Bjork
"There's no map to human behaviour."
bjork
Bjork is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, actress, record producer, and DJ. Over her four-decade career, she has developed an eclectic musical style that draws on a range of influences and genres spanning electronic, pop, experimental, classical, trip hop, IDM, and avant-garde music, while collaborating with a range of artists and exploring a variety of multimedia projects.
Bjork was like discovering a beautiful creature from another world. Not only in her delivery coupled with her extraordinary vocal sound, but there seemed to be intelligent design behind every song on her album " Debut". To top it all of she was an Artist who seemed to make a statement with how she dressed. I was completely won over. Like Neneh Cherry before her I wanted to emulate her style. I wanted to be as brave, interesting so I brought her up as an inspirational reference in the hope that some magic would happen.
In particular, I mentioned her when I began working in Artist Development. The truth was that I hadn't really understood fully who Bjork was as a musician at that time. I was still seeing her under the glare of fame. That was until much later, after a session for a client of mine when an engineer and I got into a heated disagreement about the direction that the Artists should be moving in. I was there trying to paint a picture of an Artist who is unique, the music is electro but downbeat, and visually quirky, an Artists who carve their own path. So naturally again I used Bjork as a reference when the guy I was talking to angrily stopped me in my tracks and told me that I needed to spend more time understanding who Bjork was beyond her collaboration with Massive Attack Producer Nelly Hooper. That she was so much more than just come out of the blue unique discovery. Feeling miffed and ready to return armed with proof of my argument after some serious research I went home immediately and googled everything I could on Bjork.
Days later when I surfaced, I was changed. Suddenly her Art was no longer this mystery to me. It was still unique, original and beautiful, but I learned that a lot of work had gone into the Artist that became Bjork. She had been a child prodigy and there for a child star in Iceland, and had spent most of her life creating the work that ended up on the records I loved so much. This was a woman who had studied music all her life. Then she joined a pop-rock band that had some success, and eventually, she began collaborating with all sorts interesting musical characters before ending up connected to the Bristol Trip Hop and UK electronic scene. At this moment my admiration turned into inspiration. Of course, I am not Bjork but I understood at that moment that to make such sensational music such as Biophilia which was recorded from sounds in nature, you have to have music running through your veins. You literally have to be able to hear music everywhere. Like Neo in the Matrix when he realises that his brain is creating the reality, I imagine her brain decoding sound and reordering it how she wants it. I realised that I was missing a vital piece that was necessary for what I wanted to create. I needed to acquire the skills, that would give me the tools to unlock my own Artist inside of myself.
I had spent most of my music career either working with recording Artists or Jazz musicians who taught me to feel my way around the music, but no one had actually taught to speak its language. Which meant I spent more time trying to find ways to communicate my ideas and often they were lost in translation. I could see how much freedom it gave her and what brilliance. Like teaching someone to read who has managed to get by without it so far, but can never go past a certain point. I realised that I had been handicapped musically all this time. This realisation was an opportunity for me, a plan, that I had to commit myself to music by learning as much about it as I could. Starting with basic theory.
I spent hours pouring over Bjork's records, and she has inspired me to learn about music and sound. She opens me to new music from everywhere, from the natural to the unnatural instrumentation that surrounds us. Through her, I have learned to break from convention and adventure not only in writing but playing with sound too!
She is an Icon.