When Radiohead came to Australia in april 2004, Thom was interviewed by Richard Kingsmill for Triple J Radio on the day of the band's arrival. This is a transcript from an audio recording of the broadcast.
[recording starts here]
Richard Kingsmill: "Thom Yorke from Radiohead, welcome back to Australia."
Thom: "Hello, alright."
Richard: "Nice to see you again. I wanna talk about the future. Uh, I know you guys went back in after Christmas and started working on new material. Uh, what are you planning on doing for the rest of this year?"
Thom: "We didn’t really go in and started working on new material. We just, erm... uhh... we’re doing the pre-material bit like... which is just, um, noises and bits of gear and endlessly tootling around with nothing to show for it."
Richard: "Good noises, though, so far?"
Thom: "Uhh, yeah... yeah. Every sort of fifth day you might, you know, you might get something."
Richard: "Yeah, it surprised me a bit when I was reading about that over the sort of the Christmas holidays. It seems like you guys don’t let up. There’s a lot of stuff still coming out of your brains musicwise?"
Thom: "Yeah, but then, umm, we... there was... I mean if you think about it there’s a... you know, you finish the record and then you’re out on tour and, you know, you don’t really get much chance and so there’s lots of things building up that you really want to get into. But yes, you’re right, umm, that was commented on by our respective partners. (laughs)"
Richard: "Do you... when you do do that, do each of the members do things very separately?"
Thom: "Erm, this time we’re trying it out, yeah, and sort of... I think a lot of it is... I don’t... I really don’t know, the only conversations we’ve really had... we haven’t even really discussed it. Uhhh, people are just sort of moving at their own pace and doing their own thing and deliberately not sharing things for quite a while, except for me and Jonny, who kind of, uhh, have to to some degree."
Richard: "Why, because you kind of like collaborating together a bit more?"
Thom: "It’s just because we need to, umm... just because we actually need to sit down and bounce, umm.. because it’s the normal bit, it’s the normal... like, sit together with two guitars and a cup of coffee. But there’s lots of sort of like immersing ourselves in bits of gear basically, you know, working without, ahh, deliberately without any end in sight."
Richard: "OK, so would you look at maybe going back into the studio sometime this year to try to put another record together?"
Thom: "I really don’t... I... I don’t know how that’s gonna to work enough to say yes or no, to be honest, 'cause I don’t really... it depends on if everybody’s happy to start up again, you know, 'cause... 'cause we’ve never really stopped, properly stopped before, I mean we’re not even doing it now, but you know, some people sort of... they really, you know, they wanna switch off for a while. I mean, I wanna switch off for a while, erm, and I think it’s because... because, you know, we finished our contract with EMI and stuff as well. I mean, that’s, you know... that’s at the end of it, we’ve complete... we’ve fulfilled our obligations. Erm, so it’s kind of a really good time to sort of switch off and... and not... not concern ourselves with having a plan or anything. And it’s a good time to step out of the music business generally anyway, I think. It’s a good time to sort of just watch what’s happening and not get involved for a while, I think."
Richard: "Would you like to re-direct, if the contract is up with EMI, would you like to change the format in which a band operates in this day and age?"
Thom: "I think it should be changed, yes. (laughs)"
Richard: "And do you think you’re in a position now to try to achieve that?"
Thom: "I’ve really no idea. I mean, you know, when a record company decides to cull so much of its work force and so on, like they’re just doing, and then the share holders get all happy about it and decide that’s a really good idea and now they’re going to suddenly make more money, and you know, I’m not so sure that.. I wasn’t very impressed by that. I don’t think it’s necessarily the way forward for music, is it really, all those big corporate entities? They’re kind of useful for some things and very not useful for others. So we’re very much keeping an open mind about how we get music out at all. You know, obviously it would be nice if, uh, it wasn’t just stolen. (laughs)"
Richard: "The other question I was really keen to ask you was what’s left for Radiohead to prove? Because it seems like with each album you’ve had to prove something like after OK Computer you... well, before OK Computer you wanted to sort of you know make a really important statement and a really important album. And then after OK Computer you wanted to sort of move on and do something different. And it seems like with each album there’s been something there, but now with what you’ve achieved, I’m not sure whether there’s anything left. I mean, you’ve proven your worth as a band in a very well rounded way, don’t you think?"
Thom: "'As a band' is the operative term, yeah. We actually enjoy working with each other, and I think that all the best things that ever happened from my point of view - and much of it annoys me - umm, involved the others. So uhh, it’s kind of, you know, I think that... and Jonny... Jonny found out when he was doing Bodysong as well, it was nice to collaborate with other people, but the thing that he enjoyed the most was just learning some new shit to bring... to do with us, if you know what I mean? Some of it is still interesting and some of it’s very, very dull, things about being in Radiohead, and I think we need to jettison the dull bits."
Richard: "But you’ve got that freedom now, because of the work that you’ve done?"
