A Moon Shaped Pool <\/a>[the 2016 Radiohead album] playing in my headphones, and I stopped it. \u201cOh, hello\u2014\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tYorke: \u201cMr. Yorke.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: \u201cMr. Yorke, hello.\u201d You said, \u201cOh, hi.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: No, I said, \u201cWhat the fuck [laughs] are you doing standing in the street?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: Then I came to the show, and we met properly.<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: I didn\u2019t know you were living in Rome a lot. I had no idea. So I was doubly confused.<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: You, to me, had always been that person that I was scared of meeting.<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: Oh, yeah. I\u2019ve got a whole list.<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: Yeah, totally. And I remember feeling so light afterwards. \u201cOh, people are kind, and they\u2019re nice.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: I was also impressed that you were just walking down the street. I was like, \u201cWhere\u2019s his security?\u201d Because I mean, I know I can do it, but I didn\u2019t know you could do it. Is that a choice?<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: I think in the early days, when I was in the band [One Direction], so much of the hotel experience felt very locked-in. When I\u2019d be home, it felt like, \u201cOh, it\u2019s not safe for me to be out.\u201d Then I had a girlfriend who was very outgoing, and she was coming to London and I was like, \u201cOh, if we just sit in my house for three days, she\u2019s gonna think I\u2019m nuts.\u201d So we walked everywhere, and it was this realization for me: \u201cOh, it\u2019s fine to be outside.\u201d It kind of broke that thing. Now, it\u2019s changed my life in such a big way, because it\u2019s how you stay connected to the world.<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: Yes, mate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: I read something about walking being the artist\u2019s kind of perspective, because you\u2019re at ground level and you see things that you just don\u2019t see if you\u2019re driving everywhere.<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: It\u2019s also a good way to write. I wrote \u201cA Wolf at the Door\u201d \u2014 I was going through a really bad moment and I walked for like two-and-a-half days, rain, didn\u2019t matter. A notebook in my hand, and just wrote it all. I felt so much better at the end of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBut also it\u2019s not just the walking \u2014 it\u2019s the walking past people. The simple thing of people-watching, playing that game of imagining as someone walks by \u2014 where they\u2019re going, what they\u2019re doing, all that stuff. It brings you out of yourself, brings you out of your troubles. I mean, without it, see, it\u2019s really easy to get lost.<\/p>\n
\n\tI remember when we were on tour with R.E.M. [in 1995] and Michael Stipe figuring out that I would just hide in the dressing room, and never went out anywhere. So he started dragging me out, and he gave me this trick. He said, \u201cIf you don\u2019t care, they don\u2019t care. If you\u2019re not looking, they\u2019re not looking.\u201d And it works. I remember being in Stockholm going to some really busy club, and he said, \u201cTry it.\u201d And it worked. Nobody bothered us.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThere are moments when you will feel vulnerable. There are moments when shit will happen, or The Sun will be printing your picture one too many times. I\u2019ve had that. So it\u2019s not easy. It\u2019s not an easy decision to make, but it\u2019s better than the alternative. I know people who got death threats, and then wouldn\u2019t leave the house and had security patrolling their house. You don\u2019t want that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you write \u2018Everything \u2028in Its Right Place,\u2019 do you think, \u2018Yeah, I\u2019ll write another one\u2019? You can\u2019t. \u2028I\u2019ve tried.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thom Yorke<\/p>\n
\n\tRS: You both have a history of leaving your comfort zones behind. That\u2019s a pattern for you as artists \u2014 after you do something hugely successful, you say, \u201cOK, I did that already. I\u2019m not doing that again.\u201d How do you avoid repeating yourself?<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: I can\u2019t, even if I wanted to. I couldn\u2019t do it again. If you write \u201cEverything in Its Right Place,\u201d do you think, \u201cYeah, I\u2019ll write another one of them\u201d? It doesn\u2019t make sense. You can\u2019t. I\u2019ve tried.<\/p>\n
\n\tI think if you have something that\u2019s very successful, there\u2019s a lot of pressure to repeat that, which I\u2019m sure you\u2019ll probably feel, or you do feel sometimes. Or you will feel. It doesn\u2019t go anywhere, because that\u2019s like working to commission.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: \u201cPaint that again.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: Yeah. It\u2019s a commercial art form, so you\u2019re always going to get people asking you to do that.<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: It\u2019s an interesting cycle, I think. You make something that connects with people, because you\u2019ve captured something about the human experience, whether it\u2019s a vulnerability or a sensitivity that comes with being human. And then any kind of success around that thing makes it take on this life of its own. Then everything around you makes your experience incredibly not human.