WEBVTT - Thom Yorke 0:00:02.080 --> 0:00:05.280 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing. 0:00:15.320 --> 0:00:19.959 Radiohead released their stunning debut single Creep when You're In. 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:26.800 It was quiet, yet explosive, even haunting, and its refrain 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:38.320 had a powerful hook. Special, so fucking special. Radio Heads 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:42.920 frontman and principal songwriter Tom York is my guest, and 0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:45.720 if it was his wish to be special, the world 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:50.160 granted it. York's band has become a commercial and critical success, 0:00:50.520 --> 0:01:06.880 selling over thirty million albums. Radio Heads music actively resists definition. 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:11.560 Each new album explores a different sound, delighting their followers 0:01:11.840 --> 0:01:25.280 and scooping up more fans along the way. The New 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:29.559 York Times called Radiohead rocks most experimental top ten band, 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:33.319 and this spirit of experimentation isn't limited to their music. 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:36.880 In two thousand seven, York and his bandmates released In 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:41.520 Rainbows on their website. First fans were invited to pay 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:44.920 what they wanted for the album. Radiohead may not have 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:48.200 been the first to thumb its nose the music industrial complex, 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:51.120 but they might be the first to do so and 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:55.840 sell out a major arena. That said, Tom York hasn't 0:01:55.880 --> 0:02:01.000 necessarily been comfortable under the spotlight. He complains about celebrity worship, 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:04.040 and I wasn't sure what to expect. Actually, I've got 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:07.200 your health food snack, did you? Yeah? Because someone told 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:12.639 me you were like all vegetarian and that Tom your 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:15.760 has a new record out a mark. The band called 0:02:15.840 --> 0:02:26.040 themselves Atoms for Peace. You don't do a lot of 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:28.880 gross Were you do? What? I was an Almairs needed 0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:33.320 basis on a need to know basis? Yeah, kind of, 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:35.560 I kind of need to explain what I'm doing a 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:37.800 bit with the Aldams for Peace thing, just a little 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:43.560 bit because it's something different, and some vague effort to 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:48.400 explain myself occasionally I think is morally acceptable tell us 0:02:48.400 --> 0:02:51.080 about the Albams for Peace. Well, it's just it was. 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:53.720 I did a record on my own called the Eraser 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:56.839 a few years ago. Was that your first solo record? Yes, 0:02:56.960 --> 0:02:59.000 first time. I sort of worked on my own with 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:03.600 Nigel who norm produces Radiohead and it came out it 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:06.600 was okay, people liked it a bit. A couple of 0:03:06.639 --> 0:03:09.320 years after, I suddenly thought I really want to actually 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:12.120 because it was all done, it was all programmed, it 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:14.760 was all computers and stuff, and I thought, actually, I 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:16.960 really I'm curious to know what it would be like 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:18.720 to actually get a band together to play this, And 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:20.840 it was an excuse to go on a jolly to 0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:24.320 l A and hang out, and I emailed friends of 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:27.080 mine who I knew like the record. One was Flee 0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:31.480 from the Chili Peppers. One was my friend Joey, who's 0:03:31.720 --> 0:03:35.520 drummed with everybody's genius drummer from anyway. We got it 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:39.200 together and it turned into this thing became really exciting, 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:43.320 and we ended up calling the band Absoms for Peace 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:48.320 and making a record out of the excitement of that. 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:49.920 And it was all brand new to me because I've 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:52.640 been in the same band since I was seventeen sixteen. 