Uitslag van de poll; Welk album was als eerste?
Er zijn inmiddels veel stemmen uitgebracht op de verschillende keuzes, en wat blijkt? Twee scoren vrij hoog!
En het grappige is dat dit in de rij juist de eerste en het laatste album is chronologisch gezien. De CD Miranda blijken maar weinig mensen te kennen, die kreeg slechts 5 stemmen. Die CD werd gemaakt samen met haar bandje Tappi Tíkarrass.
- Debut (48%, 26 stemmen)
- Björk (43%, 23 stemmen)
- Miranda (9%, 5 stemmen)
De juiste volgorde is
- Björk (1977)
- Miranda (1983, met haar band Tappi Tíkarrass)
- Debut (1993)
Over wat ze aan het doen is het afgelopen jaar..
ON WHAT SHE HAS BEEN UP TO THIS YEAR, AND NOT JINXING IT
What have you been up to this year?
“But it is what most of my year has been devoted to, and it will see the light of day next year or the year after”
I am working on a project that I started over a year ago and has grown a bit in the process. It’s gotten quite large in scope, actually, so nothing will probably come of it until next year or the year after. I am superstitious and would rather not talk about it—often, if I talk too much about a project before completing it, it implodes. So I’d rather not talk about it.
But it is what most of my year has been devoted to, and it will see the light of day next year or the year after. This is why I haven’t been talking to the media this year; I’ve learned a rhythm over the last twenty years. I enter an introspective mode when I am working, and then I switch to ‘extrovert’ when the music is released and needs to be promoted and toured. Actually, all this action over the last two weeks has left me scared that I am getting too extroverted in the middle of my introvert process, that I might not be able to enter it again.
-We can stop right now if you want.
Well, I won’t talk about my project, but I can talk about these projects I’ve guested on this year, since they are already completed. So it can’t jinx it.
ON WORKING WITH DIRTY PROJECTORS AND FEELING A CERTAIN RESONANCE WITH A GENERATION
-Let’s talk then. What are these projects?
The first one to appear is the one I made with Dirty Projectors. It’s an EP called ‘Mount Wittenberg Orca’ that’s being sold on-line [www.mountwittenbergorca.com] and all the proceeds are going to creating international marine protected areas, in cooperation with the National Geographic society.
“And he had been talking about how he was inspired by Medúlla. “
I had been talking to them before. The music website Stereogum organised a tribute to my album ‘Post’, where different musicians recorded covers of the album’s songs. And one of the participating bands was Dirty Projectors, and they wrote a really nice treatise on how my music had influenced them. Stereogum put David and I in touch, and we were e-mailing back and forth. Then they released ‘Rise Above’, the Black Flag record, and I fell in love with it. Especially what David was doing with the voices. And he had been talking about how he was inspired by Medúlla. We kept on e-mailing, sending each other notes and ideas and vocal processing software tips; it soon transpired that both of us were total vocal geeks.
Back in May of 2009, I performed a concert with them in New York. [Stereogum writer] Brandon Stosuy had suggested we do something together. They had just completed their record ‘Bitte Orca’ at that time, and I had just started my current project. And I told David: “You’ve just completed an album. That’s the best time for side projects. All the wheels are greased. Perhaps you should write it and I’ll just be one of your voices.” Then we recorded it a year later and now it is out.
Anyway. It happened. And it’s been great, the whole process. There was so much positive energy, and the collaboration was really fertile. Hats off to all of them! It could have been so complicated, me with my world and they with theirs. But it wasn’t, not at all.
I feel a certain resonance with their generation of Americans. For some reason I have more in common with them musically than my own generation. Some musicians have mentioned Medúlla to me, and there seems to be an upswing in acapella music, which I am really enjoying. When I was in England, singing was all but illegal in the circles I moved in, with the whole Warp scene and so on. Having vocals on your track was tantamount to selling out, or selling oneself short. Everything was instrumental. It’s funny to see how things turn around. Everything goes in circles. I really enjoy all these vocal harmonies in bands like Animal collective, Grizzly Bear and Battles.
“When I first started dividing my time between Reykjavík and New York back in the early 2000s, I could not at all relate to what was going on there. “
I think these are exciting times, and I am really thankful for getting to observe this generation making its way in music, and getting to interact with its members. When I first started dividing my time between Reykjavík and New York back in the early 2000s, I could not at all relate to what was going on there. I was all nostalgic, shopping music off Bleep.com and thinking about England. And it’s just so great, what’s happened since. The difference between New York in 2010 and 2000 is vast. I guess it’s just closer to my personal musical tastes. People like Antony [Hegarty, of Antony and the Johnsons] and Joanna Newsom and Dirty Projectors and Animal Collective. It’s all music that I’m really enjoying.
