[recording starts here]

DJ: "(introduction in Dutch). Welcome, guys."

Jonny: "Hey, Isabel."

DJ: "I'm going to talk in English now, that will make it a lot easier..."

Jonny: "Thanks."

DJ: "...for you guys. I've got a lot of questions for you that... you've been working on a new album?"

Jonny: "That's true."

DJ: "And we heard that there was going to be about... that you recorded about forty songs for that new album?"

Jonny: "Mmmm hmmm. Yeah."

DJ: "That is true?"

Jonny: "Yeah."

DJ: "Forty?"

Jonny: "Mmmm."

DJ: "They're never going to fit on one album."

Jonny: "No, I know, it's kind of... it's a shame, because it coincides with us starting to really hate long albums, I think, so I don't know what we're going to do, it's tricky."

DJ: "It could be two things, like maybe a double album, where you just have to pick..."

Jonny: "Oh, but they're awful as well, aren't they?"

(DJ laughs)

Jonny: "Bands get to a stage where they think they're so special they can put out a double album, and it's always terrible, so we don't want to do that either. Any other ideas you have, we can take?"

DJ: "Well, just bring them out on b-sides maybe or another way."

Jonny: "Yeah, maybe we'll have to do that."

DJ: "But if you do have to make a choice and you've got so many new songs, how would you pick, where do you start picking, how does that come together, what ends up on an album?"

Colin: "Erm... I think it's what works best together, really, obviously, I suppose. I mean we've been spending the past two or three weeks in rehearsals, Nigel, our producer comes down from London, and we work from four till midnight, we order in a curry from Oxford, and we eat the curry, and we spend the next eight hours with little bits of paper on the kitchen table, with all the names of the songs, and we chop them around, and then we've also got a silk black... silk top hat that collapses, and Thom puts all the names in there, and when we completely lose it, we pull them out at random, out of the hat (everybody laughs), you know, so..."

DJ: "It's the best way."

Colin: "Yeah, it is, often, yes."

DJ: "If they're all good, you know, then it doesn't matter. That's the hardest part, probably they're all good and nice, and I don't want to see them get wasted. That's my opinion."

Colin: "Yeah."

DJ: "The forty new songs, are they all really, really new songs, or are there some older songs that just didn't make it to an album or an idea that didn't get worked out and this time it did?"

Jonny: "Oh, erm... I think they're all new songs, but there are recordings, like around on the internet, of concerts where we've played them, even when we played in Amsterdam a year ago, a new song called 'Egyptian Song', and I know that concert was recorded and..."

Colin: "What concert was that? Was it that you and Thom did?"

Jonny: "It was the Tibetan festival one."

Colin: "That's right."

Jonny: "Mmmm."

DJ: "Last year."

Jonny: "Yeah."

DJ: "Yeah. This is a really hard question to put in one question, but when you started with this album - I don't know how to say it, I know what I mean, it just doesn't come out of my mouth - the approach of the album, when you go into the studio, not that you have a clear idea, but Colin, the approach, what was the approach when you went into the studio, or wasn't there an approach?"

Colin: "No."

(DJ laughs)

Jonny: "No, we just... we just... oh, it's... no, you just record as many songs as you can, and then decide to plan it as an album."

DJ: "And you guys just go into the studio and you start..."

(Colin laughs)

Jonny: "I mean, what can you do..."

Colin: "(laughs) What else did he say?"

DJ: "Oh, you know, they go in and they say, you know, we really want to experiment with this, and that's where we're going to put the attention on, some people..."

Colin: "Right."

DJ: "...just go in there and start playing and then the songs come out..."

Colin: "All those things happen, that's just... that's the point, is that we do all those things, there's no... every single way for... every song is recorded differently, you know there's a different approach for everything."

DJ: "It's just more a feeling than an approach then?"

Colin: "Yeah, if you try and repeat it for another song, you always fail, and it's really annoying."

DJ: "It's not a trick?"