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:57.800 And when you do that, when you go into another 0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:01.280 room with people, it's not so much I'm assuming and 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:03.800 you can help me that you want to not play 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:05.640 with those guys anymore. You just want to play with 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:07.720 different people for a change. It was a yeah, it 0:04:07.800 --> 0:04:10.400 was a totally different process. I mean, it's it's always 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:12.520 fun if you know what you're aiming at, if you 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:14.240 know what the tunes are, you're not trying to write them, 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:17.599 you're just emulating what's already been written. That makes it 0:04:17.680 --> 0:04:22.640 fun straight away because it's a different sort of creative process. Um, 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:26.120 you're not struggling around in the dark for a way 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:29.719 into a piece of music. You're figuring out how to 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:32.440 strip it down to its all essentials, especially if it's 0:04:32.480 --> 0:04:34.680 something has been written on a computer and then you 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:37.240 have to humanly won't learn how to play it. It 0:04:37.320 --> 0:04:40.640 brings in this quite interesting thing with the feel of 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:43.600 what you're playing anyway, it's loads of different things, but 0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:46.200 it's a lot more fun, a lot more relaxed if 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:48.120 you're not trying to write, you know, which is what 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:50.960 also all the time what we're trying to do with Radiohead. 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:53.960 What's the first time or first experience you had with 0:04:54.200 --> 0:05:00.880 using computers to create music? That was I think after 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:05.200 we did Okay Computer. I finally in the late late 0:05:05.279 --> 0:05:07.520 nineties you could like go on tour with the laptop 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:10.880 and it was powerful enough that you could record, edit, 0:05:11.480 --> 0:05:14.240 use synthesizers, bit into it and it wouldn't crash and 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:17.400 it was fairly stable. So I first started getting into 0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:19.760 it then. And what I thought was really interesting is 0:05:19.800 --> 0:05:23.719 when we were working on Okay Computer, I started using 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:26.880 learning the software that we were using the studio to 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:30.000 and we were still mostly working on tape old school. 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:34.279 But I suddenly thought, we'll hang on a minute. If 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:36.760 I can learn how all this equipment works, I'll have 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:39.200 a completely different way of thinking about how to write. 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:42.400 So I forced myself to learn all all this uh, 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:46.320 all this equipment and learn to use the laptop because 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:50.200 a lot of music I was into was being made 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:52.800 electronically anyway, and I kind of thought it would be 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:56.120 interesting to do it within the band, because you know 0:05:56.200 --> 0:06:01.000 a band. Normally musicians don't fall into doing the production 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:04.599 side of it or building the tracks. They're like, stay 0:06:04.880 --> 0:06:07.240 this side of the studio, offense with the mix and 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:12.599 let someone tell them. So I definitely was much more 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:16.000 into blurring that up. Did Ni produce both your solo albums? 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:18.920 Yeah he does. He does a lot and get all 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:21.680 of the radio, Yeah he does. When you attribute that 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:24.800 to having that kind of faith in someone, UM, for me, 0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:28.400 it's UM you find someone you trust. I mean not 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:31.760 all the time, and we do argue a lot, but 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:36.080 to have someone who's like um, a sounding board all 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:39.839 the time, it makes everything so much more fun because 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:43.800 if you're if you're knocking out ideas, you can't edit 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:45.880 them and knock them out at the same time, Like, 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:48.320 if you're on stage and you're trying to get through 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:50.920 your part or whatever, you