Ed O'Brien on KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic

Ed O'Brien was never comfortable being billed as Ed O'Brien, he tells Anne Litt at Capitol Studios for KCRW. Edward felt pretentious, Eddie too playful, and he no longer felt like the person those names belonged to. The answer came by accident: the Fender engineer who built the prototype of his signature guitar abbreviated it in an email heading, and he took it on the spot. Initials do not name only him, so anyone he works with in future can come under the same umbrella.

Asked whether the record is a modern take on going back to nature, he agrees. The countryside is his natural habitat, and going back to it, in Wales and before that in Brazil, is what started the writing.

His love of Brazilian music goes back to bossa nova and Tropicália, and the mix of melancholy and beauty in them. After In Rainbows in 2007 he told his wife that, having had a great many adventures with the band, he wanted one with his family.