WEBVTT - Thom Yorke and Michael Stipe - Summer Staff Picks 0:00:02.279 --> 0:00:05.440 I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing 0:00:05.960 --> 0:00:09.799 from My Heart Radio. I'm Frank Imperial and you're listening 0:00:09.800 --> 0:00:12.879 to Here's the Thing from I Heart Radio. Hey Frank, 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:16.320 what's going on? Is there a technical problem? No problem 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:17.799 on this side. You just asked me to host an 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:22.200 archived show. Oh right, why do I keep forgetting that? Well? 0:00:22.239 --> 0:00:25.040 Good luck with the show, Frank. Oh are you going 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:29.960 to mute me? Definitely? Two of the most popular shows 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:33.640 from the more than two fifty archival episodes of Here's 0:00:33.680 --> 0:00:37.440 the Thing are radioheads Tom York and r E MS. 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:41.000 Michael Stipe, the frontman for two of the most interesting 0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:44.040 and influential bands of the last several decades, have a 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:47.120 lot in comment. Michael Stipe was a founding member of 0:00:47.280 --> 0:00:50.800 R A M, the band that practically defined alternative music 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:55.000 in the eighties and early nineties. R M released fifteen 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:57.840 studio albums and was inducted into the Rock and Roll 0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:01.120 Hall of Fame in two thousand seven. RIM broke up 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:03.400 in two thousand and eleven, and Michael Stape has been 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:06.840 exploring other ways of making art and music since then. 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:11.959 But first Alex two interview with Tom York. He formed 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:14.280 Radiohead with some of his friends when he was just 0:01:14.319 --> 0:01:17.640 sixteen years old. Since then, the band has been nominated 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:21.760 for eighteen Grammys, won three, and sold tens of millions 0:01:21.760 --> 0:01:26.080 of records. Radioheads nine studio albums have demonstrated the group's 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:29.800 comfort with experimentation. Tom ne York said technology made some 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:33.959 of that easier. After we did Okay Computer. I finally 0:01:34.680 --> 0:01:37.200 in the late late nineties you could like go on 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:39.760 tour with the laptop and it was powerful enough that 0:01:39.800 --> 0:01:43.760 you could record, edit, use synthesizers, bit into it and 0:01:43.800 --> 0:01:46.800 it wouldn't crash, and it was fairly stable. So I 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:49.480 first started getting into it then. And what I thought 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:52.600 was really interesting is when we were working on Okay Computer, 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:56.840 I started using learning the software that we were using 0:01:56.880 --> 0:02:00.000 the studio to We were still mostly working on type 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:03.800 old school, but I suddenly thought, we'll hang on a minute. 0:02:04.720 --> 0:02:07.240 If I can learn how all this equipment works, I'll 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:09.840 have a completely different way of thinking about how to write. 0:02:10.360 --> 0:02:12.840 So I forced myself to learn all this equipment and 0:02:12.919 --> 0:02:16.440 learn to use the laptop because a lot of music 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:20.400 I was into was being made electronically anyway, and I 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:22.560 kind of thought it would be interesting to do it 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:28.040 within the band, because normally musicians don't fall into doing 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:31.400 the production side of it or building the tracks. They're like, 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:34.680 stay this side of the studio, offense with the mix, 0:02:34.720 --> 0:02:40.200 and let someone total. So I definitely was much more 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:43.959 into blurring that up. Did n produce both your solo albums? Yeah? 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:46.520 He does. He does a lot, and he did all 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:49.520 of the radio, Yeah he does. You attribute that to 0:02:49.639 --> 0:02:52.280 having that kind of faith of someone. You find someone 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:54.480 you trust. I mean not all the time, and we 0:02:54.520 --> 0:02:58.240 do argue a lot, but to have someone who's like, 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:03.079 um I sounding board all the time, it makes everything 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:05.799 so much more fun because if you're if you're knocking 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:09.960 out ideas, you can't edit them and knock them out 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:11.720 at the same time. Like if you're on the stage 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:13.960 and you're trying to get through your part or whatever, 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:16.959 you have to have someone out front saying, okay, that's 0:03:16.960 --> 0:03:19.919 not working. I mean I do on my own a lot. 