Björk: The CORNUCOPIA Interview | Apple Music

I think that's one of the beauties of getting older is that you become more like the ceiling of a cathedral there's like thousand pieces and it takes years to make so you're trying to get the whole so I think with this chronopia Beast what I'm really trying to think is is holistic and then there is the other side of me which is more about that take you know keep it real these are the contradictions that kind of Define bu's remarkable Journey this punk rock Kid born and raised in Iceland who found inspiration in the infinite

vastness of nature this voice who seeks companionship in the circuitry and Technology of modern software all of it wrapped up in this incredible performance cornicopia which is the reason I got to sit down for the first on camera conversation in more than 10 years with the go I won't her no I won I'm so happy to see you good to see you thank you so much for everything and obviously that's a broad statement but you have given us so much over the course of your life and I'm so glad that we've met again at this

point where I feel like so much of your life's work is showing up in this remarkable film that feels like just an incredible embodiment of of what matters to you and what should matter to us cornicopia oh thank you so much yeah it is kind of interesting because we did the first half of the film and the show after doing Utopia the album came out 2017 so some of the songs I started writing straight after uh wura so like January I don't know 2013 or whatever then Co came in the middle so we decided okay

let's postpone the tour and I did a whole new album and then we decided to add the new album songs in it as well and then when I sat down and we've done like a whole post- production of for whole whole year which is a new thing in my life I'm always learning new things and I was like you know hell it's basically 10 years of my life it's from 2013 yeah to like 2014 11 years yeah so it is it does span a lot of stuff and a lot of different things and obviously first

you're doing it just more for the sort of cornucopia piece but then you discover also that it does have like a an emotional curve as well you know what did you learn by experiencing it after you had performed it what did you feel different when you're watching it back well I was quite proud of uh because we did the vura VR and then we did like seven different VR videos and that's kind of has a pros and cons because the people who end up seeing the VR pieces are maybe some sort of Sometimes some Elite

people who have the gear you know so I did pick some of the best pieces from that so it ended up being like a selection of the avatars that I done with different directors all the way from the notet Avatar to the family Avatar of wura to you know the avatars of uh the gate and of utopia and then you know and then L and papasa and then all the way till you know now and with with uh with Nick Knight and so basically there is like a sub story in the film of avatars who

are sort of like marionet or or like sort of like uh like dolls who represent me at different stages and it was quite because some of it was in VR some of it was in music videos some of it it was in all different places and to get it all in like 90 minutes to have them all appear and it's all by different people and all with different color pette and and emotional uh hopefully uh expression that uh yeah it was for me was quite moving to see the more back to back like the avatars

go through the film you know yeah and yet it feels like a gift for us I mean very personal experience for able to give for us how did you sort of go about filling out the middle and creating a timeline through the music that you've created across your life with such a a specific beginning and end point how did you go about selecting certain songs across your your music career that would best tell the story that's a very good question I think it's mostly with Instinct and sometimes you know because I've obviously been like I'm

like an old punk so from the age of 14 I've been writing set lists you know so you you kind of wanting to trying to create a curve that works like a structure that works so that obviously is a big thing but then you pick songs like Isabel maybe because of the plant reference and because there was this whole plant theme utop with with uh flowers both alien imaginary and real ones and then with the mushrooms of fur so there was sort of like a plant theme also through the whole thing um I think I

started because obviously with vura it was so chronological I decided to have it in completely the correct same order as I wrote the songs and people I trusted that the fans they have wura then Utopia and for Sora obviously if you play them back to back there is a certain storytelling or timeline but I kind of shuffled them up for the gig whatever like makes the show work you know yeah like like there is and then I was maybe thinking also more about the emotional story of you know in the beginning you you have riddles

to solve and you're stuck in something and then in the middle hopefully you attempt to solve it and then you know with the choir pieces and then you come out the other end end with hopefully some sort of solutions I mean not till the end of your life but just at least for now some resolution yeah some idea of where you might want to go next or what's important exactly so to try to create that sort of uh emotional curve of catharsis somehow yeah I'd love to know that as you're making the music at what

