Thom Yorke was interview back in December by Esquire Magazine on various thing’s he’s learned over the years.  The interview is titled ‘What I’ve Learned’ and the entire interview will be available in this month’s issue of Esquire Magazine.  Thom will be releasing an album with his other band, Atoms For Peace later this month.

Thom Yorke:

If you’re going to be a vegetarian, you really do have to like lentils. Otherwise you’re fucked.

It’s much better to attempt to trust people until they prove you wrong.

I only started singing because I couldn’t find anybody else to sing. Everybody I asked was a bloody idiot.

Twenty thousand people can all look like one big mush, but actually it’s really interesting how you can walk onstage and within ten minutes feel what their vibe is.

When we first started supporting R.E.M., there were some gigs we played where people were ordering chicken dinners, and that kind of fucked with my head.

I was in hospital a lot when I was a kid ’cause I was born with my left eye shut, and they had to take muscle from my ass and graft it to make a muscle that would open the eyelid. So I had four or five operations, starting when I was very young. I must’ve started complaining by the time I was five. “Look, you’ve got to do it,” my parents said. “If you go, we’ll buy you whatever you want, okay? What do you want?” I said, “I want a red tracksuit.” And they got me a red tracksuit, tops and bottoms, and I was happy to go back to the hospital even knowing that I was going to go under the general anesthetic, wake up, and throw up everywhere. I loved that red tracksuit. I wore that red tracksuit until it looked so small that it was ridiculous on me.

When I was a student, my bank used to cut off my credit card all the time. I could never seem to stop bouncing checks. I was always on the phone with the bank. It was a very satisfying day after I signed a big record deal, when I went to the bank and paid off all my debts. The banker came across the desk to shake my hand and I told him to fuck off. How did he react? I think he was quite used to it.

Every time I go to the ATM and it asks how much I want, I say, “Give the most you can give me.”

My grandfather would come to our house in the countryside, borrow one of our bikes, and disappear. He’d come back after dark and we had no idea where he’d been. If he ran into anybody, he’d just ask where the good nightclub was. He did that right up into his nineties.

I was sitting with my son the other day and his friend, who’s eleven, and I said, “Okay guys, do the math. Work out how many seconds you’ve got left.” Took ’em a while, but they got there.

Kids teach you to lighten up, which for me was very handy because I wasn’t very light at the time. They were a blessing for that.

It takes a long time for an audience to relax on Monday nights.

Build gaps in your life. Pauses. Proper pauses.

Getting everything you want has nothing to do with anything.

If we were going out and just playing the hits and shit, then I would feel very differently about things. But we’re playing new things, and some of it’s very difficult to play, actually. The idea that twenty thousand people come and watch us do some of this music that’s pretty bonkers and certainly not on the radio… that’s a good thing, man. We played in Phoenix, and Ed and I came offstage and looked at each other. Did you see that?

I can’t imagine twenty years ahead because I’m sort of here right now.

Read more over at esquire.com

Atoms For Peace will release their debut album AMOK  on February 25th (Feb 26th in the U.S.) and can be pre-ordered through XLRecordings, Amazon, and iTunes.

Listen to AMOK in full next Monday, February 18th on BBC Radio 6

Thom Yorke will be on BBC Radio 6 next Monday, February 18th with Steve Lamacq to discuss Atoms For Peace and AMOK.  BBC Radio 6 will be streaming Atoms For Peace AMOK in full for the first time throughout the day on Monday.   You’ll be able to stream it online here.

 Colin Greenwood interview on BBC Radio 6

Radiohead’s Colin Greenwood was interview on BBC Radio 6 yesterday and said that Radiohead would be getting back together at the end of the Summer.  In an interview earlier this month he revealed that Radiohead will be entering the recording studio in September to begin work on their next album.  He also discusses his recent trip to South Africa as the Global Ambassador for Children’s Radio Network.  Listen to the interview below.

Atoms For Peace AMOK billboard in Los Angeles, CA.

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