Thom Yorke Interview BBC Radio 4

[Music]

you know you're in trouble when people

stop listening to sad music because

they're turning themselves off so speaks

this week's castaway tom york and if

anyone would know it's him along with

his bandmates in radiohead he has

expanded ideas about what pop music can

be and what it can do as a child he

learned to play the guitar and then

built his own he wrote his first song at

11 about an atomic bomb and has been

performing in a band since his school

days radiohead have endured for 34 years

been critically acclaimed the world over

and sold over 30 million albums beyond

the band tom has continued to push

boundaries as a solo artist and now as a

composer he recently created his first

classical piece don't fear the light and

scored the horror film suspiria he says

when an artist starts repeating

themselves because they think that's

what people want it's all over all i've

done with the band is try and create

enough of a space of safety around what

we're doing creatively to feel free

essentially you've got to be prepared to

torch it at any moment tom york welcome

to desert island discs thank you for

having me

so that idea of torching it then does

that mean that as music fans we're

hearing a tiny proportion of your total

creative output of your recordings

no i mean i wish there was um volts full

of other stuff but no it's more

you

need to feel an unsuredness is that what

a word about where it is you're going

often times in the studio someone's

recording something and they come in and

they go

was that good and the people in the

control room are going oh my god

that's sort of it the torching it is

saying to yourself i don't know what i'm

doing good music comes because you are

there ready to receive it i've heard you

talking about being in the studio and

describing the search for a hit not as

in a hit single but as in the hit of a

drug almost what's that like what's it

like when you reach that moment um

suddenly something happens

and you get this elation it can feed

your soul for like months or even years

which probably sounds incredibly

precious but honestly that's what i've

choose to do with my life for how many

years he's 34 i think he's right now

good one that's that's me you know and

if it's really powerful it's almost

visual for me i see things yes you've

described having synesthesia it's not

like synesthesia in the sense that i

can't see anything else but especially

when a piece of music first happens in

the way you've been hoping it happens i

get that thing it's a color or a shape

or a movement i can see it in my head

yeah i mean that's normal right well i

think

it might be common but i'm not sure

about normal how long has that been

going on

i guess since i started making music

i've always had that but then of course

the eureka moments didn't really happen

when i was 12.

it's time to go to the music tell us

about your first piece today why have

you chosen this these are friends of

ours the lebec sisters and they are

two virtuoso piano players

and i recently actually wrote for the

first time in my life i wrote piano

music for them even though i can't read

music

and i was thinking okay you're on the

desert island and i'm a musician so i'm

gonna struggle with my choices because

by the nature of being musician i'm

gonna hate them

go on tell me more about that football

the non-musicians listening well i spent

my life listening to the same thing over

and over and over and over and over

again until i've got it right and uh the

same goes with any piece of music if you

listen to it enough times you're gonna

see through it or you're gonna hate it

or you're gonna your relationship with

it changes

and i would not want that to happen so

the choices on a desert island they'd

have to be small doses of something very

very sweet at the time when i really

really need something so

this particular piece starts sad

tentative cautious you know

feeling around where it wants to be and

then it opens up and it opens up and it

flowers you know literally like the dawn

to me

and i felt i'm gonna need that because

i'm gonna be going completely out of my

mind

[Music]

revell's le jardin fairweek by the lebec

sisters katya and marielle you were

spellbound yeah i was i was also

thinking because the only reason i chose

that to make it look like i'm smart

so i could whack one classical piece in

and like okay

no false modesty on this program because

you have taken a new interclassical

music as you said in fact encouraged by

them they kept saying you should write

something for us i'm like hahaha i can't

read music and then i realized actually

i didn't really need to read music i'd

just do it on the computer

radiohead have enjoyed 34 years together

what about being a lead vocalist for all

those years do you have to take care of

your voice when you're not on stage or

recording i used to have when we first

started i have a lot i had a lot of

problems with my voice

because i'd not really ever done it

before and because i was drinking myself

senseless all at the time that didn't

help

and

i sort of had a wake-up call

i had to give up smoking i found myself

in a harley street doctor's one time and

he was really cool and he explained the

exact physics of the voice and why you

need to do this and this with it and

blah blah blah

and then there was a time when i was

working with bjork we went out somewhere

i can't get really trashed and then the

next morning

i woke up to the sound of her warming up

what's that like that's pretty wild can

you imagine yeah anyway it was pretty

beautiful but also like wow it's 10 30

in the morning and you're warming up and

we're only going to be like singing for

a bit and then i started taking it

seriously

but uh i was winging it for many years

but i think mostly it's um

i have to say being a musician and being

someone who has been in the fortunate

position to do all these big shows and

so on there's one really awful feeling

and that's when a singer loses their

voice on tour

it's

awful because you don't want to let

anyone down

every single time this happens my band

had been just amazing they always

supported me because they can see me

freaking out i remember doing a show in

brisbane once

walking on stage and i just convinced

myself

that

i could do it i'd been to see a doctor

and they were like well and they give me

god knows what to try and make it work

and 20 minutes in my voice just went

completely went i couldn't speak nothing

and there was 20 000 people there and

i walked off and it was booing

and the guys went back on and they

explained

people weren't happy about it and

honestly that's the most terrible

you don't want to let people down but

it's i've got my head around it now and

i i forgive myself

because it's not my fault

you know if it happens it happens it's

interesting hearing you relay that

experience it's literally like an

anxiety dream that someone would have

but real actually that particular night

i had like this for some peculiar reason

i thought it'd be a good idea to get

someone to come in to like do one of

those

you know what they call it reiki things

where they're like

i've never done before in my life good

choice so there i am after going through

this terrible experience this person

doing this and i have a complete out of

body experience like a flat out outer

body like i'm above myself going well

that's not good at all

not only have i just let down all these

people now i'm not inside my body this

is really not going very well oh tom

[Music]

