Thom Yorke tells Pitchfork Radiohead's label-free sessions drifted

Radiohead's first sessions without a record deal drifted, Thom Yorke tells Pitchfork's Scott Plagenhoef, because nothing had to be finished. With the Capitol/EMI contract over, the freedom was welcome at first, then a pain, and long spells in the studio went nowhere. A stretch of real focus has got things moving again, and the band meet Nigel Godrich next week to decide what to do next.

Yorke insists the old label never demanded anything but once, and the deadlines were always the band's own. I had my arm twisted on “High and Dry”.¹ He calls Hail to the Thief an experiment, made easier by knowing it was the last record the contract required, and would not go through the long Kid A and Amnesiac period again.

Whether the next record goes to a major, an independent or out on their own is a question for when there is something to release, he says, and not having a label isn't a big deal¹.

The Eraser was his first time working alone. I've been in the band since we left school and never dared do anything on my own¹. Making it showed him how strange the band's chemistry is, and that it is not something that can be switched on at will.