<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: Yes. Artificial.<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles. Yeah. The goal is how you shut that out when you\u2019re making stuff, so you can still be making music about the human experience. I\u2019ve always thought if I was to make music about being in a studio, and touring, and all of the shiny things that come with that\u2014<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: Shiny for you, mate. It\u2019s not shiny for everyone.<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: That\u2019s definitely not interesting to me, so it can\u2019t possibly be interesting to anyone else.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tWhat I love about your work, for example, so many people look at you in this kind of godlike status \u2014 to still be someone who looks at it like, \u201cThis is the gritty part of life.\u201d I think that\u2019s what\u2019s so impressive about your work \u2014 for people to revere you and to still be looking at what\u2019s under the fingernails.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: I think the reason for that was having to learn quite a difficult lesson. Around Kid A, Amnesiac, before that, I really struggled every time I had to try to do something new. I was explaining it to myself while I was doing it, literally. It\u2019s like a form of madness, and I couldn\u2019t get out of it. I felt I needed to justify it somehow \u2014 not apologize, but justify it in an intellectual way.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe reason for that was I needed to get out of it. I needed to just get out of the studio, and I needed to just walk. I used to just walk on the cliffs in Cornwall, for example. And a lot of that was down to the fact that nobody cares, man. Nobody cares that it\u2019s difficult. If you\u2019re bummed out that it\u2019s difficult, fucking stop. Go and do something else \u2014 go dancing. Also, later on, as you have kids, the choice to carry on doing this kind of work, you have to enjoy it. And the enjoyment comes from having to start again from scratch every time. Whatever you learn, you\u2019ve got to unlearn.<\/p>\n
\n\tAlso, songwriting is very odd. Going to the Ivor Novello thing \u2014 I don\u2019t hang out with songwriters, but apparently I am one. And you realize that songwriting is quite a naive thing. You can\u2019t be savvy about it. You can work really hard on it \u2014 but the good stuff just happens, and you don\u2019t know why. And you\u2019ve got to be honest with yourself that you don\u2019t know why. When stuff forms that you like, you just grab onto it and you don\u2019t let go.\u00a0\u201cPyramid Song\u201d \u2014 I mean, it\u2019s three chords over and over again, and the same lyric. How does that make sense? But you like it, and you\u2019re not bothered about if anyone else likes it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cThe thing that excites me the most is when I start a record, I have no idea how it\u2019s going to end up sounding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harry Styles<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: I\u2019ve always wondered if that\u2019s part of why the impostor syndrome that can come with that commercial success exists.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: You have that?<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: If you write in that way, it almost feels like you\u2019re not responsible for it. So then if people are like, \u201cOh, you\u2019ve made this thing and that means that you\u2019re this,\u201d there\u2019s something in there that feels like, \u201cOh, I can\u2019t take credit for it. It just happened to me.\u201d Like you were saying, the best things tend to just happen. I\u2019ve always found the things that I end up liking the most, or have been the most special things to me, are the ones where you write it, and then as you\u2019re listening back, you\u2019re learning something about yourself. You\u2019re realizing that you\u2019ve said something, rather than, \u201cI\u2019m going to sit down \u2014 I\u2019m going to say this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke. Yeah, and you might not realize. You might record it and track it and everything, and not realize until you\u2019ve mastered it \u2014 and then you suddenly hear, \u201cOh, shit, that\u2019s what I meant.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBut it\u2019s not divine intervention or anything like that. You\u2019ve got to show up. You have to learn to accept the months of impostor syndrome, where you\u2019re like, \u201cI don\u2019t have anything to justify all this amazing equipment in my studio.\u201d And then you\u2019ll pick up your notebook, and there\u2019ll be one line in it that sets you off. But the point is, you showed up. Because it\u2019s really easy not to show up.<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: Someone once described it to me as like surfing, where you can practice getting up on the board. Sometimes there\u2019s no waves. If a wave comes but you haven\u2019t practiced enough, you\u2019re not going to be able to surf it. When they happen, it\u2019s the combination that you\u2019ve practiced being able to capture it, and something is happening at the right time.<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: Yeah, you\u2019re ready enough. Or if I\u2019m surfing, you\u2019re not ready, ever. You\u2019re on the rock going, \u201cFuck!\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: I\u2019ve had a big shift \u2014 I used to feel labor-focused about art in general. I felt like to justify it, I had to be in the studio months at a time.