Ed O'Brien rejects the idea of OK Computer as a concept album

Ed O'Brien waved away the idea of OK Computer as a concept album when David Kolbusz of The Charlatan, Carleton University's student paper, put it to him and Jonny Greenwood on 20 August. Greenwood threw the question back with some sarcasm, and O'Brien reached for the Smiths. It's about as much a concept album as The Queen is Dead by The Smiths is a concept album.¹

Of the new record, O'Brien said he was flattered by how press and public had taken to it. He called it different from The Bends rather than better, and when asked if he was proud of it, said simply yes.

The two guitarists talked to Kolbusz and Lia Kiessling on the afternoon of the band's Congress Centre show with Teenage Fanclub. This was the pair's last interview of the afternoon, and Kolbusz found both of them uncommunicative. The interviewers had brought Canadian-flag stickers and patches as gifts. Asked what made him happy, Greenwood, who was playing with one of the stickers, answered first. Stickers¹