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:23.240 I do work. You know, you generate ideas, but all 0:03:23.320 --> 0:03:26.240 I then have is a mountain of ideas that gradually 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:28.040 I don't have to sit through and it just takes 0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:31.680 so long. It's so much more fun sharing it with 0:03:31.720 --> 0:03:35.080 someone and you think about your four days into computerized music. 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:37.480 He was into it. I did wonder when I first 0:03:37.480 --> 0:03:40.360 started doing it, but he was into it because he 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:44.680 watched me doing it in such a different way to him. 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:47.800 But I mean, I was like a kid being given 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:49.520 a hammer. I was just handling away on stuff. I 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:51.200 didn't really know what I was doing, but he was 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:53.360 kind of fascinated about that, you know, and he'd come 0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:56.400 and literally tidy up the mess I've done on the computer. 0:03:57.400 --> 0:03:59.720 What were other people? Who were other people that were 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:02.360 working in that in that area that you listened to 0:04:02.400 --> 0:04:06.240 who is making then? Then well then it was I 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:12.120 was obsessed with a X twin then and Oteca. There 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:14.080 was a lot of really interesting things happening in Britain. 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:17.400 Then on this label called Warp and it was it 0:04:17.480 --> 0:04:21.160 was first spell as in the warp w a RP 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:25.359 like the floor is warped after the fun Yeah, And 0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:27.080 then I say, with your accent, that could have been 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:31.880 anyone of forwards. When on this label called wo Wo 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:38.960 Warm War, Warp Wall War, War whoop, yeah, saying like 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:42.480 we're saying here in the United States war it's war 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:46.080 country and Western record bit you bottom now and there boy, 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:49.159 so you you as you were, you were obsessed with 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:53.799 the music that was on Whoop Records because it didn't 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:57.320 have any guitars and I was having a troubled relationship 0:04:57.360 --> 0:04:59.760 with my guitar at the time. Is that true? Well 0:04:59.839 --> 0:05:02.520 not really. It's just like I ended up being in 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:05.599 a band, signing this to this big record label, and 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:08.799 it's a band and when big letters, so certain things 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:11.839 go with that. But yet when I was at college, 0:05:12.120 --> 0:05:14.560 I was listening to a lot of other things, and 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:17.039 after a while it was like, oh, this is it's 0:05:17.080 --> 0:05:20.560 really annoying that I felt like we couldn't break out 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:23.159 of that. So I just started forcing us to break 0:05:23.160 --> 0:05:24.920 out of that because it didn't make sense to me. 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:27.280 You've been with those guys for how long now we 0:05:27.279 --> 0:05:32.120 started when we're sixteen Radiohead, which is um Now I'm 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:35.719 forty four, so that's quite a while. And some bands 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:39.040 that have had a tremendous longevity, obviously the Rolling Stones 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:42.120 of the premier example, they've changed partners over the years, 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:43.760 like they were the New York Yankees. You know, there's 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:46.080 somebody else playing a third base every four or five years. 