Thom Yorke talks Kid A, “Creep” and Flea on Marc Maron's WTF

Thom Yorke is the comedian Marc Maron's guest on episode 408 of WTF, out today. They talked for about an hour at The Mansion, Rick Rubin's studio in Laurel Canyon, where Red Hot Chili Peppers made Blood Sugar Sex Magik.

Thirteen years on, the reviews that said Yorke had discovered Aphex Twin with Kid A still nag at him. The question for Radiohead then was whether simply to carry on as they were. What changed, he says, was mostly the instruments, ones a lot of people tied to music they thought unworthy. you can see why they're not so far apart, OK Computer and Kid A.¹ They listened to a great deal of Can while they made it.

“Creep” was a hit in Israel first, and in Los Angeles. Yorke got the news by phone. Then came the touring and the expectation that they would behave like rock stars, along with the thrill of seeing their small club shows suddenly full. When Maron praised The Bends to the skies, Yorke said he didn't know; he hadn't heard it in a while. He likes songs with choruses, he says, and keeps thinking he should write one.

Flea came to Atoms for Peace through The Eraser. Yorke and Nigel Godrich went to see the Chili Peppers in London, and Flea and John Frusciante kept on about the record and wanted to know how it was put together. Every record you make is hard, and if it isn't, you're in serious trouble. Although actually, this Atoms for Peace record was not that hard.¹

He grew up on R.E.M., Joy Division and Siouxsie and the Banshees, and found Siouxsie on stage both sexy and terrifying. At university he was taken off his painting course after vanishing for a term and coming back with paintings of Jesus, one of them called The Bullshit Machine. Reclaim the Streets was a big influence on him. He remembers a protest staged as a carnival on a motorway, with a giant figure in a skirt. Underneath the skirt were guys with jackhammers chopping the motorway up. It was genius.¹