Nigel Godrich on Coda Collection

Nigel Godrich tells Greg Kot that everything he has done professionally is an extension of his childhood bedroom, and that its energy is what has always driven him. From the Basement began as a complaint. Musicians he knew all had the same experience of television promo, turning up, doing their thing, being packaged and moved along, and enjoying none of it.

His pitch was to do it properly, taking the time to make it sound and look as good as the music deserves. Everyone he asked said yes, which is how the pilot came to have the White Stripes, Thom Yorke, Kieran Hebden and Steve Reid on it.

Music on television, as he puts it, is usually a round peg forced through a square hole, with a fake audience or some borrowed personality stitched on. He wanted to remove that barrier entirely, record live with no editing afterwards, and leave nothing between the performance and whoever is watching.

Once the series existed, people he would never have presumed to ask came forward, Aimee Mann among them.