Radiohead and Michael Stipe talk to TIME about Hail to the Thief

When Radiohead met in early 2002 to plan Hail to the Thief, Ed O'Brien proposed three months of rehearsal, a late-summer tour to play the new songs in, and then a single two-week recording session. The band and Michael Stipe tell Josh Tyrangiel how the album was made in a feature on TIME's site since Sunday.

Thom Yorke handed the others three CDs of rough acoustic recordings, kept as neutral as possible, Colin Greenwood says, so that the band could build the music together. Jonny Greenwood says playing live shows up how artificial recording is, because on stage a song is always heard whole and it is plain when it is boring or indulgent. Phil Selway says of the finished album, This, to me, is the first thing we've put down that doesn't sound like a white-knuckle riot. I can listen to this.¹

Yorke had expected another huge leap, and decided it was silly to change just for the sake of it. He enjoyed singing again, after years when his voice did not feel like his own. He credits Stipe with talking him through the worst of selling his personality; Stipe's version is that Yorke needed someone who had been through it to tell him not to believe his own hype. The title, Yorke says, is no shot at America but an attempt at the absurdity of everything, not just a single Administration¹.

On the road the band are informally boycotting venues owned by Clear Channel. Their manager, Julie Calland, says the summer swing through southern Europe, which takes in the Roman arena at Nîmes, has a name in the camp. They're calling it 'the wine tour.' You can almost see the old suitcases and linen suits.¹