BJORK
to get that out oI my system. All I wanted to do for this album was just to have fun and do something really up. It's about wanting to go out in the physical world and experience stul‘l'.‘
I)o her physical surroundings influence the music she makes'.’ ‘A little bit. but I‘m so used to travelling all the time that it’s more of an emotional state.' she says. 'In my introvert phases I could be in a glamorous hotel or in a log cabin or wherever. btit when I am in my
extrovert periods. I'm probably more aware of
my surroundings. I made Debut and Post when I lived in London. and they‘re very London albums. Whereas with H's/it'rtiiic and i'l'lt’tllll/(l I was living halt in Iceland and ball in Manhattan. and you can‘t really hear a lot of .Vlanhattan there because I was quite introvert at the time and it was a bit ot’ a domestic bliss period for me. so I could have done them anywhere.‘
As with most Bjork records. \bliu features an unusual array of guests — t‘rom Malian kora master. Toumani Diabate and (‘hinese pipa player. Min Xiao-Fen to Antony Hegarty (Antony And The Johnsons) and hip hop king. Timbaland.
What‘s he like'.’ ‘He's very impulsive. conlident and very male . . . in the positive sense of the word. It‘ you think ol‘ the elements. 'I‘imbaland is very much one element . . . 500‘}. There‘s not one drop of doubt. so you walk into a room and he does a beat and you sing on top of it. and then five minutes later. you've got a song. We always said we‘d do something together one of these days . . . and maybe I was ready to do something with him now because I was kinda ready to be ptit on the spot where you walk into a room and you just do it. First we spent three hours together and did four or live songs. and then we met again for two hours and did three more.‘
lntriguingly. many ot~ the songs on I'olm feature Bjork talking about politics for the first time in her long career. On the militant sounding ‘Declare Independence' she sings: ‘Start your
8 THE LIST 23 Aug—6 Set) 200,“
own curreiicy/.\Iake your own stamp/Protect your language/I)eclare independence . . . your Ilagf
"I‘hings have changed a lot in the last ten years.‘ she explains. ‘I think the ‘)( ls started with this liceling that we will overcome our problems
l‘uise
and everything was gonna be ama/ing. But il‘
you look at history. periods like that are very rare. so maybe this is more normal. l like to think it‘s the end ol‘ the dinosaurs and the 'l‘cxan tycoons and white trash ('hristianity maybe. I think you've never had so many people
‘I HAVEN'T EVEN SCRATCHED THE SURFACE YET'
interested in politics as there is iiglit now. It somebody like me is interested. it‘s gotta mean that every body is. right‘
Its not me. I think it's just the /eitgcist. and that's why it's really important to react. It seems like ten years ago people like me didn't have to spell it otit. so ol course I don't wanna cvplodc people in another part or the woild. and ot' course I don't wanna ruin nature. I‘m not saying I‘m let'i wing. because I'm not. I still don't vote in Iceland. and the levy times I have voted I‘ve delivered a blank. I still like to consider niysell an apolitical person. but it's just that in times like this. you're l'orced to spell it out. I bet most ot the people who marched against the Iraq war never even worried about politics beloref
liver since Bjork became one ol the biggest stars in the world back in the early ‘Ills, she has i'el‘used to rest on her creative laurels while still managing to keep her music in the spotlight: "I'he essence I don‘t think has changed at all since Helm]. I’ve jtist become better at working in the studio and I l'eel like I‘m a better singer. People keep saying: "()oli. between every album its a revolution". and they either praise me or knock me IUI' my short attention span.‘ she smiles. '.-\nd I'm like: "What short attention span?" I don't Ieel like I’ve elitiligetl at all.
'I led like I‘ve come a long way. I l‘eel like I'm much better now at putting down the music inside my head. I had the live side ot' my character and then there was the studio boll—in side; the bolil‘in side kind ol' peaked with Ilav'pt'rn'm' and .llt'tlii/lu. and Iii/m is where they meet again. So I l'eel the merge between the spontaneous and the academic is more seamless on Iblm . . . it's more lluid between the lel‘t and the right hemispheres ol my brain.‘
:\I the age til-I I. does Bjork’ l'eel that she has to cram in as much music as she can iii the time she has Iel‘t'.’ “Yeah. I do. btit I tell like time was running out when I was a teenager as well; I think that is one thing that hasn‘t changed. I'm very aware that I could live seven lives and still not do all the stull I wanna do. But it's not tear you know . it’s a form of enthusiasm. I led totally like I haven‘t even scratched the surlacc yet.‘
The lact that Bjork is still. lirst and loreniost. an avant garde musician albeit one whose records sell iti their millions goes a long way to explaining her enduring appeal. The other key to her continued success is her relusal to repeat Iiersell'.
‘I‘m not gonna do the same stul'l again. because it I did I‘d be bored shitless.' Bjork chuckles. 'l'm only hallway through. I try and talk myself into it sometimes. and the most sensible thing would be to do more ol‘ this again because I know I‘d do it better because I wasn't doing it for the first time and people get it now. I can hold my breath and do that for a couple of days and then I go: “Fuck that shit". It would jUsl feel like cheating. My attention span is rubbish. so I get bored very easily and it just isn’t any good because my heart isn‘t in it.‘
How much of the time does she spend thinking about music'.’ ‘It's son of seamless. It‘s not like I am thinking about music talking to you right now. but it's generally more natural for me to interact with the world through my ears than my eyes. People who are into music are like that . . . it‘s notjUst that I‘m a weirdo or something'
Volta is out now. Bjork plays the Connect Music Festival, Sun 2 Sep.