-And you are actively interacting with it now, in the form of your collaboration with Dirty Projectors
Yes. I feel this is very fertile and giving. The fact that David has talked about my music inspiring him and then I just walk into the studio and tell him back: “I am ready to be your instrument. I trust you, and I will obey.” There is a healthy rotation there. Trust. They were so creative in the studio, and the mood was just right. I have the feeling that they’ve only just begun making great records; that they have many to come.
-Why do you think you connect so well with this generation of Americans?
“I used to think it didn’t matter who was President, but now I know different. It matters.”
I have a homemade theory about this… The same year I moved to the US, Bush took over the White house and stayed there for eight years. I used to think it didn’t matter who was President, but now I know different. It matters. I can imagine a similar situation as punk was being born in the UK during the Thatcher era. I wasn’t that politically involved then, but now I observe that Bush taking over spurred a certain contingent of people to retreat to nature. There was so much anger in America, from people who didn’t support Bush and his policies, who didn’t feel at home in the mainstream. So much anger and a need for something new. I think it’s no coincidence that Britney Spears and pop stars like her reigned over the Bush year. They’re not exactly ‘organic’…
All the while, this underground was brewing, an underground of people who yearn for organic things, for connecting with nature. Eight years pass, and these people start gaining a following, moving up from the underground. People like Joanna Newsom and Animal Collective, which would have been written off as hippie remnants a decade earlier. People started thinking: there must be other ways.
Anyway, this is my homemade theory.
And I come from a country that is very nature connected. When I was at their age, Iceland didn’t have banksters or corporate Vikings, no one was planning to build five aluminium smelters. It was all very organic and in close connection to nature, maybe with similar emphases as this generation is now making. I am raised in that climate, so maybe that’s why I relate to them.
-Working on that EP was obviously a great experience, but how do you feel about the results? Do you like the album?
I need to listen to it. I last heard it while it was being mixed, and I haven’t heard it since. I need to download it… Things have just been so crazy with this Magma thing, but I really want to find a time to listen to it on a nice stereo, in a car or something. Listening in a car is always nice.
I am really happy with it, though, and proud of it. When we initially performed this project in the Housing Works we had only practiced it two times, it was very spontaneous and fun. When the girls started doing their thing, with their voices, I jumped and had to be careful not to scream with excitement. It was like a new World Record in acapella. I was really in awe, and honoured to get to be a sort of vocal ‘old aunt’ that was invited to the acapella party, so to speak.
ON WORKING WITH ÓLÖF ARNALDS AND NOT BECOMING A BURDEN
-You’re appearing as a guest on albums by Antony and Ólöf Arnalds. You haven’t really collaborated with many artists like this—outside of your own albums anyway—in past years. Is there a reason why it’s happening now all of the sudden?
“Maybe a new period in my life has begun?”
Actually, these three projects that I’m appearing on in 2010—Dirty Projectors, Ólöf Arnalds and Antony—they aren’t connected at all. But I was wondering about it. Maybe it’s because I’m older now and, as the oldest of three brothers and three sisters, it is natural for me to assume the role of the oldest sibling. Maybe a new period in my life has begun? I used to always be the youngest, like in the Sugarcubes, but maybe I am more comfortable with being the oldest. I always tell the boys of Sigur Rós that I am their old, proud aunt, so it is a role that maybe comes naturally to me.
With Ólöf, I really get energized from hanging around with her. She has heaps of creativity surrounding her, and the energy is infectious, like what happens between her and Davíð Þór [Jónsson, stellar Icelandic musician]. It’s exciting. For that project, I really didn’t mean to butt in like that, but she played me a song and as soon as I heard it, a vocal to go with it popped in my head. I didn’t tell her about it, I thought it was a really tacky thing to do, but when I heard the track for a second time the vocal part jumped out again.
So I told her. I said: “I have this vocal part in my head, and if you want to record it, I’ll be happy to sing it. I’ll totally understand if you decide to not use it in the final mixes, and I won’t get upset.”
I felt I needed to make that clear. It can sometimes be a burden for a young musician, having some old-timer singing all over their record.
-Were you really afraid of becoming a burden to her?
Yeah, I was laughing about it with Ólöf the other day. Saying that it’s as if she’s a beautiful little bird sitting on a branch, singing its youthful melody, when all of the sudden this big peacock sits on the branch next to her and breaks the tree. Ólöf and I are friends and equals, but as interpreted by some American blog that doesn’t know anything, my singing on her record might become a burden. But it all worked out, though, and she decided to use my vocals in the end. Hopefully I didn’t break her tree.
-Tell us about working with Ólöf. What do you think of her music?
I think she’s an original, she has her own style. I really like her songwriting style, and she is also a brilliant lyricist—I don’t think she gets enough credit for that. I also think her songs will be sung later on, like Megas’s songs.