point does your creativity start to wander and do you start to think this could be something interesting in the technology space this could be something where I could perform and a unique environment or I could incorporate other collaborators to build something else than just the music I'm making here at what point um does that start to sort of happened during your writing process or creation yeah that I mean it's a super good question I mean I usually start because I always write like one song a month one every two months doesn't matter what happens in

my life it's kind of like the full moon or it's just like a rhythm because I've been doing it so long so I I think the minute when I like I release an album part of me is like so relieved and so bored with the subject matter that I'm like super ex excited to do something complete opposite so I start Gathering like info or or research or whatever TCH is going on as well but then just to contradict what I just said please I'm also really get bored very easily so I never want to do

it twice the same yeah so sometimes you know I would first write all the songs like I did wura just with string Arrangement songs and then I do the next stage or sometimes I will start the complete other you like with Utopia maybe on flute Arrangements you know doing flute arrangements for a year you know and uh rehearsing with flute players in my cabin every Friday and with us thriving there and and and jelling together as a group and and just becoming really with friends and that becomes sort of the heart of of of an

album and then afterwards I will stick other stuff on top so I think yeah so it's a mix of of you know what's going on you know I try not to be like so bring you the third angle just to contradict the other two I try also not be like uh directed by technology you know I want craft to be you know the soul comes first and the craft is to assist the soul to express yourself I'm so glad you said that because I've always thought that you really have I felt that you and maybe

a very small selection of your peers an important time found a way to um allow technology to find its voice in a different way I felt like we were trying to find use technology to enhance our voice and I always want to ask you like if this resonates with you you were searching for the voice and the technology to see what it had to say yeah I think the way I look at it is we are all such sub marins and we have so many things we can express but also a lot of things that

all of us just can't express that's un unexpressable some of it thank God we can express through music not necessarily even if we are musicians or not just by dancing or listening to music at home or whatever but then I've always thought look at technology as this kind of like a magic key you know that it can reach the spots that the other two can't you know you know when the first touch screen came it was like oh my God I can map out musicology you know I wish I had 3D screen when I was

in music school you know and I could see you know how counter point Works in physics you know it's a gravity driven thing you know not like something you read in this thck book you know so I think sometimes uh technology obviously we made technology and sometimes it catches up with us and and allows us to map something that actually is very it's like drinking water that makes it easier uh yeah like I've said many times like I was so happy when the laptop came and and then finally when you could record on mountain tops

while I'm hiking with you could bring your phone with you I'm like wow finally technology can I can go to Nature yeah and my studio is in nature not in some some uh stuffed studio with foam and no windows in middle of a city you know so I think technology we are slowly getting more closer to the ideal way how we want to express ourselves one of the things that's been so inspiring about your music in particular in the last sort of as you said 11 to 15 years is as you've gone back and and

immersed yourself in the environment you were born in the nature that surrounds you you brought technology with you you never rejected it you've combined the two and found a beautiful Harmony between these two things in your music and in your performance how has that changed your relationship with technology bringing the technology back into nature well I mean I work a lot like I I just to be really functional answer to you is I mean I started using Protools in 99 I started using cellus software in 99 ER so I have for 25 years been doing

like I can do I can have my laptop in the middle of nowhere and work on a really complex music arrangement with with nothing there you know for for I can work on a song for months you know just go really detail you know and that's amazing and I've gotten really into other softwares like melodine which I really like lost the plot because I just went Bonkers for it and for me nature is so much just about being there it's about the space for me it doesn't have to be like clim the Himalayas or as

much as I respect people who do that like the sort of highrisk effort nature experiences for me I get most out of it just to just to be there just to be feel the oxygen and feel the energy and feel the wind and and be next to a lake and when you sit down and you're working on something if you're in tune does it does it give you melody does it give you sound does it give you things in real time and then you can try to replicate through the technology and ultimately collaborate with with

nature as you're inside it yeah absolutely I mean I've been hiking and writing Melodies walking uh since I was sick so I mean at the time I didn't realize what I was doing because you know kids are kids but so yeah definitely it's it's very you know it's a very big part of what I do and it wasn't until I I Grew Older that I understood you know reading about aboriginals and the song lines and that there's a Melody for each Canyon and for each Hill and and that it's it's it reflects you know there's