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:50.240 But you guys, it's the same cast of people obviously, 0:05:50.360 --> 0:05:54.920 what do you attribute that to persistence my great diplomatic 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:59.480 skills not but there must be times when they've I mean, 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:01.800 I'll never mccurrently said to me, even the Beatles got 0:06:01.800 --> 0:06:04.160 tired of being the Beatles were the times you guys 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:05.440 said there and looked at each other and said, I 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:09.240 think we're done. I do that frequently, frequently, I mean 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:12.200 at least the others too, not as much. They just 0:06:12.240 --> 0:06:15.160 wait for me to do it. Um. So, we just 0:06:15.200 --> 0:06:18.320 did a tour last year, right, and it was probably, 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:21.160 in theory, the scariest one we've ever done, because it 0:06:21.240 --> 0:06:23.480 was lots of big gigs, which I normally am spending 0:06:23.480 --> 0:06:26.479 my time trying to shy away from. Why because you 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:29.159 can't achieve technically in a large space where you normally 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:32.200 want to exactly that you can't get across to people 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:35.800 the right way, I felt. So we did spend a 0:06:35.800 --> 0:06:37.880 lot of time and effort coming up with like a 0:06:37.920 --> 0:06:40.560 stage design which used screens in a certain way which 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:43.719 made it intimate, even though you know, some nights was 0:06:43.800 --> 0:06:47.400 like thirty or forty. People are trying to create some 0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:49.919 sort of intimacy with that, and when it worked, it 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:53.760 was insane. It was because the upside of playing to 0:06:53.920 --> 0:06:57.680 that many people is you have this really crazy collective 0:06:57.760 --> 0:07:00.839 energy that you can tap into, like a crowd, you 0:07:00.880 --> 0:07:04.800 know thing. There's one show we did in Phoenix that 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:08.039 sticks in my mind where there was something about maybe 0:07:08.080 --> 0:07:10.320 that it was in Phoenix and people don't get the 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:13.480 opportunity those sort of people don't get the opportunity to 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:16.080 get together that often or something. There was some sort 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:18.680 of excitement within the crowd that was so great to 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:22.080 play with. When when we hit it musically, it felt 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:25.640 like the whole room, the whole of the building was moving. Honestly, 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:29.400 we both came off you know that, and it's bombed. 0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:32.600 I understand that not from my own experience, but from 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:37.040 seeing artists perform. You know. I often asked myself, why 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:41.840 the hell would would you put yourself through this? Because 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:44.840 it's very stressful. It's a lot of pressure, and for 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:47.880 me mentally, I've just build myself up to it in 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:51.880 my head gradually and it sounds really precious, but it 0:07:52.120 --> 0:07:54.640 messes with my head. I want to get to that 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:56.960 given to me a couple of hours before you go 0:07:57.000 --> 0:07:58.600 out there, and you've got to blow this thing out 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:02.640 for all these people and just stone cold silence, basically 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:06.560 almost meditative. Well, yeah, I do. I do that and focused, 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:09.280 I stand on my head for a bit and basically 0:08:09.840 --> 0:08:13.640 I'm completely on my own until five minutes before we 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:15.520 go on, and then we're all in the room together, 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:18.480 pacing up and down like wild animals, and then then 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:21.040 we're on. But when we first started doing big shows, 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:23.720 it was with my from Michael Stipe, and he does 0:08:23.800 --> 0:08:27.040 the total opposite. He literally he'll be talking to you 0:08:27.120 --> 0:08:29.160 and then someone taps in his should and then they're on. 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:31.720 And I was like, how the hell do you do that? Man? 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:34.800 And I tried to do it like that, I couldn't it, 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:37.400 and so I ended up going did he did? Did 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:40.440 you get any indication why Stipe could do that? There's 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:42.839 a lot of nice spiritual tones inside of R. E. 0:08:43.000 --> 0:08:45.400 M's music too. Yeah, no, I don't know. I think 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:51.280 what he used to do was you'd stand there for 0:08:51.320 --> 0:08:55.360 the first two tunes, barely move. He was a sort 0:08:55.360 --> 0:08:57.200 of lightning conductor and he was just waiting for it 0:08:57.240 --> 0:08:59.880 to hit, and then when it hit, he was off. 