have to have someone out 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:53.880 front saying, okay, that's not working. I mean I do 0:06:54.200 --> 0:06:56.839 on my own a lot. I do work. You know, 0:06:56.920 --> 0:06:59.479 you generate ideas, but all I then have is a 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:02.400 mounting ideas that gradually I don't have to sit through, 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:05.160 and it just takes so long. It's so much more 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:08.120 fun sharing it with someone. What did you think about 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:11.280 your fourays into computerized music? He was into it. I 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:13.480 did wonder when I first started doing it, but he 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:18.080 was into it because he watched me doing it in 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:20.600 such a different way to him. I mean, I was 0:07:21.280 --> 0:07:23.720 like a kid being given a hammer. I was just 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:25.400 hamming away on stuff. I didn't really know what I 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:27.560 was doing, but he was kind of fascinated about that, 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:29.800 you know, and he'd come and literally tidy up the 0:07:29.840 --> 0:07:33.840 mess done on the computer. What were other people who 0:07:33.880 --> 0:07:36.320 were other people that were working in that in that 0:07:36.440 --> 0:07:40.600 area that you listened to Who was then? Well, then 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:44.400 it was I was obsessed with aph X, Twin then 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:48.560 and Oteka. There was a lot of really interesting things 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:52.040 happening in Britain then on this label called Warp and 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:57.320 it was it was as warp w RP, like the 0:07:57.360 --> 0:08:01.000 floor is warped after the fun Yeah, And then I say, 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:03.080 with your accent, that could have been anyone of four 0:08:03.120 --> 0:08:08.680 wards when on this label called War War Warm, War, War, 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:14.760 Wall War War, Whoop Yeah, saying like we're saying here 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:19.280 in the United States War it's country and Western record 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:22.280 bit you bottom now and there boy? So you you 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:24.840 as you were, you were obsessed with the music that 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:29.880 was on Whoop Records because it didn't have any guitars 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:33.160 and I was having a troubled relationship with my guitar 0:08:33.360 --> 0:08:36.080 at the time. Is it true, Well, not really. It's 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:38.720 just like I ended up being in a band, signing 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:41.440 this to this big record label, and it's a band 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:44.559 and when big letters, so certain things go with that. 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:48.080 But yet when I was at college, I was listening 0:08:48.080 --> 0:08:50.840 to a lot of other things, and after a while 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:53.360 it was like, oh, this is it's really annoying that 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:56.120 I felt like we couldn't break out of that. So 0:08:56.240 --> 0:08:58.640 I just started forcing us to break out of that 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:00.960 because it didn't make sense to me. You've been with 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:03.120 those guys for how long? Now? We started when we're 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:09.040 sixteen Radiohead, which is um, now I'm forty four, so 0:09:09.080 --> 0:09:11.640 that's quite a while. And some bands that have had 0:09:11.679 --> 0:09:15.160 a tremendous longevity, obviously the Rolling Stones of the premier example, 0:09:15.840 --> 0:09:17.680 they've changed partners over the years, like they were the 0:09:17.679 --> 0:09:19.679 New York Yankees. You know, there's somebody else playing in 0:09:19.720 --> 0:09:22.800 third base every four or five years. But you guys, 0:09:22.800 --> 0:09:25.559 it's the same cast of people all the sudd What 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:30.520 do you attribute that to persistence? My great diplomatic skills. 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:34.640 Not but there must be times when they've I mean, 0:09:34.679 --> 0:09:36.800 I'll never forget McCartney said to me, even the Beatles 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:39.120 got tired of being the Beatles. Were the times you 0:09:39.120 --> 0:09:40.520 guys sat there and looked at each other and said, 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:44.160 I think we're done. I do that frequently, right frequently. 0:09:44.160 --> 0:09:46.760 I mean at least the others two not as much. 