Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien says burnt out bands sound ‘s**t’ as he releases first solo album as EOB
“EVERYONE needs space and that includes Radiohead.”
Ed O’Brien is explaining what led to the release of his first solo album, Earth, on which he takes centre stage as singer and songwriter.
We know him as the tall one in Radiohead, the guitarist and Thom Yorke’s backing singer.
But now, under the name EOB, we discover more.
He says: “I compare making this album to falling in love. When the songs were written, I really got obsessed with it and had to release it.
“With Radiohead, and my kids being small, there just wasn’t much time for anything else, as it was important to me to be a hands-on dad.
“I was happy. That is all I wanted. Then suddenly I had time to write and I thought, ‘Well, maybe I will try something’.”
Chatting over Skype from his home in Wales, where he is isolating with his wife and two teenagers, O’Brien is talkative — although he is getting over what he believes was a bout of Covid-19.
He says: “It was most probably coronavirus. I didn’t get tested but I’m feeling much better now.”
O’Brien, 52, says Earth is influenced by Primal Scream’s seminal 1991 album Screamadelica — and by carnival in Rio after spending family time in Brazil in 2012.
He says: “We wanted to have an adventure as a family. I’ve had so many great adventures with Radiohead over the years, so we thought, ‘Why don’t we go and live in Brazil for a bit?’ The kids went to the little village school and, for the first time, I had time for songwriting.
“Then the thing about Screamadelica is it wasn’t just about music, it was rave culture.
“It was part of the moment when we all put our arms around one another, like brother and sister, rather than the fighting and the antagonism we’ve had recently.
“And you came together as a community. There was also a connection with the Earth, as the raving usually happened in beautiful places in big fields, on open land, not just dodgy warehouses.
“Hearing Screamadelica again was spine-tingling and I wanted to capture something of that with the reconnection of us being a tribe living on this planet.
“I think Screamadelica does that beautifully. And in (album opener) Movin’ On Up, the line ‘Getting out of the darkness, my light shines on’ really resonated with my own life.
“As a whole, as a human being, I’ve had this feeling that we are going to somewhere better.
“We are in a moment of supreme change and challenge at the moment but I really believe we can go to somewhere better than where we’ve been. We have to believe that.”
O’Brien loves the way people have come together as a community in the face of the Covid-19 crisis.
He says: “Human beings are capable of doing extraordinary things. People are rising to it and it is extraordinary.
“The clapping for the NHS is amazing. Being outside standing on your steps at 8pm — that is the stuff. That is what matters.”
Going from demoing his ideas to making them into songs for Earth took a huge leap of faith for O’Brien.
He says: “There is wanting to do it — and there is actually fulfilling the promise of these songs.
“That needs the best people. I have always been very fortunate to work with the most incredible people. But I had to find my new team and for me, it was Flood (Mark Ellis).
“He’s my favourite producer. Also, he’s a dad at the school my kids attend in London. I didn’t know him before, but my wife was friends with his wife, so we became friends.”
O’Brien says he desperately wanted Flood on board but was too afraid to ask.
EOB Earth - Track Listing
- Shangri-La
- Brasil
- Deep Days
- Long Time Coming
- Mass
- Banksters
- Sail On
- Olympik
- Cloak Of The Night
★★★★
“I was nervous,” O’Brien reveals. “Even when you are in a band as big as Radiohead, there are times when you sound like s**t. Any musician will tell you that.
“That is part of the leap you have to go through, from sounding bad to good.
“Playing Flood my demos was a really nervous moment. I went to the studio and sat at the back while Flood is hearing every bad note. Then he asked if I wanted him to do this with me. And he was on board.
“I wanted to do this properly and he was the right man. I love Foals’ Holy Fire and Depeche Mode’s Violator. I wanted to make one of those records.”
Earth’s opening track and latest single is Shangri-La, an electronic groove with percussion tracks building, one on top of another.
O’Brien says: “Shangri-La is a song about happiness and finding peace. It came four days after I’d been to Glastonbury in 2014.
“I wanted to capture the feeling of joy and love you find at Shangri-La (the festival’s famous after-hours area) with your tribe, like raving days where you were with your people.
“Glastonbury is like our carnival, our therapist. It’s a place where I will always feel incredibly happy, even when it’s muddy.”
And the hunt for personal peace is a familiar theme for O’Brien.
“It’s a journey a lot of us go on, including me,” he says. “I suffered from depression for years so it’s about empowerment, taking on my responsibilities and seeing a shrink or whatever to make me better.
“I’ve realised those darkest moments are moments of opportunity. You can do nothing and carry on but these moments are so dark, you don’t go there.
“So you say, ‘I will give up booze, I will take up meditation, as I cannot go back to that place’. And that’s what I did from 2001. I stopped drinking and drugs and started on a journey of, essentially, self-help.”
Other highlights on Earth include Brasil, which features Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood, and acoustic number Cloak Of The Night, which features Laura Marling. She also guests on the song Mass.
O’Brien says: “I didn’t know Laura at all — I still don’t know her that well — but I emailed her when we were on tour, as I wanted to work with her. I love her as an artist. She’s extraordinary.
“She came down for an afternoon and it was fantastic. Singing with Laura live on Cloak Of The Night is one of the highlights of my musical journey. That was the most nervous I was on the whole record. She has such a presence.”
Earth’s centrepiece is the “cosmic disco” track Olympik.
“It’s the mother of the record, the heart,” says O’Brien. “A friend told me it’s also the sound of the next record. The tempo is 120 BMP — the tempo of all the old acid-house stuff. It makes you want to get up and dance.
"That’s where I want to go. I want joy and upliftment in the face of this crisis.”
He adds: “Music is not about perfection. It’s about being truthful. Once you get to what is true, music is so powerful and happens more readily. That goes the other way.
"When bands don’t get on or are burnt out and not enjoying it, the music is s**t and they know it.”
At first, O’Brien struggled to reflect on his new songs as a solo artist.
“My reflex was, ‘What would the band think?’ But f*** that, I have to just be myself. If they like it, great.
“Of course you want the approval of your bandmates but it’s not the be-all and end-all. This is my own thing. It’s different to Radiohead.
"That is about Thom’s songs and us serving them. We arrange, we write bits and pieces but he’s the singer. He sets the tone.”
Earth got its title from a photo called Pale Blue Dot, by astronomer Carl Sagan.
O’Brien says: “He wrote incredibly moving words about the bigger picture. We are on this planet, all 8billion of us, in space beyond vastness. The album’s working title was Pale Blue Dot.
“A lot of people I know have died recently. Mortality is with us at the moment and our physical bodies are going back to the earth. So, it worked on a lot of levels.” O’Brien also wrestled with his own name.
He says: “As a kid, I was Eddie or Edward. Ed was me in the band. Names are powerful things and I like the anonymity of EOB.
“Obviously, it’s me, but it could be an umbrella. I could collaborate with someone else under EOB.”
He says of Radiohead: “I’m not setting the precedent (as a solo artist). I am the fourth one doing this. The other three have never said, ‘Here is my record — what do you think of it?’ You might get sent a copy from the office once it is out.
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"What happens next with Radiohead? I don’t know. We’ve been talking about live dates next year but that was pre-coronavirus. So we are just checking in.
“There are no plans. This album is the start of another musical journey for me. I’ve just turned 52 but being in music is like perpetual youth. I don’t feel different physically to 20 years ago. I’m just a lot more grounded.”
And live shows? “Touring was good but not for the planet. We’ll have to be adaptable.”
- Earth is released today
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