Björk’s staggering new album Vulnicura entered the world early thanks to a leak. In a new interview with BBC Radio 1’s Zane Lowe (via NME), Björk discusses the leak for the first time. She told Lowe that due to the album’s raw emotional subject matter — her breakup with longtime partner Matthew Barney — she wanted to get it out ASAP, even though her manager assured her that he’d “erased all the leaks.” (Ha!) Here’s Björk’s take on the situation:

There is no way to say how you should react. In my situation, I had one thing going for me — the album was mastered and ready. I don’t know how I would have reacted if it was four months before. It might have been messier…. And I think also, because of the nature of the album for me emotionally, it’s the sort of subject matter where I really wanted to just get it out of the way, over and done with it. My gut reaction was immediately like that. It was an immediate album, and I did it so quickly, and it was like “Oh, it’s leaked, let’s just put it out.”

She also spoke about Arca’s role as a co-producer of the record:

I work a lot on my own…. I actually like it, I don’t document it at all. It’s quite a secretive process for me. When [Arca] came, I’d done all the songs already, the strings and the structure of the song. A lot of it was done. When he came into it, it was more like a celebration, both because he’s total magic and so fun to be with.

Listen to the full interview below.