{"id":74609,"date":"2023-04-10T19:15:39","date_gmt":"2023-04-10T19:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=74609"},"modified":"2023-04-10T21:11:19","modified_gmt":"2023-04-10T21:11:19","slug":"bjork-returns-to-coachella","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/bjork-returns-to-coachella\/","title":{"rendered":"Bj\u00f6rk’s Triumphant Return"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"After spending nearly two years back in her home country of Iceland where she DJed to small crowds and had a small role in The Northman<\/em> alongside Alexander Skarsga\u030ard, Bjo\u0308rk is ready to take the music world by storm \u2014 in a way only Bjo\u0308rk can do. First, she released her new 10th studio album Fossora<\/em><\/a> in the fall and now after 16 years since her last Coachella<\/a> performance, the 57-year-old is returning to the desert stage with all of her greatest hits. For her sets on Sunday, April 16 and April 23<\/a>, Bjo\u0308rk will go back through her three-decade discography accompanied by a local orchestra, for a performance that fans won\u2019t forget.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Here are excerpts from a recent interview with Bjo\u0308rk as she prepares for her return to the Coachella stage.<\/p>\n

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Peter Reynolds:<\/strong> I have to ask about The Northman<\/em>. What made you join the cast?<\/p>\n

BJO\u0308RK:<\/strong> Well, Robert Eggers, the director, came to Iceland and I introduced him to a friend of mine, Sjon, and then they kept in touch, and I didn\u2019t know but two years later they wrote a whole film script. I was accidentally some sort of godmother of the film, and they asked me if I wouldn\u2019t want to appear in it. At first I said, \u201cNo, I\u2019m not really interested, sorry. I don\u2019t want to brag but I\u2019ve been offered quite a lot of big roles through the years and only said no to them.\u201d And Sjon asked again, and I guess we have this unwritten contract where if we ask each other something we say yes. And then when he asked me to be part of this film I said yes as a favor to him. TO be fair, it was only one day of shooting so The Northman only took one day out of my life so not a big sacrifice to be honest.<\/p>\n

PR:<\/strong> How did it feel to be an oracle?<\/p>\n

BJO\u0308RK:<\/strong> I had a wonderful day. Robert is amazing to work with; he\u2019s very fertile and very vibrant and a wonderful director. Also, my scene was with Alexander Skarsga\u030ard and we filed until eight in the morning or something. It was very tough to shoot in this sense and he was wonderful to work with and incredibly helpful to me.<\/p>\n

PR:<\/strong> What made you pick Fossora<\/em> for the title? And if that\u2019s the female version of the Latin word for digger, what are you digging for?<\/p>\n

BJO\u0308RK:<\/strong> Well in this case, it was sort of what 7 billion people were doing together. We were sort of quarantining and digging a hole in the ground \u2014 obviously not literally but more sort of emotionally \u2014 where we were shooting down roots because we were in the same spot for so long. It’s like making this little nest with your loved ones and friends and coworkers and family and digging into the ground, into the soil and shooting down roots.<\/p>\n

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PR:<\/strong> Then the artwork pretty much sums up the album, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

BJO\u0308RK:<\/strong> Yeah, I asked for a set. We built the set and took photographs so it would look like I was underground. Also, the crouching position of my body, it\u2019s this kind of grounding position. Also, the colors, this kind of dark, dark green and dark, dark red are very earthy colors. The plants, they kind of stand for all the music and the growth that happened underground, that it was a very fertile sort of environment. A hopeful environment.<\/p>\n

PR:<\/strong> As your last albums came with apps, specially developed instruments, and other technological gadgets. Why are you shying away from that this time around? Or is that on purpose?<\/p>\n

BJO\u0308RK<\/strong>: I made an app for myself where I can \u2014 now because I write most of my songs walking outside and I wanted to be able to hike outside and make chords while I\u2019m walking, in the moment. This is something I\u2019ve never been able to do before, so there are sone songs written with this app so it was more selfish. You know, I think this is quite exciting where we are with technology now with Zoom and everything, it’s everywhere. It\u2019s like for everyone. And first time in human history, 7 billion people are watching the same TV shows, the same Netflix and I find that very, very interesting. That\u2019s ground-breaking, in a way.<\/p>\n

PR:<\/strong> And Gabber Modus Operandi? How did you find out about these guys from Indonesia?<\/p>\n

BJO\u0308RK:<\/strong> Well, like I said, I am always sort of online looking for new stuff and I discovered them three or four years ago and I was listening to them especially in the pandemic when I didn\u2019t only DJ in my living room but I also DJ\u2019d a couple of places downtown when we had moments of where the rules loosened up a bit in the middle of the pandemic. We did a couple of DJ nights in the buildings where only a few\u2014maybe 50\u2014people could be. I just thought it was really interesting every time I was DJ-ing and then every time I would put them on, people would really start to dance and everybody would run to the dancefloor. I think maybe they just have a rawness that I love and the fact that they are mixing together gamelan rhythms, which is authentic for them, of course, and then putting techno sounds on it so you have this half speed and then double speed. Something in me wanted to go really rough and raw and move away from this kind of technological sort of perfection, to be more messy.<\/p>\n