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: That\u2019s your impostor syndrome speaking. I\u2019m the same \u2014 sometimes it\u2019s fun, but sometimes you\u2019re doing it because you feel you should do it, because you need to stay ahead of the game. Or you need to keep proving that you are who you say you are, or other people say you are.<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: I feel like it\u2019s a real line to ride with that. Because I still feel like I get it onstage sometimes. The sweet spot is where you\u2019re relaxed, in that flow state where it feels like, \u201cOh, this feels really easy. It feels like it\u2019s just happening, and this is great.\u201d And then I click over to \u201cOh, it feels too easy. Am I not working hard enough?\u201d When it feels most natural is when I think the show is at its best, but then I have this voice of \u201cIt shouldn\u2019t be this easy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: That\u2019s completely normal. The joke with Radiohead is always, like, we\u2019ll have moments in the show like, \u201cOh, my God, we\u2019re so great!\u201d And exactly that moment, someone fucks up. Every time, without fail.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m jealous of people who can just free flow onto a mic and put it out. All my hip-hop heroes freestyling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thom Yorke<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: How different is it for you in terms of how much you enjoy making music with the band, versus making stuff by yourself? Do you like what the friction can make in that scenario? Or do you tend to enjoy, like, \u201cOh, I\u2019m going to have this idea, and I\u2019m going to just see this all the way through.\u201d Because it\u2019s both, I\u2019m sure.<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: It\u2019s both. There\u2019s a kind of mad history to that. It wasn\u2019t until after Kid A that I remember quietly saying to Nigel [Godrich], \u201cI\u2019ve got all these things. I just want to do them on my own with you, because it doesn\u2019t make sense to try and include anybody else.\u201d Up until that point, it was a really alien concept.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tWe\u2019ve known each other a mind-boggling number of years now. [Radiohead met in 1985.] We all know each other\u2019s musical strengths and musical weaknesses. So you\u2019re spending a lot of the time working around that. I mean, we haven\u2019t worked. We haven\u2019t been in the studio together for a long time, so I don\u2019t know how it would actually feel now.<\/p>\n
\n\tWith the Smile, it\u2019s totally different because Jonny [Greenwood] just generates ideas all the time. [Drummer Tom] Skinner works faster than any human being I\u2019ve ever met and can respond to literally, as you probably know, anything you throw at him. I\u2019m in the middle going, \u201cAll right, why don\u2019t you guys record this, because I don\u2019t understand what\u2019s going on?\u201d My favorite experiences in the studio are something that\u2019s good, and I don\u2019t understand why it\u2019s good, but I pick up a mic and respond to it. I will listen back to it like, \u201cI have no idea who that was. Is that us?\u201d Yeah, that\u2019s us. And you only get that when you have other people.<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: Do you find it more vulnerable to be putting out your own stuff?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: It\u2019s all vulnerable. But at the same time, I don\u2019t know about you, but if I\u2019m finishing a record, if I can\u2019t sit down and listen to it and be comfortable with it and happy with it, it\u2019s not going out. So the vulnerable bit happens\u2009\u2026<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: When you\u2019re writing it?<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: Yeah. When you\u2019re trying to finish the fucking lyrics. That\u2019s when it\u2019s the worst. Words, right? How do you do words?<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: I think what I\u2019ve always found so exciting is that I\u2019ve never found the one method. It\u2019s never been like, \u201cI\u2019ll write a poem, and then I put it to music.\u201d The good stuff tends to come from a few weeks or a couple months of \u201cOh, I\u2019ve got nothing. I don\u2019t have anything. It\u2019s all gone.\u201d Then all of a sudden you write something and you\u2019re like, \u201cI really like this. I don\u2019t know why.\u201d And that comes in lots of different ways \u2014 I have a line, or I have a piano thing, or a melody that\u2019s mumbled. I\u2019m building a song around these three words that sound great over this thing.<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: That is the correct process, in my opinion. If you\u2019ve got a few words that you hang everything off, and you don\u2019t understand why, then that\u2019s the most exciting. Even though it\u2019s painful, because then you have to spend weeks trying to fill in the blanks.<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: Sometimes, with some of the best stuff, I think it\u2019s more difficult to be concise. I know I like a melody when I overwrite the song \u2014 I\u2019ll write a bunch of verses, a bunch of lyrics. Then I think, \u201cOh, you take these three verses, take these lines, and make them one verse \u2014 it\u2019s actually much more powerful in what it\u2019s saying.\u201d It\u2019s better than explaining everything.<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: Honestly, the thing I\u2019m most jealous of will always be people who can just free flow onto a mic, and put it out. All my hip-hop heroes freestyling. I wish I had that brain.