Ed O'Brien says Radiohead will come back when they want to

Ed O'Brien says Radiohead will make music again when they really want to, and he will not say when. They have not played since Philadelphia on 1 August 2018, the end of nearly three years on the road. The five met in January, he told Patrick Clarke of NME, but only to talk about their lives, not music. There is some material they discussed, and beyond that he is deliberately vague.

It could be next year; it could be ten years' time. The important thing is that when we get together, we do it because we really want to.

Ed O'Brien¹

O'Brien was speaking at the launch of the RSPB's “Let Nature Sing”, a single of birdsong meant to reach the UK chart and draw attention to the 40 million birds Britain has lost in 40 years. He remembered OK Computer as the first Radiohead record made wholly in the countryside, in a wooded valley outside Bath, where they would often stop at midnight and go outside.

I remember one night there was a deep frost and it was a full moon and the whole countryside was lit up

Ed O'Brien¹

His solo album is finished. He is finalising a deal and looking for a label, and hopes to release it in September or October. The countryside shaped it too. Much of it was written in Wales, and the music grew from his family's years in Brazil, carnival above all. He first spoke of a solo record in 2016.

On That Pedal Show, a guitar video series, in an episode put up on 5 April, he told how it was made. Flood, a friend first, offered to produce after O'Brien played him the demos on holiday. Omar Hakim on drums and Nathan East on bass played for the first three weeks. After that O'Brien spent about a year in the studio, playing bass himself for the first time.

He sings the songs as well. For years he felt he was living the dream in Radiohead and was guilty for wanting more, until he admitted he wanted to write songs and started in a shed in his garden. The music, he says, is a little bit magical realist, slightly psychedelic, a lot of colour.²

Listeners will hear a small link to Radiohead in the textures and the guitar parts, he says. He means to take the album on tour with a band leaning towards jazz and funk, and to leave Radiohead's songs out of the set.

I don't sing Radiohead songs [on record] so it wouldn't be appropriate. It's a different energy, a different thing.

Ed O'Brien¹

the That Pedal Show conversation the story draws on· That Pedal Showwatch on youtube →