Emiliana Torrini spoke with Time Off magazine about how when her parents started buying the ‘Greatest Love Songs’ compilations off the television in Germany, she found MTV. “I stayed up all night recording the alternative shows because this just blew my mind,” the Icelandic indie pop artist explained. “I remember staying up every night to hear Nirvana on the radio. That was when I got really into blues, and bebop, jazz, hip hop, heavy metal… everything. I knew everything about music at that time. Now, not at all. When I was younger I was far more responsive to music – now it’s like Chinese torture to me.”

Torrini says today’s popular music “drives me mental most of the time. These über-happy characters; just people who babble on and on and on, blah blah blah… it’s useless stuff that I have nothing to do with, and I can’t use and it just drives me mad. So for me, sometimes, I just choose a record, get excited about listening to it, come home in the evening, get a glass of wine and just listen.”

The story at timeoff.com.au has since been removed.