[talking about Jonny having checked in at the hotel as Lee Morgan, a Jazz musician]

Q: ...been listening to a lot of Jazz music then?

J: Yeah, done so for ages. I’ve used that name for ages. Have to change it now. It’s not a fantasy, just an easy name to spell for people to spell in Japan.

Q: When interviewed Ed about 6 months ago, he said being on tour was the time for you to discover new music, buying CDs and things. Now done much of that?

J: Yeah. All over the place. Got great Freddy Hubbard record in Berlin. Funny. Find the strangest things in the strangest places. Erm, oh I don’t know, lots. Still listening to lots of Sparklehorse and Laika. Lucky, we get to ask these bands to play with us, and then we get to watch them every night.

Q: Sparklehorse great.

J: They are amazing...

Q: How do you cope with all the end of the year polls, album of the year everywhere?

J: Nice. But if you believe in them have to be the criticism as well, and criticism are always easier to believe, I think. So, erm, it’s good that people still like it after sidx months, suggests it’s good record, which is exciting. It’s certainly more exciting than getting good reviews straight away, it’s always tempting to like a record very quickly and then hate it very quickly. So...

Q: You’ve hardly had any negative criticism.

J: No, not really, you just don’t know at the time if it’s people being over-excited, cause they liked last record, and there are a few good songs on new one and they get carried away. In a way that’s happened to Oasis album. Even Oasis are saying it might not be best thing they’ve done, just too hysterical at the start. We were worried about that. Time a good thing to let go past before deciding.

Q: How’s the repetitive strain injury?

J: Still have that, more stable now. Having to play with an armrest. Me and 40 year old typists. Bizarre.

Q: Do you think album in danger of being over-interpreted?

J: No, don’t think it’s enigmatic enough, the lyrics not very opaque, I think it’s quite clear what he’s singing about, and the music’s fairly direct. I don’t think we need to hide behind double and treble meanings. I think a lot of bands 4, 5 years in England who used to hate writing lyrics and used to write about nothing as a result, they’d have that.

Q: Do you think a sense of humour has been lover-looked, Karma Police for instance...

J: Yeah, people starting to talk about that more and more, which is good. To us it was obvious that there’s lot of humour in things like Karma Police, and the music of bits of Paranoid Android are ridiculous in a way, meant to be. Comical. Had such a laugh recording, parts of it hilarious.

Q: The Fitness song, did you conceive that as such a melancholy song? Or did it come about?

J: Had the lyrics for a long time, just didn’t know what to use them with. Don’t know, there’s something about the way a computer speaks, mispronouncing everything. Added music to it. Again, there’s a dark humour in lines like “Ringroad supermarkets”. Not meant to be melancholic. Just how it is.

Q: Read or watch a lot of satirical stuff?

J: Yeah, like everyone else we’re all fans of most of British TV comedy. Have I Got News For You. Private Eye with Ian Hislop. All fans of that kind of thing. Closest thing we have to a free press, Private Eye, big influence on us.

Q: Auberon Waugh with influence on Radiohead.

J: Maybe not the older ???er side of Private Eye. The slightly younger ones.

Q: Go to comedy clubs at all?

J: Yeah, all went to see Eddie Izzard. Went to see him last month, was exchange programme, he came to our show and we went to his. Fantastic.

Q: How’s the film going?

J: Yeah, documenting what we’re doing, compressing it into an hour. Going well. Done half-hour version already, to see how it’s going. Weird, not doing any commentary on.

Q: In what way working so it doesn’t turn out like usual behind scenes things, or Spinal Tap even?

J: By filming everything, touring buses, in and out of venues, and things. No talking. That’s why hopefully it wont’ look like that kind of thing. Lots of music, not just our music. Quite clear what’s going on. Leaving it like that. But we might change everything, we’re so rubbish at planning and predicting ourselves. Probably will change.

Q: How far have got with writing songs on tour?

J: Have about 8 or 9. Certainly ready to record.

Q: Going to do that then?

J: Yeah. Probably doing same thing again, find big empty house and going in the five of us, and Nigel Goodrich who helped produce and engineered our last album. Seems like we found way we liked recording. Going with that I think.

Q: How will this new situation, with what’s happened with OK Computer, confidence-wise, change the process?

J: Don’t know. We’ve never been very confident anyway, don’t think this record has given or taken away confidence. It just means, all that’s changed we enjoy it more. We enjoy being in studio and watching things coming together. Before it was just sthg you did at end of tour so you could go out and do another tour. Now it feels more serious, enjoy taking it seriously now.

Q: Confidence thing I’ve always thought that made you different from other bands, that you talked about confidence, lack of, those things. Which is fairly un-rock thing to do, cause such a clichee thing in rock, everyone always overconfident. Idea that that has something to do with so many people being interested in lyrics, can identify more than with average confident rock stuff. Fair comment?

J: Erm, I don’t know. Wouldn’t wanna make it selling-point. Getting horribly close to that rubbish about being the myth of a band, band most likely to, which is kind of...we’re just trying to record an emotion we’re feeling when we write and play. You should hopefully experience the same thing when hearing it. Don’t know. This is for you, really, to blather about in your article.

Q: Haha, thank you. Do you see yourselves in any point as different from other bands?

