In a lengthy interview in the latest issue of The Believer magazine, Thom Yorke has revealed that we’ll probably be waiting quite a long time for the next proper Radiohead album. We’re more likely to get some EPs or singles or one-off musical releases (perhaps like “Harry Patch [In Memory Of]”?) in the near future.
“None of us want to go into that creative hoo-ha of a long-play record again. Not straight off,” Yorke said. “I mean, it’s just become a real drag. It worked with In Rainbows because we had a real fixed idea about where we were going. But we’ve all said that we can’t possibly dive into that again. It’ll kill us.”
He clarified that Radiohead doesn’t inherently hate the concept of the full-length. He said, “I mean, obviously, there’s still something great about the album. It’s just, for us, right now, we need to get away from it a bit.” Later, he added, “In Rainbows was a particular aesthetic and I can’t bear the idea of doing that again. Not that it’s not good, I just can’t… bear… that.”
One kind of Radiohead-related music that might materialize? Orchestral works. As Yorke told The Believer, “Jonny [Greenwood] and I have talked about sitting down and writing songs for orchestra and orchestrating it fully and just doing it like that and then doing a live take of it and that’s it – finished. We’ve always wanted to do it, but we’ve never done it because, I think the reason is, we’re always taking songs that haven’t been written for that, and then trying to adapt them. That’s one possible EP because, with things like that, you think, Do you want to do a whole record like that? Or do you just want to get stuck into it for a bit and see how it feels?”
The entire interview is well worth reading, with Yorke celebrating the death of the CD and the downfall of the music industry as we know it, reflecting on the difficulty of environmentally-friendly touring and music releasing, and musing on the state of Radiohead in general. There’s also this wonderful exchange:
The Believer: Do you feel like there’s any definitive sound that you’ve been solidifying over your career?
Thom Yorke: I fucking hope not.
(source: Pitchfork)