you write a everybody writes same melody in this Canyon and a different kind of Melody on that Canyon so there definitely is some sort of a you know biomorphic sort of thing going on but I mean also that's not the only way to to approach nature to hike you know I think there are so many other other ways I think the space I think you know I live on a beach in reik and for me it's not even so much even about the ocean it's just that there is 50% of my gron is nothing space

space yeah so I'm I'm I'm I like space yeah so and I and I actually read some biographies of composers and a lot of them end up even though they make music that's insane they they make they often end up moving like away from cities and into uh like just to get Space just to have silence so so their sort of internal musical monologue can grow I love so for example doing arrangement or mixing albums in cities because that's more like afterwards that's more the dialogue or the sort of you know deta work yeah yeah

yeah and I mean I love people I don't want to sound like I'm like I've got not a total monk you know but I I also have like amazing friends and going to cities and dancing and so yeah both balance of the both I think balance of the both do you have an earliest musical memory do you have something that was formative for you as a young person as a as a very young person that you can actually trace this curiosity and the way that you've moved through music and fallen in love and collaborated in

this space that in a way it set you on this path I mean I think it's a mixture of memories uh and I'm not sure what exactly came first I I definitely remember in my family when we would go on a vehicle like driver or boats I would just start humming and it was very internal but people would sort of go quiet and listen and I could tell that PE people found it relaxing you know and also when I was in school buses when we would drive to on trips people the kids would like ask

me to just hum you know it wasn't like like singing loud it was more sort of internal humming or when the first uh you know drip coffee machine came they had this kind of sound to it my friend she would tell me that I would like sit next to it and like sing along with the sounds you know is so I definitely like I like sort of internal sounds you [Music] know for someone who is so identifiable as a as as a unique individual in the Arts you are an incredible collaborator and I know that

you love to collaborate because it goes wide and it goes vast and there's a lot of inspiration in that what's important towards setting the right tone for collaboration well I think it's different story with every person I think I've been super blessed because in my 20s and 30s i c collaborate with a lot of people I mean then and before that when I was in bands that was very like you know a six people marriage sort of thing which I did for 10 years and I loved that you know but then when I was done

I was like done but I I have to say last 15 years uh I've I've grown more fewer relationships and deeper you know and the relationship I have like with James marray which is he is the the co- visual director of all my my visuals with me and it's a com conversation that we always have you know and then also have to say with with Alejandra with ARA that too was was pretty epic but I think you try to read or or or pick up by some sort of Morse coat the other person where they're

growing or where they have hindrances and they probably in a sort of claro way do hope do the same thing weirdly for you because it's one of these weird things if you hit like that coordinate it's it's really generous both ways like it flows back and forth and it's sort of like an equal thing and and it gives you energy it doesn't take energy so it's like a feeling you know and then I think I think it's super important to every two or years or three years you have to rename the relationship and redefine what

it is because both everybody changes all the time and so you have to grow like next to each other hopefully um so and sometimes not you know sometimes it it's it has a a clock attached to it you know and then that's also a beautiful thing you know Seasons yeah exactly so I I I'm not saying I always succeed but I do try to be sort of you know graceful in understanding the nature of the Beast and and being hands off and just letting it be and evolve into what it is you know and and

trust it too right yeah trust is the key word I think isn't it and like you said you know even early on in your career when you stepped into your own solo experience you seemed open to trust even then it it really seem like you were leading with ego thank you that's very kind I mean I was very protected for 10 years in in like band and and with BST in Iceland they were all older than me and they would sort of protect me and then I I also have to do a shout out to

uh Derek bit and W independent because they have basically he's been my record company and manager since I was 16 and I never i' a lot of my musician friends they go through like Terrors and horrors of all kind of things exploding and Deals and D I never never had to do that I and I always had full creative control from like I never once you know had to ask for you know get get okayed from somewhere creative control I know it's an obvious statement but is that sort of is that sentence number one on