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:49.920 They just wait for me to do it. Um, but 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:54.800 it changes so it's like, yeah, it's stick around. I'm 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:57.400 feeling it's coming up. I mean, you know, something to 0:09:57.480 --> 0:09:59.120 do with the fact we haven't done any useful for 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:02.720 three weeks. It goes through these phases. You know, we've 0:10:02.760 --> 0:10:06.680 grown up together. It's weird. I mean, um, so we 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:10.040 just did a tour last year right, and it was probably, 0:10:10.800 --> 0:10:12.880 in theory, the scariest one we've ever done, because it 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:15.200 was lots of big gigs, which I normally am spending 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:18.200 my time trying to shy away from. Why because you 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:20.880 can't achieve technically in a large space where you normally 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:23.920 want to exactly that you can't get across to people 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:27.480 the right way, I felt. So we did spend a 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:29.560 lot of time and effort coming up with like a 0:10:29.600 --> 0:10:32.280 stage design which used screens in a certain way which 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:35.440 made it intimate, even though you know, some nights was 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:39.400 like thirty or forty people trying to create some sort 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:42.760 of intimacy, and when it worked, it was insane. It 0:10:42.840 --> 0:10:46.400 was because the upside of playing to that many people 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:50.120 is you have this really crazy collective energy that you 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:54.400 can tap into like a crowd, you know. Thing. There's 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:57.120 one show we did in Phoenix that sticks in my 0:10:57.280 --> 0:11:00.240 mind where there was something about maybe that it was 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:03.360 in Phoenix and people don't get the opportunity, those sort 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:06.120 of people don't get the opportunity to get together that 0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:08.760 often or something. There was some sort of excitement within 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:12.160 the crowd that was so great to play with. When 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:15.040 when we hit it musically, it felt like the whole room, 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:17.760 the whole of the building was moving. Honestly, we both 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:22.000 came off, you know, and it's bob. I understand that 0:11:22.080 --> 0:11:27.000 not from my own experience, but from seeing artists perform. 0:11:27.040 --> 0:11:30.600 You know. I often asked myself, why the hell would 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:34.880 would you put yourself through this? Because it's very stressful. 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:37.440 It's a lot of pressure, and for me mentally, I've 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:41.680 just build myself up to it in my head gradually, 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:44.920 and it sounds really precious, but it messes with my head. 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:47.200 I want to get to that, but I want to 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:50.600 come around it and say, your music has such a 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:53.920 spiritual quality to it. There's a spiritual element to it. 0:11:53.920 --> 0:11:57.440 Another stated one. It just emanates a vibe to me, 0:11:57.480 --> 0:12:01.000 that's to me that that but to me that comes 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:04.080 off the audience. That's what I find. It's something that's developed. 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:07.079 It's not like we're not going into this intending to 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:09.520 do any of that. It just sort of happens when 0:12:10.080 --> 0:12:12.320 when the waves go right, you know, when the waves 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:15.560 fall into place. So then you'll get to the end 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:18.120 of the song and you can feel, Okay, we've done 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:45.640 whatever it is that was it. What's your preparation before 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:47.680 you do a live show before you because in the 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:52.360 studio it's obviously a whole different animal, correct, Yeah, there's 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:54.880 no preparation for the studio, you do. You know, it's 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:57.280 billowing a china shop most of the time, which is 0:12:57.320 --> 0:13:00.880 how it should be. I think, and performing live, that's 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:03.440 what's given to me. A couple of hours before you 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:05.000 go out there and you've got to blow this thing 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:08.560 out for all these people and just stone cold