PR:<\/strong> What made you come up with Troll Gabba? Do you think that\u2019s what trolls are listening to when they party?<\/p>\n

BJO\u0308RK:<\/strong> Well, I know I listen to it when I\u2019m a troll. I think we\u2019re all trolls sometimes, you know? Sometimes we feel like a troll and sometimes we feel like a delicate cat or bird. I think when we feel like a troll, we want to just jump up and down with our fist in the air and get some cathartic release. I think it\u2019s important to dance regularly, all the way to your old age. I think it\u2019s important to have that as part of your lifestyle.<\/p>\n

PR:<\/strong> That\u2019s exactly what we were missing for two and a half years. We couldn\u2019t go out and dance at all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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BJO\u0308RK:<\/strong> Well, at least you can dance in your living room.<\/p>\n

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PR:<\/strong> If we talk about the lyrics: to what degree is this album influenced by the passing of your mother, Hildur, especially songs like “Sorrowful Soil” and “Ancestress?\u201d<\/p>\n

BJO\u0308RK:<\/strong> Yeah, these two songs are written about my mother. “Sorrowful Soil” was written maybe a year and a half before she passed away, so it’s sort of when me and my brother discovered that this was the last chapter in her life, and so it has a lot of sadness in it. I feel “Ancestress,\u201d the later song I wrote about her, that was written after she left us and it’s more sort of about the celebration of life and kind of how like the Irish or the Mexican people look at funerals as an opportunity for celebration. There is some sadness there, of course, but it’s mostly this sort of celebratory celestial ritual when you are saying goodbye to a soul.<\/p>\n

PR:<\/strong> How much of a role model was your mother to you?<\/p>\n

BJO\u0308RK:<\/strong> Hmm, well this is a big question. I can\u2019t remember what poet said, \u201cNone of my poems are about my mother, but all of them are about my mother.\u201d Obviously, I could answer this for a year and still not be finished. I don\u2019t think she was a role model in the sort of way that the sort of patriarchal sort of classical housewife in the kitchen role it\u2019s supposed to be and I\u2019m very happy for that. I didn\u2019t miss any of that, really. I think especially as I get older, I understand better that she was a role model in a sense that she left the patriarchy and she rented a small house on the outskirt of Reykjavik in a community of some wild characters, and we lived in a house that was leaking when it rained and we had to wake up in the middle of the night to empty the bucket. But this was a very happy period for us and I think with a sort of sense of freedom. And she wasn\u2019t really an authority, I wasn\u2019t brought up with discipline of things like this. I mean, some of it was generational because I think everybody in my generation were \u201cthe key children,\u201d the generation of kids who had keys around their neck. The kids, when they came home from school, their moms weren\u2019t there and they opened the door and were home by themselves until their parents came home. I think Generation X, these people became very self-sufficient and they don\u2019t complain much. I think it was a good thing that we very quickly learned how to take care of ourselves. My mother heard me singing a lot as a kid, so she put me in music school when I was 5 and I was in music school for 10 years and I’m grateful to her for that. Also, she put out an album with me when I was eleven. Like ive said before in interviews, I had very complicated feelings about that. It was very exciting to go in a studio and learn how to work. The other people recording the album were amazing teachers to me. But I had quite complicated feelings about becoming a celebrity in Iceland at the age of 11. I think I was too young but my mother meant well. It was with good intention. I don\u2019t think she meant bad. And for two years, all these grown-ups were helping me to make my album. So I am grateful to her for that.<\/p>\n

PR:<\/strong> Now your daughter is also singing on the last song of the album, on \u201cHer Mother\u2019s House.\u201d She’s a model and an actress and she is said to be recoding her own album as well.<\/p>\n

BJO\u0308RK:<\/strong> Yes.<\/p>\n

PR:<\/strong> What made you write \u201cAtopos,\u201d \u201cFungal City,\u201d and \u201cFreefall\u201d? Are you in love?<\/p>\n

BJO\u0308RK:<\/strong> There are some romantic songs in there for sure. I think there is both romantic love on the album and also parental for me as a mother and as a daughter, also. But there are some songs like \u201cFossora\u201d that is more like the love of the human race or some sort of advice, advice to myself for sure, like how to process things and more on. I feel my albums have always had a balance between love, friendship love and romantic love. Obviously, love is a huge subject, right?<\/p>\n

PR:<\/strong> Where do you see yourself in today\u2019s music industry? Are you someone who had a decent amount of success and is using that to simply be free and do whatever you please?<\/p>\n

BJO\u0308RK:<\/strong> To be honest, I\u2019ve always done that. Since I was a teenager, I was in punk bands, and we were on an indie label in Iceland where we were not about making money. I come from this background since I was 14 years old, this kind of DIY where you don\u2019t have to sell out or sell your soul to corporations to be a musician. You don\u2019t have to. And if you always sell your work and you have your own creative control and your own masters, you can do whatever you want for the rest of your life. And that\u2019s pretty much what I\u2019m doing. If a lot of people like it, that always a bonus, but I\u2019ve always been aware that one day it could all go away, but I would still keep making music at my own speed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read the new GRAZIA Gazette: Coachella<\/i> edition<\/b><\/p>\n

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