page number one is that kind of ultimately the most important thing to strive for is to be left alone yes I mean I I say you if you don't compromise to your vision I think it's better in the long run it's maybe hard to harder in the beginning but it's easier in the long run because I'm getting fruits now when I'm older from a lot of stuff just because I I stuck to my guns setting boundaries early on yeah and and integrity it I have to say it does pay it does pay in the long

run not right away but but definitely it's if you're in it for the long run that's the way to go I think to really just listen to your inner voice and really follow that you know your instinct yeah when we met the first time in 1996 I feel like you were on the verge of something that most people aspire to which is this idea of international recognition and success and fame and all these words that get kicked around and over time we've learned that there's a a lot of potentially destructive attachments to those terms but

you made a conscious decision to reject that to not immerse yourself in those terms and to move somewhere else was that a reaction in many respects to what we're talking about the idea of wanting to to ensure that you protect your integrity and that the compromise is limited to nothing I think so part of it I think also I was blessed because I had in Iceland even though we were just a tiny company very DIY yeah we are very self-sufficient and that does change everything because if everything goes wrong you just do records in re

you know so I knew I knew what it felt like to not have to compromise you know and that the like the industry follows the music not the music follows the industry I knew what that felt like and looked like so I was very excited when I came here first and was invited to all the alist parties but then I I just knew like wow that's amazing I feel very blessed that I could taste this but I knew I'm not if I would have written kept writing songs in that environment with like papzi on my

windows and people follow me around I would have probably done it because I'm sort of bit greedy the more songs the better you know that's what runs me you know my makes my clock tick but then I just couldn't really work in that environment so I accidentally went to Spain and did homogenic and then I was just like yes okay yeah I get the distance so I can go back to what my life was before where I I live in places like Iceland or nature and then I just visit the city just for a short

time and then I sneak out again but that's just me I think it's also like what you're used to you know like uh or oxygen levels did you know like in regular there's 40% oxygen in the air in a city like New York there's only 20% yeah so you're actually getting it's what you used to I think as well you know yeah you know you you did remove yourself and began this beautiful Journey where you it it seemed that every time you showed up it was very deliberate and thoughtful and I want to be here

I'm not I don't have to be here I want to be here I want to release this music I want to play this song um but I a quote really jumped out to me recently I don't like to requote but I I wanted just a further thought on this if you can if you can find one where you said you know that regardless of that that that Fame does have a destructive quality to it and that looking through your life there's there's it's it's not healthy to raise a family or to try to have relationships

in a Fame in a Fame based environment and I just sort of wondered for people who still strive for that really from your perspective what is destructive about it um well I only did it for and it's so long ago I hardly remember what it's like you know I'm very blessed in Iceland because uh I just go you know literally in my pajamas to my local food shop and nobody gives a so I've lived that life for like 20 years so uh my Cafe my swimming pool my you know I got my little life going

and and in Iceland we we don't we just think H oh that's influencer stuff is silly so that's also does help and also I have always insisted and my fans have been super super uh patient with me and I've seen sometimes they chat online I don't check it often but when I check it I see they're like oh you know don't bothered her yeah she wants okay I love that as well I love that you said those boundaries and people listen and respect them yeah and and I think it's actually cool that we get all

kind of celebrities we get celebrities who want to be bothered 24 seven and they're really toxic and delicious you know I love these guys too you know and there's other very like introvert uh eccentric celebrities who are not just left in peace and I I think this should be the whole range you know I'm I'm all for diversity you know [Applause] one of the things I love about Cornucopia the performance in the music is beautiful but this idea of of connecting to the root of things fungi being a key image that flows throughout this beautiful

performance I know you did a voiceover as well um and you contributed to to a documentary which must have been an amazing way to fulfill your David aten BR dreams gos yeah exactly um I just wonder sort of when that image came to mind or that idea of of of Life at its purest form kind of spreading and very fast and having it it's kind of very kind of unspoken influence over everything um where were you when that kind of that inspiration struck you from a creative point of view I think it always starts from

sound for me and I think when I started on Utopia it was all about flutes and Element air and no Earth at all so I lived in sort of this environment of flutes and and I was did Utopia with with ARA and we were like Okay syns sounds like flutes flutes sounds like syns and air air air air and then after 3 years of that I was like okay I've had it with there and Co happened so was like okay let's do soil so so it came from like really okay just just being in for

