{"id":806617,"date":"2020-04-21T10:53:20","date_gmt":"2020-04-21T16:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=987247"},"modified":"2020-04-21T10:53:20","modified_gmt":"2020-04-21T16:53:20","slug":"how-radioheads-ed-obrien-found-his-own-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/how-radioheads-ed-obrien-found-his-own-voice\/","title":{"rendered":"How Radiohead\u2019s Ed O\u2019Brien Found His Own Voice"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ED_OBRIEN-653_v1B-scaled-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p>As a member of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/radiohead\/\" id=\"auto-tag_radiohead\" data-tag=\"radiohead\">Radiohead<\/a> since their founding 35 years ago, Ed O\u2019Brien has seen more commercial success and critical acclaim than roughly 99 percent of people who have ever picked up a guitar. But when he finally gathered up the courage to start writing and recording music on his own, he truly wasn\u2019t sure if he could produce anything worth releasing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy role in Radiohead is one of serving the song,\u201d he says on the phone from his home in Wales. \u201cIt\u2019s one of serving\u2019s Thom [Yorke]\u2019s songs and Thom\u2019s lyric. It\u2019s not easy to make that transition to doing it on your own.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t until he moved to a remote area of Brazil with his wife and two young children in 2013, where they lived without Internet and even cellphone reception, that songs began pouring out of him that he knew he had to share with the world. \u201cIt was a bit like falling in love when it happened,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was like, \u2018Oh my god. Where does this come from? This is all-consuming. This fills a hole that has always been there.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was a long journey from that breakthrough moment to the release this month of his debut LP, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-album-reviews\/review-ed-obrien-earth-radiohead-984402\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Earth<\/em><\/a> (recorded under the moniker EOB), largely due to the long break he took to record Radiohead\u2019s 2016 LP <em>A Moon Shaped Pool<\/em>&nbsp;and tour it all over the globe.<\/p>\n<p><!-- .l-article-content__pull--left --> <\/p>\n<p>For Radiohead fans who\u2019ve long been eager to hear O\u2019Brien on his own, it\u2019s been worth the wait. Recorded with veteran U2\/Depeche Mode producer Flood and studio pros like bassist Nathan East, drummer Omar Hakim, and Portishead guitarist Adrian Utley, <em>Earth<\/em> is a bold fusion of folk, rock, samba, psychedelia, and electronica unlike anything in the Radiohead catalog.<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Brien initially planned on touring it this year, but COVID-19 shut down the concert industry after just a handful of warmup shows. He\u2019s pretty sure he came with the virus himself a little over a month ago, but he was well into his recovery at home when he phoned up <em>Rolling Stone<\/em> to discuss the album\u2019s long gestation, getting ready to share his singing voice with the world, the possibility of a <em>Kid A<\/em> 20th anniversary box set, and when fans can expect to hear the next Radiohead album.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xefWbfWUbrQ?version=3&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>You\u2019re one of the last members of Radiohead to make a solo record. Was this always an ambition of yours?<\/strong><br \/>Not really. If you would have asked me 10 years ago if I had ambitions to make a solo record, I would have said that I didn\u2019t. I was busy. I wanted to be a hands-on dad, and Radiohead kept me busy. It only really came about once I figured out how to how to write songs and once they started flowing out.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m incredibly thankful that I\u2019m in this great band that I\u2019ve always loved. And in spite of all the great success and artistic endeavors and all the great work that I\u2019ve been involved with, there\u2019s always been a hole, and I didn\u2019t know what that was. Sometimes you don\u2019t realize there is a hole, but as soon as I sat down with a guitar or a keyboard and these songs started to come out, I was like, \u201cAhhh. This is what it\u2019s all about. This is what I need to do.\u201d It was a surprise.<\/p>\n<p><strong>This happened around the time you moved your family to Brazil?