WEBVTT - From the Archives: Thom Yorke 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:04.320 Hey, it's Alec Baldwin here before we launch our next 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:08.560 season of Here's the Thing at iHeartRadio in January, I 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:12.120 thought I'd play some of my favorite shows from the archives. 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:18.400 In nineteen ninety two, Radiohead released their stunning debut single 0:00:18.800 --> 0:00:25.560 Creep When Youful. It was quiet yet explosive, even haunting, 0:00:26.000 --> 0:00:28.240 and its refrain had a powerful hook. 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:30.360 I wish how special? 0:00:33.680 --> 0:00:41.320 So fucking special? Radioheads frontman and principal songwriter Tom York 0:00:41.760 --> 0:00:44.320 is my guest, and if it was his wish to 0:00:44.400 --> 0:00:48.000 be special, the world granted it. York's band has become 0:00:48.040 --> 0:00:52.400 a commercial and critical success, selling over thirty million albums. 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:09.280 Radiohead's music actively resists definition. Each new album explores a 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:13.480 different sound, delighting their followers and scooping up more fans 0:01:13.520 --> 0:01:27.360 along the way. The New York Times called Radiohead rock's 0:01:27.440 --> 0:01:31.759 most experimental top ten band, and this spirit of experimentation 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:34.960 isn't limited to their music. In two thousand and seven, 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:39.160 York and his bandmates released In Rainbows on their website. 0:01:39.280 --> 0:01:42.880 First fans were invited to pay what they wanted for 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:45.600 the album. Radiohead may not have been the first to 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:49.360 thummets nose the music industrial complex, but they might be 0:01:49.480 --> 0:01:52.920 the first to do so and sell out a major arena. 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:58.680 That said, Tom York hasn't necessarily been comfortable under the spotlight. 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:02.320 He complains about celebrity worship and I wasn't sure what 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:03.040 to expect. 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:06.360 Actually, I got you a health food snack, did you Yeah, 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:08.640 because someone told me you were like all vegetarian and that. 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:15.040 Tom Yorke has a new record out a mark. The 0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:25.799 band calls themselves Adams for Peace. You don't do a 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:28.239 lot of press, were you doing? It was an on 0:02:28.360 --> 0:02:29.639 an as needed basis. 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:33.239 Yeah, on a need to know basis, Yeah, yeah, kind of. 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:35.560 I kind of need to explain what I'm doing a 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:37.840 bit with the Adams for Peace thing, just a little 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:43.600 bit because it's something different and some vague effort to 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:47.880 explain myself occasionally I think is morally acceptable. 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:49.519 Tell us about the Adams for Peace. 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:52.359 Well, it's just it was. I did a record on 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:54.799 my own called The Eraser a few years ago. 0:02:55.360 --> 0:02:56.480 Was that your first solo record? 0:02:56.680 --> 0:02:58.799 Yes, first time. I sort of worked on my own 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:03.280 with Nigel who when he produces Radiohead, and it came 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:06.280 out it was okay, people liked it a bit. A 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:08.560 couple of years after I suddenly thought I really want 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:11.480 to actually because it was all done, it was all programmed, 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:14.720 it was all computers and stuff, and I thought, actually, 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:16.840 I really I'm curious to know what it would be 0:03:16.960 --> 0:03:18.519 like to actually get a band together to play this. 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:20.760 And it was an excuse to go on a jolly 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:24.320 to LA and hang out. And I emailed friends of 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:27.119 mine who I knew like the record. One was Flee 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:31.480 from the Chili Peppers. One was my friend Joey, who's 0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:35.200 drummed with everybody's genius drummer from LA. And anyway, we 0:03:35.320 --> 0:03:38.400 got it together and it turned into this thing became 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:42.920 really exciting, and we ended up calling the band Atoms 0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:47.520 for Peace and making a record out of the excitement 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:49.520 of that. And it was all brand new to me 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:51.320 because I'd been in the same band since I was 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:52.680 seventeen sixteen. 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:57.840 And when you do that, when you go into another 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:01.400 room with people, it's not so much assuming and you 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:03.960 can help me that you want to not play with 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:06.040 those guys anymore. You just want to play with different 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:06.840 people for a change. 0:04:06.880 --> 0:04:09.240 It was a good. Yeah, it was a totally different process. 