two years in AR and just loving it because thankfully we didn't have to change our lifestyle that much in Co and so it just felt like digging your feet into the ground and just really like so I ended up doing like a year of Bas clarinet Arrangements six space clarinet and then um Hippa katri who is my mixing engineer and mastering engineer like genius she was graceful enough to fly to Iceland in the middle of Co and and she basically set up in my basement like okay like okay we're going underground funy hea let's do

this and she's like got it got it so we just Mi mixed the whole album really like like the opposite to Utopia which is very like like sci-fi City in the clouds sort of yeah yeah yeah what's one really memorable thing that you took from or you learned from getting to know s David adenor and spending time with him I remember we once had to film and we were like in the basement of the Natural History Museum and something broke some some equipment and we had to sit there for hours for it getting fixed and

he just sat there and obviously like double my age you know and I was like basically drained and I was like so exhausted just got more and more exhausted as we had to wait you know and just looked at him and I was like hell he just basically I could just imagine him Papa New Guinea do the same thing yeah because I bet the equipment were always breaking you wait for like 7 hours for a bird of paradise or whatever he basically just shut off and it was just closed eyes and then there was like

action and then he just came out with the most beautiful paragraph fully formed sentence no script that I've ever heard I was like what the wow it was it was just a superpower of the orator you know and it's the rappers are the same right they just can memorize our of raps absolutely absolutely it's like a superpower I wonder how he remains hopeful being such a voice of reason in a time of rationality did you get a sense of that from him like really what motivates him and something that inspired you ultimately to lead to

a place tast like Cornucopia because you've carried on the hopefulness that he instills in his work through this I feel very hopeful at the end of cornucopia I mean it is important for me and I do like films and uh books and philosophers and I am attracted to people who have the same uh Theory you know and the conversations I was lucky to have that I hopefully one days will publish that I had with Mikey Nelson and Le W Lee and Timothy Morton and ocean Wong you know it is yes you go into the deep

dark for real but then you come out the other end with a solution um I mean it doesn't have to be like some black and white literal solution but but I don't know maybe maybe it's being oldest of six siblings and also having kids when I'm 20 you have to see the light at the end of the tunnel and that's where we're heading you know I also wonder whether Curiosity has helped you because you have this infinite curiosity and I've only learned in letter life that curiosity is actually a really good Counterpoint to fear the

things that I'm most fearful of I have to immerse myself in actually and be more Curious rather than tuck myself away and try to create some illusion of protection yeah I think so and then also as a singer it it is very real to be a singer and and it's like a you know you're your own musical instrument and you go on tour and whatever you got at that time in space you that's all you got and then you got to like oh now I got a lot of this oh I actually got not too

much of this so you just have to be reading yourself all the time like how am I going to do the show and then you go away into an album and you come back 3 years later fly across the world and you got another totally different instrument that you have to read all over again so it's sort of in a good way as much as I've been pissed off sometimes because I can't eat everything that most people can eat and stuff I always have to sort of be able to sing but it also does keep

me on my toes of you know like just being in the moment I can't go in the spare tank and spare spare tank and spare spare spare tank I always have to just stop everything and charge every time because otherwise if I lose my voice the the tour is finished I'm so glad you brought up your voice I'm a to nerd out so hard on your voice right now okay um we have a rare moment on camera and I'm I'm going to I'm going to try to to serve every fan at at the best I

can um starting with the most obvious question which um from humming to to realizing you had a voice that was an instrument that was something that made you feel emotional and others felt the same way do you remember a moment or or approximately when your voice presented itself to you or you found it I think I was super gr I mean and super like I'm like a qu quid triple Scorpio whatever so it's super internal introvert energy so when I was always singing and Hiking when I was a kid well it wasn't called hiking was

called Walking Man and it's like a it wasn't an activity it was just a necessity it was like a luxury tourism thing yeah so then I was I'm never I was thinking I'm not this is not I'm going to share this with nobody and then I was actually a a a rhythm nerd I'm I'm like a a drummer I'm probably a frustrated drummer that's probably all there is to me H and then I was like in some punk band when I was 14 and I wanted to play the drums you know and uh and and

