Thom Yorke appeared on The Late Show to perform his recent song, “Daily Battles,” which comes from Edward Norton’s new film Motherless Brooklyn. Yorke took the stage solo with his keyboard, performing the ambient, sparse number with emotional intensity.
Norton reached out to Yorke when directing Motherless Brooklyn and Yorke quickly wrote “Daily Battles,” which features as a second rendition by jazz great Wynton Marsalis in the film. The two versions of “Daily Battles” were released as a split seven-inch vinyl in October and also appear on the film’s soundtrack.
“I didn’t presume he would do it,” Norton told Rolling Stone of working with Yorke. “I wanted Thom to write an old-world melancholy ballad, and I wanted his voice to be the properties for [Norton’s character] Lionel’s voice … But I sort of said to myself, ‘Yeah, you and everybody else in the world.’”
Norton added, “In my generation, no one has really captured longing in the heart and terror in the head like Thom. He has really grabbed the nerve of the fearfulness of the age that we’re living in and also figured how to create anthemic melody and total discord and chaos at the same time.”
Motherless Brooklyn, which was directed and written by Norton, who also stars in the film, is in theaters now.