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:11.640 I mean, it's always fun if you know what you're 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:13.440 aiming at. If you know what the tunes are, you're 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:16.599 not trying to write them, you're just emulating what's already 0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:19.040 been written. That makes it fun straight away, because it's 0:04:19.080 --> 0:04:24.640 a different sort of creative process, So you're not struggling 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:26.800 around in the dark for a way into a piece 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:30.440 of music. You're figuring out how to strip it down 0:04:30.480 --> 0:04:33.239 to its all essentials, especially if it's something's been written 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:36.320 on a computer, and then you have to humanly learn 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:38.680 how to play it. It brings in this quite interesting 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:42.480 thing with the feel of what you're playing. Anyway, it's 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:45.080 loads of different things, but it's a lot more fun 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:47.279 and a lot more relaxed if you're not trying to write, 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:49.880 you know, which is what also all the time what 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:51.000 we're trying to do with Radiohead. 0:04:51.200 --> 0:04:54.040 What's the first time or first experience you had with 0:04:54.240 --> 0:04:56.719 using computers to create music? 0:04:57.600 --> 0:05:02.800 That was I think after we did Okay Computer I 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:06.440 finally in the late late nineties you could like go 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:09.000 on tour with the laptop and it was powerful enough 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:13.000 that you could record, edit, use synthesizers built into it 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:16.000 and it wouldn't crash and it was fairly stable. So 0:05:16.120 --> 0:05:18.560 I first started getting into it then, And what I 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:21.120 thought was really interesting is when we were working on 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:25.720 Okay computer, I started using learning the software that we 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:28.520 were using the studio to edit. We were still mostly 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:32.520 working on tape old school, but I suddenly thought, well, 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:35.400 hang on a minute, if I can learn how all 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:38.040 this equipment works, I'll have a completely different way of 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:40.920 thinking about how to write. So I forced myself to 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:45.600 learn all this equipment and learn to use the laptop 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:50.000 because a lot of music I was into was being 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:52.719 made electronically anyway, and I kind of thought it would 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:56.000 be interesting to do it within the band, because you 0:05:56.080 --> 0:06:00.560 know a band. Normally musicians don't fall into doing the 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:03.800 production side of it or building the tracks. They're like, 0:06:04.000 --> 0:06:06.680 stay this side of the studio of fence with the 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:11.480 mics and let someone tell me. So I definitely was 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:13.760 much more into blurring that up. 0:06:13.960 --> 0:06:16.039 Did Naj produce both your solo albums? 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:19.040 Yeah he does. He does the lot and all of 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:20.960 the radio Head album, Yeah he does. Well. 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:23.080 When you attribute that to having that kind of faith in. 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:27.919 Someone, for me, it's sort of you find someone you trust. 0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:30.359 I mean not all the time, and we do argue 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:35.560 a lot, but to have someone who's like a sounding 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:38.800 board all the time. It makes everything so much more 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:42.240 fun because if you're if you're knocking out ideas, you 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:45.719 can't edit them and knock them out at the same time. 0:06:45.839 --> 0:06:48.160 Like if you're on stage and you're trying to get 0:06:48.200 --> 0:06:50.360 through your part or whatever, you have to have someone 0:06:50.760 --> 0:06:53.640 out front saying, okay, that's not working. I mean I 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:56.880 do on my own a lot. I do work. You know, 0:06:57.000 --> 0:06:59.520 you generate ideas, but all I then have is a 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:02.480 mountain ideas that gradually I then have to sit through 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:05.200 and it just takes so long. It's so much more 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:07.120 fun sharing it with someone. 0:07:07.360 --> 0:07:10.240 What did he think about your forays into computerized music? 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:12.400 Oh, he was into it. I did wonder when I 0:07:12.480 --> 0:07:14.280 first started doing it, but he was into it because 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:18.960 he watched me doing it in such a different way 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:22.760 to him. I mean, I was like a kid being 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:24.680 given a hammer. I was just hammering away and stuff. 