Peter Gabriel explains why Radiohead are one of the great bands: “Always trying to innovate”
When we talk about the greatest legends of our time, like Peter Gabriel, David Bowie, Joni Mitchell, and so on, we usually revert to the same cycle of words.
Innovators, storytellers, boundary-pushers; it all becomes a little vague. But when it comes to names like those, sometimes nothing else captures the sheer magnitude of their cultural impact. What’s more, few actually got their start at the threshold of an entirely new era, or took that uncertainty as a soundboard for real, innovative artistic expression, quite in the same way that Peter Gabriel did.
Gabriel might always be susceptible to that same cycle of words, but it’s easy to make a case for him being one of the few musicians who actually live up to such labels. Originality, as Gabriel once said, isn’t something that you come across often. It’s a “rare commodity”, he said. One that even fewer realise is tied to the visual essence of music itself – of being innovative sonically, but creatively brave enough to take that a step further.
One such artist who ticked all boxes, according to Gabriel, was Talk Talk’s Mark Hollis. Hollis was, in Gabriel’s eyes, the very pinnacle of originality in music, someone who blended “very personal pictures” with his “music and magical voice”. His “wry, unique and soulful take on the world” is also what made Gabriel realise that originality wasn’t a lost concept in modern music.
Given how much we celebrate Gabriel for his focus on visual expression, it comes as no surprise that Gabriel looks for the same in other artists, in the ways that their genre-blending merges with their world-building and makes you think differently and experience art more immersively. It’s a delicate balancing act, one that you only know you’re experiencing when you feel lost for words.
It’s also why he found himself gravitating towards Radiohead. His praise of the English rock band actually mirrors a lot of his remarks about Hollis, especially his love for bands and artists who think outside of the box when it comes to the actual experience of music. As he explained, “Radiohead, for me, are one of the great bands and one of the reasons is that they’re always trying to innovate and push back boundaries, both in their musical work and in their video work.”
Gabriel didn’t go into detail about the sorts of video work he liked the most, but it’s not all that hard to guess. After all, from the cryptic ‘Burn the Witch’ to the ingenious perspective of ‘Karma Police’, it’s safe to say that, in Gabriel’s mind, Radiohead’s unique view on how a music video can both bolster and enhance the storytelling aspect of music was originality in its purest form.
It also proves just how much he appreciates the drive for it. After all, most of Gabriel’s own video work – including the obvious, ‘Sledgehammer’ – was created from a perspective of trying to be as original as possible. While making the ‘Sledgehammer’ music video, he even thought to himself, “If anyone wants to try and copy this video, good luck to them.” So, when he feels that pull from anywhere else, he understands just how much ambition has gone into making it possible.
