Thom Yorke talks and talks and talks in this exclusive interview for ‘The Field’ on the occasion of the soundtrack of the film ‘Suspiria’
does Not avoid any topic: the survival of Radiohead, the difficulty to enjoy the music they create, the indignation policy, reached 50 years of age and the terror of working alone for the first time in his three decades of extraordinary career
Thom Yorke is sitting in a chair on its legs crossed, like an indian. “Last year was re-released OK Computer for its 20th anniversary,” he says, “and I spent a lot of time listening to the files of the recording. Remember how in that first era of Radiohead, I felt frustrated and pissed off and unsure of everything he was doing.” While speaking, often closes his eyes in search of the right words. “If something didn’t go out immediately as I wanted to, which was rare, I cabreaba galore. It was as an apprentice painter unable to move the box the image was in my head. It was always a fight.”
Although it has been three decades trying to avoid interviews, he speaks and speaks and speaks. “With the next album, Kid A (2000), the situation began to change. Little by little we learned to let things happen, to not have a plan. It was hard for the host, because we did not know what we were looking for, but it was the first time that I felt that I had ceased to be a musician who was trying to call attention, and that was creating music most of my best hopes. I started to feel more comfortable and enjoy a lot of the process of creating music”. Chains ideas, moves forward without stopping as if afraid to leave the subject unresolved.
“at The end I realized that that was probably what he had always dreamed of. When I turned 40 years old, it was ten, I told myself, ‘OK, this is what I do, if not I start to enjoy now when the hell am I going to do?’. So this last decade has been a process of learning to respect what I have chosen to do and do not stop. I’m always making music. People who know me think I’m crazy because I don’t know to stop”. And finally, silence. Satisfied. “Oh, next question!”.
– Have you ever thought that you have spent the most time of his life being a professional musician that not be so?
– it Is unlikely that we shit, right? I’ve been famous for more than half of my life. I guess I became famous when I was… what 23? Something like that. It is normal for people to talk to me, come to the table in a restaurant and blah blah… is Not normal, in fact. But, I am very grateful, I am happy to host.
In his mouth, the word famous sounds dirty, unpleasant. Thom Yorke was the unexpected voice of a generation, at the vertex of the TWENTIETH century with the TWENTY-first century. As a vector creative of Radiohead, their music dysfunctional captured the spirit of that time of change, when the digital revolution came in a particle accelerator. And since then, the antiestrella Britpop has remained in the forefront of popular music with a sound oblique created without a compass, its lyrics about confusion and helplessness, and a defiant attitude toward the entertainment industry, which has had its culmination with the offering in the internet of their album In Rainbows (2007) for the price it deemed appropriate to the listener and his refusal until two years ago to hang your music on Spotify.
class=”icon-foto_16_g”> Image from the video ‘Lotus Flower’.
– That is interesting. I’ve been very conscious to make the music of the film is set in Berlin in 1977, but I didn’t want to be that alone, is something that recess only half of it. I hope it is clear that it is a current drive to it also. And that is evident in the song Have Ended, in which I talk about the fascists and their puppet king. Obviously, there am I sung about the world today.
In the film, one frame secondary has to do with the ghost of nazism and World War II. Talk about how the passage of time allows for some people to forget the horror. Yorke is shown particularly concerned about that aspect. “I can very much identify with all these references because I feel that that’s what I’m singing now, how we have forgotten where we came from choosing to separate ourselves from Europe”.
So to the question do you mind to talk about politics?, the answer is a “I like too much talk of politics,” that crown with a laughter that shakes all her clothes from the wool socks and the sweatpants up to the t-shirt is wrinkled, and the thick wool cap, coming out of blades of your average melenilla.
“What worries me is how to forgive yourself of the wrong policies”, he begins by saying. “In my country, for example, we have this thing called Brexit. And we have a Government that has no idea how to handle it, and each day we are witnessing a spectacle of terrible. And the people do nothing. I am old enough to remember a time in which I said that it was possible to change things. If you go to the street, if you get involved in politics, you can change things. Now it is much more difficult to think so, despite the great potential of the internet and social networks. In fact, the opposite happens. There is a lack of accommodation and denial where all opinions are equal and nothing has consequences. You can prove the corruption that occurred in the vote for the Brexit and the people respond: ‘Ah, yes, obvious’…
– And there are no consequences.
– Not available. I don’t understand people. It’s terrifying. That is when I feel that I have 50 years. And I think: ‘come on, wake up everyone!'”.
again, another question, setting off a huge burst of laughter.
– how Can music cause a reaction in people?
– Yes, when listening to Kanye West.
The laughter takes at least ten seconds, gasping, between murmuring malicious. Yorke says at the end, do not want to delve into his sarcasm towards the producer and rapper american who last week met in the Oval Office with Donald Trump. Nor can it be decided before the question itself. Responds quickly: “No. Yes. No. I don’t know”. And finally responds, wrapped in an optimistic moderate, yes. “Any form of art provokes a reaction, of course. A few months ago, Radiohead were to give a few huge concerts in the US in that we played ‘No Surprises’, that is the song less aggressive of the universe. In it we sing, “break down the Government, do not speak in our name”, that never was conceived as a political issue, and the people began to shout and squeal with excitement. I don’t know, you feel sometimes that there is an absolute sense of outrage, but in the end no one moves a finger.”
GALLEGO & REY
– how to Switch albums and tours of Radiohead with personal projects allows you to not drop the group in the routine?
– Tengor to say if there is something that escapes the routine is Radiohead. Why do I do a disk to the margin of Radiohead or why do I make a soundtrack? I don’t know why I do it, it does not form part of a strategy at all.
– In an interview with Ian MacKaye…
– My son [age 17] is as crazy with Fugazi.
– He told me that Fugazi gave the moments more full of his creative life, but also the most frustration and anger by the discussions you had with your colleagues, because were very serious about the music. What happens like in Radiohead?
– it Is very similar, although I do not get angry. In Radiohead we’ve always said that if it is difficult, and if we come to discuss and to cabrearnos, is that we care about that shit you. When I speak of the frustration is because we are trying to make something between several people that we’ve never done before, which is very difficult. Because it comes one and says, ‘we’re going this way, what is that you have not heard Boards of Canada?’. And then one will answer, ‘I play the guitar, son of a bitch’. There is a poquillo of tension, but as it should be.
– do You was the of Boards Of Canada?
” Well, yes, for a while.
it Is time to end the interview. We had agreed to 30 minutes of conversation and have spent nearly 40. To finish, Thom Yorke, talks about the future, their plans for 2019. “I didn’t have the desire to make music very political, but everything I do tends to do this anyway,” he explains. “I’m trying to finish an album with Nigel [Godrich, their producer since more than 20 years ago] and it goes in that line. It is something that is always there
– How would it sound that future disk?
– it Is very electronic, but different from what I had done until now. The method has been the opposite of relying on the computer. It’s a strange process by which we build a song in the studio, break it after the rebuild with a live mix in and out different again, and then this is what we recorded. We improvised a lot of sounds and effects. It has been a very rare form of a disc, which is very exciting.
– have You been bored of the sound of the computer?
– I always get bored.
