Band's frontman tells James Bond actor about early career and recent emotional turmoil while working with Atoms for Peace
Thom Yorke has been interviewed by James Bond actor and long-time Radiohead enthusiast Daniel Craig. The conversation between Yorke and Craig covers a range of subjects from the early stages of Radiohead's career, as well as the band's transition from guitars to electronic music, family, songwriting methods and his childhood.
The interview, which took place presumably over the phone while Craig – a "confirmed Radiohead head" – was in New York and Yorke was in LA rehearsing with Atoms for Peace, was published by Interview magazine.
"I've never interviewed anyone before, so if I ask anything stupid then just tell me to fuck off," Craig begins, before quizzing the frontman on his project Atoms for Peace. "People don't really know who we are. It's been a weird build-up because in calling it not me – in calling it another thing – people don't necessarily make the connection, which is kind of mad. So it's been sort of like starting again with a band."
The 44-year-old frontman also spoke about his turmoil following Radiohead's meteoric rise to success, explaining that after the release of the landmark album OK Computer he had a "series of mini-breakdowns". "It was a struggle. I guess everything went bang during OK Computer, and I didn't really notice until such a point that I just started to become strangely catatonic. I'd come off stage and could not speak at all – and that was not just the exposure to the fame side of things. It was more like I had no concept, no understanding, of what the hell it was that these people wanted," Yorke explained.
"I had a series of mini-breakdowns where the public persona – this thing, this face, this person who writes this music … I would walk past that person in the mirror or listen to that person playing guitar and I didn't know who they were," he added.
Yorke confided that he found solace during this time by speaking to REM frontman Michael Stipe, who told him: "When it feels bad, just shut down. Be there but just shut down." In April, Yorke expressed a similar sentiment towards Stipe during an interview with actor Alec Baldwin for his show on WNYC.
Craig lastly asked about the future of Radiohead: "Do you have a plan? Or do you just let it all happen?" "God, I so wish I had a plan," Yorke replied. "The only plan that we've had recently was to take a year off, which was something that Ed [O'Brien] wanted to do. Ed wanted to go live somewhere else and switch off."
Atoms for Peace will perform three shows at London's Roundhouse between 24 and 26 July. Click here to read the full interview.
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