interview de Radiohead peru
You mentioned in an interview that you’ve been working on “The King Of Limbs” for nearly two and a half years with the band. In the meantime, you’ve done several shows, work for Atoms For Peace and some spare illustrations of your own which are now on sale at your online shop. How much of your work turned up actually being artwork for “The King Of Limbs” and how much do you usually end up discarding? I remember there were two attempts for “Hail to the Thief” (Topiary+Porn vs the colorful city maps) and “In Rainbows” (the b/w suburbia+curves etchings vs the space-like wax splatters). So, how many attempts have you made for this particular project?
It’s quite hard to remember. My initial ideas for this record were abandoned a long time ago; aside from the undeniable fact that they would have ended up as utterly irrelevant, I simply lacked the technical skill to carry them out. I tried, but I failed, and I failed pretty comprehensively. I had a year of being quite down about it. Perhaps I was just melancholy. And from that period something grew, and when it showed signs of being worth pursuing I was, if not happy, then at least not depressed.
On to the Newspaper Edition: it’s fascinating you’re always delivering top quality work for the special editions of Radiohead’s albums. Tell us a bit more about what we can expect. It’s several large sheets of artwork, 625 small pieces that will probably fall off like the junk from a Sunday paper, a double 10″ and a CD, all enclosed in an oxo-degradable bag. Where did this idea come from and what else can we expect from this? (perhaps digital art like the “In Rainbows” discbox?) Did you go for other band photos after the Hoover adverts idea was discarded?
Blimey. How did you know about the Hoover thing? That was just a joke. I don’t really want to talk about the Newspaper Album yet, as nobody has seen it. I would like everyone to form their own impressions, without being told what to expect. It is designed to decay, to go brittle and crumble, as we all must. Although the vinyl and the CD will probably last while longer.
Is it difficult to choose how much of the artwork goes into the regular and special editions? Both editions of “Kid A” were very different from one another, so I’m wondering if there’s anything like that coming up. Any exclusive newspaper-only artwork coming up?
oh yes, the Newspaper Album is the ‘full’ version. There is much, much more in it than in the retail versions. It’s like a sunday paper compared to a Monday one. I used to deliver newspapers and they’re really light on a Monday because there’s no news. Apparently nothing happens at the weekend.
Have you been into doing animation lately? If so, can we expect to see any of that work in a near future?
afraid not. My time has been burgled by events.
Speaking of that, do you think Chieftan Mews is bound to come back? Other than some really strange Twitter messages, he’s been nowhere to be seen since the thumbs_down webcast and some cryptic posts on Twitter (though some people, me included, don’t believe that’s actually him). Where is he?
yes, I’m new to twitter and Chieftan is someone I’m following. He’s an extremely sinister person. I have certain information that makes me almost 100% certain that the twitter Chieftan is the real Chieftan. I’ve been trying to get him to agree to a meeting because I want him to be director-general of Radiohead.tv, but he won’t commit.
BONUS QUESTION you probably won’t answer because of confidentiality: Thom mentioned he had a very clever release plan in mind but he wouldn’t give any details away, this newspaper deal seems pretty obvious to come along with several more ‘volumes’ or ‘editions’ if you may (reporting “the current state of things”… at different stages perhaps? being the “first” newspaper album?), the order numbers from w.a.s.t.e. are called TKOL1 (meaning there’s perhaps a part 2, 3, etc), perhaps having more “limbs” along the way and several songs left out from this “first” release (considering Thom played lots of them on his own). Do these rumours hold water at all? Is this part of a longer multiple-phase project?
I’m afraid I have no idea what’s going on. A clever release plan? I await developments with trepidation.