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:26.240 I didn't really know what I was doing, but he 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:28.280 was kind of fascinated about that, you know, and he'd 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:31.560 come and literally tidy up the mess down on the computer. 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:34.920 What were other people who were other people that were 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:37.480 working in that in that area that you listened to, 0:07:37.560 --> 0:07:39.920 who are making the now? 0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:43.280 Well, then it was. I was obsessed with AFX twin 0:07:44.120 --> 0:07:47.880 then and O Tekra. There was a lot of really 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:51.320 interesting things happening Britain. Then on this label called Warp 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:52.800 and it was it was a. 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:58.880 Funny Spells warp w arp, like the floor is warped, Yeah, 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:01.680 after the fun Yeah. And then I say, with your accent, 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:04.400 that could have been anyone in four wards when I said, on. 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:13.880 This label called Warm Warm, Wall w Warp, Yeah, say 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:15.840 it like we say it here in the United States. 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:19.880 War it's war country and Western record bit. 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:22.680 Your bottom down there, boy? So you were you is? 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:25.000 You were? You were obsessed with the music that was 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:27.320 on Warp Records. 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:31.280 Because it didn't have any guitars and I was having 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:33.920 a troubled relationship with my guitar at the time. 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:34.560 Is that true? 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:37.559 Well not really. It's just like I ended up being 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:40.600 in a band signing this to this big record label, 0:08:40.720 --> 0:08:43.920 and it's a band with big letters, so certain things 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:47.000 go with that. But yet when I was at college, 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:49.800 I was listening to a lot of other things, and 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:52.160 after a while it was like, oh, this is is 0:08:52.280 --> 0:08:55.720 really annoying that I felt like we couldn't break out 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:58.360 of that. So I just started forcing us to break 0:08:58.360 --> 0:08:59.920 out of that because it didn't make sense to me. 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:02.440 You've been with those guys for how long now we. 0:09:02.520 --> 0:09:07.880 Started when we're sixteen Radiohead, which is now I'm forty four, 0:09:08.960 --> 0:09:09.760 so that's quite a while. 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:13.480 And some bands that have had tremendous longevity, obviously the 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:17.240 Rolling Stones are the premier example. They've changed partners over there, 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:18.960 like they were the New York Yankees. You know, there's 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:21.880 somebody else playing third base every four or five years. Yeah, 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:25.199 but you guys, it's the same cast of people all 0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:26.679 this suff What do you attribute. 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:30.559 That to persistence? My great diplomatic skills. 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:34.679 Not but there must be times when they've I mean, 0:09:34.720 --> 0:09:36.800 I'll never forget McCartney said to me even the Beatles 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:39.160 got tired of being the Beatles. Were the times you 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:40.560 guys sat there and looked at each other and said, 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:41.160 I think we're done. 0:09:41.880 --> 0:09:44.959 I do that frequently, frequently. I mean, at least the 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:47.880 others two not as much. They just wait for me 0:09:47.960 --> 0:09:50.600 to do it. But it changes. 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:53.360 It's like, yeah, it's like to stick around. 0:09:54.679 --> 0:09:57.400 I'm feeling it's coming up. I mean, you know, something 0:09:57.400 --> 0:09:59.040 to do with the fact we haven't done any useful 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:02.160 for three weeks. It goes through these phases. You know, 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:06.679 we've grown up together. It's weird. I mean, So, we 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:10.000 just did a tour last year, right, and it was probably, 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:12.959 in theory, the scariest one we've ever done, because it 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:15.200 was lots of big gigs, which I normally am spending 0:10:15.240 --> 0:10:16.640 my time trying to shy away from. 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:20.280 Why because you can't achieve technically in a large space 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:21.280 where you normally want. 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:24.280 To exactly that you can't get across to people the 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:27.679 right way, I felt. So we did spend a lot 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:29.960 of time and effort coming up with like a stage 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:32.559 design which used screens in a certain way which made 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:35.640 it intimate, even though you know, some nights was like 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:39.440 thirty or forty thousand people trying to create some sort 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:42.600 of intimacy with that, and when it worked, it was insane. 