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:02.480 But he would wait and if he wasn't going to hit, 0:09:02.520 --> 0:09:05.440 he was still there three or four tunes later and waiting, 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:09.239 he kind of warmed up in front of everybody, engaging 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:12.120 it all, whereas I can't do that because I have 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:16.480 to sort of be clear of everything before, you know, whatever, 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:43.640 I need to um be completely empty. I started playing 0:09:43.640 --> 0:09:46.080 guitar when I was seven. I sat down and said 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:48.200 I was going to be Brian May when it was 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:50.560 a lot of bad thing to be. And then I 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:52.920 tried to do I read like when I was ten 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:57.680 or something. I read that he built his first guitar himself, 0:09:57.800 --> 0:10:00.720 which is when he still plays. So I tried to 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:04.480 do that, but my efforts would in that sense, you 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:07.079 were not Brian May in that sense of handcrafting of 0:10:07.120 --> 0:10:08.640 the guitar. And I had to cheat with the neck 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:11.040 on the guitar. I found an older neighbor gave me 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:14.000 a neck of an electric guitar. That great. Okay, that's good, 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:16.480 but you know I was ten or eleven, so I 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:18.400 was trying to like bolt it together to this other 0:10:18.400 --> 0:10:19.880 piece of wood that I had cut out, and it 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:22.600 was just a disaster. But it kind of worked, but 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:25.960 it was ugly. Was your family musical? Not really? No. 0:10:26.440 --> 0:10:29.400 The only one that sticks out is barently my great grandmother. 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:33.880 She get really hammered and then stay up playing her 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:37.280 pump organ thing downstairs all night and keep the family up. 0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:40.160 You were around, did your witness that I met her 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:41.920 once and she was kind of she wore black. I 0:10:42.000 --> 0:10:44.960 was quite scary when I was really tiny. But now 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:48.280 that your parents were artists musicians, no, no, no, no. 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:50.880 When the guitar came into your life when you're seven, 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:56.000 Brian May or no, was it music itself? And when 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:58.880 you moved by music itself? Or was it like many 0:10:58.920 --> 0:11:04.240 people when they're very was rock stardom was? Never? It was? 0:11:04.400 --> 0:11:08.120 It was you weren't running around your bedroom imitating Jagger 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:11.560 and you thought, like you want my My whole thing 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:14.199 was we didn't have any sound system in the house. 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:18.040 We had nothing, no high fi nothing except for in 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:21.240 my dad's car and had a type player in it. 0:11:21.640 --> 0:11:26.440 So I when and would sit for hours. I would 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:28.960 sit for hours and it was the sound of Brian 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:30.920 May's guitar. Actually it was. It was one of those 0:11:30.960 --> 0:11:34.120 funny things where you know, when you turned something up 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:37.120 and you're in a very controlled loud environment, just that 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:41.840 sound was just you know, nothing else. It was that 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:45.960 when you're that small and you've never I've never really 0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:51.360 heard music particularly at all up until that point. You know, 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:53.719 it's funny, it's got a weird thing. But I mean, 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:55.800 lots of kids at that age that you know, their 0:11:55.840 --> 0:11:58.920 parents didn't really have hi fires or anything as such. 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:01.199 You know, guy I didn't know who had a high 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:02.920 fight down the round and only played Albert, which I 0:12:02.920 --> 0:12:05.079 thought was worse than not having one. But that was 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:09.720 me some of those goods. And then and then the guitar, 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:12.600 and you're trying to fashion your own guitar by the 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:15.000 time you're eleven, and then when you take another step 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:17.920 toward deepening your commitment, how old are you when you 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:20.000 form the band. I did have a band when I 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:23.840 was eleven. It was very exciting, like going around to 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:26.280 a friend's house is setting up and jamming, and all 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:29.680 our mates would come and hang out and girls, which 0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:32.440 