When Radiohead superfan Daniel Craig interviewed Thom Yorke
The 1990s gave rise to the popularity of alternative rock, with sub-genres such as grunge, Britpop, and shoegaze all blossoming during the decade. Emerging in 1992 with their debut single ‘Creep’, Radiohead struggled to find success, perhaps due to not fitting into any specific wave – until the song blew up internationally the following year. By the mid-1990s, Britpop was the dominant craze in the UK, and Radiohead were seen as the outsiders. However, the band used this to their advantage, proving themselves to be musicians unable to be defined by one genre.
The rest of the decade saw the band experiment to new lengths, releasing their seminal body of work, OK Computer, in 1997. Despite the critical and commercial success of the album, the band reminded everyone that they don’t play safe, following it up with the electronically-infused Kid A in 2000. Since then, Radiohead has become one of alt-rock’s biggest names, although it’s hard to say what genre best describes their eclectic discography.
Meanwhile, the early 1990s welcomed Daniel Craig to the professional acting world. After his introductory part in The Power of One, the actor made his breakthrough in the series Our Friends in the North. A few supporting roles during the late 1990s and early 2000s followed before he bagged the role of James Bond in 2006, playing the legendary character until 2022’s No Time To Die. Although Craig and Radiohead appear to have very little in common (besides the band once recording a rejected Bond theme), the actor is a big fan. Therefore, in 2013, he interviewed frontman Thom Yorke for Interview Magazine, giving fans a highly revealing insight into the musician’s views on the industry, touring, making music and fame.
The pair discussed the influence of technology over Radiohead’s music, which didn’t infiltrate their sound until the latter end of the ’90s. Yorke said: “I came to the electronic stuff late because our band really was in the wave of rejecting a lot of it. […] There were some interesting things happening in Britain with electronic music. […] But a lot of the exciting things that were happening at the time were guitar music, and as a band, that’s where we went. So we came back to the computer stuff later on.”
Yorke shared his disillusionment with record companies, describing them as “huge empires”. Referring to the band’s signing to EMI, Yorke said: “The guy who was running the company at the time said to us, ‘I don’t expect you to do great things straight away, but I’ve got a good feeling about you chaps, so you just take your time.'” However, “At a certain point, it just started to feel not like a nice place to be.”
The frontman also stated: “Everything went bang during OK Computer, and I didn’t really notice until such a point that I just started to become strangely catatonic. I’d come off stage, and I could not speak … I had a series of mini breakdowns where the public persona—this thing, this face, this person who writes this music … I would walk past that person in the mirror or listen to that person playing guitar, and I didn’t know who they were.”
The pair also discussed the concept of albums becoming obsolete. Yorke said: “The form of the album is not something that is really looked at in the same way anymore. […] I hate it because I feel like it’s very difficult to get moved by an artist unless you are prepared to immerse yourself in what they’re doing completely.”
Who knew an unlikely interview between Daniel Craig and Thom Yorke would be so fruitful?
