MTV: So Phil and Ed thank you very much for joining us before your mega, it is about a 3 hour drive out Seattle isn’t it? So..
Phil: Bit of a trek.
MTV: So how is it going with the tour over here in the States? Are you having a good time first of all?
Phil: It has been very good, you know, heavy schedule, two shows in one week
Ed: [laughing]
Phil: so as you can imagine we are quite exhausted at the moment. But it has been really good. We’ve played in Houston and we’ve played in Denver at Red Rocks, erm and I don’t know, it seems quite unlike any tours we have done over here, we’ve actually enjoyed it.
Ed: We haven’t been here for over four yeahrs. So erm, when we continuously came back to America, I mean when we toured The Bends we came here five times and OK Computer was three or four. And it wasn’t begrudgingly, but you just get tired. Now it is the first time we’ve been back for four yeahrs, its been great. Really good.
MTV: You’ve played in Seattle what? eight times previously? I was reading somewhere, is that true?
Phil: I’ll take your word for it.
MTV: I’m telling you: You played here eight times, but never at The Gorge.
Ed: No.
MTV: Have you been and checked it out, have you done a recky yet?
Ed: No. I’ve seen photos.
MTV: It is quite beautiful
Ed: yeah. It is literally on the edge, the stage is perched on the edge of a kind of a mini Grand Canyon, so beyond the stage is a sheer drop down, and it’s apparently pretty amazing.
Phil: So no antics at the back of the stage.
Ed: That’s right no jumping at the back, uhhhhhhhhhhg
MTV: OK, how is it touring the new album well Kid A and Amnesiac how is it working out doing it live?
Phil: Very well, I mean we have had quite a bit of practice with it now.
Ed: Like a yeahr. [laughing]
Phil: The European dates last yeahr. Erm, and also we’ve worked out some of the other songs now, of Amnesiac, like Packt like er
Phil and MTV: sardines [laughing]
Phil: that’s the title isn’t it.
Ed: ...in a crushed tin box
Phil: ...that’s the one...
Ed: Full title please Philip.
Phil: erm and erm yeah which, I mean these are songs, when they went down, they didn’t go down as band performances so we had to scratch our heads a bit and find out how to make them work live. But it is good now to have the different versions now.
MTV: So were you practicing them as you were going around on tour? Was it that serious or had you worked out how you were going to do it, live? Are you still adding to it as you...
Ed: yeah, I mean the thing is, you have got to get, we can’t do that thing, I mean we change the set most nights and try and bring in songs. If we were to play the same songs every night, you know, it just wouldn’t happen. So one of the, one of the things we trying to, we haven’t quite, we are trying to instil a kind of, the idea of doing a song in the sound check, possibly, we haven’t played for a while and erm ...
Phil: ...we talk about it...[laughing]
Ed: yeah
Phil: ...its good to talk about...
Ed: yeah, yeah, we really want to do it, we at the talking and drinking stage of it, how are we going to do this then?
MTV: Now when you were doing the tent tour, the marquee, taking that huge tent around the UK, that was obviously for the Kid A album, were you incorporating, or were you thinking of Amnesiac while you were touring that as well, how were you going to put that together
Ed: No. It was just do Kid A tour that, I mean we were playing songs of Amnesiac in the tent but it was do that bit get that over and done with and then you know come December start track listing, putting it together. Otherwise you have all this stuff flying around your head and you need, your can’t keep everything open you have to give it the time that it deserves. That merited like three or four weeks work just kind of just trying to track list. Very arduous...
Phil and Ed: [laughing]
MTV: [laughing] it was so stressful?
Ed: very stressful, yes, no, I can’t remember was that stressful?
Phil: Erm
Ed: No it wasn’t. Kid A was kind of, before Kid A was stressful,
Phil: the two days leading up to
Ed: the double album concepts
Phil and Ed: that was stressful
MTV: What when you were thinking about, a possible double album?
Ed: Yes. Well some people were and some people weren’t. But I mean we came to the right decision. We knew. But we had to sort of talk it through.
Phil: A health exchange of ideas.
Ed: [laughing]
[The National Anthem Live]
MTV: How long were you in the studio for, for this particular session - that in the end you came up with Kid A and Amnesiac, how many days was it?
