The more you absorb yourself in the present tense, the more likely that what you write will be good. Especially in this fucking town, where everybody’s sitting in front of their desks for far too long, endlessly sweating over words that don’t ever get heard. People are obsessive in this city and work becomes an end in itself. The polar opposite of that is Michael Stipe, who absorbs himself in other people and the life around him, and that’s where he gets his ideas. I’m not like that, but I absolutely understand why he does it. Neil Young claims he writes lyrics and doesn’t go back to them. If he does, he says, the worse they become. But that’s scary. I mean, ‘Faust Arp’ is the exact opposite of that, pages and pages and pages and pages and pages and pages until eventually, the good ones stick.
Thom Yorke, 2008.
1 month ago on April 04, 2012 at 03:05am
Computers are quite boring and they’re very slow and they’re very stupid but they kind of do cool things as well.
Thom Yorke, 1997
3 months ago on February 16, 2012 at 04:34pm
We had a crazy six months within which the number of children we had seemed to double. Last year was a real breeding year for Radiohead.
Jonny Greenwood, 2006
5 months ago on December 18, 2011 at 10:41pm
It has to be a set in itself, last time we went out it was ‘In Rainbows’ and a greatest hits. It’s not going to be like that this time. It’s going to be predominately from this record and the last one and then we’ll see which songs fit around that.
Ed O’Brien on what the setlist for the upcoming tour will look like
7 months ago on October 18, 2011 at 03:14pm
- Interviewer: What’s motivating the band to distribute the album [In Rainbows] this way?
- Jonny: Just getting it out quickly. It was kind of an experiment as well; we were just doing it for ourselves and that was all. People are making a big thing about it being against the industry or trying to change things for people but it’s really not what motivated us to do it. It’s more about feeling like it was right for us and feeling bored of what we were doing before.
- Interviewer: Why give people the option to pay whatever they want?
- Jonny: It’s just interesting to make people pause for even a few seconds and think about what music is worth now. I thought it was an interesting thing to ask people to do and compare it to whatever else in their lives they value or don’t value.
7 months ago on October 17, 2011 at 05:20pm
I was really amazed by how people described the sound. Like the sound of Ed’s guitar at the start of No Surprises or the way Airbag starts. One sounds like child’s toy, the other sounds like a car accident, and for people to pick up on those things was a real fucking kick.
Thom Yorke on OK Computer
7 months ago on October 12, 2011 at 06:13am
I like playing the stuff where I don’t know what I’m gonna play. Like the end of Fake Plastic Trees or the end of Paranoid Android - stuff where I can do anything and no one notices or cares.
Jonny Greenwood
7 months ago on October 11, 2011 at 08:57pm
I think guitarists are really over-admired and over-revered. I don’t mind when people are telling me about their 1971 Firebird, but it’s the same thing as people telling me about their car or something. It’s fine if you have an interest. By talking with me though, you could be interviewing a novelist about guitars. It’s the same thing, except I don’t write that well either. I like my guitar and I enjoy playing it.
Jonny Greenwood
7 months ago on October 11, 2011 at 01:51am
Like the rest of the band, Thom sort of doesn’t have any friends, really, which is a bit weird. We got back to Oxford after touring… and it was really sad. We all got home, and I phoned up one or two people that we knew who were away, and then we ended up sort of phoning each other up again.
Jonny Greenwood
7 months ago on October 11, 2011 at 01:41am
When someone in the band behaved like an asshole, one of the others always said: “The Karma Police is gonna get you”. I suppose it’s all rubbish that your destiny depends on your deeds in a previous life, but you have to trust on something.
Ed O’Brien
7 months ago on October 11, 2011 at 01:24am
