Björk: ‘All my dreams came true and I feel like I just discovered my branch on the musical tree’

Björk joins Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 to discuss her new song “Fossora” (feat. Kasimyn) — the title track from her new album due out later this week. She tells Apple Music about creating the track, loving the opportunity to focus on creating the album during the pandemic, how her time in London influenced her as an artist, how grief and losing her mother informs the album, bonding with her children over music, and melding electronic sounds with storytelling on songs like “Hyperpop”.

Björk Tells Apple Music About New Song “Fossora” (feat. Kasimyn)…

There’s a lot of songs that are very calm and then they have a slow build up and its maybe a little bit based on sort of how we were chilling in the pandemic in our houses and making our homes into restaurants and chill out and psychology sessions with each other. But then usually on a Friday night we still need to kind of dance a little bit so we just stand up and change our living room floor into a club. So, yeah…I wanted to try and capture all of those things.

On Creating During the Pandemic…

I had already started a little bit to write when the pandemic hit, and I guess I got blessed because it sort of hit exactly at the sort of time when it would have been really good to go to a desert island and not have any interruptions. So, I did get lucky with the timing. I got really blessed in that sense. What happened is I just got every more into whatever I was into and didn’t get distracted by having to travel or tour or anything. So, I actually loved it, and I don’t think… I was home for two years year without traveling once and I absolutely loved it. It was amazing. During the pandemic I sold my flat in Brooklyn and so all my stuff was in containers crossing the Atlantic. It was the first time in 20 years that all my belongings were in one house and then the pandemic hit, and it sort of exaggerated that feeling of “Yes! I’m home at last. I love it.” I was just pretending I was a proper villager.

On How Spending Time in London Influencer Her Work…

I’m still on my same indie label. When I went to London first in the 90s, I felt like “oh, I found my music” – It was really perfect timing for me because I’d been listening at home to like Kate Bush, Brian Eno, a lot of electronic music, Soft Cell. I was basically obsessed with electronic music but none of my friends were sort of listening to that but when I went to a rave in Manchester in ’89 and I was like “oh my god there’s a warehouse with people just playing just that electronic music all night.” Basically, all my dreams came true and I feel like I just discovered my branch on the musical tree which is basically electronic music I guess. And I’m sort of still on that branch — very happy there because a lot of other people have joined that branch after that that were from the next generation.

On How Grief Informs The Album…

I think this is the longest it’s ever taken me to do an album. It’s almost five years and I really, really loved that because usually I’m in such a hurry. I think maybe the pandemic, like with a lot of people, allowed myself to spend more time on this. But also, life is life… and it just keeps going. My mother also passed away during this time which is something we all have to face at one point I guess, is to say goodbye to your parents. So yeah, there are two songs sort of about that.

On The New Album Being Her “Mushroom Album”…

I started calling this my mushroom album…it started off as some sort of a joke but, it actually is a good sort of visual shortcut for everybody. If you say that to a sound engineer, they understand “oh, okay. Messy, messy, messy.” It is sort of a lingo musician speak or something.

On Bonding with Children Over Music…

I think maybe it’s down to taste. I don’t feel the generational thing that much. In families, you have to unite. You have to find that one album that everybody likes. We totally do that. All families have to do that, right?

On Melding Electronic Music with Storytelling on Songs Like 1996’s “Hyperballad”…

I think at the time I wasn’t so aware of it. I think looking back now that’s sort of maybe a little bit what I was doing. I was going to a lot of raves and dancing a lot. Every single thread of your clothes was wet and you just still kept dancing. It’s completely mental. But I think for me, when I was in that environment I felt that sort of singer-songwriter mentality or sort of storyteller aspect — that was maybe a place it could go next to. So maybe that’s what I did a little bit. But to be honest there have been been in storytelling and electronic music. You’ve got Donna Summer and pioneers who were taking crazy.. Georgio Moroder.. and telling stories on top of it. We could talk about it for 10 hours.