Ed: at a breeze, a yeahr and a half something like that
Phil: [laughing]
Ed: it was a holiday
MTV: Much has been made, I’m we’er not going to go in to – it was quite a stressful time. But when you look back on it now how do you feel about it?
Ed: It was incredibly stressful. I mean the thing is, I mean it is always. That’s is how it has been making records. I mean ever since you know Pablo Honey was stressful. But Pablo Honey was three weeks, The Bends was stressful but that was kind of three months. OK Computer was stressful that was four months
Phil: we’re just eking the stress out now
Ed: yeah we like the stress
Phil: yeah, but I think we actually come to look on it in a kind of positive light
Ed: yeah
Phil: We use to think that if the stress was there then there was something going wrong between us, it wasn’t working properly, but it is just a by product of what we do really and it works.
MTV: I mean you do have quite a history, you’re all school friends aren’t you, originally despite the fact that you all went off in different parts of the country to study but you would all still come back every couple of months or so to rehearse as a band, prior to Radiohead, On a Friday or something
Ed: shh!
MTV: There was something there. The reason you kept coming back, was that you wanted to keep the friendship going or because you knew you had something going on back in those days?
Ed: I think we felt, you know it is funny looking back at that time, cos I mean we had. Some people would say we were incredible naïve and we literally used to sit in the pub and talk about you know 17 or 18 how we were going to tour America you know we wanted to get into a van and do all of that, we just wanted to do loads of gigs. I think what is weird looking back on it, we had that kind of resolve – this is what we had to do. It is a very strange thing, people, friends do they’re very kindly – You want to be in a band yeah and he and she wants to be in a band you know. And we were just had this kind of I don’t know, we just had to do really. And once we finished collage that was right we really have to try and get a deal or whatever and er it was pretty amazing looking back how we just kept on coming back and coming back. You know we were doing one gig a yeahr when we were at collage, one in the summer and get everyone down to the rock garden in Covent Garden from Oxford and ... knock shit over.
MTV: Happy memories Ed happy memories
Ed: yeah exactly.
MTV: What about the time you got signed then? And came up with Pablo Honey fond memories of that? How do you feel about Pablo Honey now?
Phil: It’s ten yeahrs ago now
MTV: it’s a long time
Phil: it’s a very long time ago. It’s quite hard to relate to the band that made that.
[Creep]
Phil: We were completely green at the time I think, I mean every though we had been going as a band for about six yeahrs, I think actually we going from that level where it had been just mainly us for those six yeahrs suddenly to be signed to you know a big label and to be going into the studio with big named producers. I think it was very intimidating..
Ed: It is a real shock to the system – making a record – cos you think you’re the best band in the world until you make your first record, cos you’ve just got this clatter around in the rehearsal room and you are the greatest band ever and you consign it to tape and you know it just doesn’t really work like that so...
MTV: I read somewhere, it has been documented quite often that Street Spirit was the defining moment for you as a band when you realised it had gelled. Is that still the case now you think? When you finally realised it was working...
Ed: Thom yeah that’s what Thom said
MTV: ahh that’s what Thom says, OK
Ed: yeah I mean as he wrote the song, that probably, that’s probably the first time we did justice to one of his songs you know
Phil: [laughing]
Ed: Perhaps it turned out better than you can see, I mean a lot of the time we tried and failed. I mean that is on The Bends so that is not bad going, the second record you find you finally get it right.
[Street Spirit (Fade out)]
MTV: I went and checked out Meeting People is Easy the other day which I haven’t seen for quite a few months
Ed: ahh light viewing happy viewing
MTV: yeah, I did enjoy it, erm no I didn’t enjoy it, I shouldn’t say enjoyed it – I felt for you. Obviously that was filmed around the time of OK Computer when obviously things were taking off, and you find it – not hard to deal with – but another shift up wasn’t it, it went up a gear. It is a lot to take on board...I would imagine.
Ed: It was the culmination of everything we had being doing, when we signed in ’91, the end of ’91 we embarked on this touring and recording, this cycle you get into, and you don’t really stop, I think the most we had off was a month at the beginning of 1996. So there is this general level of tiredness and also you’re got a lot of skeletons in the cupboard, you don’t have time to sort stuff out so you just keep on going. And then to ... it’s that thing you always think if you get to a level, I think we all thought that if we got to this level of success it would solve all out problems, they would all be sorted. But it exacerbates them.
