Thom Yorke on Hechos

Thom Yorke tells Hechos that ANIMA was never meant to be political, but they made it in his art room with the arguments in Parliament playing every day, and it fed in. Britain was promised unicorns for three years after the referendum, he says, and then told there weren't any. People were asked a question they did not understand, without its real conditions, he says, and then found it was not the question at all. He points to Donald Trump announcing tariffs on Mexico and taking them back with nobody asking why he lies, and to online anonymity, where a person can end up arguing with a bot.

In a crisis he does not want to make more candy; he would rather deliver something dirty and broken and real. His electronic live shows came from hanging out with Flying Lotus and others in Los Angeles and seeing them re-cut their own tracks on stage, and bringing in Tarik Barri let him hide under the projections. For a new artist, he says, being vulnerable and finding a voice are the same thing.