{"id":2101650,"date":"2025-10-19T11:22:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T11:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2101650"},"modified":"2025-10-19T11:22:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T11:22:14","slug":"thom-yorke-isnt-the-very-serious-character-you-may-have-thought-says-one-collaborator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/thom-yorke-isnt-the-very-serious-character-you-may-have-thought-says-one-collaborator\/","title":{"rendered":"Thom Yorke isn\u2019t the very serious character you may have thought, says one collaborator"},"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: Pierre Toussaint<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">It\u2019s more than just an album recorded by two men at the top of their game who are separated by land and sea \u2013 although <em>Tall Tales<\/em> is that too. Made by fabled electronic musician Mark Pritchard and <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/entertainment\/why-ihsahn-wife-want-listen-063529545.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Radiohead;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\">Radiohead<\/a> singer <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.loudersound.com\/features\/jim-morrisons-a-talentless-bastard-and-hes-dead-thom-yorkes-long-lost-interview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Thom Yorke;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Thom Yorke<\/a>, <em>Rolling Stone<\/em> described it as a \u201cprogtronic journey full of freaky soundscapes and really strong songwriting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">But it goes deeper still. A third collaborator, Perth-based artist Jonathan Zawada, turned <em>Tall Tales<\/em> into a film full of Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel-like imagery, adding to an artful sense of dislocation, displacement and surrealism.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Songs about technology with uncanny videos, such as <em>This Conversation Is Missing Your Voice<\/em>, hint at a looming dystopia that\u2019s almost upon us. Moreover, large coins \u2013 in keeping with the theme of coin-clipping that runs through the record, inspired by Benjamin Myers\u2019 <em>The Gallows Pole<\/em> \u2013 have been produced by Warp Records. They\u2019ve been hidden in secret locations, out there to be found.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A real-life treasure hunt can be interpreted as a way to make tangible a project made largely in isolation with just files, emails and video-calls facilitating its development. It\u2019s also a thumb in the eye to AI \u2013 a concern that imbues <em>Tall Tales <\/em>with a sense of anxiety.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Pritchard, originally from Somerset, is an ambient techno artist\/producer who burst out of the 90s underground dance scene and made a name for himself under a number of aliases including Harmonic 313 and Troubleman, as well as in duos Global Communication and Africa Hitech.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He emigrated to Australia 20 years ago, and his music has become broadly less dance-orientated and more hypnagogic since he reverted to making everything under his own name.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>You were commissioned to remix Radiohead\u2019s <\/strong><em><strong>Bloom<\/strong><\/em><strong> in 2011, and you met Thom Yorke the following year.<\/strong> <strong>How did all that come about?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">it was Clive Deamer, the drummer for <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.loudersound.com\/features\/the-dark-allure-of-portisheads-dummy-a-melancholic-masterpiece-from-a-bleak-alien-future\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Portishead;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Portishead<\/a> who\u2019s worked with Roni Size and various other artists. He told me, \u201cI might be coming to Australia \u2013but I can\u2019t tell you what it is yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He was playing as Radiohead\u2019s second drummer. I guess with Radiohead everything has to be kept very secret, because fans are looking hard for any bits of information. Then Clive said, \u201cThom would like to meet you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">They came to one of my gigs with Steve Spacek [of Africa Hitech], then they played two shows here and I got to hang out with them a bit. At dinner, I asked Thom whether he\u2019d be up for doing something at some point, and he said: \u201cYeah, cool \u2013 send me some stuff!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>You first collaborated on <\/strong><em><strong>Beautiful People<\/strong><\/em><strong> from your solo album <\/strong><em><strong>Under The Sun<\/strong><\/em><strong> in 2016. Work on <\/strong><em><strong>Tall Tales<\/strong><\/em><strong> didn\u2019t get going until 2020. How did work pan out between Sydney Oxford?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">I didn\u2019t know Thom that well; I\u2019d only met him once, then there were lots of emails. There\u2019s always going to be some difference of opinion in a project; I guess I\u2019ve worked with enough people and he\u2019s worked with enough people to know how to deal with that situation.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"mb-4 border-l-2 pl-5 italic text-tertiary\">\n<div class=\"\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He wasn\u2019t comfortable when he got very famous. People lose it and then have to disappear<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">It became easier when we had a Zoom call. He\u2019s straight-up and I\u2019m straight-up; I guess we trusted each other straight away. If it gets a bit tense, you can chill out with a joke and some self-effacing comments \u2013 Thom\u2019s really good at that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Some people might be surprised to hear that. His public persona is quite intense, wouldn\u2019t you say?