{"id":2019795,"date":"2025-09-13T18:51:24","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T18:51:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2019795"},"modified":"2025-09-13T18:51:24","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T18:51:24","slug":"how-radioheads-debut-changed-the-way-they-thought-about-recording-guitars-and-set-them-up-for-two-landmark-albums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/how-radioheads-debut-changed-the-way-they-thought-about-recording-guitars-and-set-them-up-for-two-landmark-albums\/","title":{"rendered":"How Radiohead\u2019s debut changed the way they thought about recording guitars \u2013 and set them up for two landmark albums"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div data-article-body=\"true\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><i>When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.<\/i><\/p>\n<figure class=\"relative mb-4\">\n<div class=\"relative\"><button aria-label=\"View larger image\" class=\"group absolute bottom-3 right-3 size-10 md:size-[50px] lg:inset-0 lg:size-full lg:bg-transparent\" data-ylk=\"elm:expand;itc:1;sec:image-lightbox;slk:lightbox-open;\"><span class=\"absolute bottom-0 right-0 rounded-full bg-white p-3 opacity-100 shadow-elevation-3 transition-opacity duration-300 group-hover:block group-hover:opacity-100 md:p-[17px] lg:bottom-6 lg:right-6 lg:bg-white\/90 lg:p-5 lg:opacity-0 lg:shadow-none\"><svg viewbox=\"0 0 22 22\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"size-4 lg:size-6\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\"><path d=\"M12.372.92c0-.506.41-.916.915-.916L21 0l-.004 7.712a.917.917 0 0 1-1.832 0V3.183l-6.827 6.828-1.349-1.348 6.828-6.828h-4.529a.915.915 0 0 1-.915-.915M1.835 17.816l6.828-6.828 1.349 1.349-6.829 6.827h4.529a.915.915 0 0 1 0 1.831L0 21l.004-7.713a.916.916 0 0 1 1.831 0z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/button><dialog aria-label=\"Modal Dialog\" aria-modal=\"true\" class=\"fixed inset-0 z-4 size-full max-h-none max-w-none bg-white hidden\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"relative text-sm mt-1 pr-2.5\">\n<p>Credit: Jim Steinfeldt\/Michael Ochs Archives\/GettyImages<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">As Radiohead&#8217;s first tour in seven years inches closer, we take a deep dive into the <em>Guitar World<\/em> archives to uncover the game-changing band&#8217;s approach to recording guitars during what many may consider Radiohead&#8217;s golden era: from <em>Pablo Honey<\/em> to <em>OK Computer<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThere are lots of mistakes on it,\u201d Ed O\u2019Brien \u2013 one-third of the band&#8217;s guitar triumvirate \u2013 commented back in a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.guitarworld.com\/features\/radiohead-interview-golden-age-radiohead\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:1997 interview with Guitar World;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">1997 interview with <em>Guitar World<\/em><\/a>, referring to Radiohead&#8217;s debut, <em>Pablo Honey<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cBut you learn from your mistakes. I still think it\u2019s a valid album. It\u2019s very up, quite hedonistic \u2013 \u2018Let\u2019s put on eight guitar overdubs and turn them all up!\u2019 I think it\u2019s one of those albums you might put on in an open-top car on a Saturday night going to a party, but I could be wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><em>The Bends<\/em>, released in March 1995, in particular, marked a significant shift from a guitar perspective: it was a band finally (fully) dipping its toes into experimenting and flexing its creative use of its three-guitar lineup, a peek into what Radiohead was to become.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cWe were very aware of something on <em>The Bends<\/em> that we weren\u2019t aware of on <em>Pablo Honey<\/em>,\u201d O\u2019Brien continued.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThere was a need to put more and more guitar tracks on <em>Pablo Honey<\/em>, and you had to play all the time. Whereas the approach to<em> The Bends <\/em>was, if it sounded really great with Thom playing acoustic with Phil [Selway, drummer] and Coz [Colin Greenwood, bassist], what was the point in trying to add something more?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cSometimes the nicest thing to do with a guitar is just look at it,\u201d Thom Yorke jokingly added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">As for the division of guitar labor between Yorke, O&#8217;Brien, and Jonny Greenwood, Yorke commented, \u201cI just keep time, really,\u201d while Greenwood was uncomfortable being referred to as the lead guitarist. \u201cYou could describe it like that, I suppose, but it\u2019s not really like that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Yorke quickly came to Greenwood&#8217;s defense, adding, \u201cWhen I run out of melodies, there\u2019s usually something on Jonny\u2019s guitar that\u2019s a melody, like Mr. [George] Harrison used to do. You know, pick a melody up here [fingers upper reaches of imaginary fretboard], and so on, because it gets a bit boring listening to one voice all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">As for why Yorke felt <em>The Bends <\/em>was successful, he divulged, \u201cWe had to put ourselves into an environment where we felt free to work. And that\u2019s why we want to produce the next one ourselves, because the times we most got off on making the last record were when we were just completely communicating with ourselves, and John Leckie wasn\u2019t really saying much, and it was just all happening.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019ll work again, but I hope it does,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">28 years later, Radiohead have just released the live album <em>Hail to the Thief (Live Recordings 2003\u20132009)<\/em> and <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/thequietus.com\/news\/radiohead-announce-first-tour-in-seven-years\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:are set to embark on a series of European dates in November;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">are set to embark on a series of European dates in November<\/a> \u2013 their first since their 2018 tour, which marked the release of <em>A Moon Shaped Pool<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Credit: Jim Steinfeldt\/Michael Ochs Archives\/GettyImages As Radiohead&#8217;s first tour in seven years inches closer, we take a deep dive into the Guitar World archives to uncover the game-changing band&#8217;s approach to recording guitars during what many may consider [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2019796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[360689,360690,349320,371001,305286,371002],"class_list":["post-2019795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-colin-greenwood","tag-ed-obrien","tag-jonny-greenwood","tag-pablo-honey","tag-radiohead","tag-thom"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/How-Radioheads-debut-changed-the-way-they-thought-about-recording.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2019795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2019795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2019795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2019796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2019795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2019795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2019795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}