[recording starts here]

Jonny: On to France. But now it's the first time that we feel particularly wanted, and kind of invited here, so that's why it's different, really.

Colin: Yes. And we always thought that we weren't perceived, the French people didn't think we were super-cool.

Interviewer: Why do you think that?

Colin: Because we read our album review in Les Inrockuptibles of Pablo Honey. It's got to be the worst album review of our- they gave it the worst in the world, probably.

Ed: It's not our publicity, no. Bush had done like 150 shows there in a year. So they've worked, that's the only place that they've toured. It's the only band that makes it in America, and Hootie and the Blowfish have been going there for years.

Jonny: And Oasis have been working very hard, touring a lot in the Americas.

Ed: You've got to do it.

Colin: We've just, um, got a gold record from America, on Saturday, which was very exciting. Um, we were very proud of that, weren't we, boys?

Interviewer: Aren't you very proud of that, "boys"?

Colin: I think it's the nature of it, and we've worked bloody hard!

Ed: Yeah, we did. And it's the nature of this band anyway. We've been overlooked a lot by the press. And I think that will continue, we think that will continue to happen. Just because, they're sort of making a case of Oasis.

Jonny: We were a bit scared that they [R.E.M.] would be- that they were doing a very reluctant tour, that they didn't like touring. But it was the opposite of that, that they were writing new songs all the time, they were talking about music all the time with us, and were just still very exciting, and excited in what they were doing. It was encouraging, really encouraging.

Ed: And I think it gave us a lot of self-confidence, you know. When a band like that takes you out on tour, and says how big a fan they are of your music, it kind of, it validates what you're doing.

Jonny: Especially when they're watching the show, every night.

Ed: Every single night! And they used to apologize if someone missed a show, one of them missed a show. They'd say, "Oh, we're really sorry we couldn't make the show." And it's like [shrugs], "It's no big deal!"

Jonny: "It's your show!"

[laughter]

Ed: We've been playing some of the new songs in America, rotating, playing 2 or 3 new songs a night. But, you know, this is just on a live thing. A lot of stuff can change in the studio. So, who really knows.

Jonny: We recorded a few songs already, and I think we're at something that's Radiohead, but extremely different. But it sounds like Radiohead, to me. Possibly with slightly more keyboards, but it's Radiohead.

Interviewer: What producer will you use? Brian Eno? Scott Litt? Steve Albini?

Ed: No, it's going to be- we're going to do it ourselves, with a great engineer who we did Lucky with.