...ON TOURING/MUSIC/ ALBUMS/PERFORMANCES

·        [ON ALL RADIOHEAD ALBUMS] There is a real sense that this is the band that has developed quite a bit from making Pablo Honey to The Bends. In some ways we are unrecognizable as the same band. But between The Bends and OK Computer, there is a more of a line of development.

·        [ON RECORDING THE BENDS] It was a nightmare. We had all these good songs, but as soon as we had to present them to anybody else, we just freaked out and didn’t talk to each other. We were scared of every single note that we played.

·        [ON SONGWRITING] Songwriting for me is a therapy. Most creativity comes out of some kind of crisis, and the coolest rock n roll bands are people who can deal with that and admit to their problems.

·        [ON WORKING ON OK COMPUTER] The big thing for me is that we could really fall back on just doing another miserable, morbid and negative record lyrically, but I really don't want to, at all. And I'm deliberately just writing down all the positive things that I hear or see. I'm not able to put them into music yet and I don't want to just force it.

·        [ON RECORDING OK COMPUTER] We weren't listening to guitar bands; we were thoroughly ashamed of being a guitar band. So we bought loads of keyboards and learned how to use them, and when we got bored we went back to guitars. If people get it, they wouldn't think it's depressing. When people always say that fucking annoying thing about how my work's so depressing, well it's not because... it's just words, and I put the words to music which I think it's an uplifting thing, otherwise there would be no point in doing this at all.

·        [ON LYRICS OF OK COMPUTER] On this album, the outside world became all there was and the most irrelevant material took on a stunning beauty and breathlessness. This is because I had sorted the internal stuff out. I wrote down what was around always and my singing ‘identity’ felt very loose. I am an airhead on this record.

·        [ON THE ALBUM TITLE OF OK COMPUTER] It refers with embracing the future; it refers to being terrified of the future, of our future, of everybody else’s. It’s to do with standing in a room where all these appliances are going off and the sound it makes.

·        [ON PERFORMING GLASTO ’97] I can’t see why we are doing these big gigs. Thing is, whoever it is up there (onstage), it’s not the person sitting here (himself). It’s completely different state of mind that you have to spend a long time getting into. I can’t switch it on and off. Whenever the logistics of these big gigs are discussed, I just fucking freeze up. It’s not something I’m emotionally capable of dealing with yet.

·        [ON TOURING] I don’t think it’s anything worthy in going on tour for 2 years. You just turn yourself into a fucking maniac. And then you have to turn yourself back. There are a lot of good reasons for not doing tours; it fucks you up, it takes too long, it costs shitloads of money. But it’s about looking people in the eye while you are playing your songs.

·        [ON CREEP] Sometimes I do justify Creep. Sometimes it’s karaoke, and I enjoy hamming it up, but some days it really means something to me.

·        [ON ‘JUST’] A competition between me and Jonny to get as many chords as possible into a song.

·        [ON AIRBAG] So much of the public's perception revolves around illusion. That's what 'Airbag' is about, the illusion of safety. In reality, airbags don't really work and they go off at random. It's exactly the same as when you're on a plane. Everyone should really sit backwards. It's the safest way possible to face the back of the plane as you take of. But because people don't like the idea, and they feel a bit sick, airplanes have always been done the other way around, which is fucked. Anyway, if you're plummeting down to earth at 1,000 miles per hour, there's no way you're going to stand a hope if you sit there with your head between your legs with your seatbelt on. In the end, we're all just fucking bits of meat.

·       [ON CREEP] I never want to set myself up like that again. I’ve had letters from Death Row, guys who have killed people, and they’re responding in what they think is a positive way to the lyrics on ‘Creep’. That really scared the hell out of me.

·        [ON THEIR 4^th ALBUM] It will sound like it was done a bit quicker, heh heh! I think it will be more direct. And obviously it will be happier, fitter, leaner and generally look like it’s just stepped out of a salon, heh heh!