Phil: Going on tour is like being cryogenically frozen isn’t it, you come back out and it is about seven yeahrs later, it’s all still there, exactly were it was.
Ed: You know, turning 30 and stuff like that on tour and suddenly you realise you are no different you are as emotionally retarded as you were when you were 15 yeahrs old, you know all those things. That’s why, its funny Meeting People Is Easy is sort of a very honest account of a part of it. What it doesn’t show as well was there was the other side which was, you know you would see us a week after Japan filming, we had been in Australia beating the hell out of one another on go-carts on a go-cart track. So
MTV: Two sides.
Ed: yeah but it was pretty dark.
[Fake Plastic Trees Live]
MTV: Ok lets get nearer up to date now with Kid A. You chose, as a band, not to realise any singles of the album. Any particular reason why you wanted to do that or do you feel that Kid A should be listened to as a whole thing?
Phil: I think our immediate response, when it was actually track listed was well there aren’t really singles on here. It seemed to be, it had seemed to have been a misdirection of energy to try and push those as singles when we could channel that into the tours and just try and think around different visual ideas for it. I think part of it as well, as Ed was saying, by the end of OK Computer we felt as though we had exhausted the possibility of what a band should be doing at that point. I think we were just trying things in a slightly different way so we would have that enthusiasm again. Actually really got off on what we were doing so it was part of that.
[Motion Picture Soundtrack clip]
MTV: You did choose to do little blipverts, and little visuals, that MTV, for example, we used a lot, just kind of blip them up. So whose idea was that? Was that something you came up with as a band or ..
Ed: I think so, we wanted, the other side of it is with singles, if you have a single you have to have a video. We just couldn’t face doing that. I think the idea, part of the idea with Kid A was trying to use the ‘net use the ‘net a lot more, we had our website established and a bulletin board. We liked the idea of 10 second things that people could download for free and send off to other people you know all that stuff. So that kind of evolved out of the general thing of not doing singles not doing videos and realising that we wanted to do something visually but nothing too ... you know these tiny little advent / cartoons.
[Sound from a blipvert]
Ed: We got Shynola. who was fantastic...
MTV: How did you find out about Shynola?
Ed: Well we saw their show real and seen their stuff and there was the UNKLE video we had seen that before. And they loved the whole idea of doing 10 second, and it suited them great and they coordinated with Stanley who was doing some of the artwork or Stanley talked to them a bit. And there was Chris Brand who was doing others, so we had all of these... 10 seconds do what you want you don’t have to be too specific you can go on a whim or something
[10 second clip]
MTV: The people who have worked on you videos, all of them have gone on to do great things, is this because you have a talent for spotting this talent or is it just because they have worked with Radiohead therefore the options are open. What do you reckon?
Phil: Very lucky indeed. And also I think we learned a lesson on Pablo Honey that we actually had too much involvement in videos, conceptualise them or whatever, then they would probably be fairly diluted things.
Ed: In fact all the videos for The Bends, I’ve just realised. Jake Scott went on to do a film, he did Fake Plastic Trees. Jonathan Glazer did Street Spirit obviously just had his debut come out. Jamie Thraves who did Just also had his film out last yeahr.
MTV: There all going on to big things, yeah.
Ed: I think we are lucky as Phil said, and also we have someone who helps us out, Diddy? Also commissions the videos he is very good. The thing that we love to do is, the ideal thing is to try and find people who are really talented and haven’t made as yet the big thing or whatever – partly because it is cheaper as well.
MTV: [laughing] absolutely, and you do try and give them as much free range as you can.
Ed: yeah. It’s their thing, we’re not video makers. The great thing is they usually don’t have us in the script or anything and it’s like yeah...
MTV: [laughing] love that one
Phil: Ahh this one has got Thom in, Fine!
MTV & ED: [laughing]
Ed: I think it works really well this one, its diluted if there are all 5 of us in there, its much better to be specific Thom, you be the focus on this one.
