Radiohead interview
Tuning Out the Static: Radiohead: Forget fame's trappings -- they're in it for the music
Calgary Herald
Saturday, June 7, 2003
Page: ES01 / FRONT
Section: Arts & Style
Byline: Nick Lewis
Source: Calgary Herald
Spotlight
Radiohead's sixth studio album, Hail To The Thief,
will be released on June 10.
- - -
When Radiohead's OK Computer came out in 1997, praise
of biblical proportions was lavished upon the disc.
The British pop media pronounced it The Greatest Album
in Living Memory and called Radiohead the Saviours of Rock.
And Radiohead was in turmoil.
The band of Oxford schoolmates was thrust out of its
niche as a mid-level English act with reasonable sales into the
stratosphere of Rock Superstars, capital R, capital S.
Suddenly, says bassist Colin Greenwood, "things got
more lifestyle-oriented. There was more pressure on you to have a famous
boyfriend or famous girlfriend and go and hang out with
famous people who had done famous things famously."
It didn't take long for imitators to flood the market
with weaker copies of Radiohead's attention-getting sound.
A disgusted Thom Yorke, frontman of the group, chose a
decidedly more experimental route for his band's
next two albums. Kid A (2000) and its successor,
Amnesiac (2001), muffled Yorke's cherubic voice with
electronica only hinted at on 1994's The Bends.
Radiohead has now returned with Hail To The Thief, out
Tuesday, and Greenwood says he and his
bandmates are happier than ever. They're feeling that,
finally, they are in control of their careers. That
contributed to the success of the band's Kid A tour.
"We worked really hard to make it enjoyable," says
Colin. "We toured Kid A to places in the sunshine.
Mediterranean places and alpha theatres and lovely
green forests in the middle of America. We changed our
whole philosophy.
"Instead of going where the music business wanted us
to go, we decided to go where we wanted to go. I think
that's all it was about, really. We ended up playing
in places that were more fun for us and our fans. And,
ultimately, we felt more in control of our destiny."
Colin is the intellectual one in the band. He's the older
brother of Jonny, guitarist, the fey one. Thom, vocalist, is the
frustrated genius; Ed, guitarist, is the handsome one;
Phil, drummer, is the quiet bald one.
Greenwood is humble, polite and witty. He makes it a
point to apologize when he cuts you off, and repeatedly
speaks of how things are "really good" with the band
these days.
"Yeah, it's really good," he repeats, "the vibe is
really good. We just want to enjoy the experience because you
never know how long these things are going to go on
for. And we don't want to have any regrets of not enjoying
these times."
The members in the band are now in their mid-30s, and
Yorke is the father of a two- year-old.
"It's funny because I was talking to Stanley
(Donwood), who does the album artwork with Thom," Greenwood
says. "And he was saying, before having kids, you'd
just be angry at the world and shake your fist. Once you
have kids, then obviously that's not a valid response
anymore because you're denying them a future by saying
there is no future.
"I think there's a different attitude on this record
because we are getting older and having children. Some of the
darker concerns are getting even stronger. I think
it's an even heavier record in some ways, because there's
more relaxation.
"Thom's voice on it is just amazing because he's
singing clear and loud. I think it's less effort for more
passion, and more scary, but it's from the soul and
that's what matters. There's a humour there to it. There's a
dark, sarcastic humour running through it. There's a
lot of colours on this record, not just the front of the album
cover."
The phrase Hail To The Thief was a popular antiwar
slogan during the recent U.S.-Iraq conflict, but its title has
to do with more than just the band's politics. A
stolen, unmastered version of the album was leaked on the
Internet 10 weeks before its June 10 release. A
mastered CD-quality version showed up two weeks before
release.
"We wanted a bright, brash, bold title for the record,
because that's the sort of album we believe we've made,"
Greenwood says. "And we wanted it to cover things that
were being taken away from people, whether it's
personal space, environments, public spaces, forums
that people share, or files stolen from the Internet.
"I mean there are so many different things that it
points to beyond just a single issue of whether or not George
Bush stole the election in America. And the response
that we've had from writers and from people who've
taken it on board and reflected it, has been very
gratifying."
The album leak has been the band's only source of
frustration of late, but even so, the aggrivation had more to
do with people listening to an unfinished product.
"It's music, it's not gold bullion or uranium,"
Greenwood says. "You know, it's meant to be shared and spread
about."
When he's told this journalist also has a pirated
version of the disc, but that it hasn't left his CD player, he
responds with a quip.
"Why, is your tray stuck? Is it jammed in the player?"
Radiohead's six-album contract with EMI is now
complete, and Yorke told British publication the New Music
Express that Radiohead would be "completely
unrecognizable" in two years.
"Yeah, we'll be heading off to Mexico City for some
extensive plastic surgery," Greenwood says with a laugh. "I
don't know what's going to happen. We've deliberately
left everything open-ended because we're reaching the
end of our six records with the record company. We
just don't know, we don't have any plans. We might carry
on, we might not. It's all up in the air. which is
great, you know.
"It's a scary feeling but it's a great feeling too."
Conquering the Airwaves
- Thom Yorke, Phil Selway, Colin Greenwood, Jonny
Greenwood and Ed O'Brien met at a small private boys'
school in Oxford, England. They shared a love of the
music of Joy Division and The Smiths.
- The band's name initially was On A Friday. Their
first gig was at the now-defunct Jericho Tavern in Oxford in
1987.
- Radiohead's debut album was 1993's Pablo Honey, with
the single Creep. Creep was ignored when
released in September 1992, but its re-release in 1993
made it big in the United States, where fans loved its
self-loathing lyrics ("I'm a creep, I'm a weirdo. What
the hell am I doing here? I don't belong here.")
- The Bends was released in March 1995, featuring the
singles Fake Plastic Trees and Street Spirit.
- OK Computer was released in 1997 and universally
hailed as one of the best rock albums ever. Singles
included Paranoid Android, Karma Police and No
Surprises. Britain's Q Magazine called Radiohead the Best
Band Of All Time. In polls (notably the All-Time Top
1000 Albums book) the band received massive press
exposure when they became the first and only band in
recent history to really threaten the Beatles' domination.
"We assumed that radio stations around the globe would
let it gather dust on some corner shelf and carry on
playing Green Day or whatever turns them on," says
Yorke at the time.
- Radiohead changed directions for 2000's Kid A, going
for a more experimental, electronic sound; 2001's
Amnesiac, from the same sessions, continued that
creative phase.
- The band's latest record is 2003's Hail To The
Thief, which was leaked on the Internet two-and-a-half months
before its June 10 release.