Colin: "No, no."

DJ: "It shouldn't be, huh? We cannot hear anything of the new album yet..."

Jonny: "That's true."

DJ: "...so I'll have to ask you this, what is going to make this new album, what is the thing that sticks out that, the feeling that you get from it when you guys listen to what you've done so far, and what are you going to make this album in your eyes... ears."

Jonny: "What do you think? Colin was saying earlier how he thinks it's quite a dark record, and I think it is, erm... but it's..."

Colin: "I don't think anybody's going to expect us to be coming up with a comedy album anyway."

Jonny: "That's true."

(DJ laughs)

Colin: "But, you know, I think if you've liked the music that we've done before, then I think there is a continuity, if you like things like 'Exit Music (For A Film)' from OK Computer, and songs like 'Talk Show Host', which were a b-side, which is on Romeo And Juliet, then I think... or 'Airbag' from OK Computer, then you'll like the new album, because it's got songs similar to that, and also some experimentation with some electronic music as well, that we're... we're sort of getting into, yeah."

DJ: "Hey, well, we'll still have to wait for the fall, till it comes out though. A long time... (laughs). But we'll manage. Last month, we asked people, fans of Radiohead, what their favourite songs till now were from Radiohead, and we broadcasted a top five. If I asked you, what would be your number one, what would you say, from Radiohead songs?"

Colin: (laughs)

DJ: "What would you think?"

Colin: "Probably the one that Jonny solos furiously all over."

(DJ laughs)

Jonny: "None of them yet... Probably... we just started rehearsing last week for the first time in ages, and we played some of the old songs, and 'Street Spirit' just sounded great, and kind of I'd forgotten what a good song that was."

DJ: "'Street Spirit'?"

Jonny: "'Street Spirit', yeah."

DJ: "What about you?"

Colin: "Oh, I don't know, erm... I like 'The Tourist', and the 'Talk Show...'... I like the slow ones, 'cause I'm older than Jonny (everyone laughs), you know, I sort of wanted a tune, you know."

DJ: "Well, I hope that it's not an age thing, but you're right, it did come out as number one."

Jonny: "Did it?"

DJ: "Yes, it did."

Jonny: "Wow, that's uncanny, isn't it?"

Colin: "Really?"

DJ: "It was the number one, definitely, in the long run, so we thought we're going to play that right now."

Jonny: "Cool."

DJ: "That ok?"

Jonny: "Sounds good."

DJ: "'Street Spirit'."

[Plays 'Street Spirit (Fade Out)']

[Plays 'Move Along' by Lucky]

DJ: "Lucky and 'Move Along', and I feel very lucky today that I can move along with two members of Radiohead, Jonny and Colin, nice that you're still here. You're going to go on tour?"

Jonny: "That's right."

DJ: "And I heard that you're going to bring a circus tent?"

Jonny: "It's true, yeah."

DJ: "It's true?"

Jonny: "It's all true."

DJ: "And why a circus tent?"

Jonny: "Oh, just because we don't want to play in those venues that are designed for sports and football, and have Coca-Cola adverts everywhere and it's just not what we want to do, really. We just thought we'd make our own neutral space that's got nothing in it..."

Colin: "Yeah."

Jonny: "...and play some concerts like that."

DJ: "And I heard that about ten thousand people go in there..."

Jonny: "Yeah."

DJ: "...in the tent, which is quite a lot, because we were kind of afraid that it would be like a thousand or something..."

Jonny: "Yeah, or a two man tent."

DJ: "...and that you would come to Holland, and say 'ok, a thousand people can go in', right?"

Jonny: "Yeah."

DJ: "But it's going to be a big tent, so... did you already kind of rehearse with that, did you see drawings, because to me it seems very weird to play in such a huge tent then?"

Jonny: "Yeah, but then it's fairly weird to play inside, you know, places designed for basketball and football and stuff like that, so..."

DJ: "There's always that..."

Jonny: "It's already weird, yeah."