J: Phew. Don’t know. Always tempting to polarise bands and we kind of look at 80% of bands and think they’re all terrible, and then look at bands like Sparklehorse and think that they’re doing things we could never do. It’s more like finding a few bands amazing and unreachable, and other bands just not being convinced, not hearing anything interesting in it.

Q: Developed your interest in Dub reggae more?

J: Seems to be spreading. Very rare that we all have same CD, but everyone went and bought new “Arkology”, staggering stuff.

Q: Seems to go really well with OK Computer’s playing around with textures.

J: Yeah. It was Burning Spear album, “Marcus Garvey”, which half inspired Massive Attack remix album, like Dub albums used to be, exactly same record in same order and doing something different.

Q: How’s work with DJ Shadow getting on?

J: Thom’s done track that’s finished, sounds amazing, a few months ago in America. I think he’s just trying to get different people to work with him.

Q: Planning any developments in that direction?

J: I don’t know, we’re enjoying what we’re doing. Can’t predict ourselves, we change our mind too often. Wanted OK Computer to sound like Talking Heads, erm. So we did it wrong again. Whatever I’ll say we’ll prove ourselves wrong.

Q: Did you enjoy work on Velvet Goldmine?

J: Yeah. It was a laugh. Not having to worry about what we were doing too much. Music done, Filming done I think. Release imminent. We were all asked to go on set, and do some acting, and be in film. But obviously we said no.

Q: Why is that obvious?

J: We cringe when people doing one thing are trying to do another. A bit of an ego thing I think. Yeah, I think so. Ha.

Q: What do you think are the 5 most important Radiohead songs to you?

J: Oh I don’t know that thing. Pfft. “Lucky”. Cause it was the first thing we produced ourselves without having anybody helping us and guiding us through. First step towards OK Computer. “Exit Music” we recorded it very quickly. “The Tourist” cause we were all playing without Thom, first time we’ve done that. Which hasn’t given us confidence exactly, but a feeling we can do it again. He was just watching and suggesting, playing along with us, usually he has to play guitar alongside us to keep us in time and keep us together. “Paranoid Android”, cause it was so unlikely it was going to sound anything except stupid, and I can’t remember how we recorded it. It was one of those songs that was never going to work, but I’m not sure how it does, but it does. “Street Spirit” was always we’d done something good with that song. Yeah, “Street Spirit” as well. Most of “the bends” still sounds quite good to us.

Q: You talked a lot of recognition by REM being a defining moment, or time, for you. Have you had a comparable thing in recent months, a moment where you thought this is a different gear?

J: Can’t think of anything offhand. I’d suggest one of the concert we played. But it seems we’ve played a few good ones recently, without sounding too bigheaded. Personally, it was right at the end of touring Europe, we were in Germany, and we all wanted to get home, we only had 3 more concerts to do. And they turned out to be the best of the tour. I felt it was very encouraging. Normally we’d be expecting to get worse and worse. But we’d somehow crossed through something, and erm had a great time as a result. That was a real - we had hidden energies.

Q: Gone through pain barrier, ha.

J: Haha, suppose so, despite the Americanism it is. Think so. No celebrities involved, though, not like the REM quote. But then we haven’t been doing that kind of thing.

Q: Have you played in America after OK Computer?

J: Done one tour, yeah, it was really good. Underestimated it and played smlaller places than we should have. Better than the other way round.

Q: So in America too have now broken through the cliche of the band that plays Creep?

J: Think so, burt the first album still sold more than anything else. Radioplay important. No radio songs on The Bends and OK Computer. But it’s sort of irrelevant. We go to America now and play live shows and people come and we carry on. Perfect for us. Don’t think we could have handled it if it had gone Nirvana-like or Smashing Pumpkins-like. Would have been ugly. We’re lucky how it’s gone.

Q: Are you playing today?

J: No, first day off for ages.

Q: New songs - have lyrical contents changed, developed?

J: I don’t know - we’re still in live mode really. It’s not till we get to rehearsing and recording that you hear the lyrics, really, now it’s just words and song titles, which is not enough really. Can’t think of a song title for you.

Q: Do you discuss lyrics amongst each other?

J: Yeah, we do. Thom’s proud of lyrics, is keen to have the read and responded to. Interesting, quite exciting to watch it happen.

Q: Reading what at moment?

J: Philipp Larkin’s reviews and articles on Jazz. He’s obviously reactionary old...but he’s also got this dry sense of humour that’s in poetry, and for that I can forgive him anything really, just about. A lot of good reactionary stuff about modern art and what a load of bunkum and rubbish it is. Lumps in Pound and Picasso and denounces them all as rubbish. Very refreshing...a hero...should read biography to the end...

Q: Other poets you like?

J: Don’t know - it’s like music. Can’t really narrow it down. Trying to get through Auden stuff, very good. Hardy, obviously. Things I’d expected not to be interested any more after school, but the opposite happened, interest grown.

Q: What did you study between school and band?

J: Colin did English at Cambridge, Thom did art at Exeter. Ed did Political Science, and Phil did English. And I did 3 weeks of music course, but had to drop out when band signed to EMI. Was advised not to leave college, but luckily did anyway.

Q: Japanese stuff?

J: Just been given cartoon done by woman, post war Japan, great. Machiko Hasegawa, amazing, died 1992, aged 72, and she was doing everyday from 1949 to 74. Weird. Kind of - great way of learning about Japanese tradition...