I thought, this is interesting, But that sort of fell 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:35.240 two bits because I kept fighting with the drummer. And 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:38.560 then when I was sixteen, I was thinking, well, okay, 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:40.880 I need to get this together really and just went 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:44.800 around the school sort of choosing people. So you went 0:12:44.800 --> 0:12:47.400 around picking people. I got it. I got it because 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:50.439 he was dressed like Morrissey, and he had some cool socks, 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:52.160 and I saw he had a guitar. I had no 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:53.840 idea where they could play or not. I don't really care. 0:12:54.280 --> 0:12:57.079 I got Colin because I knew Colin could play very 0:12:57.080 --> 0:12:59.840 well and I needed a base player could play very well. 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:03.560 But he had never played bass before. And his brother 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:07.600 Johnny was this mythical musical prodigy, so roped him in. 0:13:08.000 --> 0:13:10.960 And then Phil was the only drama we knew anyway, 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:13.160 So and and he had a house down the road 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:15.200 that we could rehearse him and you and you lived 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:17.600 where you grew up where well, this was at Abingdon 0:13:17.679 --> 0:13:22.880 School in near Oxford. And then when you form Radiohead 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:28.200 when you're six team basically yeah, we started sort of writing, 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:30.760 doing demos and messing about and it was, you know, 0:13:30.800 --> 0:13:32.960 it was quite interesting straight away that it was quite 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:35.600 I think because Phil had quite a lot of experience. 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:38.000 He was a bit older, and he'd had his home band, 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:43.320 so he knew how to put things together a bit. 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:48.160 And in fact, we used to go and do demos 0:13:48.200 --> 0:13:51.920 in his sister's bedroom like right from the beginning, which 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:54.840 which was great. I mean, there's nothing better than like 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:58.480 just starting off by just trying to write demos from scratch, 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:00.800 even though you can't really play, even though you don't 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:02.960 know each other. That's where you start, you know. It's 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:05.200 kind of a nice way to figure out where you're about. 0:14:05.880 --> 0:14:09.280 What do you think you do best? You lead a band, 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:14.400 you well, you you play guitar, you write music, you 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:16.560 produce music, you do it, and you sing. What do 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:18.720 you think your greatest strength is? If you had to 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:21.440 pick one. So, I don't know what I'm doing, right, 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:23.320 I like the fact that's I don't know what I'm doing. 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:27.200 I think we're not. Honestly, I can't go I'll go 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:31.600 through whole phrases where I've got a clue. I regularly 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:34.920 lose complete confidence in what I'm doing. Why do you 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:38.960 think that? Is? Partly because I think I don't quite 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:43.160 understand how it happens. When what happens when the appreciation 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:45.360 comes to you know, when you're when you're piecing something 0:14:45.400 --> 0:14:49.880 together right, things will fall into place you make it. Yeah, 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:52.080 I mean, in some ways, the nicest bit about the 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:55.840 creative thing, the nicest bit about recording and writing, is 0:14:55.920 --> 0:15:01.000 this sort of weird limbo where you in between scratching 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:04.240 away scratching away nothing really happening, nothing really happening, and 0:15:04.280 --> 0:15:07.840 then something wants to be built and starts to get built. 