DJ: "Let's hope we don't get a storm like we had last night. (laughs)"

Colin: "Yeah, we heard, yeah, last night."

DJ: "That would be terrible. So, you're going to go on tour, and you're going to bring your own tent, because you don't want to play in big stadiums."

Jonny: "That's right."

DJ: "But, is that also the reason that you're not doing any festivals this summer in our area?"

Jonny: "No, there are some good festivals in Europe, and there are some really bad ones, like we really enjoyed Roskilde and Glastonbury and Lowlands..."

Colin: "Yeah, generally all the Northern European ones are really good."

Jonny: "But some of them are really bad, like we had some bad experiences in Germany in festivals, and so..."

DJ: "Well, we had the idea that you didn't want to come to Pinkpop this year..."

Colin: "No!"

DJ: "...because the rain frightened you."

Colin: "Ah! (laughs), no, what frightened us last year... the last time we did it was the bass frequencies from the Presidents of The United States soundchecking (DJ laughs), and then Sepultura, I mean it scared the willies out of us."

Jonny: "I know, yeah. (laughs)"

Colin: "We just turned up and they were like pounding away on the stage and..."

Jonny: "That's the thing about doing these festivals, you wake up every morning to the sound of like Sepultura (DJ laughs) and very loud heavy metal."

Colin: "Expectorating through a PA, you know."

Jonny: "Very frightening."

DJ: "So, it's not because... that's what we heard that you didn't want to do Pinkpop this year because you just wanted to play..."

Jonny: "No, we like the thunder."

Colin: "The real... the important reason we're not doing it is because when we started OK Computer, we played in front of sixty thousand people at Glastonbury festival, so we just don't want to repeat what we've done before, which is before the album comes out, play a big festival. That's the reason."

DJ: "All the fans are happy now, I think, that they were all going 'What?!. You're not doing that because of that, well thank you very much!' (laughs). But festivals... what do you prefer, because at a festival there's a lot of music lovers, with a concert for Radiohead, there's just Radiohead fans there, so to me that seems a big difference... erm... do you like playing for people that you're not sure if they're gong to like you, or do you think it's better to play for people where you're sure they like you?"

Jonny: "I don't think we've been going for so long that... that... I think we're still more used to playing to people who don't really know us, so... we've only really had one album that (DJ laughs)... well, I mean our whole first album was just, you know, no-one knew any of our... well, knew one of our songs, so erm... it's... yeah, I think we're still used to that feeling, I hope."

Colin: "But I don't want it to sound really crawly, but I mean we love coming here, I mean like Amsterdam, the best clubs in the world like Melkweg and Paradiso are the two of the... I mean all our favourite bands like Joy Division, Magazine played at the Paradiso and stuff, I mean... and we played some of our finest shows at the Melkweg and shows in Holland, so it's brilliant, and Utrecht as well, it's beautiful, so we love it."

DJ: "There's the Goffertpark and you've never played there before, right?"

Colin: "This is in Nijmegen?"

DJ: "Nijmegen."

Colin: "Nijmegen, I'm sorry."

DJ: "No, that's ok, it's a hard word, if you're not that... Nijmegen."

Colin: "Nijmegen."

DJ: "I even think it sounds terrible, but... But a lot of people don't know that yet, but you're also going to come to Holland, we heard that today officially."

Colin: "Yes, on the 15th of September."

DJ: "Goffertpark, Nijmegen, and tomorrow already the presale starts, there's more (announces gig in Dutch). I just said that people have to get their sleeping bags so they will be in time to get the tickets in the morning. But that is for all the people that love the music of Radiohead, but the guys of Radiohead also have a lot of favourite music."

Jonny: "Yeah, I mean this is fantastic, we've never been to a radio station where we've just arrived and handed over just a whole box of CDs and said 'choose some', (DJ laughs) I mean that's unheard of. Very dangerous thing to do, as well."

