Ed O'Brien says Radiohead tried his songs for one day in 2014

Radiohead once spent a day trying to turn Ed O'Brien's songs into Radiohead songs, he told Billboard on Friday 17 April, the day his first solo album, Earth, came out as EOB. He spoke from his home in Wales, still getting over what he believes was the coronavirus.

The day came in 2014, at the first session for A Moon Shaped Pool. Colin Greenwood had played on a demo of O'Brien's songs the year before, and O'Brien thought some of them might suit the next album. Not everyone was sure about getting back together, so he suggested the band start on his material, and Nigel Godrich agreed it would get them all back in a room. They worked on “Banksters”. By the end of the day O'Brien knew the energy was wrong. Radiohead is about the communal, but it’s also about serving the songs of Thom. It’s not set up to serve the songs of me. It was very obvious.¹

He was a bit crestfallen at first and is glad of it now, because this was something to do without the men he calls his brothers. It was not the first time he had held his songs back. He meant to bring some to the band in 1996, as work on OK Computer began, he told the Guardian, and self-doubt and deference to Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood stopped him.

Yorke has not heard Earth. Phil Selway asked for a copy and got one, and O'Brien will not push it on the others. If they want to hear it, that’s great. And if they don’t: whatever.² Solo work never comes up when the five get together, he told the i. That would be like introducing your old girlfriend to your new girlfriend³

The band have had meetings about maybe playing some shows, with no date fixed, and they will go back into the studio when they want to. I’m not sure when that will be but I’m not worried. We’ve got the rest of our lives.¹