There were rumours that Radiohead nearly broke up at the beginning of this year. You'd have to excuse their demise if it did happen. After all they have been together since starting as a school band 15 years ago. They have become one of the best - arguably the best - bands in the world. Add to this the fact that their emergence from various studio sessions seemingly sent them screwy and resulted in the fiendish Kid A. Now, from the same recording sessions - Amnesiac. These two albums are the most challenging - both for the listener and the band - Radiohead releases to date.

It's no surprise then that guitarist Ed O'Brien and drummer Phil Selway are looking relaxed lounging in a luxury suite at Auckland's Metropolis high-rise hotel. The last time Radiohead were in New Zealand at the end of the OK Computer tour, they enjoyed the sun and swam to their hearts content. In stark contrast to the rest of what was a tumultuous world tour.

This time round, Selway says playing concerts with Neil Finn and his famous friends Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam and Johnny Marr from The Smiths hasn't exactly been a holiday. "But it has been a holiday from Radiohead," he laughs sitting coyly on a sofa looking out the window to the hazy harbour view. His soft, well-spoken voice could be viewed as effeminate. Selway confesses that being part of the Finn and friend's extravaganza is "probably the thing that's had the biggest emotional impact on me in the past tow years." A surprising admission, considering Radiohead produced Kid A and Amnesiac in that time. Comments from listeners and international music media share the opinion that Kid A included everything from a self-indulgent Thom-Yorke-solo-wank, to an album they had to get out of their system.

Kid A was an album where Ed O'Brien found himself playing a switch rather than a guitar, and Selway asked himself more than a few times what he was 'actually' doing during the recording. Their new album - Amnesiac - was meant to be more like actual songs. But, if anything, there are less catchy songs on Amnesiac than Kid A. It might have more song structures, but it's just as bent. "Radiohead is very challenging," offers Selway. "You are working with the same people you've been working with since school. Not that we've become set in our ways, but it can be a little difficult to see other ways at some points."

Ed O'Brien philosophies: "You've got to carry on trying things that you get scared of doing because as you get older you can choose to do those things, especially when you're in a relatively successful band. You can start doing things really, really safe." Radiohead isn't the sort of band to shit themselves about not selling truckloads of Amnesiac. But because the album is not a return to the trademark Radiohead guitar licks and hooks of OK Computer, or even Creep, there is potential for many to shun Amnesiac after the hype surrounding last year's much anticipated Kid A. This was a gut wrenching undeniably brilliant album.

"Our trademark was coming up for its expiry date," says Selway adamantly. "If we tried to carry on in that OK Computer vain I don't think we could have found the impetus to continue as a band. So Kid A and Amnesiac were something we needed to get out of our system. Also, doing it you recapture some of the enthusiasm in what one used to do as well. Having been together as a band for 15 years I think if we would have actually tried to carry on in the vain of OK Computer or The Bends it would have been pointless. That's never been what Radiohead is about really. It shifts. We're always changing the goal posts."

Change the goal posts they did when it came to recording and promoting the Kid A and Amnesiac albums. For Kid A the marketing was almost non-existent except for a selection of "video blips" that ranged in length from between five and 30 seconds. There were no singles or videos. "We never had some master plan," says O'Brien. "It was more like 'what do we want to do this time'. We didn't want to do singles or videos." "The singles didn't exactly jump out at you," adds Selway. Of course they didn't jump out because Kid A was one long - some would say bowel movement - continuous piece of music. "If you look at the singles market in the UK at the moment it's just pop. It's good, but it's just not where we would want to be."

When they hit the big time with Creep in 1992, Radiohead managed to avoid the "next big thing" tag that has plagued many British bands. Although the public made Creep a classic anthem, the media were touting the likes of Suede and The Verve. "In a way the spotlight was off us and we were able to develop at a more natural rate. It doesn't do any band any favours having that hype at an early stage," Selway believes. Good news considering that both The Verve, and Suede to a lesser extent, did self destruct. "We've always been very uneasy with this rock band tag. I think there's a bit more to us than a rock band. But, in the sense that we go out touring as a rock band I suppose we are. It's one of those terms you can be uncomfortable with because it can be quite demeaning."