silence, 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:12.640 basically almost meditative. Well, yeah, I do. I do that 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:15.200 and focused. I stand on my head for a bit 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:20.640 and basically I'm completely on my own until five minutes 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:22.280 before we go on, and then we're all in the 0:13:22.360 --> 0:13:25.240 room together, pacing up and down like wild animals, and 0:13:25.320 --> 0:13:27.839 then then we're on. But when we first started doing 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:30.640 big shows, it was with my friend Michael Stipe, and 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:34.120 he does the total opposite. He literally he'll be talking 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:35.920 to you and then someone taps in the should and 0:13:35.920 --> 0:13:38.160 then they're on. And I was like, how the hell 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:40.480 do you do that? Man? And I tried to do 0:13:40.520 --> 0:13:43.199 it like that, I couldn't it, and so I ended 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:45.720 up going did He said, did you get any indication 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:48.400 why Stipe could do that? There's a lot of nice 0:13:48.440 --> 0:13:51.480 spiritual tones inside of R. E. M's music too. Yeah, No, 0:13:51.640 --> 0:13:54.640 I don't know. I think what he used to do 0:13:55.000 --> 0:14:00.720 was you'd stand there for the first two tunes, barely move. 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:03.880 He was a sort of lightning conductor, and he was 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:06.240 just waiting for it to hit, and then when it hit, 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:09.160 he was off. But he would wait, and if it 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:10.880 wasn't going to hit, he was still there three or 0:14:10.880 --> 0:14:14.400 four tunes later and waiting. He kind of warmed up 0:14:14.800 --> 0:14:18.120 in front of everybody, engaging it all. Whereas I can't 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:20.680 do that because I have to sort of be clear 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:26.400 of everything before you know, whatever, I need to um 0:14:26.560 --> 0:14:52.080 be completely empty. I started playing guitar when I was seven. 0:14:52.560 --> 0:14:53.960 I sat down and said I was going to be 0:14:54.000 --> 0:14:56.200 Brian May when I was a lot of bad thing 0:14:56.240 --> 0:14:59.040 to be. And then I tried to do I read 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:01.640 like when I was ten or something. I read that 0:15:02.440 --> 0:15:05.760 he built his first guitar himself, which is when he 0:15:05.800 --> 0:15:09.080 still plays. So I tried to do that, but my 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:15.560 efforts would crafting the guitar, and I had to cheat 0:15:15.600 --> 0:15:17.160 with the neck on the guitar I found and all 0:15:17.280 --> 0:15:20.320 that someone a neighbor gave me a neck of an 0:15:20.320 --> 0:15:22.920 electric guitar. Is that great? Okay, that's good, But you 0:15:22.960 --> 0:15:24.920 know I was ten or eleven, so I was trying 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:26.840 to like bolt it together to this other piece of 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:29.040 wood that I'd cut out, and it was just a disaster. 0:15:29.480 --> 0:15:31.960 But it kind of worked, but it was ugly. Was 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:38.760 your family musical Not really? No. The only one that 0:15:38.800 --> 0:15:42.560 sticks out is barently my great grandmother. She'd get really 0:15:42.600 --> 0:15:46.680 hammered and then stay up playing her pump organ thing 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:49.840 downstairs all night and keep the family up. You were 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:52.200 around your witness dad. I met her once and she 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:54.160 was kind of she wore black. I was quite scary 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:57.320 when I was really tiny. But now that your parents 0:15:57.320 --> 0:16:00.760 were artists musicians, no, no, no, no. When the guitar 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:04.320 came into your life when your seven Brian may or, no, 0:16:05.200 --> 0:16:09.000 was it music itself and where you moved by music itself? 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:11.560 Or was it like many people when they're very young? 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:16.160 Was rock stardom was never? Then? It was? It was 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:19.880 you weren't running around your bedroom imitating Jagger and you 0:16:19.920 --> 0:16:23.720 thought like you and my My whole thing was we 0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:26.440 didn't have any sound system in the house. We had nothing, 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:30.760 no high fi, nothing except for and my dad's car 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:35.640 and had a type player in it, so I when 0:16:36.000 --> 0:16:38.680 and would sit for hours. I would sit for hours, 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:41.560 and you know, it was the sound of Brian May's guitar, 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:43.720 actually