Avant-garde singer-songwriter\u00a0Bj\u00f6rk comments on using her memory as an editor and gathering lyrical thoughts in diaries:<\/p>\n
Take us behind the songwriting process: what comes first?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n
The melody, always. It\u2019s all about singing the melodies live in my head. They go in circles. I guess I\u2019m quite conservative and romantic about the power of melodies. I try not to record them on my Dictaphone when I first hear them. If I forget all about it and it pops up later on, then I know it\u2019s good enough. I let my subconscious do the editing for me.<\/em><\/p>\n
When do you start writing lyrics?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n
Well, my writing really differs. Sometimes a song is about a particular emotion, so I sit down and gather all my thoughts. Sometimes I have to write lots of thoughts down in a diary and edit them until I have the right words. Sometimes the words will come in one go. …<\/em><\/p>\n
Do you ever get writer\u2019s block?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n
Well, I do have a poet friend called Sj\u00f3n who helps me sometimes. Usually I have one song that is the manifesto for the album\u2014on Post it was Isobel, on Volta it\u2019s Wanderlust. When I write these songs I usually fill two or three diaries with words. Sj\u00f3n will then help me narrow it down to two verses and a chorus. In my head I know what these songs are about and I can write books of words on them, but I can\u2019t put them into a song, so Sj\u00f3n helps me.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n