Now, more than ever, Radiohead don't really come off as a rock band. They've been making people queasy for 15 years, five albums and numerous concerts. Thom Yorke has been quoted as saying, "If you're physically sick because of a Radiohead song, then that's ideal". So how can they be so popular yet continue to inflict their screwy, weird and warped sound? "I think we've been very lucky that people who are into Radiohead are willing to go with us on something," says Selway, "If Kid A came out as a debut album we'd be going off into the nether regions of obscurity by now. People who are into Radiohead have faith in what we do."

In 1997 OK Computer was an album for raging young rockers as well as the older music lover who prefer their music sitting down. So was Kid A, and is Amnesiac, a kind of two part Radiohead symphony more fit for a concert hall than a rock music venue? Bear in mind they did play in a circus tent on the Kid A tour which isn't exactly the Royal Albert Hall. Or are Radiohead, perhaps, starting to show their age? Selway looks his 30 something years with his lethally shaved head while O'Brien is a grown boy. His floppy hair, patchy beard, and a tall-oversized body - compared to the size of his guitar - add to his boyish looks.

Selway is relaxed in his defence of Kid A and Amnesiac. "It would be so easy to say Kid A was the experimental, dark, brooding album, and we're coming back with the proper album one this time with all the recognisable hits. It's probably best to take both albums together and think: 'Right, this gives the full picture of what went on in those sessions'. Because there will be some pretty obtuse things on Amnesiac as well. We had all the recordings done for Amnesiac from the same sessions as Kid A. Initially we thought it might be a double album, but we decided it might be a little unpalatable. It's certainly not the leftovers, and in some ways Amnesiac has the stronger tracks. The tracks we selected for Kid A gave it an overall atmosphere and it takes a little while to translate the track and make sense of the material."

Selway is wary of declaring Radiohead's fame. He's well rehearsed - and you can tell he's had more than his fair share of training - in the right things to say about being in one of the world's biggest bands. He doesn't think - at least he doesn't let on whether he thinks - Radiohead are one of the best bands in the world. There's a long, uncomfortable, pause when he's asked about fame and whether Radiohead are one of the most influential bands from the last decade. "Um, this week, when you've been onstage with Johnny Marr and Eddie Vedder it's quite a humbling experience really. It is very bizarre. It's like watching your record collection performing in front of you and then behind it, actually part of it. You always feel as though you're playing catch up with people like that."

Selway isn't surprised to hear that New Zealanders didn't appreciate how famous Neil Finn was, until he got members from three of the world's most important bands from the last 15 years to play concerts with him. He says Radiohead get a similar reaction in their hometown of Oxford. Apparently Thom Yorke can sit in a pub there and not even get a second glance much of the time. Both O'Brien and Selway will be taking a few new ideas back to Oxford after playing with Finn and friends. "Playing with Neil has been a real apprenticeship and an eye opener. We're going home with lots of ideas to work on. There's a real lesson for us coming out here." O'Brien chips in: "Neil is the most prolific writer of great songs."

The pair had to move quickly to get up to speed with Finn because they only arrived in New Zealand the Thursday prior to the first Monday show. In that time the musicians learned 40 songs that they interchanged every night. The Thursday and Friday night shows proved to be three-hour extravaganzas of nearly all of the 40 songs. "I went straight into rehearsals with about 40 songs to learn, and a lot of people to get to know. It's been very challenging." This includes not knowing certain songs until you're made to play them by Neil Finn. "At sound check, Neil comes in and says 'I think we need to do another Pearl Jam song'. I made a complete hash of Not For You on the first night. An unbelievable hash of it."

Surprisingly, Selway reveals it's harder making the step back to playing Neil Finn's tunes then Radiohead. "You just have to be so 'on it'. You know, you think, we can play Paranoid Android but that took us a year and a half to learn. So you sit down initially and think, 'I should be able to get my head around these songs pretty quickly'. But, there's all these little subtle pushes and pulls in there. You end up thinking, 'What do you do to do these songs justice'. It's actually a harder step to take." So, will Radiohead take that step?