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: I listened to a podcast you were on. You said you think of your vocal as one of the instruments in the song, and that\u2019s how you tend to approach composition now. Is that something you noticed, when that changed for you? Because you say you don\u2019t so much sit and write a song, like, \u201cI\u2019m going to sit here, and this is a song and this is how it goes\u201d \u2014 you think of how it sits in the production. But obviously, if you go back to The Bends, for example, like \u201cHigh and Dry,\u201d that is a song.<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: Yeah, a guy with an acoustic guitar. Singing his song. That particular one I wish I hadn\u2019t [winces in pain], but there\u2019s nothing wrong with that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tI don\u2019t listen to a lot of singer-songwriters. I listen to a lot of mad old folk music, or I listen to film music, or I listen to electronic music. The banging away on the guitar thing is sometimes when it really speaks to me, but not a lot. I\u2019m not quite sure why that is \u2014 probably because we grew up when there was a real renaissance of that, and The Bends was that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBut by the time we got to Kid A, I was excited about what else you could do with your voice, really. Jonny and Nigel set up this thing where Jonny\u2019s playing the Martenot [a vintage electronic keyboard] and I\u2019m just picking out random lines from my top hat. And that became the vocal. I\u2019m not singing that at all \u2014 I\u2019m literally speaking it.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cI remember watching the \u2018Karma Police\u2019 video thinking, \u2018This is so brilliant.\u2019 So much of your music has that weight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harry Styles<\/p>\n
\n\tOne of my favorite singers ever is Michael Stipe, who for the first two or three [R.E.M.] records didn\u2019t even bother writing the lyrics. Or if he did, it was stream of consciousness. \u201cI\u2019m not going to make this explicit. I\u2019m just the human sound in the middle of all these amazing jangling guitars.\u201d Sometimes I don\u2019t like the lyrics being the point. Sometimes it\u2019s really exciting that there\u2019s just this sound. [Yorke pulls out a notebook full of his questions.] I\u2019ve got notes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: [In mock horror.] Homework!<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: Do you travel with a laptop?<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: My laptop has been dead for about six years [laughs]. I don\u2019t know where the charger is.<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: We can help you with that. Where are your ideas? In your pocket?<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: On my phone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: On your phone. You know your phone is basically a computer?<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: But just a phone. I use GarageBand a lot, and voice notes.<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: Really? Wow. Fuck a duck.<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: Primitive.<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: No, I mean in a way that\u2019s good. I remember my MiniDisc. That was my best friend.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: Yes, I remember being in primary school. [Both are laughing too hard to continue.]<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: OK, let\u2019s try it again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: The voice-note thing, I like something about it being its blankest version.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: Yeah. It\u2019s the pencil drawing.<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: I think I like that. The thing that excites me the most is when I start a record, or before I\u2019ve started something, and I have no idea how this is going to end up sounding.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: I\u2019m surprised, because the last album [Kiss All the Time] very much sounds like it was developed in the studio. It doesn\u2019t sound like it comes from voice notes.<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: That one was less from voice notes. There were a few moments \u2014 the orchestral thing [\u201cComing Up Roses\u201d], or the piano songs. There\u2019s a couple of much more straightforward songs. There\u2019s probably three or four moments that are the most down the middle like that.<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: So the rest are worked up in the studio?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: A lot of it, yeah. Probably two-thirds of this one. I think it was just where I felt like I was at in my life, and the music that I was experiencing. I wanted to meld the parts of my life together. I\u2019d started going out dancing a lot more. I really didn\u2019t want it to be like, \u201cOh, I\u2019m listening to this music \u2014 this is where I\u2019m at,\u201d but then I go in the studio and say, \u201cWell, I have to make this sort of music instead.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing open and exposed to people doesn\u2019t bother me now. It used to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thom Yorke<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: I know that feeling. I know that feeling very well.<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: It was really like, \u201cI\u2019ve just come from this place. I want that beat to keep going. I want to be onstage feeling in the middle of it.\u201d That was the kind of thing that informed the record.