{"id":608727,"date":"2026-05-28T15:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T15:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/608727\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T15:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T15:58:10","slug":"ed-obrien-talks-conquering-his-dark-night-of-the-soul-and-radioheads-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/608727\/","title":{"rendered":"Ed O\u2019Brien talks conquering his \u201cdark night of the soul\u201d and Radiohead\u2019s future"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ed O\u2019Brien<\/a> has spoken to NME about how overcoming a period of depression and his \u201cdark knight of the soul\u201d shaped his healing new album \u2018Blue Morpho<\/a>\u2019, as well as the comeback tour and future of Radiohead<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The guitarist released his acclaimed debut solo album \u2018Earth<\/a>\u2019 under the moniker EOB back in 2020. With his own struggles and a return to Radiohead in between, he described the six years since as \u201ca bit up and down but very good recently\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve enjoyed making a record, I\u2019ve enjoyed living some life, I\u2019ve enjoyed being a dad, I\u2019ve enjoyed going through a tough period,\u201d he told NME. \u201cEverybody has those moments in life, but I came out the other side and I was thankful for the experience really. I feel like it\u2019s part of the journey of life. To be able to meet it full-on with my good fortune, it\u2019s nice to be able to come out of the other side and feel more whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

That \u201ctough period\u201d came about when the second COVID lockdown slammed the brakes on life and provided O\u2019Brien with an enforced period of reflection and a conversation to be had with a lifetime of suppressed demons.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t have a choice,\u201d he admitted. \u201cI think you have to find out what the roots of the depression are. I was reading Gabor Mat\u00e9\u2019s book, When The Body Says No. He basically advocates that depression, auto-immune diseases, cancers \u2013 they all have their seeds in childhood. We shut a lot of stuff down because we don\u2019t process it. In that second lockdown when we couldn\u2019t go anywhere, it forced me to be in that dark place, sit in it, feel it, not be scared of it, and really confront my fears.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously it was really hard. It felt really, really challenging, but the thing that I leaned into was that I\u2019ve had a spiritual practice for a while now, about 20 odd years. Meditation is the keystone of that. Any friend of mine that\u2019s ever going through it, my first question is, \u2018Do you meditate?\u2019 It\u2019s the single most powerful thing that we can do. I believe they should be teaching meditation at schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Radiohead'sRadiohead\u2019s Ed O\u2019Brien, 2026. Credit: Steve Gullick<\/p>\n

\"Radiohead'sRadiohead\u2019s Ed O\u2019Brien, 2026. Credit: Steve Gullick<\/p>\n

As well as \u201cthe simplest and most profound form of meditation\u201d by sitting and watching your breath for 20 minutes each morning, O\u2019Brien also found the solace to work through his issues amidst the healing power of nature around his rural Welsh home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat involves being in cold water in nature, walking and awakening,\u201d he shared. \u201cI\u2019ve always been a country boy and loved the outdoors, but I just feel that mother nature is not only extraordinary but so profoundly healing.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the problems we have as a modern society is that we are so detached from mother nature. All of our decisions are made by people in towns and cities. I\u2019ve lived in both, but there\u2019s something about the countryside and the power of the seasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWe\u2019ve lost sight of that. I\u2019m in awe of this planet that we\u2019ve been gifted and that we live upon. Listening to birdsong, finding stillness in mother nature, that\u2019s what I leaned into.\u201d<\/p>\n

Living a life without \u201ca boss or a 9-5 job\u201d, O\u2019Brien had the rare privilege of time and space, claiming that this allowed him the freedom to face his depression head-on. \u201cI didn\u2019t have to medicate so I could really feel the pain of it,\u201d he told us. \u201cI could feel the darkness, I could walk across the fire. That takes time. There are no shortcuts. We live in a society that wants instant gratification.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien, now 58, shared that his 30 years of keeping busy by making and touring nine albums with Radiohead and his role as a husband and father helped him to \u201cdefer\u201d and \u201cbasically keep the ghosts at bay\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen that second lockdown hit, the ghosts tapped me on the shoulder and said, \u2018It\u2019s time to process this, it\u2019s time to acknowledge this stuff\u2019,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you feel it, then you can process it. It\u2019s Dante\u2019s Inferno. Midway through life, I lost myself in the woods.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Having found his way through to the other side, O\u2019Brien said he feels as if he\u2019s now \u201cgrown\u201d and is \u201cmore whole\u201d compared to the man he was during our last interview in 2020<\/a>. \u201cIf I hadn\u2019t had that experience, you\u2019d be talking to another version of the guy you spoke to six years ago,\u201d he admitted. \u201cThat guy didn\u2019t realise how lost he was. He wasn\u2019t really being honest with himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