And her best is definitely yet to come, even though the forthcoming record is great. She still has a lot of growth in her. She has already grown a whole lot and matured since I started following her, I think it is exciting to witness…
ON WORKING WITH ANTONY AND STREAMING ENERGY BACK
“When I was making Volta, I rented a studio in Jamaica for a month and invited him for a visit”
Then the Antony thing came up a bit differently. When I was making Volta, I rented a studio in Jamaica for a month and invited him for a visit, and to sing with me on ‘Dull Flame Of Desire’. We spent a few days singing together, and during that time he wrote a piano song that I sang over in gibberish Icelandic, you know, that hazy undefined scratch vocal you make when you’re coming up with a melody
-What, you mean Hopelandic?
Well, it sounds really new age-y [laughs], but when I’m writing a melody I’ll generally just start off with sounds and empty vowels. Then I write a lyric and sing that. I’ve always respected Jónsi for daring to leave it at that first stage. But anyway, I was improvising over his piano track, coming up with a melody. After I went to bed, Antony stayed up all night, recording vocals and harmonising all my gibberish with these lush four part harmonies, effectively making a choir out of it. When I woke up in the morning, he told me he wanted to play me something. I was really honoured when I heard his work. And the track is great. It’s him singing in Icelandic, even if he has no idea what he’s singing about.
Afterwards, we didn’t really know what to do with the track. It was completely different from the rest of his album, a tiny accident. In the end, I told him: “This is your song, you do with it as you please.”
It’s been a while since we recorded it. It was during Easter of 2006. So this is a four-year-old song. I am very happy that he finally used it, I was always very thankful that he made the trip to Jamaica to make a song with me, and it is beautiful that we can stream the energy back and he can use something from the sessions. It is all very healthy.
ON MOOMIN
-I understand you’ve also recorded a track for the upcoming Moomin feature film?
Yes. That was very joyous. They contacted me and asked me to write music for the film. After seeing a screening copy, I agreed to write the title track, and I asked Sjón to write the lyrics. The film looks great, and I feel it is much truer to the Moomin spirit than some of these Moomin things I’ve seen, which often stray from the original stories, have all these pastel colours and depict the Moomins as being all cute. This is a full length movie, about the comet, and it isn’t at all cute. It’s real, like the Moomins.
I felt that writing the track was a great opportunity to support [Moomin author] Tove Jansson. I’ve read many of her books—she wrote a lot beyond the Moomin series—and is now finally receiving due credit as a writer, not just of children’s novels. She has this great philosophy, and the way she lived her life on a small island is also inspiring. All her characters are different, everyone gets to be as they are and they all live in harmony. I agree with a lot of her messages, and really empathise with Tove.
So you’re big on the Moomins?
Yes! Yes! That’s just the way it is.
ON SOMETHING THAT HAS FOLLOWED HUMANITY SINCE WE WERE APES
One last question. I mentioned earlier that whenever we print something about you in the paper we get a huge response from people from all over the world—your fans. There seem to be a lot of people looking up to you, looking to you for guidance, even. That given, it is reassuring that you are trying to use your influence in a positive manner and raising attention to important issues, but… it also must be weird for you…
It comes with the job. I don’t know why. Singers that wrote their songs a hundred years ago maybe didn’t face the same reaction. Then again maybe they did. Religion is at a strange place right now, and not what it was a century ago.
“I sing about an emotion that I know everyone experiences, over something specific, i keep those emotions to myself”
I think most of it doesn’t have anything to do with me as a person. It’s just a certain need in society. Also, when you step on the stage, a certain shamanism is put in motion, something that has followed humanity since we were apes, or even longer. On the stage you are not yourself, you are a representative, a symbol, it is symbolic and it raises you to a frequency level.
And you realise this once you’ve been doing it for a while, it’s not that I’m so great, the concert is not about me. I am not focusing on my blemishes and shape or who I am, exaggerating my particularities. I rather try and tap in on how everyone is feeling; I rather enter the stage and sing about an emotion that I know everyone experiences, over something specific, like I hate this thing or the other. I keep those emotions to myself.
Cover: Jóga cover love Katie Noonan & the Captains
Katie Noonan & the captains hebben live een briljante cover gedaan van het nummer jóga. Luister mee met deze briljante cover!
Björk komt met wetenschappelijke musical
De IJslandse zangeres Björk gaat samen met de Franse regisseur Michel Gondry een 3D-film maken.
Het filmproject wordt een veertig minuten durende ‘wetenschappelijke musical’. De film wordt een ambitieus project met driedimensionale effecten en is waarschijnlijk het best geschikt om in musea vertoond te worden, aldus de regisseur. De precieze inhoud van de musical is nog niet bekend. Het is niet voor het eerst dat Gondry en Björk samenwerken; de Fransman regisseerde eerder al videoclips voor de Björk-songs Jóga, Isobel en Army Of Me.
Andere artiesten waar Gondry videoclips voor heeft gemaakt zijn Beck, The White Stripes en Paul McCartney. Daarnaast heeft Gondry de speelfilms The Science Of Sleep en Be Kind Rewind geregisseerd.
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