While we are talking about collaborations, we should mention that Thom and Jonny recently collaborated with DOOM on a track called “Retarded Fren” for a compilation celebrating the 10th anniversary of Lex Records called Complex. The song samples “Proven Lands”, a track Jonny did for the There Will Be Blood score.
If you haven’t seen it, check out the video of Modeselektor’s “Shipwreck” which is one of two songs off their new album, Monkeytown, that Thom Yorke collaborated on. Enjoy.
Thom Yorke and Ed O’Brien recently gave an interview with NPR’s Guy Raz and talked about the recording process for The King of Limbs:
Speaking recently with NPR’s Guy Raz about recording The King of Limbs, singer Thom Yorke and guitarist Ed O’Brien agree that, after coming off the long tour cycle for In Rainbows, the band was feeling exhausted and uninspired. To make the new album work, everyone had to slow down and step back.
“We had an initial session of about five weeks, and it was really like kids in kindergarten,” O’Brien says. “You had to simplify what you were doing — you couldn’t do loads of ideas. You had to listen to one another. Believe it or not, in a band you can lose that.
“Part of what you do is rejection,” O’Brien adds. “I think everybody finds it hard, but I think part of creativity is bouncing back from that. What’s great about the environment that we have is that no one ever says, ‘You can’t do that.’ You try it, and then it’s judged on whether it’s right for the track.”
Radiohead tried a new approach for The King of Limbs: Each member worked, piecemeal, on his own contributions before sharing them with the group. Yorke says working that way was a big gamble.
“Almost every tune is like a collage: things we’d pre-recorded, each of us, and then were flying at each other,” Yorke says. “You get to a point where you think, ‘OK, this bit needs a big black line through it.’ It’s like editing a film or something.
“I don’t think we really genuinely thought anything would come out of it,” he adds, “certainly not an entire record.”
Playing live presents its own set of challenges. O’Brien says that, as happy as he was with The King of Limbs upon its completion, the prospect of turning an intricate studio creation into a concert experience was panic-inducing.
“That’s the scary part — you realize that you have created in this vacuum, in this bubble,” O’Brien says. “It plays tricks on the brain.”
But Yorke says adapting the new material was liberating, as well.
“That’s one of the ways we move on musically, is having to force ourselves to learn this thing,” he says. “It’s a backward process, but it really exists in another way once you can actually play it.”
Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood’s taped performance of “Give Up the Ghost” on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon aired last night. In case you missed it, you can watch it below.
Here’s another video of the performance that also includes the introduction that Jimmy Fallon did with special guest, Michael Stipe.
Check it:
Radiohead will celebrate the release of their remix album ‘TKOL RMX 1234567’ by streaming a live DJ set via The Boiler Room next Tuesday 11th October, from around 8pm UK time.
Thom will be DJing, along with Jamie XX, Caribou, Lone and Illum Sphere, who all feature on the album.
You can watch Radiohead’s takeover of The Boiler Room live via www.boilerroom.tv or www.radiohead.com/deadairspace.
‘TKOL RMX 1234567’ is a CD compilation which collates all the 12” remixes that have been released throughout the summer. The album is released on October 10th and will be available from most music stores.
You can also pre-order it here.
While we’ve known for a while now that there’s a new Atoms for Peace album on the way, it is nice to see news about it. Speaking to Rolling Stone, Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea confirmed that the band will be releasing a new album:
Last year, Thom Yorke‘s new group Atoms for Peace hit the road for a brief American tour before playing Coachella. According to the band’s bassist Flea, the group started to work on their first album at that same time. “At the end of the tour we went into a studio for three days and just jammed – totally improvising,” says Flea. “Thom and Nigel [Godrich] have taken that stuff and done shit with it. I’ve heard little bits and pieces. I have no idea when it’s going to come out. Not real soon though.”
Flea says that many people have the wrong perception of Yorke. “People always think about him and talk about as this really cerebral artist,” he says. “Especially when we were playing together. People would go, ‘Thom is so cerebral and Flea is just an animal.’ But Thom is the type of musician who doesn’t think at all. He goes totally on feeling and intuition. Whereas I’m like, ‘You can try a G7 chord with a diminished fifth, that might be proper.’ My point is that he’s such a beautiful, natural and exciting musician. Also, his relationship with Nigel is so cool, Nigel being this organizational, producery-type guy. They’re going to have something incredible. I have complete faith in them.”
He refuses to describe the sound of the new material. “I kinda feel like it’s not really my place to talk about that stuff,” he says. “The mystery should be the mystery.” He does think they will tour again at some point. “I imagine that will probably happen,” he says. “I hope that happens. I just have a warm place in my heart and my mind and my balls for the whole fucking concept.”