<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: I think you did that. That\u2019s my favorite part of the show, where you literally do that. There was a generosity to that, where I thought, \u201cYeah, that\u2019s really cool. That is clearly someone who\u2019s discovering this thing and wants to share it.\u201d The honesty of it was very cool. I was really into that. I mean, it\u2019s very difficult to take that kind of music into those places. It\u2019s much easier to just make yourself totally deaf DJ\u2019ing in a club in Berlin.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tI was going to ask you: Where\u2019s home? Because you have more than one.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: I think when I\u2019m in London, it feels the most like home. And I\u2019m not from here.<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: Where\u2019s your stuff? Your important stuff?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: London. Because I\u2019ve lived in my house for 12 years or something. That\u2019s the place where I feel like I\u2019ve been through so many versions of myself, even in the same space. I feel like I really grew up in this house, in a big way. I remember moving in \u2014 right after my 19th birthday. It\u2019s been through a lot of changes, but in there, in my kitchen, is the most like \u201cThis is where I live.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: Do you cook?<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: I do, yeah.<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: You\u2019re probably pretty good, aren\u2019t you?<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: I\u2019m all right.<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: I\u2019m fucking terrible.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: To stay on you for a second, if I may. [Yorke snaps his fingers in disappointment.] I was curious about doing this interview, for example, or the Ivors thing \u2014 I think everyone communicated a surprise that you were willing to be celebrated. I\u2019m curious about how your relationship with that has changed over time. In terms\u00a0 of someone who\u2019s so innovative, how much of it has always been a need to reject any sort of nostalgia, to assure yourself that you\u2019re moving forward?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tTo me, it feels like maybe just being in a happier place, to realize that you can do both: You can still innovate, and also allow people to celebrate things you\u2019ve done, whether it be the Ivors, or touring and playing a deep selection from your catalog. To be able to play those songs and not feel \u201cWe\u2019re living in the past right now,\u201d but just be like, \u201cWe made something really beautiful. I\u2019m going to play it, and that\u2019s beautiful. And I can now also still be moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: You\u2019re answering this better than I can do. You\u2019re right, that I\u2019m in a slightly better place nowadays, but I\u2019d be lying if I didn\u2019t say that something like getting an Ivor Novello fellowship was not deeply confusing for me. I admire a lot of the people that they\u2019ve given those awards to. Some of these people are my heroes. But I have a very, very strange relationship to\u2009\u2009\u2026\u2009God, this is really hard to explain. I have a very strange relationship to that element of my work.<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: Navel-gazing?<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying live is where you embrace that your music has connected with People\u201d<\/p>\n
Harry Styles<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: I find it hard to believe in it. The moving-forward thing, that\u2019s what I believe in. That\u2019s easy to believe in, because it\u2019s new. I don\u2019t have to explain it, so I\u2019m happy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tAfter the [2025 reunion] Radiohead tour \u2014 even though in the middle of it, it was really fun \u2014 my response to it afterwards was to crash, like massively crash, in terms of self-confidence. It took me months.\u2026 It took me starting on my own record again two months later to go, \u201cOh, OK. I\u2019m good now. I\u2019m fine.\u201d I just have a really odd relationship with it. And I\u2019ve just grown used to that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Ivors, to be honest, your speech was great, because it was really honest and personal, and I could relate to it. Whereas when it feels like a business, and you\u2019re part of a business, and the cameras are running \u2026 I don\u2019t know, man. I got this legacy feeling about all of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: Something I\u2019m curious about: I wonder if it\u2019s something that maybe happens when you have children, then keep creating.<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: It\u2019s really important they all integrate, and keep informing who you are. You probably saw Agnes and Noah at the Ivors. They were very emotional about it, and Dajana, my wife, was as well. I do it for them, because if they\u2019re emotional about it, OK, that\u2019s why I\u2019m here. Because for me, I feel quite numb about it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tOne of the things I\u2019m most proud of is, some of the attitude that I have has rubbed off on [Agnes and Noah] as they grow up. I can see they have that kind of attitude in what they\u2019re doing. Quite fearless about being creative, and quite open. Not embarrassed. Because I mean, obviously, when your kid\u2019s a teenager, they\u2019re like, \u201cOh, God, my father\u2019s blah, blah, blah.\u201d But now it\u2019s really nice. It\u2019s a good thing. I feel super lucky about that, because it wasn\u2019t easy, for a long time.