[Karma Police]
MTV: Moving on now to Amnesiac the new album, which in fact outsold Kid A here in the states didn’t it?
Phil: It did, so far
MTV: Fantastic. So how’s it going, are you finding it easier to live with now? Now you are playing it on stage?
Phil: It is nice just to have it out, in terms of it actually brings a kind of sense of closure to the whole process of recording
MTV: getting it out of your head.
Phil: It is getting on for three yeahrs since we started working on it so it is putting a full stop on that process now and we can actually move on to the next thing.
MTV: With Amnesiac you decided this time to release singles. Is that because your feel there are tracks that would benefit from being released?
Phil: yeah.
MTV: So Pyramid Song is the first one from that. Was that a collective choice? Do you think that should have been the first single?
Ed: I think as well we listened to what the record company had to say. You know we are a little bit out of touch with things, well a lot out of touch with things – like what constitutes a single. And you know it might not be actually the obvious first single. People say why does this fairly sombre, heavy track as first single. But the record company seemed to think that it would work. And I think gone are the days when we are trying to exercise control over every single area that we have. Singles that is some one else’s yeah. Obviously you know we would have to go yeah that works within the thing, I mean they would run it past us.
MTV: is it true you grew to hate Knives Out for a while, while you were recording it? Or is that just a figment of the media’s imagination?
Phil: I think we got to the point where we were quite exasperated with it. The bulk of what is in the track went down the first day within 10 or 15 minutes really didn’t it? And then well close to a yeahr on after that we still hadn’t finished it. And did different versions of it, tried different arrangements out on the track. But it was really frustrating. Err in the end, as we usually do came back the first thing and say it wasn’t actually too bad was it? And went with that.
MTV: Any ideas for videos? Has anyone started making it yet?
Ed: Well there is a plan through for Michel Gondry, so I think he is going to do the video and we are going to shoot that in a week and a halves time or something. It sounds, well I don’t really understand the plot, I can’t remember it. Well I do remember it, it should be – Thom is going to be featuring in it
Phil and Ed: And we’re not in it.
MTV: And is that a good thing then?
Ed: Oh yeah – very good
[laughter]
MTV: There is. One of the songs that particularly sits out for me on first hearing is Life In A Glasshouse with Humphrey Lyttelton < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humphrey_Lyttelton >. Absolutely stunning track. Was that a track that has been around for quite a while as well?
Phil: yeah. It is a song where we tried various versions of as the five of us playing, Didn’t quite seem to work initially. Then Jonny had the idea of, you know, trying to find somebody who could close to that New Orleans funeral march feel. And so he approached Humphrey Lyttelton and he agreed to do it and we sat in the studio and watched – which was a very bizarre experience actually.
MTV: How do you think Humphrey felt about coming in to that sort of environment, was he quite worried do you think? Or did he fit in quite easily?
Ed: Someone like that who has been playing for 50 odd yeahrs, you know, I don’t think anything would phase him. You know he just came in and didn’t know quite what to expect and they worked so hard, they play fairly constantly for 5 or 6 hours and got the take on the last one. So it was a long day, very long.
MTV: What do you enjoy most, is it the creative process in the studio or do you like getting out there and doing it live?
Phil: Erm err. If I am being honest I would say I prefer playing live. Mainly cos when we are in the studio it does become quite a protracted process. And, by the nature of it when you are playing live, all 5 people are working together at the same time, you got 2 hours or whatever to produce something, you know, which you hope is memorable in its way. So yeah my short attention span that is probably best.
[Laughter]
MTV: What about the actual you know the touring itself. Does it get any easier with the experience
Ed: yeah definitely. It gets easier with experience and also the tours are shorter it makes a difference.
MTV: Bigger venues, shorter tours.
Ed: It’s a funny thing, you go away and you realise how quickly you, we have been away for a week and it feels like a long time already, and we used to go away for six weeks at a time then we would be back for a week and then we would be away again. And when you have got families and relationships it is nigh impossible to keep them going. And mean you could do, but you just have to start again when you get back. Thank God we can do a venue with 12,000 people in and do that and that is it.
MTV: It must be difficult with family, Phil you got two children now, I suppose in Europe they can could with you yeah? do you ever take them out with you?
