Thom Yorke on Westwood One

Thom Yorke and Colin Greenwood tell Westwood One that Pablo Honey comes from an American comedy tape of wind-up phone calls, in which the caller rings a stranger and begs “Pablo, come home”. On another call he tells a man in Kansas he has 10,000 signatures to rename the state New Saigon. Songs are left to ferment through long arrangement work until something fits. The audience never dictates the songs, one of them says, because the key word for a live band is unexpected, and a shock can be a lyric or a beat on the snare. “When I see Sonic Youth live, there's shocks every 30 seconds.”