Timbaland

taking over from Timbaland
I was a bit confused first, because I got a lot of stuff of his and was maybe expecting him to arrange his noises. It ended up being quite a good thing for me, because apparently he never gives other people stuff and lets them complete it for him. So he actually trusted me to do that.

the New York Times, 29 april 2007

taking over from Timbaland
"Earth Intruders" was a 12-minute jam. I made a structure and shortened it into 3 1/2 minutes, and added Konono and Chris Corsano on top. I didn’t change Timbaland’s stuff, really. "Innocence" we edited more, exaggerated all the stops and starts, tightened it up, and I wrote the middle eight into it. ... "Hope" was just the beat. I then added the bass line and the structure. And then Toumani Diabate played on top. Many takes, which I edited in bundles. This album had to be raw and immediate, so I didn’t want to work too much on it.

metromix.com, May 2007

Timbaland
A lot of people think it’s weird her working with me, but I think it’s how she sings on top of my beats that make it.

The Guardian, August 8, 2006

Timbaland
Working with Björk was incredible, it was like working with myself. She is so creative and unafraid to take chances.

www.nypost.com, May 8 2007

working with Timbaland
It was a mutual admiration thing going on, and over the years we had discussed working together one day. And [for Volta] we just sort of decided to go for it. It was a bit of a coincidence that last year was such a huge year for him, because we wrote songs together more than a year ago, and I didn’t really know what was coming. It wasn’t like I was desperate for the hottest producer. I just thought for a long time that we might be really, really different, but we have this tiny little section that we have in common. I guess I was just up for a bit of action in my music, and maybe that’s why this became sort of the moment where we decided to go for it

mtv.com, Mar 14 2007

working with Timbaland
How did you connect with Timbaland ? He sampled my song ’Jóga’ like 11 years ago, and said many times in the press that he really liked my song from 14 years ago called ’Venus as a Boy’. Actually, we recorded the string section in Bollywood for that, and he was really fascinated by that. We’ve met at parties and there has been this mutual admiration thing going on for years, and talk of doing stuff, but it never happened. After doing two or three serious projects in a row, I was just like, ’Okay, where’s the fun ?’ I called him a year ago, and said, ’Let’s do something.’ What was it like working with him ? That was very...very different. I work so much on my own, which I enjoy very much. 90% of every album is me editing on a computer or writing, walking outside writing...

pitchforkmedia, 03-19-07

working with Timbaland
How did you come to meet and work with Timbaland ? I wouldn’t describe him as a close friend but we’ve always kept an eye on each other since we met in 1994. He loved "Venus as a Boy," a track I did in ’93 where the tapes were sent to India and had Bollywood strings in it. That maybe started our mutual interest. And then he sampled my song "Jóga" from ’Homogenic’ for a Missy Elliot track. It was that mutual admiration thing going on. Maybe, looking back on it now, it was that we’re both pretty interested in the, *ahem*... silk road, northern African rhythms and Indian music. Which is quite funny for an Icelandic woman and a guy from southern USA. But I think maybe also it’s not literally us being interested in those places geographically, but also scale-wise. It’s very chromatic,...

XFM Interview, April 2007

working with Timbaland
How did you end up picking Timbaland ? What did he bring to the table ? I have said this before but he was a big fan of "Venus as a boy" , the bollywood strings and I remember him coming up to me at a party and saying he loved the bassline in that song and I felt pretty chuffed because I wrote that ! He also sampled “Jóga“ for a Missy Elliott track so we have had an eye on each other for a while . We were always going to work together one of those days . So I wasn’t really after a hip hop thing , I am just into him as a musician . It was kinda weird after we did that stuff together some hot hip hop producers contacted me thinking I was going to do a hip hop album . I was really flattered but that was not what i had in mind . I first sent Timbaland some of the brass stuff I was...

www.brooklynvegan.com, April 18 2007

working with Timbaland
I walked into the studio with Timbaland with no preparations. Usually I would have already written the song and there would just be a small little space for the visitor. But now I just wanted some challenge. We improvised for one day, and I just sang on top of whatever he did. You just walk in the room and it’s just“ — she made an explosive sound — “pfff !, and I just went pfff !, and we did seven tracks, just p-p-p-p-p-p. You get really smitten by his energy. It’s like, why doubt ? Who needs the luxury of doubt ?

the New York Times, 29 april 2007

working with Timbaland
He’s very impulsive, confident and very male . . . in the positive sense of the word. If you think of the elements, Timbaland 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 put on the spot where you walk into a room and you just do it. First we spent three hours together and did four or five songs, and then we met again for two hours and did three more.

The List (Issue 584,) 23 August 2007

working with Timbaland
Well, rumor spread out that I was doing a commercial hip-hop album, which of course was never my intention. I don’t feel I manipulated anything. I worked with Tim as I have worked with any person. That’s a collaboration.

Harp Magazine, November 2007