there was basically nobody who would like sing so I was just like okay I'll do it you know because I didn't like the attention but it did accidentally I had learned on on flute for for like I don't know six seven years then so all the breathing was probably my lungs were probably not bad you know they weren trained even though my voice was rubbish my lungs were good so after all that flute playing so yeah it was super gradual super gradual I I don't think there was like a moment uh I mean it was

more philosophical maybe being 18 year old being in we were in cook the punk band touring Europe in some Caravan not having no money to eat for days and driving to West Berlin sleeping in squats what I'm trying to say say it everything is at stake philosophically that urgency of you have to express yourself whatever it takes you know I've always wondered how phrasing comes to you because I never feel like you're choosing the obvious space to me it almost feels like I'm listening to Eric dolphy or joh C train or something but I just

wonder sort of where the idea of positioning these these phrases and these words and finding the emotional space to to perform comes from well I'm blushing now you probably can't tell what this I'm sorry it's Sprite it's the outfit is hiding my I'm just trying to put more stars in the galaxy right now yeah yeah I mean think that's very flattering to compare me to those guys um I actually don't know I I I'm trying not to pretend to be humble but just be real with you you know when you ad lip I don't know

where it comes from I actually don't know and that's the beauty of AD lips right yeah it's I I have no idea where they come from so if you're not thinking about where you place things and what a performance in conventional terms is does that heighten the emotion when you hear your own performance back because it's revealing itself to you for the first time like it is to us I mean I sorry my mind is so full of cornucopia right now obviously it was a surprise to me it took like a year to do the

post production so we were doing things like color correction making sure all the animation was right you know we had displayed everything on like 24 screens of closing and opening and they're designed to be like high rest low rest then we projected everything and we done so much work just getting this all right and then you film that and it all just becomes like brown sauce so we you have to start all over again you know going through all the color correction and getting make sure that uh it was the way you intended first so

we did I did get when I was watching it my mind was a lot in this kind of universe uh obviously I had been singing those songs for a few years by then you know like I told you in the beginning of the interview a lot of the music was like it was from 10 years period you know so maybe I wasn't that H focused on it but I do think maybe I'm programmed to separate like the left brain right brain kind of thing that my melody and my voice I I I I'm super like

protective of it to not let just that it's Instinct run and driven and not to let any uh analyzing or scrutinizing energy on that it just is what it is you know but I can be super I can nerd out on like base subbase and and and animation and and um reverbs and you know like flute he turned me down I then down turn another who then [Music] when you're actually making the music in real time when you're when you're working on a song like like future forever and you're listening back to it through the

monitor um can you let it go if you don't feel it can you actually keep it in the left brain and Let It Go for the people or do you have to is it have to be Peak right brain for you to feel comfortable for us to hear it h I think that's one of the beauties of getting older is that you become more like um you know like the ceiling of a cathedral you know like there's like thousand pieces and it takes two years to make you know so you're trying to you know trying

to get the whole so that's it's a very sort of feminine sort of cohesive energy that you making sure all the pieces are there so I think with this chronopia Beast because I'm I'm sort of I'm I I was part of everything I was like there when it was mixed I was there mastered I was there when it was edit I was I was in every single process of this so what I'm really trying to think is is holistic you know and then there is the other side of me which is more about get that

gal emotional take you know like like keep it real um I think maybe Cornucopia I mean it's also in the name isn't it Cornucopia the idea of Plenty and and it is plenty and it is it's an answer to you know the environmental problems we're in to the patriarchy it's a reply to a lot of problems and the reply is don't stop there we have plenty we have Solutions we can start all over again we can go to an island with fluts and children and we will maybe lose a lot of our species but but

we will biology is strong enough to mutate and create new creatures that will survive and it's an optimistic thing and biology can handle it you know so it's a strange kind of D farce like comedy sort of statement on on the sort of all the postapocalyptic stuff that is is out there is a post optimistic creature thing you know kopia and and so I fought for it that's sort of where my my heart was in in defending that you know that we we did have the wound was shining we did have the reveal of the

