Reykjavík Grapevine - 12.09.2008, Side 23

REYKJAVÍK GRAPEVINE | ISSUE 14—2008 | 23
Step into
the Viking Age
Experience Viking-Age Reykjavík at the
new Settlement Exhibition. The focus of the
exhibition is an excavated longhouse site which
dates from the 10th century ad. It includes
relics of human habitation from about 871, the
oldest such site found in Iceland.

Multimedia techniques bring Reykjavík’s
past to life, providing visitors with insights
into how people lived in the Viking Age, and
what the Reykjavík environment looked like
to the first settlers.
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INTERVIEW BY SveInn BIRKIR BJÖRnSSon — pHoTo BY gAS
Let’s start with a short summary of Björk’s letter.
Her main complaint was that for the last seven
years, Valgeir Sigurðsson has been wrongly
credited as a producer on her album Vespertine
(2001), and that while he worked as computer pro-
grammer and a recording engineer on the album,
he was not a part of the production or the writing
process for the album. She offered four possible
explanations for this misconception: 1) “The pop
critics of this world have not totally yet worked
out the difference between engineering, program-
ming, writing and producing electronic music.” 2)
“It could be that this is some degree of sexism.”
3) “I’ll admit that one thing could confuse things:
people have to use their ears (sic!) and actually
read the credit list to get this information. 4) “One
thing that could have kept this misunderstanding
alive is that neither me nor Valgeir Sigurðsson have
bothered to correct it. But I am doing it now.”
“For a long time I thought it would be child-
ish to correct this misunderstanding,” Björk ex-
plains. “Now it has persisted so long that I am go-
ing to stop making a fool of myself. Maybe I’ll be
the one who gets burned for correcting this now,
but maybe it means that on my next albums, the
media will do their homework.” So, is the media to
blame? “It seems as if the music media does not
have a tradition yet for interpreting how people
in electronic music are credited. Everyone is just
called a producer. I can understand when people
look at a traditional rock group, and they can see
who is playing bass and who is playing drums,
so it might take some time for the music press to
learn the difference between who is doing what in
electronic music,” she says. “I can understand that
my generation might have difficulties understand-
ing this, but I am surprised to learn that today’s
generation has the same problems. Electronic mu-
sic is not new anymore. It is just as traditional as
rock music.”
Is this caused by sloppy journalism? “Hmm...
Sexism and Sloppy Journalism
Björk has a few well chosen words for the music press
In the last issue of the Reykjavík
Grapevine we published an open
letter from Björk, where she lam-
basted the music press collectively
for being sexist and not doing their
homework. Her letter provoked
some controversy, and generated a
lively Internet debate in the blo-
gosphere on sexism in music and
the inadequacy of the music press.
As an editor of a magazine that
covers music a great deal, and the
recipient of her letter, I decided to
sit down with her to gain further
insight into some of the issues she
addressed.
I think sometimes the standard is really not good
enough. Something starts out as a rumour, and
then that story circulates until it considered a
fact,” she says and adds that she sometimes won-
ders why the standard in magazines on other art
forms, visual arts, film and literature, seems to be
higher than in the music press.
Another possibility Björk has mentioned is
sexism; does she think that there is a conscious
effort to push women down? “No, not at all. I don’t
think anyone has any ill intentions. I mentioned
four possibilities and sexism was just one of them.
I was just coming trying to come up with expla-
nations. Sexism is a very square subject, it is still
sort of a taboo, and you couldn’t really bring up a
more boring subject,” says Björk. “This happened
to me with Mark Bell as well on Homogenic. Peo-
ple believe he did everything on that album, when
he only did a few beats. The beats that define that
album, the beats from Jóga, Bachelorette and
Five Years for example, the distorted beats, which
I described in the media as my attempt to make
volcanic beats, Mark Bell did not do those beats,
but he has often been credited with making them,
and producing the whole album.”
“I know Goldfrapp has had the same prob-
lem. Everyone seems to think she just does vocals.
She recently said that whenever she and (collabo-
rator) Will Gregory are interviewed together, she
is asked about her dress while questions about
their equipment are directed at Gregory. Missy
Elliott, too whenever people write about their mu-
sic, they always talk about Timbaland, too. I have
heard the same story from so many women, the
exact same thing. M.I.A., Peaches, Missy Elliott,
Joanna Newsom, they can’t believe it, but it has
happened to all of them. There is a reason people
don’t talk about this, as it might be the most bor-
ing subject ever, but I am willing to take it upon
me if it means that in the future, journalists will do
their research.”
ElECTRONICA 101 BY BjöRK
In an attempt to clear up some of the
perceived confusion surrounding the
recording process in the electronic genre,
Björk agreed to write us a short description
of the role of everyone involved. “I hope
this will simplify things for most people,”
she states. So here it is, straight from the
horse’s mouth:
PROGRAMMER
Person who will program a computer to
make patterns or sounds under instruc-
tions from producer, songwriter or ar-
ranger. This does not include song writing,
arranging or production.
ENGINEER
Person who places microphones and wires
in or around instruments and records
them. This person also operates the mix-
ing desk. Not to be confused with mixing
engineer which is something different.
MIxING ENGINEER
This person will receive all the music
that has been made and recorded and is
responsible for all the sounds to sonically
blend in the best possible way.
MASTERING ENGINEER
This person will take the final mix and
make sure it will work in every format of
equipment it will eventually be played in.
like car stereos, clubs, headphones and
so on...
ARRANGER
Person who does arrangements for acous-
tic instruments like strings, choirs, music
boxes, brass, orchestras and so on. Most
often written out in “classical” scores.
PRODuCER
Person who has creative musical vision
how the song should be arranged/pro-
grammed /recorded. Makes decisions
which instruments should be used, what
structure the song should have, what kind
of performance is required from the musi-
cians and is the leader in the studio.