[©] Towards the end of 1990, Björk called 808 state's Graham Massey and expressed interest in finding someone to program beats, and work on some tunes, and perhaps meet up. She didn't reveal herself, just stated she was an Icelandic songwriter, but Massey suspected it was her.

The pair met for the first time in a British TV studio, where Massey and his cohorts had just appeard on a show called The Word. Björk played a demo tape, which contained songs that would later be on Debut, but all recorded with a brass quartet. Massey, intrigued by Björk's idea, agreed to collaborate with her once 808 State had completed their next record.

"She was due to fly back to Iceland and I woke up the next morning with a funny feeling about the situation. I felt like it was worth a try to try something out and see how it was" - Graham Massey

Massey invited Björk back to Manchester to spice up the recording sessions for their forthcoming album, Ex:El. Björk and Massey previewed a handful of rough 808 sketches, and Björk sang and improvised over the electronic beats. The pair worked on a number of tracks together, but the one that they kept coming back to was Q-mart.

Once a successful take of Qmart was in the bag, the duo moved on to the other 808 State song that had piqued Björk's interest. Ooops had a more conventional structure to it, with room for a complete vocal line. Björk took a walkman containing the rough cut, and returned an hour later with a bag of fruit complete lyrics.

Originally titled Grab the Rays, Ooops was written about "her attitude towards men, about being owned. She understands men and writes about them in her own way, but I don't think blokes can recognize what she's going on about most of the time. It's great though, 'cos you can read your own personal things into it." -- Graham Massey

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