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:10.400 You just have to let it happen. And then it 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:12.080 gets to the end and you and you look at 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:15.960 it a few months later and go huh um, sort 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:18.840 of weird amnesia that goes with it. Something will happen, 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:21.200 one little sound goes off and you go, oh, that's 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:24.920 really nice. When I was at school, I didn't get 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:29.160 on with the school system at all. Um. I see it, 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:32.119 and my son the same, that sort of the mechanics 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:34.160 of how a school operates and how you're supposed to 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:38.000 blend in or whatever. So I hid in the music 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:41.400 stroke art department and had a great time there and 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:45.040 discovered that actually that's what I wanted to do. Straight away, 0:15:45.480 --> 0:15:49.320 the heads of both schools just saw what I was up. 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:51.920 This is the teacher that you often credit with your Yeah, 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:54.720 where was the teacher's name, Terry James, But but it 0:15:54.800 --> 0:15:58.040 was him and my art teacher as well. Actually it 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:00.160 was like someone sort of takes you and of the 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:02.680 wing and say, well, you know what, you're actually quite 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:05.560 good at. Mentoring is a very critical thing in this business. Yeah, 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:08.600 because it's not. It's enough at that age, it's enough 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:12.080 to just get a little push and then okay, what 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:14.800 does someone push you in a different direction? Yeah, well 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:17.600 that would be bad. How about do you go to 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:21.800 the other I think you need engineering? Yeah, my father 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:23.920 used to think. I used to get to advertising, which 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:27.920 is like really brilliant. Yeah, I'd really be good at that, 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:30.800 sending other people ship. Well, one thing you're good at 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:34.960 is avoiding. My original question, which was what do you 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:37.600 think your best at? And let's try to choose. If 0:16:37.600 --> 0:16:39.800 you can't, if you may, you don't mind, confine yourself 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:42.960 to the list. I provide what do you think your 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:48.680 best at? Okay, this is multiple choice guitar band, kind 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:55.160 of you know, paternal figure, songwriting, producing, singing, I guess singing. 0:16:55.880 --> 0:16:59.360 What was singing to you? How did your singing evolve 0:16:59.520 --> 0:17:01.720 where you were right of where you are now where 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:05.560 most people say you have one of the most evocative 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:11.160 singing voices and all of music today. Well, basically went 0:17:11.200 --> 0:17:14.120 to a few singing lessons, but that was basically just 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:21.040 so I could literally breathe right. You know, my favorite 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:26.320 singers like bu York. When I watched Buyork sing It's 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:29.280 in here, it's right here. They say in yoga and 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:31.640 stuff that whatever it is, can't remember that that spot 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:35.280 at the top of the forehead that you really Most 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:38.879 singers like Neil Young's the same. He sings into this 0:17:39.000 --> 0:17:43.440 spot in his head and and what he's singing he's 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:46.960 already heard, you know what I mean, He's hearing it 0:17:47.080 --> 0:17:50.959 come out. The same with with Buyork when she's singing, 0:17:51.800 --> 0:17:57.360 she's singing what she's hearing, So there's no force. It's 0:17:57.359 --> 0:18:03.159 a force in itself. It sent me a while to 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:06.879 get that, you know, even when we were on tour 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:10.720 with R. E. M. Back when we're doing the Benz 0:18:10.880 --> 0:18:14.119 in nineties six or whatever it was. I was still 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:19.439 trying to figure it out then watching Michael and wanting 0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:21.879 to sound like Michael Bike. I couldn't, you know, because 0:18:21.960 --> 0:18:24.960 my voice is in a different tone completely and so on. 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:27.960 But what I did learn, what you know, watching him, 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:32.920 was again that thing of like watching someone who their 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:35.119 voices in sort of command of them rather than the 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:39.439 other way around. Yeah, but it's very natural, but it 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:44.160 takes a long time for that to become natural. I think, 0:18:44.359 --> 0:18:47.399 like any singer, it takes a long time to find 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:52.600 that thing, and it keeps changing to me how I 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:56.600 sing now, or to me it feels different to a 0:18:56.640 --> 0:18:59.840 few years ago. It just does it, just does each 0:18:59.880 --> 0:19:01.840 of doything to do it. Well, yeah, there's probably some 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:05.960 physical elements to it, but but also just where you're at, 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:08.919 you know, because singing is nothing but like probably like 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:11.280 that saying sing is nothing but being in a moment. 