<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: The \u201cKarma Police\u201d video \u2014 I remember watching that and thinking, \u201cOh, this is so brilliant.\u201d I feel like so much of your music has that weight where you just remember hearing it. It\u2019s so inspiring just to see someone be so consistently great, in so many different ways. I\u2019ve always really been drawn to stuff like \u201cCodex\u201d or \u201cTrue Love Waits.\u201d \u201cEverything in Its Right Place\u201d is it for me.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: \u201cEverything in Its Right Place\u201d was my response to not being able to write. We had an empty house. We had a grand piano, and we had a mattress. And that\u2019s the first thing I did when we moved into this house. I\u2019d felt lost since the OK Computer thing. It was like a mantra. I wasn\u2019t thinking, \u201cOh, I\u2019m writing a song.\u201d I was really enjoying playing piano in this empty house; I just had one CD, [minimalist composer] Arvo P\u00e4rt, and that\u2019s it. It was during the winter, there were storms all the time, and it was so great \u2014 playing this riff over and over and over again to make myself feel better.<\/p>\n
\n\tRS: Harry, you just finished your massive run at Wembley Stadium, and on the final night, people were so moved to see you in tears. For both of you, what\u2019s it like to get emotional onstage?<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: For me, so much of the studio experience of making something is almost trying to block out the fact anyone\u2019s going to listen to it. You have to be \u201cWhat do I want to listen to at this time in my life? What is it that I feel like I want to do, say, make?\u201d The fact people are going to hear it \u2014 that realization happens later. Playing live is the part where you\u2019re embracing that people listen to it, that it\u2019s connected with people.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThe kind of emotion that happened at the end of the London shows \u2014 I think it was a realization that these shows felt like a culmination of so many people\u2019s support. I felt supported, in a way that\u2019s more than like, \u201cWe\u2019re here because we want to hear this song that you\u2019ve done.\u201d It just felt like, \u201cWe\u2019re here because we believe in what you\u2019re doing.\u201d That\u2019s why I found it so emotional.<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: Also, you have to give a lot of yourself, and that makes you very\u2009\u2026\u2009what\u2019s the word? Open. You\u2019re exposed to all these people. It doesn\u2019t bother me now. It did, it used to \u2014 it doesn\u2019t bother me any more. But it makes you very open.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: A lot of the time, when you\u2019re making stuff, you\u2019re trying to reject what\u2019s coming back at you, to remain in a beginner\u2019s mind. You\u2019re always trying to get back to a sense of starting again. Those moments where you let go and open up and allow it all to come in, and you get to feel that \u2014 it\u2019s a wave of something that you don\u2019t live with every day.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tYorke: When we did the first Radiohead show, in Madrid last year, we did this thing where we had to walk through the audience. Never done that before. Then we had to stand on the stage getting prepped before we went up. It was the first time we did that [going onstage together], after I don\u2019t know how many years. All of us, the whole band, were like, \u201cOK, keep it together. Keep it together.\u201d Because I wanted to burst into tears, and we hadn\u2019t even played a note. I hadn\u2019t been exposed to whatever that was for so long, and to walk through the middle of it\u2009\u2026\u2009\u2009I mean, all of us, we were like, \u201cHoly shit. Holy shit.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tStyles: Which brings us back to walking \u2014 the artist\u2019s perspective, where we began. There\u2019s the bow. There\u2019s the seal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Production Credits<\/p>\n
Styling by HARRY LAMBERT at BRYANT ARTISTS.\u00a0Hair by MALCOLM EDWARDS at LGA MANAGEMENT. Makeup by NIAMH QUINN at LGA MANAGEMENT. Set Design by PATIENCE HARDING. Production by FARAGO PROJECTS. Lighting Director: KAI NARINS. Photo Assistance: GEORGE HUTTON and BENEDICT MOORE. Digital Technician: GILES SMITH. Styling Assistance: NAOMI PHILLIPS and ELLA BACON.\u00a0 Set Design Assistance: MIRANDA LATIMER, EDDIE AMOS, and JACK SHORT. Video Interview Director of Photography: NICK CARTER. Video Interview Camera Operators: STEPHAN KNIGHT and ISSEY RIDER. Video Interview Gaffer: JACK GOULD. Video Interview Camera and Lighting Assistant: TOM WOOD. Video Interview Sound Operator: JAVIER CARLES. Video Interview Production Assistant: ALCIA WOODS. Photographed and filmed at BIG SKY.<\/p>\n
Clothing
STYLES: Outfit by CELINE. Socks by CALZEDONIA.\u00a0
YORKE: Artist\u2019s own clothing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"T wo years ago, in the summer of 2024, Harry Styles was strolling down a small cobblestone side…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":796123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[25715,88823,96,59,18142,261797,28571,261798,27498,27500,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-796122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-cover-story","tag-direct","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-harry-styles","tag-lexusmomcover","tag-long-reads","tag-musicians-on-musicians-2026","tag-radiohead","tag-thom-yorke","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796122","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=796122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}