Bjork

I love being a very personal singer-songwriter, but I also like being a scientist or explorer.

I started an all-girl punk band when I was 14, and I was the drummer, not the singer.

Most people in Iceland are blonde and blue-eyed. I was nicknamed 'China girl' in school 'cos they thought I looked Asian.

I guess I'm quite used to not being understood rather than being understood.

Being a musician is very easy. My house is full of musical instruments. There's a lot of music, always.

Part of me is probably more conservative than people realise. I like my old string quartets, I don't like music that's trippy for trippy's sake.

I get obsessed by little nerdy things in my corner that no one else is interested in.

Living in a capital in Europe but still surrounded by mountains and ocean, my relationship to music was strongest walking to school and back. I would sing to myself and very quickly started mapping out my melodies to landscapes - at the time I just thought it was very matter of fact, a common thing to do.

Maybe it's just a personal thing, but I get so much grounding from Iceland because I know it's always going to be there. I have a very happy, healthy relationship with the country, so it's really easy to go everywhere because I always have Iceland to go back to.

I love hiking in Iceland most, there are lots of brilliant paths.

I feel like the people from Iceland have a different relationship with their country than other places. Most Icelandic people are really proud to be from there, and we don't have embarrassments like World War II where we were cruel to other people.

I love England. It's no coincidence it's the first place I moved to for a more cosmopolitan life, which is the only thing Iceland lacks.