If this period of enforced stillness had come earlier, say if Radiohead had taken a more significant break in the \u201800s or 2010s, would he have gone through a similar process?<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a good question,\u201d the musician replied. \u201cWe actually took a year out in 2012, and that\u2019s when my family and I went to live in Brazil. It didn\u2019t happen then. I was 44, and having a five-year-old and a seven-year-old was all consuming. It was full-on and we were immersed in trying to be a family. There wasn\u2019t the space for it to come through and it wasn\u2019t ready.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe older I get, the less I believe in chance and serendipitous moments. I\u2019ve had health crises along the way and I\u2019ve always been trying to get better. Mental health and depression are always something that I\u2019ve struggled with over the years. I thought that I\u2019d kept it at bay with my meditation, but sometimes your body just goes, \u2018OK, you\u2019ve done so much, but we\u2019re gonna hit you with a big one\u2019. You can handle this. I\u2019m a big believer that time is everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cYou lock stuff down from your childhood. My body and soul just said, \u2018This is unsustainable\u2019. If you want to be well, if you want to be whole, you need to look at this stuff and process it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Radiohead'sRadiohead\u2019s Ed O\u2019Brien, 2026. Credit: Steve Gullick<\/p>\n

In doing so, O\u2019Brien found himself questioning the way in which we as a society discuss and deal \u2018male mental health\u2019 \u2013 finding the term itself and the platitudes that tend to come with it insufficient given \u201cthe levels of pain that people are feeling\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat phrase, \u2018male mental health\u2019, it\u2019s so fucking inadequate,\u201d he argued. \u201cIt\u2019s so \u2018meh\u2019, it\u2019s so beige. [You\u2019re experiencing] the fucking depths and those words do not do it justice. It\u2019s like the blanding-out of mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with medicine and therapy, O\u2019Brien said that the full scope of what a recovery can involve needs to be considered by society, especially the spiritual side. \u201cWe are spiritual beings living in a physical body,\u201d he argued. \u201cLots of people suffer and it\u2019s not framed in the right way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve spoken openly about my depression in the past and young people have come up and spoken to me about it. I\u2019ve said, \u2018You know what? Given the world that we live in, given everything, the most legitimate response to it is a form of despair and depression because it\u2019s so fucking shit\u2019. We\u2019ve got the crudest form of capitalism that we\u2019re all living through, it\u2019s playing out in wars and we\u2019ve reached this ridiculous point in history.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien added: \u201cWe know it\u2019s not serving the planet, this beautiful home. We know it\u2019s not serving people and people are so upset, fragmented and tortured that I don\u2019t want to use \u2018mental health\u2019. Our leaders carry on as if it\u2019s business as usual. And they wonder why people are so disenfranchised by politics? It\u2019s because the whole fucking system does not make for happy people or a happy planet.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople take their own lives to escape from that pain. Society doesn\u2019t really want to look at what the causes are. The causes are the fucking system that puts people under huge amounts of pressure, debt, strain. Humanity is going to look back in 500-600 years and look at our time and go, \u2018Look how one-dimensional they were\u2019. Every society thinks they\u2019re the most advanced, but we are fucking pathetic. We are capable of extraordinary things, but the system keeps us shackled to this unsustainable path.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the thread of \u201cextraordinary\u201d in humanity and nature is what runs through O\u2019Brien\u2019s new solo album \u2018Blue Morpho\u2019, released last week. Named after a butterfly native to Brazil and associated with starting over, the record emerged from the musician\u2019s \u201cdark night of the soul\u201d, driven by his newfound sense of purpose.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of me was like, \u2018What the fuck am I even doing?\u2019\u201d he told us, looking back to 2020. \u201cI\u2019d just put out \u2018Earth\u2019 and I felt dissatisfied with aspects of it. I was asking myself, \u2018Can I do this?\u2019 I also really wasn\u2019t expecting to re-enter the Radiohead fold again. \u2018What am I now? What is my life?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cMy one purpose, aside from being a father and all that, was to try and bring some beauty into the world; and to celebrate things of beauty. Whether that\u2019s mother nature or some of the things that human beings are capable of doing. There\u2019s enough darkness in the world, it\u2019s about bringing beauty and light.\u201d<\/p>\n

