Reykjavík Grapevine - 17.07.2009, Page 6

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 10 — 2009
As part of the promotional campaign
for the new Voltaic box set, Björk
Guðmundsdóttir gave out several
interviews to the local press. Grapevine
was invited to participate, and we of
course jumped at the chance. It’s the
Björk we love and respect, and when
she speaks, we listen. Carefully. So we
won’t waste any more wordcount on
introductions, we got 35 minutes with
Björk, and the following details most of
them.
ON VOLTAiC...
Congratulations on your new box set.
It looks swell. Can you describe the
process of making such a compilation?
How involved are you – do you yourself
choose everything that goes on them?
Well, I did when I made the live box set that
was released six years ago or something.
We’d recorded all the concerts for ten
years, we had many hundreds of hours
of recordings to go through, and we did,
Ásmundur [Jónsson, head of Bad Taste/
Smekkleysa] and I. It was a lot of work,
but it fit me at the time, because I was
enveloped in my nesting hormones. I was
pregnant, and could turn into a librarian.
That’s not usually my strongest side; I am
not a collector, that’s not my thing. When
I was done with that, I thought: ‘OK, in
the future, I am not waiting ten years.’ The
Volta tour would be coming out in 2019,
and that makes no sense. It’s missing the
point.
So I decided to do this as I went along,
which is also the nature of the Volta project.
Vespertine and Medúlla were total studio
endeavours; they were worked on an toyed
with for a long time. I wanted... when I
made Volta, I hadn’t toured for four years,
and I wanted to go out. So Volta took a year
to write and four years to tour. It’s the first
time I make a record like this. Usually it’s
the reverse. Three years crafting a record
and then maybe touring it for five months.
That’s what I did with Vespertine; I put all
emphasis on the creative space and writing,
touring was like an afterthought.
But with Volta, I wanted to get out of
the studio. I was stuck there, making a
record that I knew wouldn’t be good until
after two years of touring. Initially after
its release, I felt Volta was just OK, but the
songs started coming together and by the
end they had taken a shape that I liked.
Rock-animal mode
So you prefer the live versions on Voltaic
over the studio ones?
In the Volta project, at least. It was that
kind of experiment. I wanted to make
raw music. The idea was all this tribal,
rave something, battling for equality and
justice, standing on a mountaintop with
horns, waving f lags. It needed to be raw. It
couldn’t be a three-year studio record with
doilies and patchwork.
So you were conveying a different
emotion than on the previous two
records? More on the physical or primal
side of things?
Yes, yes, very much so. I wanted to do all the
festivals and visit all the continents this time
around. I had left them out for the decade
prior. I hadn’t been to South America and
Asia for ten years, outside of Japan, and I
thought I’d just, you know, go all the way
with this. This might even be the last project
where I’m this sort of rock-animal. Volta
was sort of a rock-animal record.
ON hER NEXT RECORd, ANd PAST
RECORdS...
-Do you write music while touring? In
rock-animal mode? That seems like it
could be interesting to hear...
Well, I don’t usually write when I am
touring. I keep trying, and I do travel with
equipment to do so, but it doesn’t happen.
Partly because you’re inhabiting that other
world that comes with being on tour. Also,
as a singer you are sort of an athlete; you
have to tend to your body, eat right, take a
massage after the long f lights. You turn into
a racehorse that needs to be maintained
and stay in shape – which is fun, but often
frustrating. You’ll just have to focus on
that, so the other animal in you suffers.
I often write melodies on tour, in my
head, I always write the melodies first.
We also worked a lot on the arrangements
for the other songs, we always rehearsed
during soundcheck, we’d practice and add
new songs to the program. The only way to
survive two years on the road was to keep
adding new songs to the programme, right
up to the very last concert. Even if it was
only one song per month, it really saved you;
there was always something fresh to tackle.
We studied the arrangements and changed
them, and we had many options for doing
so. We had a drummer and all these
newfangled electronic instruments to work
with, like computers and the Reactable.
The Reactable is an amazing tool,
and similar developments in the world of
electronic instruments have made it so that
you can now create electronic music using
your right brain hemisphere. Right now,
you don’t have to program a song for ten
years; you can make a whole record using
this movement [waves hand]. Like with
the Reactable, I don’t know if you saw the
tour, but we used the first working model
in the world. Using it is just remarkable,
everything is like playing chess: The beat is
here [gestures to her coffee cup], the bassline
is here [points to a glass of water], you move
them around in relation to one another and
then you add more objects. Or pound on the
console.
This is such an exciting development;
we now have around twenty different ways
to make electronic music live. People think
it’s just ‘Press play’, but it’s not at all. It’s
never the same two times in a row, the
way we’re now doing it. Now you really
have more options for live music than with
traditional instrumentation. All these
new programs that nerds are making in
their bedrooms are just crazy, that you
can operate by moving your hand, pouring
water between containers to set the filters
on the synths...
The promise of a thousand possibilities
Is this something you will employ on
your next album?
Can you smell it? Yes, I am excited about
this. It’s more complicated than pouring
water around, of course, but all these
programs are very exciting and bring
with them the promise of a thousands
unexplored possibilities.
What are you thinking in terms of
the next record? Not so much in how
it sounds, but in terms of themes,
underlying concepts, emotional
spectrum and ideas. I’ve experienced
each of your records as examining
certain concepts or thoughts, Volta being
A Conversation With Björk
interview | Music
Welcome to Iceland
Here’s how to find
www.ja.is
WHAT?
WHO? WHERE?
People Businesses Maps Direction
Quick guide to the information
you need while enjoying your stay
Voltaic:
What’s In The Box?
Björk is an exceptionally prolific
artist, and her vault of must-haves
and curiosities is larger than most.
Indeed, the Voltaic box is packed with
goodies. The basic set has a CD of
live performances from the Volta tour,
deemed by many to be superior to Volta
itself. It has a DVD of live performances.
And another DVD. And another CD.
And some more stuff. There’s also a
triple vinyl + DVD version and a limited
edition CD version. Check out the basic
one:
disc One – CD – Songs from the Volta
tour performed live at Olympic studios
disc Two – DVD – The Volta tour
disc Three – DVD – The Volta Videos
disc Four – CD – The Volta mixes
Volta Tour
Screenings At Háskólabíó
The Volta tour DVD that comes with
the Voltaic box is a pretty sweet deal. It
features an entire concert from the tour
shot in Paris, France, where Björk and
her tight ensemble perform Volta tunes
and various re-arranged favourites
(including Medúlla favourite Who is it?)
at a hall packed with admires. The latter
half of the DVD features her super-
excusive 2008 concert at Reykjavík’s
Langholtskirkja, an intimate and moving
concert that is a must-see for any Björk
fan.
As your great luck has it, you now
have the opportunity to experience the
Volta Tour film on the big-screen, in
high quality surround sound, no less.
The Grapevine is proudly co-sponsoring
screenings of the Volta tourfilm at the
Háskólabíó movie theatre for a limited
time.
Experience the Volta tour at Háskólabíó
in July, Saturdays at 16:00 and
Wednesdays at 18:00. CONTiNUES ON PAGE 32