<\/strong><br \/>Yeah. The seeds of inspiration were sown in Brazil. I wanted to take time out with my family and step off the hamster wheel of life. I lived in London, and it was a very busy life with lots of stuff going on and lots of being pushed and pulled in different ways. Relocating to Brazil and living very rurally meant timeout. Life was reduced to music, family, and food.<\/p>\n<p>There was no wi-fi and no telephones. It was a very loving environment with a different culture from Britain. That\u2019s a great place to come from, but there\u2019s something about the open-heartedness and the abundance of love that Brazilians seem to have. There\u2019s a kind of joy of life. That is coupled with my love for Brazilian music and attending Carnival in Rio. When you\u2019re watching the people and participating, it really is the greatest show on earth.<\/p>\n<p>I thought to myself, \u201cI really want to write, and I want to get something of what I\u2019m experiencing here in my music somehow.\u201d I didn\u2019t know what that would be or how it would be, but I just had to start. I knew I had to start writing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>This was a number of years ago. Why are we just hearing the music now?<\/strong><br \/>Well, we got back to the U.K. in mid-2013. I started writing and demoing. I basically had everything written within a year. By 2014, I had songs and was ready to go if I had a team and a producer. But that is when the Radiohead cycle started for <em>A Moon Shaped Pool,<\/em> in September 2014. We didn\u2019t finish the record until February 2016. And then there\u2019s the subsequent touring, that went on intensely for a year and a half. Then there was a tour of South America and another tour of North America in 2018. I started recording the album proper at the end of 2017, but I had to fit it around Radiohead.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iio3NcrVM3I?version=3&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>I\u2019ve read that you weren\u2019t even sure at first if you\u2019d sing the songs yourself. That surprised me, because I\u2019ve always really liked your voice.<\/strong><br \/>You haven\u2019t heard it a lot, though. I\u2019ve done a bit live, but the last time I sang on a Radiohead record was a couple of backing vocals on<em> In Rainbows.<\/em> I haven\u2019t really sung a whole lot on Radiohead records. It\u2019s very different from being a backing singer to singing lead vocals. I\u2019m not an extensive backing singing either. It\u2019s not like doing harmonies with the Beatles. It\u2019s very, very part-time.<\/p>\n<p>I didn\u2019t want to be in that situation where I have these great musicians and a great production team and the whole thing is let down by weak or poor vocals. To me, it\u2019s all about the songs. If the songs needed to have another singer who was stronger, then that\u2019s what I thought would happen.<\/p>\n<p>In the demo process, however, I had to start singing. And the engineer, Ian Davenport, kept saying right from the very beginning, \u201cYou can sing this.\u201d I said, \u201cNah, nah\u2026\u201d But a week before I reconvened with Radiohead in 2014, I had my last demo session. And I had a moment where I heard a quality in my voice and was suddenly like, \u201cOh, okay. You know what? I think I can do this.\u201d And actually, more importantly, \u201cI want to do this.\u201d You have to want to do it in order to do it.<\/p>\n<p>[My producer] Flood was always certain that I could do that. As soon as I had his assuredness and confidence\u2026he\u2019s worked with so many different singers over the years that I thought, \u201cI don\u2019t know how I\u2019m going to get there, but I\u2019m going to get there.\u201d One of the the things I was enjoying about the touring I did this year was was feeling the voice get stronger. I know that\u2019s what you have to do. It\u2019s like a muscle, and the more you do it, the better it gets and the richer it gets.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tell me about the decision to bring in Flood as the producer. I love his work on U2\u2019s <em>Pop<\/em>, and I can hear some shades of that on this record.<\/strong><br \/>I wanted somebody who could bring a sonic richness. I\u2019m very lucky where I\u2019ve come from in Radiohead. Sonics and sound and quality is really important to all of us. I\u2019m a sound snob, if you like. There aren\u2019t a lot of people who just blow me away. Flood was somebody that I knew. He started work as an engineer in the early Eighties, and he\u2019s worked on so many records. He first engineered <em>The Joshua Tree<\/em> and ends up co-producing <em>Achtung Bab<\/em>y and, of course, Depeche Mode.