the video for Earth Intruders

I guess for this one I felt a bit sensitive about "Earth Intruders." Part of the imagery coming from the tsunami and Indonesia, part of it the dream and people with aids in Africa, and part of it ending up working with Timbaland. And me being an Icelandic person whose totally looking at things form the outside a lot of the time. Like how Timbaland flew to the recording session in a private jet. But just 200 years ago probably his ancestors were slaves, and good for him, he should be flying in private jets. You know, I’m not criticizing that for one second. Seeing black people in the US finally getting a little bit of respect for what they do. Like they’ve won three oscars or something, I can’t remember what it is. So that song is a little bit about that, and wanting to balance that power structure on the planet a little bit. [laughs]

It’s sort of a justice song. Like, "We want justice NOW !" So I ended up feeling "How on earth am I gonna do that visually ?" And I ended up finding an animator who’s French, but he was brought up in Africa, and did gorgeous cartoons. For example, one called Kirikou. I just think he portrays people with dark skin in a very on-level sort of way that is very equal. It’s not like the colony style that I think Africans are exhausted with, kind of like "Oh, I’ll kill the tiger and put its head on my wall", like it’s an exotic creature or something. I mean, me being from Iceland, I’ve never seen an elf in my life, but still 20 years later, everybody calls me "elfin" or whatever. So basically, (sorry it’s another long answer) Michel Ocelot is doing the video to this one. And it’s animated. And it’s about the Earth Intruders.

XFM Interview, April 2007