Interview

AUGUSTYNIAK: In the editors’ letter, Glenn O’Brien and Christopher Bollen, who work at the magazine, are discussing the cover. At one point they describe the drop beneath your eye, and Glenn says that the drop, in fact, is a tear of knowledge. And he describes the tear of knowledge as one that when it drops onto the floor, it changes the world where it touches it. Does that make sense—what I’m saying to you, the idea of the tear of knowledge?

BJÖRK: Oh, wow.

AUGUSTYNIAK: So what do you think about that? Do you feel like you change the world when you cry?

BJÖRK: [laughs] Now, Mathias, you are projecting your needs of expression . . . Remember: You are the creator of the tear.

AUGUSTYNIAK: But you inspired it. That wasn’t me. It’s like a common thing, you know?

BJÖRK: [laughs] Can I ask a question now?

AUGUSTYNIAK: Yeah, of course.

BJÖRK: I was just going to ask you about music. Did either of you ever learn music or play music? What’s your favorite music? What’s the most inspiring musical instrument?

AUGUSTYNIAK: I myself never learned or played music. I was once secretly part of a band, and our record is the only thing I did in music. But I was never forced by my parents to do music, so maybe this is something I missed.

BJÖRK: What did you play in the band?

AMZALAG: He was singing. [laughs]

AUGUSTYNIAK: That’s the only thing I had—my voice—so I would just sing. And I did the record cover, but I didn’t sign it with my name. I signed it with the name of the band.

AMZALAG: It’s difficult to just simply say, “Oh, I like piano.” But are you asking because you think there are, like, audio people and video people, and maybe that’s why we are different from you?

BJÖRK: No . . . I guess because the way we connect is through the visual—even though I am more of a music person. I was just thinking, we have not talked about how you feel about music for all these years. Of course, I know about your CD collection, Michaël. [laughs] And that does help me a lot in that connection. But I was just curious if there was something else there . . .

AMZALAG: But the music model definitely applies to what we do. One of the ideas we had when we decided to work together was that basically we were forming a band, but we are a band that doesn’t produce albums—that just produces images. So this is why I was asking about the audio people versus the video people. Fo instance Mathias would listen to a record because he liked the sleeve, and then he would force himself to fall into the world of that record just because of the imagery. I think music is a place where we can meet together, but I think we’re also coming from different worlds, and that’s why we’ve been enjoying this collaboration so much—because each of us is able to open doors for the other.

BJÖRK: Yeah, for sure.

AUGUSTYNIAK: I remember once we were discussing music, and I was teasing, and I said, “Oh, I was listening to Phil Collins—you know the song ‘Mama’ [by Genesis]?” And at one point you said, “Shut up. You are too prog.” I remember you saying this. [all laugh] It was kind of a sweet-and-sour insult thing. What did you mean by saying this?

BJÖRK: You don’t have this in French—prog?

AUGUSTYNIAK: Yes, I know what prog-rock is, but I would never treat it as prog. Now each time I’m listening to music, I’m thinking, Oh, maybe I’m too prog here. So then I feel like I see myself as being prog, and I become a bit disgusted. [all laugh] When I’m listening to music, I’m imagining I’m a character myself, you know? And then when you said, “Oh, you’re too prog,” the character was really wrong. Because I was imagining boots, and suddenly the look of prog didn’t fit me anymore.

BJÖRK: I mean, I think there’s prog of every decade—the prog of the ’70s is probably most famous. But I think we have prog today. You could say maybe Aphex Twin is prog . . . neo-prog. [laughs]

AUGUSTYNIAK: Okay. Then it makes sense to me because I feel, “Oh, it’s cool again.”

BJÖRK: Yeah. I mean, Aphex Twin would probably beat me in the head for saying that, but there you go.