Phil: They have not been out with me yet, but then we haven’t done large amounts yet. It does make it that much harder. It can’t stay still at home, so everything has moved on when you get back and you have to play catch up very quickly.
MTV: And of course Thom is a dad now as well so he knows what it feels like. So is he already to rush back home as soon as he can?
Phil: Well I can’t speak for him on that one.
MTV: Has it mellowed him, do you reckon, as a band mate, being a dad.
Phil: Well I think we have all mellowed haven’t we?
Ed: I think we had to, Jesus!
[Laughter]
[My Iron Lung]
MTV: Do you get to go out to any gigs at all, when you are home and not in the studio?
Phil: Personally no.
Ed: yeah a bit, being in London a bit. We are home a bit, but it never seems that we are home. It is one of those weird things, to be honest with you when you get back of a tour or something the last thing you really want to do is go out to a gig. I know that sounds terrible but like you really just want to put your feet up in front of the TV or something. Catch up with ‘Corrie
MTV: What about music you listen to, much is made about Thom buying the whole Warp back catalogue, I don’t know if that is true or not, what kind of stuff are you listening to at the moment?
Ed: It was a bit scary, I just wasn’t into music for a while. I don’t know what happens. I have spoken to other people about it, you do reach a saturation point. For two yeahrs everything I listen to, I wasn’t getting the old hairs down the back of your neck standing on end. But for me it was about 2 months ago, I started to listen to Neil Young and it was like He is the healer, He’s the man who if I ever got to meet I would say Thank You because you got me back into music.
[Neil Young – The Needle And The Damage Done - Clip]
Ed: I really like the Rough Trade compilation that is out, the four CD I think that is fantastic, really good and I really like the Outcast album, Missy Elliott – I’m not sure about the album but the single Get Ur Freak On was genius.
[Clip of Get Ur Freak On]
Ed: It is scary as well being in a band, when it is like that, because what you do is subconsciously in a band or do consciously is that you rip off the things that you like in music. That is what you are trying to do, you try and emulate stuff. So when you don’t like anything, it is really difficult, you can’t make any judgemental, that is why it is great being in a band because you leave the judgemental decisions to someone else and you just do it any your like is that any good? It’s a bit scary, but now it is... you put on Harvest – the songs are fairly straight ahead, the singing but the chords are beautiful the lyrics are amazing it is like – that is what it is about – whatever moves you. And I think some of the time you are guilty of try to get into something because it is new or whatever – but you just can’t fake it – if your into it your into it.
MTV: How did you feel initially about Thom’s love of all the electronic Warp style stuff that he was listening to?
Phil: It was puzzling at the time because, you know, you try and you listen to that stuff and its one person maybe two working on their own. And you think how are you going to get to work with five people in a band, but I think you take more the flavour of it, the spirit of it.
[Electronic music clip – fading into Idiotque clip]
Ed: What is great about Thom is that he is always looking to do something new. So you totally respect that, ever since we have all known one another there has always been music that each of us has liked that we haven’t been into. But you respect that and...It was difficult only in so much as we didn’t know where we were going...
Phil: Exactly yeah
Ed: ...as a band. If you feel secure in what you are doing you can embrace everything. Embrace any forms. But I don’t think we were. We were trying to feel are way around the studio
Phil: ?
Ed: Thanks mate
Phil: You felt great
Ed: You were great too.
MTV: What do you think is next in the Radiohead adventure, any ideas going round in your head about what could come out next for another album? Thom has said he is missing guitars now...
Ed: That’s true and we have, we were rehearsing before the tour and we were turning it up to 11, just like the old days. One louder than before.
Phil: That is one of the good things about coming out to play live again, it has given us a bit of enthusiasm about playing as five people again.
Ed: yeah, we were scared to rock for a long time.
MTV: You were scared to rock!
Ed: We were scared to rock.
MTV: Never be scared to rock!
Ed: The thing is, that’s right, you can’t, if you rock, you can’t do it half heartedly. You have to throw yourself in. It’s like again Neil Young. So the last two dates we have definitely had our moments of Rocking...Its nice you know, it’s a release, to Rock is to release, it is a very primeval thing. It is like being 17 again it is fantastic!
[Pyramid Song clip fade out]