The Lipster

Back in October last year, in the misty early days of The Lipster, I e-mailed Björk's publicist, telling him about the plans for our website, and what a dream it would be to interview Björk for it. I thought I was being fanciful: after all, what globe-straddling pop star would give up her time for a new internet project, no matter how much it shared her ideals and supported her?

In late February, and after a flurry of e-mails about the site's philosophy, plans and intentions, came the answer to that question. Björk liked the sound of what we were trying to do. We could have 90 minutes with her, in New York, for a series of interviews that would be exclusive to us. (Yes, I screamed so loudly that I really hurt my larynx.) The message was clear: Björk, God bless her, believed in The Lipster. And in turn, her act of faith meant we believed in her more than ever.

This interview, conducted on March 10 in Manhattan, has already given us a world exclusive: Björk's first public statement about her controversial comments about Tibet. And this week, in five daily portions, we give you even more: Björk's thoughts on fashion and film, her love of world music, how sick she is of indie boys, and, of all things, why she reckons she should join Manchester United. But first, she tells us how motherhood turned her onto feminism, which for her is the big, beating heart of her last album, Volta.

"With Volta, it suddenly became time to for me to take the idea of being a woman on"

"When I started to make Volta, I wanted to make a record that was about people finding the roots of everything in the world. For me, that meant going down into the roots as a female, and taking the stand in 2008. It's funny, but it was the first time for me to take the idea of being a woman on. Not like it was when I started becoming a woman when I was 13, 14, but about me taking the pulse the second time around.

When I was a teenager, I tried not to be put in the girl/boy box. I just tried to step outside it, and I did that by being creative. But sometimes, you need to be less divine like that and more human. Like a flawed human, accepting you have to address all these bits that make you up. Volta was very much for me when I walked into that flawed human thing: where I dared to be wrong. Saying, yeah! Yeah! This is how I feel!

"Things had gone a bit backwards for women, and I wanted to address that for my little girl"

"Vespertine and Medulla were made in this perfect bubble of domestic bliss. I was in love with a new person, then I had a baby daughter, then I was at home working then feeding, working then feeding. I was happy. But you can't do that on and on and on, so after those records, I really wanted to make a record I found exciting for me alone, for myself. You know, it's the same way that you don't go to same restaurant every night for 20 years. It's fun to go to new ones, to keep you on your toes.

But this record also had a lot to do with having a little girl. I was seeing the world through her eyes, hearing her asking me questions, trying to find answers. Because it's different bringing up a girl rather than a boy. And the time between having Sindri [her 21-year-old son] and my daughter... in that time, things have gone a bit backwards for women, and I wanted to address that."

"Being a woman in the Bush years reminds me of the Reagan years"

"In the '90s, you know, I'd go to dinner with friends, and we'd sometimes talk about how things were getting better for women. But in the last ten years, it was like something got stuck. I think it's all about the Bush years. There's this feeling of men running everything and having to be macho – the need to fill yourself up with power. It reminds me of women in the Reagan years and how it used to be. Back then, it was all about American females, how they became the most popular ones, culturally. You know, it's not a coincidence that Material Girl was written then, was it? I mean, Madonna had her tongue in her cheek in a way, and she's become something else, but you can feel those eight years of Bush now like 'Woah'. But, thank God, I really think things are changing right now. People are caring a lot, lot more, and criticising the bad things with a voice that's a lot bigger."

"You have to think ahead"

"Overall my philosophy is not to confront stuff as you'll get stuck in a quarrel. You know, I like to be a bit more Taoist about it! But that can also be lazy, and if you do that long time, you're taking a back seat. Volta was an exception to that. I had to say to myself: you don't ignore it, you take it on. But then again, if I could pick the proportion of taking it on, I'd like to take it on 10% or 5%. Not because I'm a coward, but because I don't think that's how you solve things. I think you have to bring up positive stuff or new stuff, and think ahead. We all know how wrong things used to be, don't we, so why should we get stuck? For me, it's all about switching on; it's about taking time to take things forward."

For part 2 click here.