<\/p>\n<p>In 2012, he made the Foals album <em>Holy Fire<\/em> with [co-producer] Alan Moulder and [engineer] CJ Marks. I loved the sonics and the excitement and the depth of sound. Fortunately and very luckily, he\u2019s a father at the school my kids go to. I got to know him as a friend. When it came to doing the record, in my heart of hearts I wanted to work with him. I love the work he\u2019s done with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/pj-harvey\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Polly Harvey<\/a> and everybody, like <a href=\"https:\/\/themurdercapital.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">the Murder Capital<\/a>, this young Irish band. He does small albums to big albums.<\/p>\n<p>I didn\u2019t ask him directly if he\u2019d be interested in producing me. What I wanted to do was play him the [music] I had and I wanted some honest counsel. It was the dream scenario for me, because after about four songs he turns around and he says, \u201cWould you like me to do this with you?\u201d He got it. He totally got the music from the demos and totally got the feeling of what I was trying to do. And I think he got excited as well. He saw the potential.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You\u2019re used to being one-fifth of a band. What\u2019s it like to be the sole decider and the guy calling all the shots for once?<\/strong><br \/>Well, I\u2019ll be honest. It took a while. It took me until two-thirds of the way through the record when suddenly another penny dropped and I realized that nobody can hear what I envisage in my head. It was then I really had to take the reins. Flood said to me, \u201cWhat do you think?\u201d I kind of compare it to an awakening. I awakened and realized that if we were going to do this album right and if it was going to be, in any way, halfway decent\u2026<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll tell you what happened. After the Radiohead tour, I played [my album] for some people and they didn\u2019t like it. I was really taken aback by this. It was potential record companies and things like that. Some people liked it and some didn\u2019t like it. I listened and realized that I didn\u2019t like it either and I had to take ownership of it.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s one thing having a form of rejection where you can say, \u201cWell, you just don\u2019t get it\u201d and that\u2019s fair enough. But if people don\u2019t like it and you don\u2019t like it, you\u2019re a chump. It\u2019s like, \u201cWhat the fuck are you doing?\u201d And for me it was like, \u201cI have to really fucking love this. This is an album that I love.\u201d And if people don\u2019t like it, that\u2019s fine. I\u2019ve done my best and it\u2019s just down to taste.<\/p>\n<p>For me, that moment was revelatory. Once I step forward and make my mantle, \u201cWhat is my truth? What am I really feeling here? What is my truth here?\u201d As soon I as I did that, the record was finished in six weeks.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s really interesting. I\u2019m very interested in art and the creative process. There\u2019s something about taking full ownership and having no fear and just doing it. I\u2019m in early days [with my own career], but I\u2019ve obviously been a part of a few successful records over the years, and they\u2019ve all taken a long time. It\u2019s always that moment. Once you know what it is, then you can accelerate. But sometimes you don\u2019t know what it is you want unless you have entered the swamp of sounds and you\u2019ve immersed yourself in the laboratory of sounds and you try different things. I just love having having the vision and seeing it through.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/N7Djc5z-EMg?version=3&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Tell me about the first song on&nbsp;<em>Earth<\/em>, \u201cShangri-La.\u201d It really sets the tone for the rest of the album.<\/strong><br \/>\u201cShangri-La\u201d is a song about a journey. It\u2019s a journey that some of us have taken about trying to find peace of mind and happiness, and sometimes you go rafting into a river trying to get to the other side. When you dive in that river, you don\u2019t realize how fast-flowing it is and how long it\u2019ll take to cross. It\u2019s about a journey, but also about when you get there and you find your tribe. For me, there\u2019s a literal tribe \u2014 which is when you get to Glastonbury festival, there\u2019s an area called Shangri-La. That song came out of my journey in life, but also the journey of going to Glastonbury and the joy you feel going out.