7 MAGAZINE INTERVIEW MAY 26TH 1999
Bj顤k is happy. She loves being a robot. She loves
living in Iceland. And she loves dancing in the dark.
All is full of love and she thinks she has just made
some of the best music she has ever done.
好多雜誌訪問都要講到這個，這麼久了都還一定要說；歌迷炸
彈事件、Bjork曼谷毆打攝影記者...
This is not the same Bj顤k who made the mesmerisingly
elegant, but difficult and painful 'Homogenic'. That
aggressive and conflicting album came from the head of
someone far from cheerful. Just as she was about to go
into the studio to record her third solo LP a deranged
American fan sent her a letter bomb before blowing his
brains out on video. That was 1996.1997 didn't prove any
easier. It was to be the year the tabloids invaded her
personal life: an invasion she was not prepared for and
did not welcome. It notoriously came to a head when the
tiny and gentle Icelandic star fought a camera crew who
had confronted the privacy of her son Sindri at Bangkok
Airport.
Bj顤k was not a happy bunny, but characteristically she
used the sadness she felt to re-evaluate her life and to
regenerate, a regeneration that started with her leaving
her new-found home of London and returning to where she
feels she is meant to be, a regeneration that now appears
to be complete. She has moved on and you can hear it in
her Voice.
說到Bjork正在丹麥拍電影，片名叫Dancer In The Dark，導演是
Lars Von Trier，這部片會參加2000年的坎城影展。裡頭Bjork飾演
一位著迷於音樂劇的捷克女孩（好像是吧）
"I'm a little bit tired, but I am very happy," she squeaks
in her strange fusion of cockney and Icelandic. The reason
she is tired is that it is 9pm in Copenhagen and she has
spent the whole day rehearsing for her first ever film
appearance. Initially asked to score the soundtrack to
Breaking The Waves director Lars Von Trier's new picture
Dancer In The Dark, she is now to star in the film too.
It is a bizarre tale of a downtrodden Czech girl who is
obsessed with US musicals and gets through life by making
up songs in her head. A concept not particularly unfamiliar
to Blork.
"Ever since I was a child, I've had this naive belief
that in daily life in any situation that is awkward, like
when you have to keep up small talk with people you don't
know, it's much more natural to break into a tune in your
mind by closing your eyes and tilting your head."
Bj顤k has always done this, and perhaps this goes some way
to explaining her uncanny talent at writing wonderful songs.
She knows she will always be a singer and musician. Although
she adores working with Von Trier and she is very proud of
her soundtrack - a collaboration between herself and 'Homogenic'
cohort LFO's Mark Bell - she does not see herself as an actress.
Von Trier has a reputation for working with amateurs, so Bj顤k
doesn't really call what she does acting and claims she won't
pursue this new avenue once the film opens in 2000.
下面Bjork說他會忠於音樂，不會浪費太多時間在其他方面；她將拍電影
視為支持他音樂事業的一部份。
"I always feel like I haven't got very much time, maybe
I've got 50 years. I'm not going to waste it trying to be a
racing car driver or a politician or an actress or..." After
a long hum, she decides: "a stamp collector. I'll stick to
music. I look at the film as a way to support my music.
這裡說AIFOL兩個機器人之所以要造愛是因為他們必須互相構造，必須要
加上「愛」機器人才完成。因為成名後的Bjork住在倫敦發生了那麼多問
題，所以她現在搬回冰島的雷克雅維克去住。她說她有時候還是會想念倫敦，
因為那裡有比較好的唱片行，很棒的DJ，而且也交了不少朋友。可是Bjork
覺得自己還是比較適合冰島，那裡接近大自然，但也很現代；她可以隨時
高聲唱歌也沒有人會覺得奇怪；她可以隨時出門散步，不會有歌迷抓狂，
她說在冰島成名不是件危險的事，冰島的人民都很理智的。
The video to her new single 'All Is Full Of Love' also involved
her working with another hot directorial talent. The man who gave
the Aphex Twin breasts, Chris Cunningham, has morphed Bj顤k into a
robot. An exquisite robot with her own slanted eyes and small,
naughty lips. Two robots to be precise. One Bj顤k android builds
another because it needs to love and the two embrace each other,
making for some shockingly beautiful techno soul and 'All Is Full
Of Love' is the perfect description For her current state of mind,
helped, in no small part, by her recent relocation back to Iceland.