As well as falling in love with lyric-writing \u201cin a way that I\u2019ve never really appreciated\u201d, O\u2019Brien also found his other \u201cmusical family\u201d in producers Paul Epworth (Paul McCartney<\/a>, Adele<\/a>, Glass Animals<\/a>) and Riley MacIntyre (Ezra Collective<\/a>) alongside contributions from the likes of\u00a0 Shabaka Hutchings on flute, The Invisible<\/a>\u2019s Dave Okumu on guitar and ESKA<\/a> on additional vocals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis album and the process of it has shown me that I\u2019m going to be doing this until the day I die, whether people want to hear it or not,\u201d said O\u2019Brien. \u201cI love making music, I love what it does. The process at times was deeply uncomfortable, and that\u2019s what I love about it. I didn\u2019t used to like that nature of it, it was just something to get through. Now I see how it serves a purpose.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to make another record and I\u2019ve got more than enough ideas for the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"EdEd O\u2019Brien at the BBC Radio 6 Music Festival 2020 (Photo by Jim Dyson\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Sharing that it \u201cprobably\u201d won\u2019t be another six years until album number three \u2013 given that his period as a \u201chands-on\u201d dad getting his kids through COVID, GCSEs and A-levels is now at end with them aged 20 and 22 \u2013 his focus is on touring \u2018Blue Morpho\u2019, and letting the songs take on a new life on stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the great things about coming from the spirit of Radiohead is having no fear of fucking up,\u201d he admitted. \u201cThere was to be some jeopardy. There might be some horrendous moments musically, but it doesn\u2019t matter because you\u2019re seeking these moments of transcendence which involve elements moving in different ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given all of his reckoning over the last six years as a man, a father and an artist, was the idea of going back on the road with Radiohead for their lauded 2025 comeback tour<\/a> daunting at all, or was he ready and refreshed for the challenge?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just so amazing,\u201d O\u2019Brien replied. \u201cIt was daunting of course because everyone wants to make it work and the last time we\u2019d done it [in 2018], it wasn\u2019t great. We\u2019re so blessed that people want to see what we do, but at the heart of it, it\u2019s five people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt very strongly about it and said, \u2018If the love between the five of us is there, then everything flows from that and we\u2019ve got no worries\u2019. The songs can kind of play themselves in a way, but if there\u2019s the love and that feeling between the five of us, and there was and it was glorious. Playing in the round, everything was in the centre and it flowed out from that. Everyone could feel it.\u201d<\/p>\n

So much so, that O\u2019Brien enjoyed and appreciated his place within Radiohead so much more. No wonder they\u2019re already planning to \u201c20 shows each year\u201d on a different continent<\/a> from next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m honest, I\u2019ve always felt insecure about my singing compared to Thom [Yorke<\/a>]\u2019s, in being the only guy who sings harmonies with his amazing voice,\u201d he confessed. \u201cIn the earlier days we had a string of monitor engineers and I couldn\u2019t hear myself sing so I had deep-rooted insecurities. But the great thing about singing lead vocals and having to work on that in the studio is that by the time you come to doing backing vocals with Radiohead, it seems so much easier.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved it. I loved the confidence of thinking, \u2018I\u2019ve got this\u2019. Being able to sing, being nuanced, it was amazing. I felt that I could meet Thom vocally for the first time. We could actually do some of the stuff that I might have backed off from 10 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"EdEd O\u2019Brien, Jonny Greenwood, Philip Selway, and Thom Yorke of Radiohead in 2017 (Photo by Tim Mosenfelder\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

At this point, we asked O\u2019Brien if he felt his increased confidence would in any way bleed into the songwriting of Radiohead\u2019s next album, the long-awaited follow-up to 2016\u2019s \u2018A Moon Shaped Pool<\/a>\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere did you get this idea that there\u2019s another Radiohead record?,\u201d he replied, laughing. \u201cI know it\u2019s so funny and it comes from a good place. People want to hear another Radiohead record. I can\u2019t even imagine it because we\u2019ve not even talked about another record. I think that\u2019s because the last record was so fucking awful to make! The tale of that record is so fucking dark. It casts a long shadow. Maybe ask me in six years time!\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, O\u2019Brien ended by saying that he was simply feeling\u00a0 \u201clucky as a musician and a creator\u201d, and to be in a place of peace.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it\u2019s depression, a health crisis, mental health, breakdowns, all these things, there\u2019s always a before and after,\u201d he concluded. \u201cI resonate more with the after; the after feels good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Blue Morpho\u2019 is out now. O\u2019Brien\u2019s UK and European tour kicks off in October. Visit here<\/a> for tickets and more information.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For further help and advice on mental health:\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ed O\u2019Brien has spoken to NME about how overcoming a period of depression and his \u201cdark knight of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,3583,78468,128,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-608727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-indie","tag-lets-talk-mental-health","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}