0:10:42.720 --> 0:10:46.080 It was because the upside of playing to that many 0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:50.000 people is you have this really crazy collective energy that 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:53.520 you can tap into like a crowd, you know. Thing. 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:57.000 There's one show we did in Phoenix that sticks in 0:10:57.120 --> 0:11:00.079 my mind where there was something about maybe that it 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:03.080 was in Phoenix and people don't get the opportunity. Those 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:05.760 sort of people don't get the opportunity to get together 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:08.480 that often or something. There was some sort of excitement 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:11.280 within the crowd that was so great to play with. 0:11:11.880 --> 0:11:15.080 When we hit it musically, it felt like the whole room, 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:17.760 the whole of the building was moving. Honestly, we both 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:21.160 came off their you know, yeah, and it's bombed. 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:24.320 I understand that not from my own experience, but from 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:26.560 seeing artists perform. 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:31.120 You know, I often ask myself, why the hell would 0:11:31.200 --> 0:11:35.240 you put yourself through this? Because it's very stressful. It's 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:37.640 a lot of pressure, and for me mentally, I just 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:42.000 build myself up to it in my head gradually and 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:44.960 it sounds really precious, but it messes with my head. 0:11:45.520 --> 0:11:46.959 I want to get to that, but I want to 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:50.319 come around it and say, your music has such a 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:53.679 spiritual quality to it. There's a spiritual element to it, 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:56.959 and not a stated one. It just emanates a vibe. 0:11:57.000 --> 0:12:00.199 To me, it comes to me that yeah, but to me, 0:12:00.360 --> 0:12:02.679 that comes off the audience. That's what I find. It's 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:05.800 something that's developed. It's not like we're not going into 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:08.559 this intending to do any of that. It just sort 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:11.400 of happens when when the waves go right, you know, 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:15.000 when the waves fall into place. Then you'll get to 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:17.120 the end of the song and you can feel, Okay, 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:19.760 we've done whatever it is. That was it. 0:12:43.760 --> 0:12:46.760 What's your preparation before you do a live show before 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:49.680 you go because in the studio it's obviously a whole 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:50.640 different animal. 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:53.920 Correct, Yeah, there's no preparation for the studio. Do you know? 0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:56.719 It's bull in a china shop most of the time, 0:12:56.760 --> 0:12:58.000 which is how it should be, I think. 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:01.959 And performing live, yeah, what's give it to me a 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:03.840 couple of hours before you go out there and you've 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:05.679 got to blow this thing out for all these people. 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:11.559 Just stone cold silence, basically almost meditative. Well, yeah, I do. 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:13.560 I do that and focused. 0:13:13.760 --> 0:13:15.760 I stand on my head for a bit and I 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:20.600 basically I'm completely on my own until five minutes before 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:22.600 we go on, and then we're all in the room together, 0:13:22.679 --> 0:13:25.560 pacing up and down like wild animals, and then then 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:28.120 we're on. But when we first started doing big shows, 0:13:28.160 --> 0:13:30.760 it was with my from Michael Stipe, and he does 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:34.079 the total opposite. He literally he'll be talking to you 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:36.079 and then someone taps in the shoulder and then they're on. 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:38.800 And I was like, how the hell do you do that? Man? 0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:41.679 And I tried to do it like that, couldn't it? 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:44.960 And so I ended up going, did you get any 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:47.839 indication why Stipe could do that? There's a lot of 0:13:47.960 --> 0:13:50.800 nice spiritual tones inside of r EM's music too. 0:13:50.960 --> 0:13:54.000 Yeah, No, I don't know. I think what he used 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:59.000 to do was you'd stand there for the first two 0:13:59.120 --> 0:14:03.319 tunes move. He was a sort of lightning conductor, and 0:14:03.440 --> 0:14:05.480 he was just waiting for it to hit, and then 0:14:05.520 --> 0:14:07.960 when it hit, he was off, but he would wait 0:14:08.600 --> 0:14:10.080 and if it wasn't going to hit, he was still 0:14:10.120 --> 0:14:13.560 there three or four tunes later, and waiting. He kind 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:16.640 of warmed up in front of everybody, gauging it all, 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:19.640 whereas I can't do that because I have to sort 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:24.360 of be clear of everything before, you know whatever. I 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:27.440 need to be completely empty. 