DJ: "Oh, well, now I'm really afraid. What are you going to play? Colin, later on, you can even... I'm just going to explain (talks in Dutch), (Colin laughs), But first we're going to play a favourite track of yours, which one did you pick?"

Jonny: "Oh, it's a track by a German band, Can, and it's called 'Halleluwah'."

DJ: "And why did you choose that one?"

Jonny: "Oh, its... it's been a big influence on this record, and the last record as well."

DJ: "Good reason, ok, here we go."

[Plays Track]

Colin: "No, it's not... six seconds... what happened to the other fourteen?"

Jonny: "Who did that?"

DJ: "It disappeared... (laughs, talks in Dutch). I just explained that you're our DJ for tonight."

Colin: "That's right, yes, I'm, you know, I'm scratching my head rather than the record. (laughs)"

DJ: "(laughs) That's ok, you're allowed. Mmm, ok, something totally different, Smashing Pumpkins, another band, they..."

Colin: "No, Radiohead. (laughs)"

DJ: "No, I was wondering what the opinion of two members of Radiohead was going to be on this, erm... Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins, he announced that by the end of this year they're going to split up, and one of the reasons was that he doesn't want to fight all the Britney Spearses and Backstreet Boys of this world, he thinks there is no room for serious music. How do you feel about that?"

Jonny: "That's a bit heavy isn't it? (Colin laughs). I don't think he's in strict competition with Britney Spears somehow (Colin laughs). I don't think many people have posters of Britney Spears and Billy Corgan on their wall. I mean, Colin does."

Colin: "Oh, yeah."

Jonny: "Sorry."

Colin: "Exactly."

Jonny: "How many records... how many albums have they done, do you know?"

DJ: "Err... three or four, I think, or... or?"

Jonny: "I only know Gish, the first one. Five, six?"

DJ: "But he says it's no fun anymore, as a serious musician, to compete against artists like the Britney Spears."

Jonny: "Yeah."

DJ: "Do you feel that too, or do you have like 'nah, you know, everybody has his own little way, and their own little place in the world and who cares...'"

Jonny: "I think they're just two such different things, it's just like... it's like competing against, you know ballet dancers or architects, you know what I mean, it's like..."

DJ: "Yeah, yeah."

Jonny: "It's like, so, (sighs)... I don't know, who knows?"

DJ: "So you don't agree with him, you just think..."

Colin: "I don't think so."

DJ: "Yeah, that's what I thought, I just wondered what you guys thought about it."

Colin: "It's just the whole concept of being threatened by Britney Spears (everyone laughs), but you know, but I mean, I don't know, it's a different world in America, it's all different over there isn't it? We found."

DJ: "So let the Britney Spears fans be the Britney Spears fans and..."

Jonny: "I think so, yeah."

Colin: "They're probably scarier than Smashing Pumpkins fans, actually (everyone laughs), Fanatical. I mean, I wouldn't want to cross a Britney Spears fan, that's probably true."

DJ: "If you had to choose, recording in the studio, rehearsing and creating new songs, freaking together, or playing in front of an audience?"

Jonny: "Oh, there... I think there was seven things you mentioned, and we'd like to do all seven in one week and just keep going like that (DJ laughs), I think that would be the coolest."

DJ: "But a lot of artists don't like the recording process in the studio, because they think its, you know, it's just 'ding ding ding ding ding' the whole time, do you dislike recording as well?"

Jonny: "I think some bands look at recording as something they have to go and do in order to go on tour, you know, it's like a job, it's the beginning of a process, but... I think when we first started this band we just... we were more interested in recording anyway, and when we were fifteen, sixteen, we just made so many recordings of ourselves, and played them to ourselves again and again, it was all a bit unhealthy probably."

Colin: "Yeah. (laughs)"

Jonny: "And just sort of... and we're still like that, really. Recording's a wonderful thing to do. Hearing sound come back at you that you've just played, I mean what an idea, it's great, you know."

