I used to be in a punk band that was so hardcore that if someone came to us and asked for an autograph, we’d just tell them to fuck off and get a life.
I suggest sending that message out to her fan club.
"Get a life !" She laughs.
Then again, there are strange things which make people happy. Like I get really happy and sentimental if my kid writes something to me, or I like the colour fluffy white. We all got our little soft spots ; why can’t you brush your teeth with your socks on, things like that.
BJÖRK : You start off with fucking health foods and no alcohol...
POLLY : ...you’re really cleaned out and you’re eating well and doing exercise, swimming every day, and by the end of the tour you’re drinking to calm down instead of meditating or whatever, and eating crap and smoking.
TORI : It’s really great for me to hear this because my tour starts tomorrow.
BJÖRK : And your reading just goes down the toilet. You start off reading highly spiritual, good-for-the-brain things and by the end I’m just reading about fucking and sex orgies.
Mes parents écoutaient Jimi Hendrix et Janis Joplin en pensant que le reste, c’était de la merde. À l’école de musique, on me disait que le classique, c’était génial et que le reste, c’était de la merde. Quant à mes grands-parents, ils n’écoutaient que du jazz parce que le reste, ce n’était vraiment que de la merde. Et moi je m’amusais à jouer les trublions en passant Hendrix à mes grands-parents ou en chantant comme Ella Fitzgerald à l’école de musique.
It’s just so beautiful that 100,000 people would die in an earthquake. It’s something, maybe because I’m distant, but I wouldn’t mind dying in an earthquake, it’s just so ...
I would like to be eaten by tigers. Something like that...
A few days before flying into cyclone-torn Brisbane, she’d been in Los Angeles - just in time for the big quake.
It was brilliant, she says, jumping up from her seat.
I always thought it would be a really nervous thing ! But it was this really deep, big bass in your guts. I thought : `Yes ! This is what I’ve wanted to feel ever since I was born !’ It’s funny, it’s like your body is thirsty for it and it satisfies you in a strange way.
That was some time ago. I’d shaved my eyebrows, I was very pregnant and I exposed my belly on a TV show, performing in my band KUKL, a jazz punk thing. Apparently the combination was too much for some viewers. One woman had a heart attack while she was watching and sued me. Fortunately, she lost !
Yeah, I guess so. I like things when they’re a bit alive. And if you don’t have a friend or a pet or you’re away traveling, then it is nice to have cuddly things to wear.
I liked paper a lot and different cardboards and I would tear them to pieces and whatever came out would be pictures and I would make little worlds.
And once, says Björk, she spent a whole day making one of these paper worlds, a huge, special paper world.
I’d fallen in love with this girl in school, I was six, and I took it to her. And I’d never talked to her before. She kind ot rolled it apart and it was just a lot ot torn pieces of paper with nothing written on them. I just suddeniy realised it wasn’t that brilliant, just rubbish really. She just laughed really hard and threw it in the dustbin. Björk laughs. It’s a sad story.
When I saw there was a shop called Iceland I was totally confused. I thought it was the National Embassy. But when I went inside there was just loads of fridge-freezers.
I’ve done gigs in Iceland that have been ridiculous because people know you and when you’re singing, they’re shouting, Hey, you didn’t make your English degree ! Your uncle is fucking my niece !
I feel odd asking you this, but what makes a man sexy ? I’m a bit off the map when it comes to sexiness.
[Giggles] I can find men sexy, women sexy, plants sexy, the ocean, fish. If we’re talking something physical, the back of necks. Necks on people and animals.
You must really like giraffes.
[Laughs] It’s not about length !
Well, at least when it comes to necks. So, what lady would you switch for ?
Too many. That’sa bit slippery. If you want a specific, I’d have to pick an animal. [Pauses] A panda. I’d switch for a sexy panda.
When I was younger I used to play with the cat a lot - I would teach it how to fly. Because, you see, he used to watch all the birds flying about and I could tell he wanted to fly and chill with the birds. I wasn’t very successful though.
My life is too busy at the moment. But who knows what will happen ? I might go on the Punch and Judy show (ndlr. spectacle de marionnettes célèbre au Royaume Uni) – I mean the Richard and Judy show (ndlr. émission télévisée britannique présentée par le couple marié Richard Madeley et Judy Finnigan. (2001-2008)). I’ll try anything once.
It’s a shame elevator music has got that title. It’s lost evervone’s respect. You should have music for Interviews, music for train rides. Music doesn’t have to want all your attention, not at all. I think music is even stronger when it’s unconscious.
À un journaliste anglais trop curieux : J’aurais honte de répondre à vos questions dans ma langue natale. Mais j’accepte de le faire en anglais parce que c’est la langue des clichés et des propos superficiels.
It’s some sort of movement similar to cream I think. You know when they squeeze the cream out of the gas thing. Like really pretty when It’s got a spike at the top, and it’s got a circle. Sort of slow circle movement in the same way whipped cream would move. Very still and very satisfied.
