Radiohead on BBC Radio 5

With the two Kid A Mnesia books out, Nihal Arthanayake opens Headliners by asking how the battle against method and habit is going, and Thom Yorke and Stanley Donwood both know the trap. Donwood defines it as finding something comfortable that is sure to be accepted, which is excellent from some points of view and fatal for anyone who wants to surprise himself.

They had spent the previous three weeks trying to develop something new for a Smile record, and describe it almost as it happened: start where they think they should start, drop the should, mild panic, find something, more panic, and repeat until the method and the habit are both destroyed.

On the years after OK Computer, Yorke says the reason he did not stop was that he was not obliged to tour and promote the same material endlessly.

Arthanayake wants to know how power shifts between two people working at close quarters for 30 years. Neither quite answers. Both circle it amiably and agree they are very different people.