<\/p>\n<p>Musically and melodically, I wanted to create this slightly psychedelic, warm, colorful vibe. I was really influenced by \u201cSympathy For The Devil\u201d-era Rolling Stones, that kind of moment where the percussion gets turned up. It\u2019s what I heard in Brazilian music and when I was demoing\u2026basically all of the instruments on that track are played by me apart from a blistering guitar solo by Adrian Utley from Portishead at the end. Basically, I wanted that shuffle blues thing I got from that Stones Mick Taylor era. I know he was a bit later, but that groove and shuffle and dance that I felt in Brazilian music, particularly in Tropic\u00e1lia.<\/p>\n<p>I always felt like the right album opener. It\u2019s up and it\u2019s positive and fearless. For me, I love South America as a continent. There\u2019s a magical realism to the life there and you find it in the writings of the great South American writers, people like Gabriel Garc\u00eda M\u00e1rquez. I was trying to find that place in music as well, that has depth and color and is slightly psychedelic in parts.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The song \u201cBrasil\u201d was obviously inspired in your time down there.<\/strong><br \/>Yeah. That\u2019s a song of two parts. The first part, the acoustic part, is very much written in Wales. For me, it\u2019s a very creative place to come to and to be. You feel folk music really resonates here \u2014 the acoustic guitars, that comes out of being in Wales. But the second part is really about transporting you from the bucolic, natural world of Wales to the samba-esque, magical realism, trance-like music of Brazil. When you go to Carnival, it runs for two nights and it has six samba schools each night. They run throughout the night. You go to sleep each morning and 8:00 am and you\u2019ve still got those rhythms in your head. You can feel the pulse of samba, these polyrhythms.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s great similarities between electronic trance music and samba. They both get you into a kind of trance, and what\u2019s what I wanted to do on that track. I wanted to find that moment where it\u2019s like stepping into another world.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xK3cm-xO2XY?version=3&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>I think \u201cOlympik\u201d is my favorite song on the record. It really takes you on a journey.<\/strong><br \/>That\u2019s kind of my favorite song on the record too, along with \u201cBrasil\u2019 and \u201cCloak of the Night.\u201d When I wrote it, it was the last song I wrote for the record, and I was so excited about its potential, because I wanted to create a kind of epic, cosmic, funk\/dance track that had this kind of pulsating groove. I thought that was going to be the hardest song to realize. Actually it was the first one we created, and that was because of [drummer] Omar Hakim, [bassist] Nathan East, [guitarist] David Okuma and Flood and [co-producer] Catherine Marks. My house band for the first few weeks were these extraordinary musicians. That\u2019s basically a live take with a few overdubs.<\/p>\n<p>That track, to me, is like the mother of all the other tracks. Once we had that as the keystone, I knew we could get the others. That was like a sign saying, \u201cWe\u2019ve got this. We can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>You played a few live shows in February. How was the experience of playing these songs live?<\/strong><br \/>It was good, but it was deeply unnerving at times. I was massively out of my comfort zone, and I felt very uncomfortable. Sometimes they are almost like out-of-body experiences, but the good news is I really felt\u2026because I didn\u2019t know how it would be. You make a record, but you don\u2019t know if you can do it live. I was fully prepared to accept, \u201cOkay, I can\u2019t do the frontman thing. I am just a sideman and that\u2019s how it\u2019s going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In spite of all this discomfort and unknown and uncertainty, there were very profound moments during each performance \u2014 maybe not the first one, but the subsequent four or five where I thought, \u201cOkay, this is the right place to be. This is where I need to be. And this is where I need to be for the foreseeable future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It felt right. It\u2019s a process of unfolding and owning your faith. I don\u2019t think there are very many people born to be front-people. There are exceptions, but with Thom I could see the difference from seeing him now, as an extraordinary frontman, and Thom in the early days. It\u2019s very, very different. You get more confident, you do it more. It\u2019s like these wings you get each time you stretch out a little bit more. I had a sense of it. It felt good.