"The first unhappy song I wrote was 'Possibly Maybe.' That was very hard for me. Usually I write all the time, but that was like nothing happened for months. Then the song came out. I was ashamed writing a song that was not giving hope."

Possibly Maybe is written by Björk, Nellee Hooper & Marius De Vries. It was produced by Björk and her longtime collaborator Nellee Hooper and released in 1995 on her second album, Post. When it was time to make a video for the single, she contacted 'Big Time Sensuality'-director Stéphane Sednaoui, who once again created stunning visuals, this time of Björk bathing in milk and eating both watermelon and neonglowing dust!

→ Nellee Hooper profile at allmusic.com
→ Stéphane Sednaoui videography
→ Stéphane Sednaoui Biography
→ Marius De Vries interview

QUOTE

'Possibly Maybe' is a song that I can really do rollercoaster rides on and just go for it vocally. It's one of the first songs that I wrote but didn't hold my voice back. For me, and this is why I play it live almost every time, as a singer I can really use my voice as an instrument.

Actually, it was supposed to be a country song - an ambient country song - and when I first wrote it, we got a slide guitarist in. I'm not sure it ended up as one but that's where it started. We were thinking about that song by Chris Isaak.

QUOTE

What is your favourite remix of your own songs?
Well, I have many favourites, probably one of my favourites is Possibly Maybe that Mark Bell did.

QUOTE

In the first years of my solo career - the period around Debut - I wasn't able to record a dark or sad song. You have to know, I was raised hardcore happy. That's something typically Icelandic: to be happy, to feel good, to see everything from the positive side. So it took me a lot of courage to try something moody. On Debut it didn't work, on Post it did, eventually. Possibly Maybe was my first dark song.

QUOTE

I would always write songs about happy things and keep my dirty laundry to myself. I was brought up so self-sufficient and happy and to never complain. Icelandic people are so furiously optimistic that it's aggressive. So for me to write songs that are not happy is a bit abhorrent You feel ashamed about it. The first unhappy song I wrote was 'Possibly Maybe.' That was very hard for me. Usually I write all the time, but that was like nothing happened for months. Then the song came out. I was ashamed writing a song that was not giving hope.

QUOTE

Stephane: Two years after the Big Time Sensuality video, we did another, for a song called Possibly Maybe. And it was more intense and more like things... inside of her.

Björk: I think we were very brave. We showed a lot of things that were very, very personal. I think all the things in that video are actually my things... that are in my house.

Stephane: I love the video because she is very cute. We were trying to show a little more fragility or sensitivity. And you see her maybe more in contrast. So it was a precious video for me.

REVIEW

Veteran music video director Stephane Sednaoui helmed Possibly Maybe, which features disjointed shots of Björk playing with yellow powder under a black light, wailing with an afro, in a silk kimono putting on lipstick, hovering in the sky like a flickering goddess and in a red dress over a fire. The soundtrack is not the original recording, but rather a bouncy remix by British trip-hop band Fluke, from Björk's 1997 remix album 'Telegram.'

The Possibly Maybe video is amazing for its use of contrasting colors, a variety of costume changes and Björk’s incredible performance. In the beginning the director uses very bright, flashy colors in contrast with monotone colors. Björk is very sensual as she eats and licks the watermelon and puts lipstick on. This video shows a whole new side of her, as usual.

QUOTE

Björk describes what she wants in terms of sounds in a language that to an observer might appear surreal or even nonsensical. But Björk and I have had a connection for a long time, and the people she chooses to work with are often selected with an eye on this. I remember from our very early sessions how she described a sound by saying 'You know when you get a tube of toothpaste and you squeeze it and you watch the toothpaste coming out the end of the tube? You need to have it sounding more like that!', and on another occasion she said 'Hold a pineapple in your hand and look at the fluffy bit at the top, well it needs to sound more like that!' They tend to be very poetic descriptions of what she wants to hear, and you either get it or you don't.