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Part 1
I realized that in all the time I've been seriously listening to music, I've never really thought much about my 'relationship' with one of my top favorite artists. So, here it is. I've been adding to this little by little over the past few days, so this is going to be a two parter (I want it to be complete). Pt. 1 will be a sort of overview; Pt. 2 a sort of album review section.


OK, so my dicovery of Bjork’s music dates back to 2007 when I still had LaunchCast radio (before they defunced it for copyright reasons), and I remember thinking; “wow, she’s a bit intimidating." and then "This must be the kind of music those super ultra-modern people listen to at big expensive parties. How pretentious.”

Her music kept coming up, despite my reservations. And so, as I started to grow familiar with the melodies, the instrumentation, her distinctive, unforgetable vocal style; I started to catch the bug. So many artists that seem strange and alien at first end up not being so different from myself, and throughout the 5 years I’ve been getting to know Bjork, I seem to have found in her something of a kindred spirit.

In many ways, Bjork is actually a muse for me in my artistic pursuits. Her emphasis on concept, genuine self-expression, and her one-of-a-kind style remind me that people are interested in looking at things in new ways, maybe even the iconoclastic ways that I like to look at things.

As I mentioned before in the Bjork thread, and from my own experience with her music, I feel she is often misunderstood by the masses. Much of this distorted impression seems to come from the normative view of the media, in which anything beyond a certain point left of center is something to be analyzed by means of simplistic deduction. Bjork herself has said that there is often some creative liberty that journalists take with her life story, (a fact that she's actually proud of).

I agree with the notion that genius comes with more than a just hint of eccentricity; and most people don't really know what to make of eccentric personalities, especially in the art world. Therefore, they often risk missing the genius for the idiosyncrasy. But sometimes it takes following an artist into their own personal rabbit hole to discover their curious and impressive imaginary world. Music is an incredible medium in which to do so.

For the aforementioned reasons, there is only one high quality interview that I've ever seen Bjork give; and that's because - for once - the interviewer seemed genuinely interested in her artistic perspective, instead of her artistic persona- she asked the right questions. If you watch most other interviews available online, there is usually a sense that the interviewer is treating her as a novelty- neither taking her seriously nor caring about her seemingly left-field ideas, dismissing them as mere quirky statements spoken in a charming Icelandic accent. For someone with well-developed and complex philosophies about their art, a brief appearance on the Conan O'Brien show in front of an audience expecting some witty back and forth isn't really the ideal situation.

There might be some good that comes from being an artist ahead of her time. It allows Bjork to maintain a sort of enigmatic, legendary status, in which people never seem to have a good grasp on who she is. After all, most of us will never know her personally anyway. It probably also means that she can enjoy much more privacy than other artists of similar celebrity; although I could be wrong about that.

In this interview, which is probably one of the longest and most scintillating I've seen her give, you get to see Bjork open up in a way she rarely ever does. There are so many insights shared, and a lot of things she says, I've been able to relate to throughout most of my life. It has become one of my favorite interviews of all time.



I was particularly interested in her reminiscence about her 10 years in music school. It called to mind my own rebellious stance toward the schools I went to. Really, our upbringings were somewhat similar. I essentially lived at my nan's house on the next street over, where she taught a school for kids with learning disabilities. (I don't have a learning disability, so I went as an alternative to public school). My grandpa, who taught me about astronomy and geography, is a scientist, a former "hippie", and an environmentalist who is resolute that capitalism will be our demise. The school had a somewhat utopian setup; everyone I went to school with was either a friend of the family or a cousin. As far as we knew, there was no such thing as bullies, there was practically no schedule, and learning was almost as fluid and natural as breathing. Up until I was nearly 7 years old, I had already learned high school level geography, art theory and astronomy.

The switch over to public school was rough. I had to deal with all the pressure to conform, "behave" (act like all the other kids), and stay structured. I didn't, though. I was a "good kid", but hopelessly abnormal. And teachers didn't like it. Like Bjork, I spent some time in the principal's office for my insubordination. I think one of the reasons I got so into Bjork's music is that we are both people of intuition, who like doing our own thing in our own way, even when some people don't understand, and sometimes when it's against the "rules".

I realized also that both of us like to build bridges between the same kinds of opposites. In art, I like to feel that there's a sense of harmony between feelings and knowledge; the self-expressive aspect and the conceptual aspect; what is accessible and what is alien; between the ideas of technology and nature, the urban and rural, the electronic and acoustic. Like I explored in the second part of the tribute to my dad (in regard to electronic music), I've never felt a sense of alienation from the electronic world; but rather a sense of harmony with it; it sparks my imagination, and hightens my creativity. If Bjork is right, each up and coming generation will likely feel more comfortable with those more electric elements of life, which are inherently a part of our very nature.

Like Bjork, I too am late to the game when it comes to breaking away from my family life and finding those people that I can identify with and learn from. It's really an act of courage to stake out your own life, and embrace maturity and adulthood in that way. Hopefully in the coming years, my art will develop into something that means as much to other people as it does to me, and expresses who I am as a free standing entity. And who knows, maybe they'll take notice in bigger ways than I could expect.
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