Thom Yorke on 88 Nine

Thom Yorke talks to Justin Barney of Radio Milwaukee at Electric Lady Studios in New York about his score for Luca Guadagnino's Suspiria, ahead of a tour with Nigel Godrich and Tarik Barri that stops in Milwaukee.

He knew Goblin, who scored the original Suspiria, before he knew that film, and heard affinities with what Radiohead were trying, only far more complicated. He is not a horror buff, did not know Dario Argento's work, and laughs at The Hangover every time. He went to the first days of shooting in a rebuilt old hotel in Italy, and took a tip from Jonny Greenwood to write plenty before facing the picture. He recorded sketches on his phone to send over, and some of those phone recordings ended up in the film; he is no snob about it. Writing in character gave him licence to exaggerate, and it was Luca's film, so whatever Luca wanted, he got. The eerie sounds started with oscillators beating slightly out of tune, stretched pianos and reverbs turned into clouds.

The live show is called Tomorrow's Modern Boxes for now. “It's British irony, no one's gonna get it.” He has realised the visual side matters to him, as the blips, short films of 15 or 20 seconds, did around Kid A and Amnesiac. His goal is to stay out of his depth, because self-doubt, the clenching feeling of not knowing what is going on, is where he needs to be.