Thom Yorke has discussed the debilitating writer’s block he experienced while working on Radiohead‘s classic 2000 album ‘Kid A’.
The discussion came as part of a new interview ahead of the release of ‘KID A MNESIA’, a new triple album reissue celebrating 20 years of ‘Kid A’ and its 2001 follow-up ‘Amnesiac’, set to land next month.
For the auction house Christie’s, Yorke spoke to writer and film producer Gareth Evans and Radiohead’s longtime collaborator and visual artist Stanley Donwood.
Remembering the tough period of struggling to make a breakthrough on ‘Kid A’, Yorke said: “It was the end of ‘OK Computer’. We finished touring and I was sort of trapped in my own particular labyrinth, followed by this weird sort of [inner] monologue, a criticism of everything I did.
“It came from being sort of propelled into this weird state where people were projecting things onto me in a particular way. I didn’t have the right sort of support mechanisms to deal with it, so I internalised a lot of it.”
Yorke added: “It kind of shut me down, and so whenever I tried to write something, whenever I sat down in front of any instrument, I sort of froze. I had this thing in the way, this little voice. I remember sitting, endlessly, endlessly playing the riff for ‘Everything in its Right Place’, sort of trying to meditate my way out of it and not being able to.”
Watch the interview below, with the writer’s block segment starting around the four minute mark.
Recommended
‘KID A MNESIA’ will be available from November 5 in the following formats: deluxe LP (limited edition 3xLP cream vinyl + 36-page hardback art book), Kid Amnesiette (a limited and numbered edition cassette [limited to 5000] + 36-page booklet), indie exclusive limited edition red vinyl 3xLP, black vinyl 3xLP, 3xCD and 3-volume digital formats.
Two art books by Thom Yorke and Stanley Donwood cataloguing the visual works created during the ‘Kid A’ / ‘Amnesiac’ era will also be published on November 4.
You can find out more and pre-order Radiohead’s ‘KID A MNESIA’ here, and watch the video for recently-released rarity ‘If You Say The Word’ here.
Donwood and Yorke are also co-curating a new artwork exhibition in London based around the band’s forthcoming reissues.
Taking place October 5 to 19, the exhibition – dubbed ‘How To Completely Disappear’ – will be held at Christie’s headquarters.