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:35.480 We're taking a break, stay with us. 0:14:51.880 --> 0:14:54.440 I started playing guitar when I was seven. I sat 0:14:54.520 --> 0:14:56.080 down and said I was going to be Brian May 0:14:56.640 --> 0:14:59.320 and not a bad thing to be. Yeah, And then 0:14:59.360 --> 0:15:01.520 I tried to do I read like when I was 0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:04.840 ten or something. I read that he'd built his first 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:08.840 guitar himself, which is the one he still plays. So 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:12.840 I tried to do that, but my efforts was and. 0:15:12.800 --> 0:15:15.880 Then said she were not Brian may in s handcrafting 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:16.680 the guitar, and I. 0:15:16.680 --> 0:15:18.120 Had to cheat with the neck on the guitar I 0:15:18.240 --> 0:15:21.680 found in old someone a neighbor gave me a neck 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:24.240 of an electric guitar. That's great, Okay, that's good. But 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:26.240 you know I was ten or eleven, so I was 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:28.040 trying to like bolt it to get to this other 0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:29.720 piece of wood that I'd cut out, and it was 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:32.400 just a disaster. But it kind of worked, but it 0:15:32.520 --> 0:15:33.040 was ugly. 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:34.440 Was your family musical? 0:15:35.000 --> 0:15:35.480 Not really? 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:35.640 No. 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:39.040 The only one that sticks out is apparently my great grandmother. 0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:43.560 She'd get really hammered and then stay up playing her 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:46.920 pump organ thing downstairs all night and keep the family up. 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:49.160 You were around, did you witness that? 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:51.040 I met her once and she was kind of she 0:15:51.120 --> 0:15:54.080 wore black and was quite scary when I was really tiny. 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:57.160 But neither of your parents were artists musicians? 0:15:57.240 --> 0:15:57.680 No, no, no, no. 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:00.560 When the guitar came into your life when or seven, 0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:05.720 Brian may or, no, was it music itself? And were 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:08.560 you moved by music itself? Or was it like many 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:12.840 people when they're very young? Was it rock stardom? Was never? 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:13.840 Then? It was? 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:17.760 It was you weren't running around your bedroom imitating Jagger 0:16:17.880 --> 0:16:18.560 and you thought like you. 0:16:20.000 --> 0:16:23.000 And my whole thing was we didn't have any sound 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:25.360 system in the house. We had nothing, no high fi 0:16:25.560 --> 0:16:30.080 nothing except for in my dad's car and had a 0:16:30.160 --> 0:16:34.760 tight player in it. So I went and would sit 0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:37.880 for hours. I would sit for hours, and you know, 0:16:38.000 --> 0:16:40.640 it was the sound of Brian May's guitar. Actually, it's 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:42.680 one of those funny things where you know, when you 0:16:43.520 --> 0:16:46.720 turned something up and you're in a very controlled, loud environment, 0:16:47.040 --> 0:16:51.800 just that sound was just, you know, nothing else was that. 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:56.000 When you're that small and you've never I've never really 0:16:57.040 --> 0:17:01.440 heard music particularly at all up until that point. You know, 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:03.840 it's funny. It's got a weird thing. But I mean, 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:06.240 lots of kids of that age, you know, their parents 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:09.879 didn't really have high fires or anything as such. The 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:11.479 only guy I did know who had a high fight 0:17:11.520 --> 0:17:13.399 down the road only played abbat, which I thought was 0:17:13.440 --> 0:17:16.600 worse than not having one. But that was me somehow. 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:20.680 Those and then and then the guitar, and you're trying 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:23.600 to fashion your own guitar by the time you were eleven, 0:17:23.800 --> 0:17:26.160 And then when you take another step toward deepening your 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:29.520 commitment how old are you when you form the band sixteen? 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:32.080 I did have a band when I was eleven, But 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:36.560 what's an eleven year old band sound like? Yeah? No, 0:17:36.960 --> 0:17:39.960 it were not very good at all, but it was. 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:43.679 It was very exciting, like going around to a friend's 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:46.200 house is setting up and jamming, and all our mates 0:17:46.240 --> 0:17:49.400 would come and hang out and girls, which I thought, 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:55.720 this is interesting. Yes, as puberty hit, but that sort 0:17:55.720 --> 0:17:58.000 of fell to bits because I kept fighting with the drummer. 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:02.160 And then when I was six, then I was thinking, well, okay, 0:18:02.160 --> 0:18:04.480 I need to get this together really and just went 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:07.600 around the school sort of choosing people. 