Raw ronas but there was the healing there was the other options the we we have a choice and we can still create a new Paris climate Accord and follow it this time around you know so that's sort of where my my energy was and also protecting everybody uh not just the animators uh but also uh the people who wrote the music with me and and um yeah and and the musicians and yeah so it is a very sort of I would say it's more feminine energy sort of to be a director in that way I

think it was so encouraging also to see a mature and experienced grownup join a kid up on stage obviously I'm referring to Greta tber and the fact that you Incorporated her into the live show through video was very moving and um I sort of wondered what your first what your experience was like when you met her and and what the inspir was beyond the elaborating and emphasizing the point of cornicopia but including her in this show yeah it was sort of insane because we contacted T beginning of 2019 and we had the premiere in May

201 19 in New York and she sent us the recording and then Co happened and everything and we were like oh should we still like included in the show we don't know and we watch it again and I was like oh okay it's even more relevant now I am doing this project now in in in in a month in Paris and I am trying to pass the mic over to create some you know moment and pass the mic to James seders and because they I've been working with them activist in Iceland a lot and they

do have a different perspective than than my generation for real and it is sort of like okay the damage is done how do you live inside it you know so it is more like oh oh oh you know Timothy Marton philosophy it's like this the apocalypse has already happened so what how are we going to survive in it you know so it is more from that you know protecting biodiversity you know more stuff like that than standing maybe maybe the Gen aers were standing and punk like screaming pointing fingers at people who own factories and

if I scream louder they will stop you know that's like not you know that's not going to work anymore and it's yeah it's and it's more about trying to bring Solutions you know and and trying to help everybody wants to help you know we are all guilt ridden we're we're all 7 billion of people paralyzed with guilt of what we did to the planet we don't have to even discuss that one y so we can't add to that sort of guilt factor I think it's more about helping to go to court how can I click

how can I write new laws that can change the system from inside and and the Jet old rich people and saying listen you're ruining my my nature yeah so those cases weirdly enough they're winning so uh so I think we have to think about it from more from that point of view now it's it's it's a tilt you know it's a tilt and I tried to be humble and listen to them last time we spoke you you were talking about some pretty significant change going on in your life and it resonated with me um your

youngest was getting ready to leave there's just a lot of change um how has life in the last sort of year and some change since we spoke um and you've settled into that that new life the 3.0 how was life I actually like it um once that now that it's sort of happened you know before you think you're not going to like overcome it but then ER yeah so I actually sort of like it now and I think it's sort of aligned I'm I think nature knows what she's doing as usual and you sort of

you become more of a homebody and you sort of you need few things and you you want more simple life in nature and the most flamboyant part is sort of more in your work or or or sort of what you're creating so maybe not so much in in the sort of everyday life you know things have gone a bit uh simpler and I understand stand that and and it's a it's a it's a craving you know that's a good news yeah is you like you want it now you know but on every level both the

energy levels and with family and with friends and with the amount you've seen the world you know and and uh yeah like the the explosion the cosmic explosions that happen now probably happen in your your living room and your bedroom you know so it's sort of more um yeah I would say I'm up for it are you creating I mean obviously I feel like you're always creating a stupid question but what are you creating is a bit of question at the moment now that cornicopia is done and we have this amazing ability to watch it

on Apple you said you're Restless where did you go next well well well it's always a bit hard to say Yeah in the beginning but uh and sometimes it's like I'm solving a murder mystery myself I don't know exactly what's going on but uh I would say in some ways it's the opposite to chronopia I mean I knew when I did kopia I did say to Derek my manager and everyone okay I'm going to go as theatrical as possible now sorry guys it's going to be like ridiculous just sorry but I will promise you I

will only do it once that's it you know digital theater tick yeah next yeah so H I'm I don't have a craving to do even more I I want to it's it goes to some other other dimension I I like even more like writing in iseland it's it's I do like Iceland still I probably like it even more now no more digital theater but what a way to go out and I think about all the steps you've taken to get to a place like Cornucopia from the shed to more conventional spaces but you still made

