{"id":15983,"date":"2013-04-01T10:41:31","date_gmt":"2013-04-01T18:41:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/?p=15983"},"modified":"2013-04-01T10:50:37","modified_gmt":"2013-04-01T18:50:37","slug":"listen-to-radioheadsatoms-for-peaces-thom-yorke-interviewed-by-alec-baldwin-on-wnyc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/2013-04\/listen-to-radioheadsatoms-for-peaces-thom-yorke-interviewed-by-alec-baldwin-on-wnyc\/","title":{"rendered":"Listen to Radiohead’s\/Atoms For Peace’s Thom Yorke Interviewed By Alec Baldwin on WNYC"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"HerestheThing_web_header_alt3\"<\/a> \"Thom-Yorke010\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo: Eliot Lee Hazel<\/h6>\n

Radiohead\u2019s\/Atoms For Peace’s Thom Yorke<\/strong> was interviewed by Alec Baldwin<\/strong> on WNYC\u2019s Here\u2019s the Thing<\/a><\/strong> podcast released today, which you can listen to or download at bottom.\u00a0 Two of our favorites, just chatting.<\/p>\n

Some highlights from the interview, which you can also read the entire transcript of HERE<\/strong><\/a>, are below:<\/p>\n

On the creation of Atoms for Peace<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Thom Yorke: I emailed friends of mine who I knew liked the record. One was Flea from the Chili Peppers. One was my friend Joey, who\u2019s drummed with everybody. He\u2019s a genius drummer from L.A. Anyway, we got it together and it turned into this thing. It became really exciting, and we ended up calling the band Atoms for Peace and making a record out of the excitement of that. And it was all brand new to me because I\u2019d been in the same band since I was 17 \u2013 16.<\/p>\n

On Yorke\u2019s pre-show routine, and how it compares to that of R.E.M\u2019s Michael Stipe<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

TY: I stand on my head for a bit and basically I\u2019m completely on my own until five minutes before we go on, and then we\u2019re all in a room together pacing up and down like wild animals and then we\u2019re on. But when we first started doing big shows, it was for Michael Stipe and it does the total opposite. He literally \u2013 he\u2019ll be talking to you and then someone taps him on the shoulder and then they\u2019re on. I was like how the hell do you do that, man? I tried to do it like that, couldn\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n

On Yorke\u2019s first band and the creation of Radiohead<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

TY: No. We were not very good at all, but it was \u2013 it was very exciting, like going round to a friend\u2019s house, setting up and jamming and all of our mates would come and hang out \u2013 and girls, which I thought, \u2018Hmm, this is interesting\u2019 as puberty hit. That sort of felt a bit, because I kept fighting with the drummer. And then when I was 16, I was thinking I really need to get this together, really, and then just went around the school sort of choosing people.<\/p>\n

Alec Baldwin: So you went around picking people.<\/p>\n

TY: I got Ed because he was dressed like Morrissey and he had some cool socks, and I saw he had a guitar. I had no idea whether he could play or not. I didn\u2019t really care. I got Colin because I knew Colin could play very well and I needed a bass player who could play very well, but he\u2019d never played bass before. His brother Jonny was this mythical musical prodigy, so I roped him in, and then Phil was the only drummer we knew anyway and he had a house down the road that we could rehearse in.<\/p>\n

On Bjork<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

TY: To me, like my favorite singer is like Bj\u00f6rk. When I watch Bj\u00f6rk sing, I\u2019ve been lucky enough to sort of sing with her and watch her do it.<\/p>\n

AB: I was going to say, you\u2019re one of the people who can use that phrase, \u2018When I watch Bj\u00f6rk sing.\u2019 Most of us say, \u2018When I listen to Bj\u00f6rk sing.\u2019<\/p>\n

On taking up a cause<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

TY: I \u2013 well in my slack-arsed fashion, I was helping Greenpeace, which was trying to stop drilling in the Arctic. But it sounds like it\u2019s kind of working because the companies seem to be pulling out because \u2013<\/p>\n

AB: Shell just pulled out, didn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

TY: Yeah, that\u2019s right. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s entirely down to us, but I think it definitely helped that we were making their life extremely difficult everywhere they turned. But the challenge now is to turn the Arctic into a reserve so it can\u2019t happen. Because what that was going to do was create this gold rush \u2013 oil rush \u2013 up there, which was just gonna be insane, and this at the same time when the ice is melting. Basically they only started considering it was a possibility because the ice was melting and they thought, \u2018Okay, great. Maybe we\u2019ve got a better chance at drilling.\u2019 Which is like \u2013<\/p>\n

On Yorke\u2019s son\u2019s musical talents<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

TY: My son is a great drummer, but I don\u2019t know if he\u2019ll want to do that forever or not. He\u2019s like not bothered really, which is cool. He just \u2013 he comes and hangs out with me when I\u2019m working in my studio. We just hang out, you know. We\u2019re friends. But I don\u2019t think, you know, there\u2019s no burning ambition to be a musician or anything really, even though he\u2019s really good. He does it for pleasure. I mean at that age that\u2019s good, right?<\/p>\n

On hanging out with celebrities<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

TY: That never appealed. I don\u2019t hang out with people because they are who they are necessarily, unless I\u2019m a big admirer of them. Like I mean, I stalked Ed Norton for ages until eventually he gave in.<\/p>\n

AB: Why?<\/p>\n

TY: Because I\u2019m a big admirer of him. I think he\u2019s brilliant. So I hang out with him a bit occasionally. And Flea, I\u2019ve always really admired Flea anyway, so even before it became an issue of sort of playing with him.<\/p>\n