As a teenager in the 90s, the 1994 Big Day Out was epic. Soundgarden, the Smashing Pumpkins, the Ramones, the Breeders, Teenage Fanclub… And soaring above the wall of grunge guitar was the thrillingly undefinable Björk. Her hair in topknots, she moved across the stage in a dress that resembled a long-sleeved straightjacket, her celestial voice grunting, mewing, whirring. I was awestruck.
Some years and eight albums later, Björk remains a unique artistic force – and she’s as fearless as ever. In this edition, journalist Tom Mann speaks to the world’s most famous Icelander about her new inspiration : finding utopia in our post-truth world, creating a global shift, a conversation about what we want our world to be.
In some ways, it feels like that conversation has begun. In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, we’re at a tipping point in the way we talk about sexual harassment and abuse. Björk has added her voice to the chorus of women sharing their personal stories, united in the commonality of the experience made all the more evident by the million-plus #MeToo posts online, and the many more stories shared in person. In this edition four women, including one of our own Big Issue family members, continue the long-overdue discussion. For me, it goes back to that Big Day Out. Later in the day, in another mosh pit, a man I didn’t know stuck his head under my dress. Then laughed to his mates. Björk’s utopia can’t come soon enough.
“This album, for me, is kind of like a soundtrack to that place that we can all move to after Trump. I think I wanted to create a…utopia [where] you would escape and go to an island and the people would be naked and they’d be playing flutes and it would have birds and flowers that you’d never seen. It would be this kind of paradise.”