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:09.120 So you went around picking people. 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:12.920 I got it because he was dressed like Morrissey and 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:15.080 he had some cool socks, and I saw he'd had 0:18:15.119 --> 0:18:16.560 a guitar. I had no idea whether he could play 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:19.040 or not. I didn't really care. I got Colin because 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:21.920 I knew Colin could play very well, and I needed 0:18:21.960 --> 0:18:24.159 a bass player. He could play very well, but he 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:27.760 had never played bass before. And his brother Johnny was 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:31.879 this mythical musical prodigy. So wroped him in. And then 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:35.320 Phil was the only drummer we knew anyway, So and 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:36.920 and he had a house down the road that we 0:18:36.920 --> 0:18:37.639 could rehearse him. 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:39.480 And you're all and you lived where you grew up 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:40.480 were well, this. 0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:42.720 Was at Abingdon School in near Oxford. 0:18:43.160 --> 0:18:46.960 And then when you form Radiohead when you're. 0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:52.560 Sixteen, basically, yeah, we started sort of writing, doing demos 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:54.600 and messing about and it was, you know, it was 0:18:54.760 --> 0:18:57.520 quite interesting straight away that it was quite I think 0:18:57.520 --> 0:18:59.399 because Field had quite a lot of experience. He was 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:02.119 a bit older and he'd had his own band, so 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:07.080 he knew how to put things together a bit. And 0:19:07.760 --> 0:19:11.879 in fact we used to go and do demos in 0:19:12.040 --> 0:19:15.920 his sister's bedroom, like right from the beginning, which which 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:19.639 was great. I mean, there's nothing better than just starting 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:22.280 off by just trying to write demos from scratch, even 0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:24.480 though you can't really play, even though you don't know 0:19:24.560 --> 0:19:26.719 each other. That's where you start, you know. It's kind 0:19:26.760 --> 0:19:28.760 of a nice way to figure out where you're about. 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:32.879 What do you think you do best? You lead a band, 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:38.640 you well, you play guitar, you write music, you produce music, 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:40.560 you do and you're sing. What do you think your 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:42.919 greatest strength is? If you had to pick one. 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:45.840 I don't know what I'm doing. I like the fact 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:48.400 that I still don't know what I'm doing, I think, well, 0:19:48.440 --> 0:19:51.920 not honestly, I can't go. I'll go through whole phases 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:57.600 of months where i'n't got a clue. I regularly lose 0:19:57.760 --> 0:20:00.920 complete confidence in what I'm doing. Why do you think 0:20:00.960 --> 0:20:05.160 that is? Umm, because I have the same condition. Why 0:20:07.520 --> 0:20:11.440 partly because I think I don't quite understand how it 0:20:11.520 --> 0:20:15.040 happens after the fact, When. 0:20:14.960 --> 0:20:17.280 When what happens when the appreciation comes. 0:20:17.080 --> 0:20:21.640 To you know, when you're piecing something together right, things 0:20:21.680 --> 0:20:24.520 will fall into place how you make it. Yeah, I mean, 0:20:24.600 --> 0:20:27.000 in some ways, the nicest bit about the creative thing, 0:20:27.119 --> 0:20:30.560 or nicest bit about recording and writing, is this sort 0:20:30.600 --> 0:20:36.280 of weird limbo where you in between scratching away scratching away, 0:20:36.400 --> 0:20:40.200 nothing really happening, nothing really happening, and then something wants 0:20:40.280 --> 0:20:42.720 to be built and starts to get built. You just 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:44.920 have to let it happen. And then it gets to 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:46.399 the end and you and you look at it a 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:50.240 few months later and go, huh that it's sort of 0:20:50.320 --> 0:20:53.239 weird amnesia that goes with it. Something will happen, one 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:55.640 little sound goes off, and you go, well, that's really 0:20:55.760 --> 0:21:02.359 nice for me. When I was at school. I didn't 0:21:02.400 --> 0:21:06.760 get on with the school system at all. I see it, 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:09.760 and my son the same, that sort of the mechanics 0:21:09.800 --> 0:21:11.760 of how a school operates and how you're supposed to 0:21:12.000 --> 0:21:15.639 blend in or whatever. So I hid in the music 0:21:15.960 --> 0:21:18.960 stroke art department and had a great time there and 0:21:19.080 --> 0:21:22.639 discovered that actually that's what I wanted to do. Straight away, 0:21:23.119 --> 0:21:26.760 the heads of both schools just saw what I was 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:27.040 up there. 0:21:27.119 --> 0:21:28.960 Is this the teacher that you often credit with you 0:21:29.119 --> 0:21:30.640 or yeah, what was the teacher's. 0:21:30.400 --> 0:21:33.959 Name, Terry James, But it was him and my art 0:21:34.000 --> 0:21:36.879 teacher as well. Actually it was like someone sort of 0:21:37.080 --> 0:21:39.480 takes you under their wing and say, well, you know what, 0:21:39.640 --> 0:21:41.080 you're actually quite good at that mentoring. 0:21:41.200 --> 0:21:42.879 Is it a very critical thing in this business? 0:21:43.040 --> 0:21:46.240 Yeah, because it's it's enough at that age, it's enough 0:21:46.640 --> 0:21:49.159 to just get a little push and then okay. 0:21:49.760 --> 0:21:51.800