Radiohead on Bubblepop

Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood face a studio audience and an interpreter on Bubblepop, a Japanese music show, on their second visit to Japan. Promotion in America is terrible, they say, tacky and showbiz, full of horrible people. In Japan at least they get to play.

They find The Bends more uplifting than the first album, not darker, and explain the title through divers who surface too fast and get bubbles in the blood. The pressure on the second album was mostly their own, nerves about recording songs they knew were good. Coming to Japan in the middle of the sessions saved it, and back in England they recorded most of the album in two weeks.

Yorke is asked why he is so quiet. Greenwood has the injury typists get, from too much guitar. Their inspirations are Sonic Youth, the Pixies and, obviously, the Rocky Horror Show. Somebody asks whether they like bananas (very much) and later vegetables. Asked how the lyrics get written, one of them says drunk, and when he is asked if he likes a drink, the interpreter reports that Yorke drinks a fair bit and Greenwood not much. The sleeve, it turns out, is a resuscitation dummy morphed with Yorke's face on an Apple Mac, and in the “Fake Plastic Trees” video, being wheeled round in a trolley beat standing around looking cool.