them your own I think about you know some of these experiences that are probably informed cornicopia and maybe what some of your favorite moments were that you that are out of Barns and Arenas and festivals but just the ones you remember that really felt the environment and your performance were far more mhm in sync yeah I think K actually came from working in 360 both sound and um and visuals because we were programming uh for vura the all the VR stuff yeah and then it basically in a way the shortest version I could describe kopia

is it's taking it out of the VR headset 21st century like headset and putting it on like a 19th century stage so that was sort of the the idea with Cornucopia in in a way because I I understood after a while because we had B digital which we took to like 20 cities with a lot of a lot of headsets and everything and it was beautiful to watch everybody get really like you know into it and but it was also an element of it it I think emotionally it fed up because it was like sad

and lonely so it's like you're you're alone inside the headset but to bring it out of it was Utopia was kind of like okay it's a communal energy so I think kopia was also like a like an attempt to create that sort of situation and coming back to your question I mean obviously the favorites are always the one where you don't expect like a when there's like it's like New Year's Eve you expect the best of the best of the best of the best that of often doesn't happen yeah so sometimes it's the really sneaky

humble ones that are actually the peaks in you know so um I don't know I mean there's there was some punk like crowds serving Crazy Ones um uh for Real uh a lot of when I started doing all the outdoor Festival by oceans you know amphitheaters H and you're outside and there's like fireworks and I always all the way from the '90s I always asked if I could play in Twilight even though I was headlining I still wanted to play in the Twilight because I love that time and with fireworks and it's just something magic

and and people just transform so that energy is is so precious and the hooliganism of homogenic was pretty mental you know was meant to be brutal and it was yeah and then wtin was the total opposite where it was all silk gloves and very quiet and Opera Houses and gentle and sensitivity and I don't know there's been a lot of Peaks also we were like crying on kopia you know there's been a lot of Backstage moment when we all look at each other and because there's one thing looking at Cornucopia from the audience um but

also from the back with all the screens and looking in the eyes of the who did the whole thing with me and the flute girls you know they just have these kind of moments where you just like crying or as so yeah I mean but I think a lot of people who work on stage you know like people in theater and in dance and and it's a luxury to do you know stage is fun it it forces you in the moment you know I I just remember when I fell in love with your music and

you was an artist you were the club kid you were the one going to the clubs and bringing that energy into your music and and and now you're sort of you know conducting the party and DJing as well how much how much just simple question how much fun has that been you know getting behind the decks and you know move the room and and and and and turn people on to things as well surprise people with your selections yeah I mean I I mean it's a surprise to me if you would have asked me that

I would now be like DJing I would be like for the crowds I'm going to do tonight I would have yeah 20 years ago I would have been no way you know that's not what I expected but I do have to say ER and the older I get I feel more and more strong about this we have to defend our right to dance you look at TKO people and salsa people they're dancing till they're in the '90s I think it's really and I think our generation even though we're going to look clumsy and weird I

mean I'm going to be technor raving till I'm 90s sorry guys you know breaking news but I think for me even even when I was living in London in the '90s I'm like I'm like really weird I like daytime raving so actually now we have this because we run this record shop in Iceland called smacka bad taste it's it's like the rough trade of Iceland or something and we we basically one way to getting people back into record shops which we could do a whole just interview episode just on on that the the life of

record shops um getting the community there and everything we started DJing on Full Moon and uh we and we start at 5: and then we DJ till like 8 or 9 so it's like day TI raving uh for all generations and and usually it's like 4 hours so it's like 1 hour just really serious classical music weird out there avard whatever and then the BPM goes up and the last it goes up a bit and the last person who place they just have to go mental and then you dance drink champagne you're you know you're

in bed I can't wait to go to one of those I'll be B by midnight it's perfect we've been so blessed we've had guests and last year like Sega Boda came ARA mik Levy Ming we've had really good guests hii all kids from a sub cult amazing project so yeah so we're getting this kind of sneaky little guests and uh and it's all for free it's all voluntary so we're just keeping that energy alive and and uh just dancing I think I love how R trade have done it and I think we're all trying to

solve the same riddle because we need the community you know we need the we want to hang out and listen to the records we bought together and the community we need to defend the community I think it's important go to that hi place we'll go to a hidden place [Music]