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:17.399 That's it. Radioheads, Tom York, did you know that there 0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:20.760 are over two fifty episodes in the Here's the Thing archives. 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:24.320 If you like these in depth conversations between Alec and 0:19:24.359 --> 0:19:28.280 other actors, policymakers, and musicians, go to Here's the Thing 0:19:28.400 --> 0:19:31.960 dot org and take a look around. After the break, 0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:34.919 Alec and Tom York talk about fatherhood and how it 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:49.280 changes performing. I'm Frank Imperial in for Alec Baldwin on 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:52.480 Here's the Thing. Tom York seems a little uneasy about 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:55.760 his fame, and Alec wondered would he trade the trappings 0:19:55.760 --> 0:19:59.119 of being a celebrity for a better world. If I 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:02.000 said to you, I snapped my fingers and you go 0:20:02.119 --> 0:20:04.080 back to having a very normal life and you're not 0:20:04.200 --> 0:20:05.879 you at all with everything that goes with it, and 0:20:05.880 --> 0:20:08.080 the rest of the world is elevated unless of the 0:20:08.119 --> 0:20:10.639 world gets better. Things you care about? I think of 0:20:10.640 --> 0:20:14.000 an issue you can I say to you Tom York, 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:19.760 Tommy York, Tom, or you go back and the world 0:20:19.800 --> 0:20:23.560 gets better. Would you make that change to find better? 0:20:24.960 --> 0:20:27.239 It's a tricky question, but you do. It's not an 0:20:27.240 --> 0:20:30.000 either or, but you do care. But other things. Is 0:20:30.000 --> 0:20:32.760 there an issue that you're embracing now? Is there something 0:20:32.800 --> 0:20:37.880 you're involved with now? I well, in my slack asked fashion, 0:20:38.200 --> 0:20:41.520 I was helping um Greenpeace do this thing which was 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:44.240 trying to stop drilling in the Arctic. But it sounds 0:20:44.280 --> 0:20:47.480 like it's kind of working because the company seem to 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:49.560 be pulling out because they can't just pull up. Yeah, 0:20:49.560 --> 0:20:51.679 that's right. I don't think that's entirely down to us, 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:54.000 but I think it definitely helped that we're making their 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:57.439 life extremely difficult everywhere they turned. But challenge now is 0:20:57.480 --> 0:20:59.840 to turn the Arctic into reserve so it can't happen 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:03.080 because what that was going to do is create this 0:21:03.240 --> 0:21:06.560 gold rush, you know, all rush up there, which was 0:21:06.720 --> 0:21:09.840 just going to be insane, and this at the same 0:21:09.880 --> 0:21:12.320 time where the ice is melting. Basically, they only started 0:21:12.640 --> 0:21:15.159 considering it was a possibility because the ice was melting. 0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:17.720 They thought, okay, great, maybe got a better chance of drilling, 0:21:18.119 --> 0:21:26.280 which is like, So I was kind of stuck in 0:21:26.320 --> 0:21:29.000 that for a while because Yeah, to me, the irony 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:31.320 of it was too much. Um, I don't know where 0:21:31.320 --> 0:21:34.120 I'll go next. I don't I find it very stressful. 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:36.120 I did get involved. A few years ago. We did 0:21:36.119 --> 0:21:40.000 this thing in Britain, the first Climate Change Act, which 0:21:40.080 --> 0:21:44.800 meant the government was is committed to reducing CEO two 0:21:44.840 --> 0:21:49.439 emissions and now lots of countries have got it. It 0:21:49.480 --> 0:21:51.840 was the first one and the government didn't want to 0:21:51.840 --> 0:21:53.520 do it. Bled didn't want to do it, but we 0:21:53.600 --> 0:21:57.359 found this interesting loophole and got thousands of people to 0:21:57.400 --> 0:21:59.680 send letters in and said at the bottom of the 0:21:59.800 --> 0:22:02.280 letter to the the MP, please can you pass this 0:22:02.320 --> 0:22:06.720 on to Blair? Right, And apparently they were obliged to 0:22:06.760 --> 0:22:09.920 pass on these letters. So Blair was literally getting thousands 0:22:09.960 --> 0:22:12.800 and thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of letters, 0:22:12.840 --> 0:22:16.280 which doesn't normally happen. And he did pass the law 0:22:16.560 --> 0:22:19.560 after much arguing and me refusing to meet him because 0:22:19.600 --> 0:22:24.800 it was during the Iraq War and all sorts of Yeah, well, 0:22:24.840 --> 0:22:29.320 any normal human being would be. Anyway, I was very 0:22:29.320 --> 0:22:31.000 glad I did it, and the people I was working 0:22:31.000 --> 0:22:32.919