Rachel Liberman
Marquette Tribune Marquee
26.02.02

Recording artists can pat themselves on the back once they've won a Grammy. This award is noticed in the industry as a remarkable achievement, a mark that represents an impressive studio recording or a memorable live performance.

Adding to the nominee list this year is Oxford-born Radiohead, nominated for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Recording Package this year for their release Amnesiac. This album was released last June, months after the October 2001 release of Kid A. Kid A was nominated for the big prize last year under the Best Album Category, but lost to Steely Dan's Two Against Nature.

The nomination last year represented the success of the band's slow pervasiveness into the rock scene. Radiohead erupted years ago, but had reached a point where its studio releases were being nominated for Best Album.

Now, with Amnesiac being nominated for two awards this year, the message is clear that they've become a steady competitor.

These two recent releases have been noted as experimental recordings that stray from Radiohead's former guitar-focused sound.

The band's drummer Phil Selway said the band's sound has clearly helped define this rock outfit as anything but predictable.

"There's a warmth to it, a definite warmth to it," he said of the sound they've created and how it has changed with the last two recordings. "Awkwardness to it, passion in it as well."

He said initially the two albums were going to be released as a double-disc set since they were recorded in the same session, but said the band collectively decided against it because they didn't want to "swamp people with a lot of quite diverse material."

"When we got to the end of it we had a lot of tracks, we had a lot of songs, and our initial thoughts were to actually release them as one," he said. "It just seemed to make sense initially to put it out as one body of work."

However, Selway said a difficulty in producing Kid A was deciding the song sequence that made sense "as an album."

"We had a choice of all the material and decided to fix upon the opening track, which is "Everything in it's Right Place," and from there the rest just seemed to fall into place," he said. "A very definite atmosphere came out of that one."

The rest of the tracks would make up Amnesiac.

The popularity of Radiohead can be described as a creeper of sorts.

Early releases captured a firm fan base, but it wasn't until the release of OK Computer in 1997 that the band started receiving noticeable mainstream attention.

"If it had been taken in isolation it would have been manageable, but the fact that it was coming after about six, seven years of fairly constant touring and recording; there hadn't been any let up," he says. "It happened suddenly, from having been a band that was in the margins to becoming that flavor of the month."

Selway and the band felt pressure when they began to record again.

With the success of OK Computer, they felt they needed to meet the notoriety and expand on it.

Selway said this wasn't exactly a negative thing, for the band was allowed more creative freedom and a chance to explore sound in a way they never did previous to that point.

"Accessing ourselves very strictly, we got very strict expectations on our methods of working," he explains. "There were new approaches which we weren't very sure of. You don't seem to be producing anything of any worth, you get a bit overwhelmed."

Selway said the band's unique layering technique in their music is a group effort.

"Actually finding the sounds that blend together well between (guitarist/keyboardist) Johnny (Greenwood) and (singer/guitarist) Thom (Yorke), all of us really, I suppose, is a form of layering," he said. "Constantly trying things out and taking stuff out as well - until you find some kind of mix there which you respond to and find exciting."

Selway said that their studio production is entirely accidental, contrary to popular belief. He said the process isn?t necessarily a tedious process, but usually a lengthy one.

"I think the approach to recording Kid A and Amnesiac was a bit torturous," he said. "We didn't really commit ourselves to finishing and it took quite a bit of time, so you have these half-finished and half-baked ideas hanging around for quite some time."

Selway said the success of the albums will be bolstered by a show Radiohead did in Chicago's Grant Park.

"Being in a position where you can actually play in a place like that - I think we were the first band to play in Grant Park," he says. "Having the Chicago skyline behind you was spectacular, but you wouldn?t want that every single show. It's what we've tried to do this last year and a half, really - mix it up."

However, despite the band's success, Selway said the band doesn't have a pre-show ritual.

"We just give each other plenty of space beforehand, making sure that we're calm and open as possible when we go onstage."