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pWlaGqI6Th4?version=3&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Do you think you\u2019re going to return to Radiohead as a different artist and be able to contribute to them in a new way because of this experience?<\/strong><br \/>I\u2019m definitely a different artist now. That\u2019s for sure. I think that inevitably anytime Radiohead gets together to make a record\u2026We don\u2019t make a lot of records. We\u2019ve made two in the past 10 years. When people arrive now, they are different. People have moved due to age and stuff like that. Even if I hadn\u2019t made a record, I would have been different.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m very much a different artist, very much so. But I have no idea how that will impact the whole Radiohead dynamic. It\u2019s one of those things that until you get into it, you never know how it\u2019s going to be. There\u2019s also a certain unknowing about Radiohead albums anyway. To be honest with you, it\u2019s not something I think a lot about, like \u201cOh, I\u2019m going to be different\u201d or \u201cI\u2019ve got more to do.\u201d I\u2019ll cross that bridge when I get to it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Is a&nbsp;<em>Kid A<\/em>\/<em>Amnesiac<\/em> box set&nbsp;still something that might happen this year?<\/strong><br \/>Umm\u2026maybe yes? I\u2019m not sure. To be honest with you, I know it\u2019s the 20th anniversary. We obviously have meetings and stuff like that. If there is something good for a box set\u2026We did it for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-features\/radioheads-ok-computer-an-oral-history-196156\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>OK Computer<\/em><\/a>, and that was good, but I\u2019m of the school of thought that goes, \u201cIf there\u2019s something really great to be said or done or celebrated, then that\u2019s okay. But it\u2019s gotta be good.\u201d I think the <em>OK Computer<\/em> thing was good. We had a couple of tracks that had never been heard.<\/p>\n<p>The other thing with <em>Kid A<\/em> is there\u2019s so much more material. With <em>OK Computer,<\/em> there might be 19 reels [of tape]. I think we got through about 80 reels of two-inch tape for <em>Kid A<\/em> and <em>Amnesiac<\/em>. There was a lot more experimentation with the songs, since we were trying to find our way. There\u2019s lots and lots of stuff. [The question is] whether it\u2019s any good, and I\u2019ve got no idea. It\u2019s not my department, really.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Is there any sort of timeline for the start of the next Radiohead album?<\/strong><br \/>No. I think everything at the moment, because of the coronavirus, is up in the air. We couldn\u2019t even make an album at the moment, even if we wanted to. And everybody is doing their own project. Thom is really massively into his touring. He\u2019s got other stuff coming out. It\u2019s the same with Jonny and the same with Philip [Selway], he\u2019s got his next album coming out next year.<\/p>\n<p>We are talking about stuff. But when you get to a band like ours, what you have to do is move forward in a way that keeps the integrity and the creativity of what you\u2019ve done before. We\u2019re always mindful of that. We\u2019ve been in a band for 35 years, and we don\u2019t work together like we did 10, 15, 20 years ago. We don\u2019t. People have lots of other things going on, so it\u2019s a matter of finding\u2026when we feel that we have something we collectively want to do together.<\/p>\n<p>I think that\u2019s the beautify of what we do. There\u2019s a real honesty about it. We\u2019re not trying to fulfill contracts or maintain a lifestyle that requires us to make albums. We want to do it because we\u2019re inspired to do it and that should always be the case. You should be inspired to work with people and make music rather than feel obligated. I can\u2019t do that. I can\u2019t do it unless I\u2019m inspired, and I think that\u2019s the case for all of us.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pz25Vqaen0o?version=3&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>I saw lots of shows on the last Radiohead tour, and they felt very special. The band was really loose, and the setlist kept changing every night. Did it feel special to you too?<\/strong><br \/>I think so. <em>A Moon Shaped Pool<\/em> was a very hard album to make, as every album is. I think there\u2019s a relief of being able to go out and play. I think what was interesting about it was it was looser and a lot more laid-back. I think, in a way, one of the things we\u2019ve always done is live and die by the show. As much as that sounds like an honorable way to be or a good intention, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s very healthy. It puts too much pressure on you individually or collectively. I think the looseness comes from just doing it, giving it the right intention, but not living and dying by it.