Björk has opened up about her creative process, revealing that she “always write[s] one song a month”.
The Icelandic singer-songwriter sat down for a rare filmed interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, where she discussed her new Cornucopia concert film – which will debut on Apple TV+ tomorrow (January 23).
- READ MORE: Björk interview: “First you create a universe with sound, then you move into it”
At one point in the conversation, Björk explained: “I always write one song a month, one every two months. It doesn’t matter what happens in my life, it’s like the full moon or it’s just like a rhythm because I’ve been doing it so long.
“So I think the minute when I release an album, part of me is so relieved and so bored with the subject matter that I’m super excited to do something [the] complete opposite. So I start gathering info or research or whatever tech is going on as well. But then just to contradict what I just said… I also really get bored very easily, so I never want to do it twice the same.”
She continued: “So sometimes, I will first write all the songs, like I did [2015’s] ‘Vulnicura’ just with string arrangement songs, and then I do the next stage. Or sometimes I will start the complete other… Like with ‘Utopia’ [2017], maybe on flute arrangements, doing flute arrangements for a year and rehearsing with flute players in my cabin every Friday, and with us driving there and gelling together as a group and just becoming really good friends, and that becomes the heart of an album.
“And then afterwards, I will stick other stuff on top. So I think, yeah, so it’s a mix of what’s going on.”
CORNUCOPIA on Apple Music @applemusic and AppleTV+ @AppleTV !! This Friday, 24th of January at 7pm PT. #AppleMusicLive
i am so thrilled to share an hour excerpt of the Cornucopia concert film here with you online .
the full version will be played later in theatres .
this has… pic.twitter.com/jAfJnI5hFs— björk (@bjork) January 22, 2025
The artist went on to say that she tries to “not be directed by technology” when creating, adding: “I want the craft to be… The soul comes first and the craft is to assist the soul to express yourself.”
Later, Björk reflected on her relationship with technology, saying she had “always” seen it “as this kind of a magic key”. She explained: “When at first the touch screen came, it was like, ‘Oh my God, I can map out musicology’. I wish I had a 3-D screen when I was in music school and I could see how counterpoint works in physics.
“It’s a gravity-driven thing, not like something you read in this thick book. So I think sometimes, technology, obviously we made technology and sometimes it catches up with us… It’s like drinking water, it makes it easier.
“Like I’ve said, many times, I was so happy when the laptop came and then finally when you could record on mountaintops while I’m hiking, or you could bring your phone with you. I’m like, ‘Wow, finally – technology. I can go to nature, and my studio is in nature, not in some stuffed studio with foam and no windows in the middle of a city’.”
She concluded: “So I think technology, we are slowly getting more closer to the ideal way how we want to express ourselves.”
Björk released her 10th and latest studio album, ‘Fossora’, in 2022.
The musician reflected on her creative process when speaking to NME during that era, saying: “I know for sure that if I look back at my nature and how it works normally between albums, when I push something in a really extreme way then I tend on the next album to go back. I’m like a teenager, I’m like, ‘I’m over it!’
“The way to start all over again is with some kind of plan or manifesto. “I called it ‘Utopia’ because I wanted people to know that I was aware that it was idealism.”
She compared this trajectory to what she expressed from 1997’s ‘Homogenic’ through to 2004’s ‘Medulla’ – a three-album arc moving from “heartbreak” to “making an ideal paradise” and then back to reality.
“First you create this universe with sound, then it becomes real and you move into it,” she told NME. “‘Medulla’ and ‘Fossora’ are living in the world you’ve made. The lyrics are more about living this life day-to-day and loving it.”
Björk previewed her new climate-focused Cornucopia concert film last September as part of Climate Week 2024. Writing about the show ahead of it airing on Apple TV+, she said: “This has been a long journey with hundreds of people helping out. I am so beyond enormously grateful to every single one of them.
