6 things we learned from Thom Yorke’s interview with Matt Everitt
As 6 Music celebrates 25 years of OK Computer, we revisit Thom Yorke's chat with Matt Everitt about OK Computer’s 20th anniversary, their Glastonbury 97 performance, the band’s early years and what he’d been up to at the time.
The full interview can be heard in The First Time with Thom Yorke. Here are some of the highlights from the interview, along with quotes from Thom:
1. Radiohead’s now legendary 1997 Glastonbury performance nearly didn’t happen…
“By the time we’d finished the record (OK Computer), we had a meeting about what we were going to do for the shows, and I was like ‘I can’t do Glastonbury, I can’t do it… No, I can’t do it!’ I’d burnt myself out making the record and the idea of having to put myself back… you know it was a weird time for me. I’d just got really obsessed… and I just needed a break.”
And it nearly ended sooner than planned...
“At one point in the show, I just went over to Ed, I tapped him on the shoulder and I said ‘I’m off mate I’ll see you later!’ and he turned around and said ‘if you do, you’ll probably live the rest of your life regretting it’… I’m like 'good point!'”
Thom Yorke on Radiohead's 1997 Glastonbury performance
Radiohead's front-man wasn't entirely keen to perform at Glastonbury back in 1997.
2. Thom talked about the creative process for Paranoid Android and No Surprises
Thom told Matt Everitt how he wrote more than 30 versions of the Paranoid Android lyrics
"I’d endlessly do different versions of the lyrics, there’s like 30 or 40 different versions of Paranoid Android... slightly different, I’d only change five words... It was like meditation, sitting on a bus somewhere. I’d write it out again and again and again."
And on No Surprises...
“All I remember is, we argued about how fast it should be… We had this whole thing about how it had to sound like we’d all taken Mogadon. So we tried to play it as slow as we could but it was never slow enough because we weren’t on Mogadon. So what we did was, we took an earlier version and slowed it right down, we experimented… you wouldn’t know it’s slowed down unless I told you. But it is… because of what I’m singing you have to have something that’s not right about it.”
3. Making OK Computer was one of the most intense periods of Thom Yorke’s life
“It was very much like we were living in orbit… we were living on a bus or living in the studio and we barely were taking any time off at all for quite a long time. So, whenever you did step back into life in any way at all, it was like - sorry what’s this? Does not compute… get it? In a way, a sort of privileged perspective, to just be pulled out of things so much and just totally involved in working on music… that’s it, all the time. To the point that it was too much. It did mean that what I ended up writing about was the fact that I felt very little connection with my fellow human beings. Not much has changed!”
“My angle on it, what I found really fascinating was - the weird way in - was going through my notebooks at the time… Just pages of ‘seriously mate, you need to take a break’. I was obsessive about taking notes, that was the only way to feel that I was making progress.”
4. The first music he loved includes Mungo Jerry and Queen
Thom revealed the first record he loved was Mungo Jerry, In The Summertime, and the first record he bought was Queen's Greatest Hits on cassette.
"My grandma bought me Mungo Jerry - In The Summertime… Oh man I still love that song! I saw the video they did for it, the chops on the guy? Wow!"
"My grandma bought me Mungo Jerry's In The Summertime. I still love that song!" - Thom Yorke on his first music memories
The Radiohead front-man talks to Matt Everitt about his earliest music passions.
5. The Suspiria Soundtrack, which Thom was working on in 2017, tested his songwriting skills to the max
“It’s hard because I’m way out of my comfort zone and I can’t read music. It’s not like I’m writing for orchestras, I’m building it all myself. It’s exciting but at the same time I am so out of my comfort zone I don’t know what’s going on.”
Thom Yorke on taking his first steps in writing music for film
The Radiohead front-man has been looking to Vangelis for inspiration.
6. Thom wants to write more songs about politics
“It was this weird fight with myself ‘Can I get away with this?’ ‘Is this the right thing to do, or should I write another lovey, dovey song about nothing in particular? Is that what the world needs, or has someone else got that covered?’ I think so!”
-
Listen to The First Time with Thom Yorke
The Radiohead frontman talks through his musical firsts in an exclusive interview ahead of their return to the Glastonbury Pyramid Stage.
-
Listen to 6 Music's Deep Dive Into OK Computer
Producer Nigel Godrich gives a track-by-track breakdown of the classic album, plus archive interviews with Radiohead sharing their memories of the record.
-
Listen to more Radiohead on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sounds
Hear their Glastonbury performances from 1997 and 2017, interviews with all of the band, and a Radiohead inspired playlist.