<\/p>\n<p>I think we play really well together. We have a lot of songs to choose from. The thing a band like us has to be careful of is\u2026When we played in North America, we did two nights in most cities and played a completely different set each night. I think we have to do that. The problem that happens is you can get bored of even beautiful songs if you play them every night or you feel you have to play them every night.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t think we felt like that. We found our mojo in a way. Also, we\u2019re very lucky. We didn\u2019t play much from <em>Pablo Honey<\/em>, but we\u2019ve got eight albums to chose from, along with a lot of B-sides that people know. It\u2019s a lot easier doing that than, as I learned recently, trying to find a set with one album under your belt. To have that breadth of material that people have an emotional connection with, the audience comes with a really amazing [energy]. We always have amazing audiences. It\u2019s very emotional. They are very understanding. They allow you to go on a journey \u2014 and the more obscure, the more people seem to like it, as well. We are very lucky.<\/p>\n<p>Our audiences enabled that to happen on that tour and they made us feel so welcome. I think something happens as you get old and people seem to\u2026you\u2019re like the BBC or something, you\u2019re cherished as an institution. That\u2019s what it felt like. There was this real warmth. It was really good.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You even did \u201cBlow Out\u201d that one time. It felt like anything was possible at any moment.<\/strong><br \/>I hope we do that more. I really like the band Phish. They are such a great band. We\u2019d always been slightly guarded, but on that tour we just let it go. And we played \u201cBlow Out.\u201d If it was fucked up and it didn\u2019t work out, then so be it. It wasn\u2019t going to ruin the set. We\u2019d shrug our shoulders and go, \u201cWe did our best.\u201d Maybe we weren\u2019t as precious as we\u2019d normally be. That\u2019s another thing.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6vdiiUSuxFs?version=3&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>How is your health? You had symptoms of COVID-19 earlier this spring. Ae you totally recovered?<\/strong><br \/>I\u2019m definitely over it. It seems to hang around a long time, but I\u2019m good. I\u2019ve kind of rushed back to running and stuff like that, but I\u2019ve noticed that isn\u2019t necessarily good for me. I\u2019m good \u2014 I\u2019m talking to you, and I\u2019m out and about. But if I\u2019m honest with you\u2026I got it five weeks ago and got better, and maybe I over-exerted myself. I can definitely still feel the exhaustion from it. It\u2019s taking a long time to recover. I mean, I never had the classic symptoms I keep hearing about. But when I lost my sense of taste and smell, I knew that what it was. I\u2019m going to be fine. though.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Are you going to encourage Colin Greenwood to make a solo record? He\u2019s the last holdout.<\/strong><br \/>Yeah! He should make one! It would be good, and he\u2019d really enjoy the process.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Are you hoping you\u2019ll get a chance to resume your solo tour?<\/strong><br \/>Yeah. I don\u2019t know quite how it\u2019s going to go. I\u2019d be surprised if I was touring this year. I really don\u2019t see how. In our country they\u2019re talking about social distancing being maintained until they find a vaccine. I don\u2019t see how the realities of us getting together for a gig is going to happen. But hopefully next year or something.<\/p>\n<div class=\"pmc-contextual-player\">\n<h3> Popular on Rolling Stone <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/ed-obrien-new-album-radiohead-987247\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a member of Radiohead since their founding 35 years ago, Ed O\u2019Brien has seen more commercial success and critical acclaim than roughly 99 percent of people who have ever picked up a guitar. But when he finally gathered up the courage to start writing and recording music on his own, he truly wasn\u2019t sure [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-806617","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-13 11:05:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806617\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}