DOES NOT WANT TO HEAR YOUR SECOND ALBUM ABOUT THE PRESSUREZZZZZZZZZ OF FAME

It's four days into our world exclusive week of Björk interviews, and only a day before the Gudmundsdóttir tour bus toot-toots its way into Manchester. On Monday we talked about feminism, on Tuesday we discussed women in music and yesterday we chewed the fat about the internet and pop videos. Today we talk about touring, world music and the power of electronics – and tomorrow Björk tells us how this jaunt around the globe might be her last...

"Touring this time had to be larger that life"

"Volta is about me trying to be larger than life, so I wanted it to be like that on tour as well as on record. You know, I hadn't played outside UK for 12 years. And playing for the first time since the Homogenic tour with Mark Bell of LFO – we go way back. He produced 50% of Volta, and arranged the vocal-songs from Medulla for instruments too, so it was like a celebration of us really, which made the whole mood really, rah! And that's without these big, noisy songs that really call for a huge, huge band."

"It's important to remember the differences between cultures on tour"

"I like seeing the different reactions from the audience in different places. In South America, in Peru, they sing along really loudly and sometimes do counter-melodies I've never heard and they don't even speak English that well. And they were louder than us! Intricate things, really beautiful. In Brazil, they're more into rhythms, picking up on polyrhythms. This song, Desired Constellations, there's this 4/4 beat against this triplet thing, and they're there in total sync. You wouldn't get that in England! In Italy they're always singing along – [does Pavarotti impression] 'Weergh!' They really do! And in Germany they clap their hands perfect to the beat. I'm not a nationalist, not at all, but seeing those differences between cultures... it's important to remember they're there, I think, so you can play more for them."

"The Far East seems so ahead"

"I know we've talked about China...but Shanghai is an amazing place. I mean, they are interesting times to be there. Because Shanghai is three times New York, like New York in the 1970s, or even the 1930s. They're like in 2020s there, building skyscrapers with 90 floors. It's very exciting in a way, you can feel it in the air – I mean, you don't need to have a cappuccino to wake you up because the energy there's just crazy. But obviously that kind of future of sorts comes with other things, and the human rights issues out there I have said enough about, I think. How they're going to react to the Western World's interest in them... I don't know what will happen. But I think having the opportunity to see the East, like Korea too, is very important for political understanding. In some ways, they were trying to be so ahead of anything else."

"African music changed my music"

"Volta brought out my love of world music – although I know 'world music' is a ridiculous title. By world music, I mean not from Europe, not the USA, but the rest of the world. I'm not so into more commercial world music either because I'm such a nerd – I actually like looking for the rare thing, I'm a total snob for it. Something recorded on Japanese Biba in '71 with amazing vocals, yeah! But in world music, I've always been more into instruments than singers, really. Until Medulla I hadn't even thought about singers. My big thing is rhythms and patterns, and a lot of African music and its relationship to rhythms just gets me crazy."

"Very early, I was into the idea of doing something with Konono No 1 from the Congo [the collective whose amplified thumb pianos provide the backing beat for Earth Intruders]. The sound they make is amazing – it's like an electronic rhythm not stuck to a computer grid, which is very rare. I couldn't go to the Congo unfortunately as it was impossible to get visas – you know, it's not a peaceful place. So when the group had their trip to Belgium, their first trip out of Africa, I had to meet them. We didn't spend very much time together to be honest, but I would like to think that it was just the beginning of something."

"Both Konono and Toumani Diabate [the award-winning kora player from Mali] – they changed my music. Toumani Diabate especially. I mean, he's a virtuoso of highest degree. Playing with him was such a privilege, because his kora playing just makes your head want to fall off. I went to Mali for a week and we tried several things – and I'm going to meet him more often here. It makes we want to shout and scream, it's exciting."

"Brass has real power when you use it right"

"This album, it's funny, I went back to brass. I always do, on Debut, Homogenic...maybe because I still think I have a long way to go with brass. People think they are bold instruments, about power, that it's this controlling army music, quite hard-edged. I think I prefer it more matt and warm and sort of human. You know, folky. Because I love trumpets, trombones, tubas, and the noise they make can be like a sad voice, a cry, a human uttering something. Brass has real power in that way when you use it right. Like on Wanderlust – making brass sound like ship flutes, something coming in, yearning for you."

"Electronic music has lots of heart"

"All music has different branches. People say electronic music is cold, but for me, it often has lots of heart. It's another branch, and there's just as much passion and coldness in it as the rock branch. I think people realise it lot more in Europe with dance music and stamping their feet. It still seems to be stuck in the US. There's still this rock critic, stuck-in-the-70s attitude about electronic music being cold over there.

But, slowly, it's changing. People like Animal Collective, who I really, really like, are changing that idea. You know, people who are dealing with electronic in very soulful, human way. In Europe we have bands like Modeselektor to look to, bands who don't copy Aphex Twin or LFO but make music with warmth, humour and emotional scale. It's exciting. To me, that emotional scale is very important to everything, really, it's what makes the music work. And making it work is always possible. Because, at the end of the day, it's not the tool, but what you do with it."