was. It was one of those funny things where 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:46.320 you know, when you you turned something up and you're 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:50.040 in a very controlled loud environment, just that sounds just 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:55.080 you know, nothing else. It was that when you're that 0:16:55.320 --> 0:17:01.040 small and you've never I've never really heard music particularly 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:03.960 at all up until that point. You know, it's funny, 0:17:04.280 --> 0:17:06.439 it's got a weird thing. But I mean, lots of 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:08.359 kids at that age that you know, their parents didn't 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:11.960 really have hi fires or anything as such. The only 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:13.520 guy I did know who had to high fight down 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:15.480 the road only played Abbert, which I thought was worse 0:17:15.520 --> 0:17:19.200 than not everyone, but that was me some of those kids. 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:22.840 And then and then the guitar, and you're trying to 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:25.960 fashion your own guitar by the time you're eleven, and 0:17:26.000 --> 0:17:29.080 then when you take another step toward deepening your commitment, 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:31.840 how old are you when you form the band six Team. 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:34.800 I did have a band when I was eleven, but um, 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:38.679 what's an eleven year old band sound like? Yeah? No, 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:42.640 not very good at all? Um, But it was it 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:46.040 was very exciting, like going around to a friend's house 0:17:46.080 --> 0:17:48.560 is setting up and jamming, and all our mates would 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:51.879 come and hang out and girls, which I thought, this 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:58.240 is interesting as puberty hit, but that sort of fell 0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:01.000 to bits because I kept fighting with the drum. And 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:04.320 then when I was sixteen, I was thinking, well, okay, 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:06.680 I need to get this together really and just went 0:18:06.720 --> 0:18:10.560 around the school sort of choosing people. So you went 0:18:10.600 --> 0:18:13.160 around picking people. I got it. I got it because 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:16.199 he was dressed like Morrissey and he had some cool socks, 0:18:16.600 --> 0:18:17.960 and I saw he had a guitar. I had no 0:18:17.960 --> 0:18:19.640 idea where they could play or not. I don't really care. 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:22.880 I got Colin because I knew Colin could play very 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:25.680 well and I needed a bass player could play very well. 0:18:26.160 --> 0:18:29.359 But he had never played bass before and his brother 0:18:29.440 --> 0:18:33.359 Johnny was this mythical musical prodigy. So roped him in. 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:36.760 And then Phil was the only druma we knew anyway. 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:38.960 So and and he had a house down the road 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:41.359 that we could rehearse him and you lived where you 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:44.240 grew up where well, this was an Abingdon school in 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:49.000 near Oxford. And then when you form Radiohead when you're 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:54.280 six team basically yeah, we started sort of writing, doing 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:56.679 demos and messing about, and it was, you know, it 0:18:56.760 --> 0:18:59.520 was quite interesting straight away that it was quite I 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:01.480 think as Field had quite a lot of experience. He 0:19:01.520 --> 0:19:03.760 was a bit older, and he'd had his own band, 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:09.120 so he knew how to put things together a bit. 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:13.959 And in fact we used to go and do demos 0:19:14.000 --> 0:19:17.720 in his sister's bedroom like right from the beginning, which 0:19:17.880 --> 0:19:20.640 which was great. I mean, there's nothing better than like 0:19:21.240 --> 0:19:24.280 just starting off by just trying to write demos from scratch, 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:26.560 even though you can't really play, even though you don't 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:28.720 know each other. That's where you start, you know. It's 0:19:28.760 --> 0:19:31.000 kind of a nice way to figure out where you're about. 