me of course, but then again it's just as important as the 
fact that I have two legs and that I come from Iceland. It's just one of 
those things. I see so many women constantly questioning themselves. 
Questioning why they do certain things. There's this endless analytical 
process. What they don't understand is that the main reason men have the
free dom to do what they want, and get away with it, is that they don't
question themselves, they just do it. Women should stop doubting 
themselves because it cages them in and ties them down. They should just 
do what they want. Don't take so much shit. If someone tries to make you 
feel guilty or intimidated, look them straight in the eye and laugh and 
they'll probably start to cough in embarrassment. I'd much rather forget 
what I am, because at the end of the day, at the end of my life, I want 
to be happy with what I did in it, what I was in it. It doesn't matter 
for shit whether I was a boy or a girl. That's not the point."

So, is there more to life than this? "Oh definitely. I've got hundreds 
of things to do. I'm always concerned that my life won't last and I 
won't be able to fit it all in. I've got to be a nurse, and travel the 
world, and run a café, and start school and all those things. But I 
don't want to plan too much. I'll just take it all as it comes. I'm 
definitely into having experiences, and smittening people or getting 
smitten by them. It's quite easy to fall asleep in this life. You have 
to shock people because they are always grateful to you afterwards."