Ed O'Brien hopes Radiohead's new album is weeks from done

Ed O'Brien says Radiohead's new album could be finished within weeks. He was Adam Buxton's guest on Big Mixtape, Buxton's Sunday show on BBC 6 Music, today. We're in the heart of the record. It's genuinely exciting. It's very different from what we did last time.²

Spin reports that the band started the record in May 2009. That August they put out two songs, “These Are My Twisted Words” and “Harry Patch (In Memory Of)”. Asked whether the end was weeks or months away, O'Brien said at first that he couldn't really say. Then he said the finish, which had seemed miles off for a long time, now felt close enough to touch, and that he hoped it was a matter of weeks. Ideally, it would be great if it came out sometime this year. It has got to. I hope so.³

In Rainbows, he said, was no fun to make. In January he told Midem that its three years nearly finished the band, and today he told Buxton how. Their way in the studio had always been to put on a tin helmet and see it out, a war of attrition. In 2006 they had what he called a “genius idea”: play the new songs at about 50 shows, then go back into the studio with Nigel Godrich and record them. Most of what they got down was rubbish, but they believed in the songs and had to get them right, and that took a long time. By the end, “House of Cards” had been recorded six times.

When the record was done, the band agreed never to make one that way again, and he says the band is as good now as it has ever been. That was kind of like the end of Radiohead, mark 2. We decided, the only way that worked for us to carry on was to do it in a different spirit. Enjoy it.⁷