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">If you\u2019ve listened to his music and seen his imagery, you could come to the conclusion that he\u2019s a very serious character. But most of our emails are in a West Country dialect: \u201cWasson there, bey?\u201d \u201cAlroight, moi luvver?\u201d He\u2019s got a house in Cornwall and he\u2019s spent a lot of time in the West Country. We\u2019re mainly having a laugh when we\u2019re discussing things. It\u2019s very easy going.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">I can see why people assume he\u2019s intense. There were interviews where he wasn\u2019t comfortable during that period when he got very famous. People lose it and then they have to disappear; so he disappeared to Cornwall and painted for a year to get himself back to a state where he wanted to work again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Another surprise is Yorke\u2019s baritone on tracks like <\/strong><em><strong>The Men Who Dance In Stag\u2019s Heads<\/strong><\/em><strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"mb-4 border-l-2 pl-5 italic text-tertiary\">\n<div class=\"\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">I hired a studio off Martin Barre from Jethro Tull once. I checked out all of their albums. Very time-changey!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Yeah, I was really surprised too! I\u2019ve heard him sing low, but not for a whole song. He said he\u2019d always wanted to do it but had never really found a way. He used a kind of varispeeding that helped him get into character, and I think it allowed him to feel more confident. There was other manipulation of his voice through modular systems and various pedals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He was trying to find tonally how to fit in as well, having fun with his voice and doing different things. There\u2019s a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.loudersound.com\/features\/black-sabbath-albums-ranked\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Black Sabbath;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Black Sabbath<\/a> song called <em>Planet Caravan<\/em> \u2013 a very peaceful, mellow, psychedelic song \u2013 and I\u2019ve always wanted to put stuff through a real Leslie speaker, like they did. I\u2019d been waiting for the right song, so we tried to see if we could do something like that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>You obviously love classic rock. Are you a prog fan too?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">I was into <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.loudersound.com\/features\/ten-cool-king-crimson-songs-from-the-80s\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:King Crimson;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">King Crimson<\/a> quite early on. I\u2019m not sure how I came across them but it was the early 90s when I was digging for samples. Then I discovered <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.loudersound.com\/features\/gentle-giant-we-were-never-being-serious-musos-we-just-wanted-to-entertain\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Gentle Giant;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Gentle Giant<\/a>, who I really like! There was a period where I was listening to them more than anything else. I went through their catalogue and discovered these incredible albums.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">I hired a studio off <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/entertainment\/being-reporter-notebook-going-no-154958278.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Martin Barre;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\">Martin Barre<\/a> from <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/entertainment\/steve-harris-iron-maiden-loves-161700848.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Jethro Tull;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\">Jethro Tull <\/a>once. I checked out all of their albums too. Very time-changey music! I\u2019ve continued to dip into lots of different styles \u2013 I\u2019ll check out some prog, then some folk, then I\u2019ll flip through music from Peru, Egypt and so on. That\u2019s what I\u2019ve always done.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/amzn.eu\/d\/33mGCGc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Tall Tales is on sale now.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"><em><strong>Tall Tales <\/strong><\/em><strong>is on sale now.<\/strong><\/a><\/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: Pierre Toussaint It\u2019s more than just an album recorded by two men at the top of their game who are separated by land and sea \u2013 although Tall Tales is that too. Made by fabled electronic musician [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2101651,"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":[397351,397355,397354,397350,397353,305286,314737,397352,344939,397356],"class_list":["post-2101650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-clive-deamer","tag-hieronymus-bosch","tag-jonathan-zawada","tag-mark-pritchard","tag-pierre-toussaint","tag-radiohead","tag-rolling-stone","tag-tall-tales","tag-thom-yorke","tag-warp-records"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Thom-Yorke-isnt-the-very-serious-character-you-may-have.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2101650","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=2101650"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2101650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2101652,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2101650\/revisions\/2101652"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2101651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2101650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2101650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2101650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}