Thom: "Yeah, that’s the thing, as you say, the thing about not having to prove yourself, which actually, umm, I think for lots of people would be ‘uh-oh kiss of death’ (laughs). I actually think it would be a very good thing for us. Umm, because I mean... I know personally, umm, I can’t go through that whole sort of, umm, pressure to make an album in a certain way. Umm, and the workings of the music business, the way we did it on Hail to The Thief, where we tried to sort of engage and be what we considered normal, and you know, co-operative... we considered to be co-operative. umm, and it was just like 'no fuck this, it doesn’t feel right'. It doesn’t feel right to be... to be engaging with the whole music business in this way anymore. It was interesting to try it out once more, you know, like to... to... for me it was like, you know, exorcising all the ghosts of Meeting People Is Easy, trying to and discovering that they’re not all exorcisable. Umm, and that really it doesn’t sit, I... You know, lots of... all that sort of media thing just doesn’t sit with me very well anymore, and umm... I don’t... and I’m not interested. And so it kind of means that Radiohead as well, and what we end up doing, you know, it will... it’ll feed back into that, I think, really. Probably doesn’t mean anything at all, any of what I just said."
Richard: "No, it does. I was actually going to ask you whether meeting people was easier these days, because last time we had a conversation I actually ended up in the bloody documentary. You slyly said ‘oh don’t worry about this guy, he’s just shooting some home movies in the background’. Next thing I know I was on cinema screens. That was a nice surprise, really (both laugh). But I mean, that press side of it is one thing, but the adoration from your fans... I mean, there’s a lot of very keen Radiohead fans who obviously analyse a lot of what you do, but still, to mean that much to people out there... it must be an enormous thrill to have your music.. to be a big part of so many people lives."
Thom: "Yeah, I mean... Well, that’s kind of... in a way that’s what I’m trying to say... is that umm... we don’t... it’s no longer necessary, we’re very lucky in that it’s no longer necessary for us to have to do the whole sort of TV press thing in such a big way, because there is this sort of a little bit of a community thing about it. I mean, in America it’s like the bloody Grateful Dead, it’s really odd. But umm... and people are really... umm, and people are... you know, the people that come up to me now when I’m at home in Oxford and stuff I, generally speaking, I don’t get weirded out, I never get, you know, I mean sometimes but not often, people are very, umm... they’re really nice and it’s a much more positive feeling, not one of terror. Umm... and then when we go and we tour it’s a really nice... you know, it’s a great feeling, but I mean, it’s a great feeling to have... to do a good show and everybody gets something from it, everybody, you know. Everybody comes out with a positive thing. Umm, but the other side of it is you can’t be like that all the time, you can’t be involved in that all the time, in order for everything to stay interesting or relevant in any way. You can’t end up, ahh, being in Radiohead all the time, you know what I mean? I mean, for me it’s sort of... I mean, I know we all go home... we all go home and we’re not these people anymore, and it’s like, thank fuck for that, you know. And probably always... well, I have said this before haven’t I, I’m sure but..."
Richard: "I was going to say the last time we spoke in '98 you said very much the same thing then. Because OK Computer was just engulfing your lives. I mean, it had been out for about a year and I think I even said to you, you know, you’re just everywhere and it must be hard to kind of have that confrontation of your own sort of image back in your face."
Thom: "Yeah, and also, it just didn’t relate to anything... it didn’t relate, you know, it was a good record, hopefully, but umm... all the rest of the stuff was like 'well, this is just, uhh, this is a big monster in overdrive' (laughs), this is nothing to do with... this is... well, that’s interesting, you know. Interesting to see it happen to other people, it’s interesting to see the Strokes in the midst of that, and, you know... you feel kind of... you kind of feel sorry for them, but it’s difficult to know what to say. But I remember... you know, Stipey was good for me, but I... much better than I was... I would be for those people, I think, 'cause I, you know... I’d just end up saying 'look, get the fuck out’. (both laugh)"
Richard: "Or 'I know exactly what you mean'."
Thom: "It’s a bit like a bit of... it is a little bit like a realm of hell of Dante's Inferno, or something, because if you are consumed by your own myth, then it is a sort of form of hell in a way, because it’s not... you’re stuck there and you cant leave and you don’t want to leave, because you can’t see anything else, but then gradually you realise that everything around you is just the same, its just the realm of... You know, all the people that you used to know have gone and you’re only talking to the people that are in the same realm as you. You know like what would have happened to Elvis. Elvis was surrounded by people who would get on the plane with him and go 'yeah man, lets go and get a burger'. And so, you know, you’re there, you’re in Dante's Inferno going 'Ok, lets do that, shall we?', because no-one's telling you any different, you’re like 'yeah, ok, this must be fun then, yeah, right? So this red hot poker up my ass is a good idea.'"
Richard: "Yeah, right, the controller's completely gone. Ok, wind up time, last question."
Thom: "I’m waffling, sorry."
Richard: "No, that’s alright. Last question. You’re doing Coachella. Excited by the Pixies?"
Thom: "I’m terrified, I didn’t want to do it... I didn’t want to do it. 'I’m not going on after them, you must be fucking joking.' (laughs)"
Richard: "Oh, so you’re playing directly after them."
Thom: "Yeah, yeah."
Richard: "Oh."
Thom: "That sucks, man."
Richard: "You won’t even get a chance to enjoy them, you’ll be backstage."
Thom: "I’ll be puking my guts out."
Richard: "Oh well, look. I’m sure it’ll be fine, I’m sure you’ll do service to the crowd there. Listen, terrific to meet you, great to have you back in the country. Looking forward to the performances."