before the Sugarcubes

By 12, she was playing drums and screaming in an all-girl punk band. "Spit & Snot" she says, recalling the band’s name with a punk-rock snarl. I got so easily bored. I was always having these secret projects all over town - with a brass section, with jazz people, people making electronic contemporary music. I made film music on my own with drum machines and synthesizers. I did music for avant-garde dance theaters. I produced a heavy metal band, did backing vocals, wrote songs, had a radio program.

Before the Sugarcubes I was in K.U.K.L., a punk band, and that was much more important to me. The KUKL-period taught me a lot of valuable lessons in a quick and violent way. That band really changed me.

Then in 1986, the label went bankrupt and Kukl quit and I was heartbroken. Crying for days. Much more upset than I’ve been over any boyfriend. But things began to happen. I bought a house with my then boyfriend and I had a kid. Our house became like a cafeteria for all these people looking for something new to do. And we formed this organisation called Bad Taste, where we reacted against all this punk dressing down and being socially correct. We wore pink and encouraged irresponsibility and had these mottoes like ’World Domination Or Death’. Einar drove a huge, impractical convertible and everyone hated us. It was a magical time, and out of this grew the Sugarcubes.

Q Magazine #8, 1995