DJ: "Yeah, I can imagine, but also a lot of artists, really, they hate going in the studio, they say 'I don't want to do that, I just want to play, I don't want to record, I just want to play', so for you it doesn't matter, the whole process of being in a band, making music, recording music, that is..."

Jonny: "It's good, it's like permanent anticipation, you record for ages, and then you can't wait to go and play a concert, then you play lots of concerts, and you can't wait to, you know... it's ideal, you're always hungry, yeah."

DJ: "Always hungry. I think that's nice when you say it like that. Who is also in the studio right now is... erm, no we're going to play one of your favourites first."

Colin: "Yes we are, yeah."

DJ: "You're right in front of the buttons. We'll talk about Mirwais later on then, because I want to..."

Colin: "Yes, Mirwais, yeah. Well I'm wearing my white socks today since I ran out of black socks before we came away, so I'm going to play like a soul record called 'The Cool Jerk'(?) by The Capitals which is great, and it's got the line about 'give me some bass with your eighty eight', so here it is."

DJ: "Ok."

[Plays track]

DJ: "(speaks in Dutch). I'm just saying that we would love to have you until a little bit after nine so that I can play you a song now, and you can listen to it and then later on I can ask you what you thought of it, is that a good deal? Ok, yeah. It's a song called, well we already talked about it, Mirwais, he is a producer, he made an album, and now he's going to produce Madonna's album, and on his album, there is one track with Madonna, so we're going to play that for you now, and later on, I'm really curious what you think of the sound and her little thing with Mirwais."

Jonny: "Brilliant, let's hear it."

DJ: "Ok, here we go."

[Plays Track]

DJ: "(speaks in Dutch) I just said that you're going to stay here for now, and then going to leave, but we played the song of Mirwais with Madonna before the break, and I asked you to listen to it a little bit, and maybe give an opinion of it."

Jonny: "Well, it's better than Ray Of Light, isn't it?"

(DJ laughs)

Jonny: "I like the sound of... they've really mashed her voice up and made it sound like it's coming backwards from a washing machine, or something, it's wonderful."

DJ: "So you can't hear it's Madonna any more, so then it's good?"

Jonny: "Well, no, not that, but it's an interesting sound on her voice."

DJ: "It was interesting."

Jonny: "Yeah."

DJ: "What about you?"

Colin: "Yeah, I thought it was cool. He used to be in a band called Taxi Girl from Paris, and they were like quite a dark group, and they just finished doing a record where we've been mixing our record in London, so... yeah, I thought it was good, I thought the keyboard and sounds were cool and I thought the vocoder treatment on her voice was cool as well, and the rhythm was a bit dull though, sounds like a big ballad rhythm sort of thing."

DJ: "You can't have it all... Did you like the little things that he used and the influence..."

Colin: "Yeah, I thought that was great, yeah."

DJ: "Ok, I was just curious about that. I want to thank you very much for coming over here tonight."

Jonny: "Thank you."

DJ: "And good luck with the tour that is coming. Have a lot of fun with the whole thing in your circus tent, and I hope there's (laughs)... I'm just thinking about the storm the whole time from yesterday, and I just see this tent blowing right in the air... (laughs)"

Jonny: "I know, there's so many trees come down in Amsterdam, it's heavy."

DJ: "Yeah, like really down."

Jonny: "Yeah, sure."

DJ: "So I just hope that it won't happen for you guys, and we're looking forward to the new album. Is there something of a title yet, or nothing at all?"

Jonny: "We have about... at the moment we have about seven titles, and we're still trying to decide, so..."

DJ: "So the magic hat is coming in?"

Jonny: "We're going to have to choose... exactly pretty much..."

Colin: "Yeah, the big top hat."

DJ: "Ok, well good luck with the top hat and choosing the name, thank you very much..."

Colin: "Cool."

DJ: "...for being here tonight."

Jonny: "Thank you for playing some great music."

DJ: "Ok, bye bye."

Jonny: "Bye."

[recording ends]