Gypsy Queen
Jul 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Ken Micallef
VOCAL EASE, STUDIO SIMPLICITY
Björk can get her hands on the most expensive, rare mics, but it's the world's most common mic that often suits her best. “The SM58 was key,” Taylor says. “We also had a Martin Kantola NU-47 mic — there are three in the world — and Martin gave one to Björk. It is a gorgeous mic, but Björk got a better performance with a handheld 58 just 'cause she could crank up the monitors and jump around. That is a good metaphor for the whole record. It was much more a case of making the technology less of a priority. We weren't going for the most technically perfect environment; it was more, ‘Here we are, let's do it.’”
That lo-fi, au naturel persistence lent itself to Björk's vocal chain as well. She chose next to nothing in the way of vocal effects, a constant on all her recordings. “I prefer working with vocals dry,” Björk insists. “The engineers I work with tease me because I have an ongoing mantra: no reverb and no compression. It ruins so many things. It is like engineers are taught to always put that on before anyone even asks for it. It takes away all sensitivity and nature out if the voice. And then when you finally want an effect, it is not going to work. I feel if you are going to use compression and reverb, use it with pride and show it off on special occasions; make a feature out of it. All the other moments — 95 percent of the time — skip it.”
True to their respective natures, Björk is intuitive and visceral when explaining the recording process, while Taylor is more gear- and grid-driven. Björk draws the dots; Taylor connects them. “I trust her instincts and her gut feeling and process implicitly,” Taylor says. “She works in a way that her gut is louder than anything else. She would make really clear artistic decisions — very different from working with someone like Guy Sigsworth [producer for Post, Homogenic, Vespertine]; he is a real mastermind. Everything is in the details, and you might work half a day making a little bubble sound. Björk works in big brush strokes. She knows when you are getting too lost looking at a screen and when to let her subconscious mull things over and return the next day.”
LULLABIES AND IMPROV BEATS
Describing the process for “Wanderlust,” Björk proffers Mark Bell as the originator of stuttering, head-drilling beats and her generally impulsive nature. Is she like Picasso inventing abstract shapes or Jackson Pollock splattering a canvas with emotional colors?
“The ‘Wanderlust’ beat came from Mark Bell, and I [have] to say in his defense that he put out one of the first albums on Warp [Frequencies, Tommy Boy, 1991], the label Aphex Twin is on,” she says. “That beat is very Mark Bell or LFO. I worked on the beats with several people, and slowly as the album became more ready, it became obvious that we should go for tribal live drumming and 1990 kinda drum programming, 808- and 909-style. So I contacted [drummers] Chris Corsano [of Sunburned Hand of the Man] and Brian Chippendale [Lightning Bolt], and they spent a day each improvising on all the songs. They did not get to listen to them first and only did like one take each, so their reactions were very impulsive. Then I sat down and edited away.
“Things like this are usually very impulsive and instinctive with me,” she continues. “It is like I know the character of the record before it is made, and I am very stubborn on what fits and what doesn't. At that stage, it is usually very difficult for me to describe it, so there is a lot of detective work going on — a lot of things tried and a lot of things thrown away. And it's often not until right at the end when things start falling into place.”
“I See Who You Are,” a lush lullaby written for her daughter Isadora, was built up from Björk's “embroidery editing,” most noticeably heard on Min Xiao-Fen's playful pipa.
“[For that track], Mark Bell brought a loop, and I sang on top,” Björk explains matter-of-factly. “Because it was about my 4-year-old girl, I thought it was sweet but had to have a child's kinda dark side in there — an innocent, growling-monster dark side. So I contacted Min Xiao-Fen, an outrageous pipa player, and asked if she could both be incredibly sweet and also kinderpunk. She has a daughter of similar age, so it was easy for her. She did a few takes, all immaculate, and I spent some time editing them afterwards. Chris Corsano then played on top, and I played around and edited and looped his stuff. There is a lot of layering going on, a lot of ‘embroidery.’”
Whether in Malta or La Gomera, London or New York, Björk approached every situation differently. Sometimes Björk played a skeleton track, and the guest artist would respond in kind; other times, as with Timbaland or Diabaté's band, a live studio jam produced results. There was no method, no leader, no guru. “It was all intuitive, really,” Taylor maintains.
As one of the most visceral artists of the past 20 years — since she gained international notoriety with her band, The Sugarcubes — one who continues to create her own stark vision of the future while artists in many disciplines atrophy, Björk's artistic advice sounds simple enough. To understand her voice, you must follow your own.
“Follow your gut,” she says. “And if it is boring, it is boring. But if it is fun, it is fun.”
Volta and the Venue
As Björk's front-of-house mixer for her live shows, Kevin Pruce is responsible for supporting her sonic vision onstage. In both preproduction rehearsals and on tour, Pruce uses Digidesign's Venue D-Show Profile console, smaller sibling to the Venue standard desk.
“Easy Pro Tools integration and all the plug-ins — that is what separates the Profile from all the other digital consoles,” Pruce explains. “They are all software-based plug-ins, and they are quite versatile. I can play it all back in real time. The beauty of any digital console is its ability to recall all or some of the settings on a track-by-track basis. In the Profile, these are called Snapshots and are a must for a show like Björk's.
“Most of the digital boards sound reasonable, but the Profile sounds very good. You don't get those digital artifacts that you associate with digital consoles. The mic pres sound very clean. I've put them up against various external preamps in the live environment where you have so many other factors contributing to what you are hearing; it is difficult to tell the difference. I have in the past used either Tube-Techs or Avalons for Björk's voice, but not this time.
“Connection to a Pro Tools|HD system is simple, and once recorded, I can play the show back exactly as it was recorded through the same channels and plug-ins, like a virtual soundcheck. I do not use any external effects or gates or comps. I use the various plug-ins to create all the effects and most of the dynamics.
“The Profile console comes with a standard package of plug-ins, made up of mainly Digidesign plug-ins with a few third-party ones. With Björk, I am also using Venue's All Access Pack with a lot of the Eventide Anthology II plug-ins for dynamics and effects. Before using plug-ins live, my main effects unit would have been a TC Electronic 6000. There is an emulation of that in the console, which I am using on brass and vocals, though on some songs, Björk's voice is quite dry — unless we are outdoors where it will need more help — and some of the songs have a slightly distorted effect using the Lo-Fi plug-in. And there are various amp-emulation plug-ins that you can use for that, too, like Line 6 Amp Farm. I also use a lot of the URS [Unique Recording Software] compressors and the McDSP multiband plug-ins. Of course, the console has its own compressors and gates, which are also used on various channels.”
Volta Voltage
Computers, DAW, recording software
Ableton Live
Apple Power Mac G5, PowerBook G4 laptop
Digidesign Mbox, Pro Tools|HD system
Synths, software, plug-ins, instruments
Ableton Operator soft synth
Celemony Melodyne software
Clavichord
Digidesign EQ2, EQ3, Lo-Fi plug-ins
Focusrite ISA 430 MKII Producer Pack
Line 6 Echo Farm plug-in
Native Instruments Kontakt software
Sibelius Scorewriter software
Mics, mic preamps, EQs
Martin Kantola NU-47 mic
Neve 1081 and 1076 channel strips
Shure SM58 mic
Monitors
Genelec 1031As
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