"When I left Iceland I was going to go to London for a short visit
and I ended up liking it so much that I stayed for four years,
which is quite a long while. But I now know I function in Iceland
perfectly. It's got nature mountains and winds, and I can at any
moment have a walk and sing at the top of my voice without anybody
finding me weird," she explains. "But it's still a really modern
place. It's a nice combination of nature and techno. I do miss
London a bit sometimes though. It's got excellent record shops and
good DJing and I made really really good friends there, but I do
keep in touch." I wonder does the fame that intruded on her life
in London rear its head in the same way now that she is back living
over a blacksmith's shop overlooking Reykjav璭 harbour? "Fame has
never been a problem in Iceland. Iceland people are brilliant.
冰島的觀光禮品店將Debut專輯和海盜玩具擺在一起。他們希望Bjork就待在
冰島不要再跑到別的地方了...。
They are sailors. They are like, 'So what?' They don't find it
interesting at all. They try to talk down to me all the time, just
to keep me in my place." The tourist gift shops of Iceland might
belie this, with their proudly displayed 'Debut' CDs stacked up next
to toy Vikings, but you can tell from her giggles that Bj顤k is more
than content with where she now lives. Despite being engulfed in
darkness for a large part of the year, for those who have been there
it is easy to understand how one could fall for the magic of the
snow-covered volcanos and timber- framed fishermen's houses. Bj顤k
has owned her flat amongst the bars, streets and boats of Reykjav璭
for nine years and she can see familiar faces from her window.
Bjork跟GUS GUS是鄰居嗎？ 聽Gus Gus居然可以sleep better。可能是覺得
熟識的人就在身邊吧。
"When I'm washing my dishes in the kitchen," she offers in a
voice that has now turned to thick cockney with the odd word
missing, because she hasn't spoken English for ages, "I look out
or my window and I can see Gus Gus faffing about in the studio.
When I go to bed I can hear the beats they are making through my
wall. I find it comforting. It makes me sleep better."
Beats have always found a place in Bj顤k's music ever since she
left indie-punksters The Sugarcubes, but she says she now finds it
hard to know what dance music is. "I never know where to draw the
line. What is dance music and what isn't? I'm still listening to
mostly electronic music, which is instrumental, and then I listen
to quite a lot of, I guess what you call classical music. I don't
know what you'd call it, guess it's eccentric, ehm, electric music.
Yeah. I listen to eccentric electric music in my house all the time.
People like Aphex Twin and Squarepusher, a lot of bands on labels
like Rephlex. It's definitely not four to the floor."
被問到這三張專輯，Bjork一開始回答：我已經不聽這些東西了，現在這些全
是垃圾。不過她又說：每一張專輯在製作的當初對她來說都是她的孩子，在
每一段時間內她做出最大的努力，她其實很在乎這些專輯的，每一張專輯都
代表著那段時間內的生活。
Although they are all very different records, each of her
three solo LPs. 'Debut', 'Post' and 'Homogenic' have stamped dance
music onto her soaring voice, whether it be Nelee Hooper or Mark
Bell at the controls. When asked about each one, Bj顤k, for the
first time, loses her positive, up-beat demeanour. "I can't really
listen to them because I think they are all crap now," she states,
before pausing to reconsider. "I think each one of them was a child
of their times for me. I did the best I could each time, I really
care for them. It's like a photo album for me. That's my life. Each
album was my life at the time."
Her voice gets quieter with each word and it becomes obvious she
is upset - all the memories welling up: "You're making me all
mushy now. They are more like memories than albums. It's very
emotional for me. Lots of memories."
Bjork必須寫歌以保持神智清醒，不過還沒有拼湊成一張專輯。她說下一張
專輯是跟Homogenic截然不同的。（每個歌手不都這樣希望）
So we can, of course, again expect a different set of memories,
a different attitude encapsulated in the new songs she is writing
for the next LP. "I write songs all the time to keep sane, I'm not
finishing an album at the moment, but I've already got eight or nine
pieces down. It's going to be the opposite of 'Homogenic'," she
firmly states while laughing. "It is hard to explain because I'm in
the middle of it.
'Homogenic' was very confrontational. Everything was on eleven,
both emotionally and the strings and the beats. Like everyone had a
flag and a trumpet and a dude-dude-loo!" She squeaks like a trumpet
fanfare. "If ' Homogenic' was at eleven, my new stuff is at minus
eleven. It's very happy and I guess 'Homogenic' was angry. This is
happy and very quiet and very introvert and very micro." Whether
she is piecing together a film in Denmark, listening to eccentric
electric music above a blacksmith's or singing on her own beneath the
Northern Lights, it is good to know that all is full of love and Bj顤k
Gudmundsd鏒tir is smiling, full to the brim.
'All Is Full Of Love' is out on June 7th on One Little Indian
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