0:19:31.680 --> 0:19:35.080 What do you think you do best? You lead a band, 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:40.159 you well you you play guitar, you write music, you 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:42.359 produce music, you do it and you sing. What do 0:19:42.359 --> 0:19:44.480 you think your greatest strength is? If you had to 0:19:44.520 --> 0:19:47.240 pick one. So I don't know what I'm doing right, 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:48.680 I like the fact that still I don't know what 0:19:48.760 --> 0:19:52.520 I'm doing. I think we're not. Honestly, I can't go 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:56.879 I'll go through whole phrases of um months where i'n't 0:19:56.880 --> 0:20:02.159 got a clue. I regularly lose complete confidence in what 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:05.960 I'm doing. Why do you think that is because I 0:20:06.040 --> 0:20:13.159 have the same condition. Why partly because I think I 0:20:13.200 --> 0:20:17.960 don't quite understand how it happens after the fact, when 0:20:18.000 --> 0:20:20.480 when what happens when the appreciation comes to you know, 0:20:20.600 --> 0:20:25.000 when you're when you're piecing something together right, things will 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:28.280 fall into place you make it. I mean, in some ways, 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:31.000 the nicest bit about the creative thing, the nicest bit 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:35.000 about recording and writing, is this sort of weird limbo 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:40.520 where you in between scratching away scratching away, nothing really happening, 0:20:40.640 --> 0:20:43.960 nothing really happening, and then something wants to be built 0:20:44.000 --> 0:20:46.400 and starts to get built. You just have to let 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:48.480 it happen. And then it gets to the end and 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:50.199 you and you look at it a few months later 0:20:50.240 --> 0:20:54.520 and go huh um, sort of weird amn, easier that 0:20:54.560 --> 0:20:57.359 goes with it. Something will happen, one little sound goes 0:20:57.400 --> 0:20:59.800 off all and you go, oh, that's really nice. For 0:21:03.080 --> 0:21:06.480 when I was at school, I didn't get on with 0:21:06.560 --> 0:21:10.040 the school system at all. Um I see it, and 0:21:10.119 --> 0:21:13.040 my son the same. That sort of the mechanics of 0:21:13.040 --> 0:21:15.479 how a school operates and how you're supposed to blend 0:21:15.520 --> 0:21:19.439 in or whatever so I hid in the music stroke 0:21:19.560 --> 0:21:22.760 art department and had a great time there and discovered 0:21:22.760 --> 0:21:25.840 that actually that's what I wanted to do. Straight away, 0:21:26.280 --> 0:21:30.119 the heads of both schools just saw what I was up. 0:21:30.240 --> 0:21:32.760 Is this the teacher that you often credit with your Yeah, 0:21:32.760 --> 0:21:35.520 where was the teacher's name? Terry James? But but it 0:21:35.560 --> 0:21:38.840 was him and my art teacher as well. Actually it 0:21:38.960 --> 0:21:41.240 was like someone sort of takes you under their wing 0:21:41.320 --> 0:21:43.760 and say, well, you know what you're actually quite good at. 0:21:43.760 --> 0:21:46.360 Then touring is a very critical thing in this business. Yeah, 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:49.400 because it's enough. It's enough at that age, it's enough 0:21:49.760 --> 0:21:53.080 to just get a little push and then okay, do 0:21:53.200 --> 0:21:56.320 someone push you in a different direction? Yeah, well that 0:21:56.359 --> 0:21:58.520 would be bad. How about do you go to the 0:21:58.560 --> 0:22:02.320 other I think you need to hear. Yeah, that's my 0:22:02.359 --> 0:22:04.480 father used to think. I used to get too advertising, 0:22:04.480 --> 0:22:08.480 which is like really brilliant. Yeah, I'd really be good 0:22:08.480 --> 0:22:11.360 at that. Other people ship. Well, one thing you're good 0:22:11.400 --> 0:22:15.600 at is avoiding. My original question, which was what do 0:22:15.680 --> 0:22:18.280 you think your best at? And let's try to choose. 0:22:18.280 --> 0:22:20.120 If you can't, if you if you don't mind, confine 0:22:20.200 --> 0:22:23.560 yourself to the list, I provide, what do you think 0:22:23.600 --> 0:22:29.480 your best at this is multiple choice guitar band, kind 0:22:29.480 --> 0:22:37.960 of you know, paternal figure, songwriting, producing, singing. Mm hmm, 0:22:43.480 --> 0:22:46.360 I guess singing. Okay, I'm glad you chose that one. 0:22:46.520 --> 0:22:48.080 I was driving. I was trying I think when I 0:22:48.119 --> 0:22:50.439 popped the words singing the way I did, I was 0:22:50.440 --> 0:22:55.520 trying to do or singing? What was singing to you? 0:22:56.000 --> 0:22:58.720 How did your singing evolve where you arrived at where 0:22:58.760 --> 0:23:01.719 you are now? We're most people say you have one 0:23:01.720 --> 0:23:05.960 of the most evocative singing voices and all of music 0:23:06.080 --> 0:23:09.439 today either that or melancholy to the point of what 0:23:09.560 --> 0:23:13.119 people who love who love radio, they crave their music, 0:23:13.160 --> 0:23:21.440 and they crave particularly you're singing. Well, basically I went 0:23:21.520 --> 0:23:24.440 to music went to a few singing lessons, but that 0:23:24.480 --> 0:23:29.800 was basically just so I could literally breathe right, you know, um, 0:23:31.640 --> 0:23:35.040 my favorite singers like the York When I watched Buyork 0:23:35.200 --> 0:23:40.200 sing um, I've been lucky enough to sort of sing 0:23:40.200 --> 0:23:41.600 with her and watch you do it. And I was 0:23:41.640 --> 0:23:42.840 gonna say, you're one of the few people going to 0:23:42.920 --> 0:23:45.320 use that phrase when I watched The York saying yeah, 0:23:45.400 --> 0:23:46.960 most of them say well, when I listened to the 0:23:47.080 --> 0:23:54.680