let's gather ourselves time for the next

track tell us about this one speaking of

golden voices

yeah go on stay with it come here i'm

vying for a job on radio 6 6 music um

scott walker one of my heroes this song

because it's a desert island right

and it's gonna rain it's in a sort of

tropical style and uh i was thinking

i'll put it on when it rains and now

i'll listen to this lovely love story

remind myself of what it feels like to

be on a train

see someone in the distance that whole

romance things or something from a film

it's such a sort of beautifully

whimsical piece but weirdly so profound

musically the way he sings it leaves me

gobsmacked every time it's saying i'm

here now this is happening now and then

it's going to be gone and i'm going to

be moving on

trying to relay my dreams to someone

else because we all want to do is we all

need to do and there i am on my desert

island not able to do that so i felt

a good choice for that

it's raining today

and i'm just about

to forget

the

train window girl

that wonderful day

we met

[Music]

[Applause]

she

smiles through the smoke

[Applause]

from my cigarette

it's raining today scott walker

tom york you were born in wellingborough

in northamptonshire 1968. apparently so

along with your brother andy and your

parents barbara and grabe you eventually

settled in oxford in the late 70s how

would you describe family life

well actually before the 70s we were in

scotland i had a thick scottish accent

which i can still recall now

yeah what was it like it was very

normal suburban

lived in a house down a cul-de-sac

father was a sort of complicated

chemical engineering stuff i didn't

understand

i

spent a lot of time on my bike because

we lived near gravel pits and i would go

off on my own for the day cycling

for miles and then doing stunts on the

gravel pits which i realized now was a

bit stupid because i was on my own and

if i'd hurt myself

no one would ever found me but anyway i

spent a lot of time listening to music

obviously

breaking things

in fact i listened to jeremy mcdonough

talking about this it's very similar to

him started off recording stuff off the

radio

watching top of the pops getting excited

when something weird happened like gary

newman

and i got really

obsessed with music and i thought

everyone was and i realized they weren't

quite in the same way i was you said you

liked breaking things yeah i was really

fond of breaking electrical things i

took one of an old tv with my parents

and i had at my room and i pulled all

the back out and

it was probably incredibly dangerous but

i like the fizz of the cathode ray when

you turn it on and like the smell of the

old electronics and i'd try and pull

backs out and see if it still work

younger than that i was obsessed with

lego always building things i guess

you uh built a guitar you started

playing when you were quite young yeah i

started playing when i was seven eight

and i was

obsessed with queen when bohemian

rhapsody came out i laid down in front

of these big speakers in my friend's

house and we just listened to bohemian

rhapsody and at that point i decided yep

this is what i'm doing and then soon

after that i decided i was to do what um

brian may did build a guitar and it sort

of worked but

i mean it was like rough literally rough

cut out with a saw you know it was

terrible

that's quite impressive for that really

really annoying believe me it really

wasn't and then shortly after that my

dad felt sorry for me and eventually

bought me one

why did you want to sing them i didn't

want to sing originally we used to go to

a friend's house we had a very very

tolerant mum who let us play for hours

just make terrible noise and uh no one

else would sing

i want to go back a little bit i mean

you did have quite a tough time when you

were little you had eye surgery when you

were really young tell me about that um

i mean

it was probably tough when i was born er

the the left eye

was was shut there was no muscles that

would open it

so they uh

this was in the 70s where they take a

bit of muscle from elsewhere in my case

my ass

and they

um graft it on to make it work but it's

quite a tricky operation i won't go into

the details but it's pretty black

and uh this was an initial operation

when i was just about old enough to deal

with it and i woke up my mum said and

they said mom

mommy mommy what's i got what's i got

because

i couldn't understand

what was going on you know

and then i went for like three or four

operations

after that

you know it's people go through this

stuff it's not a big drama but um i

started trying to work it in my favor by

the end because my parents were saying

so for this last operation you can ask

for anything you like i was like

anything like what am i like four or

something

so i asked for adidas red track suit did

you get it yeah

that is a hard thing to go through you

know we teased kids can be quite cruel

yeah they were cruel there's always a

few ourselves

um

but

the one point for me was the last

operation went wrong and it's kind of

blind so it looks good but i can't reuse

it much and then after that i went to

see this amazing old surgeon he said

well mate

you're never gonna fly in the raf but at

least it looks right and he said i can

do one operation which means um it comes

up to exactly the same level as the

other and you look normal

but this means you won't be able to

close it properly and you will have to

probably put a patch over your eye and

when you sleep

so at that point

i decided i liked the fact that it

you know it wasn't the same

and i've liked it ever since and

when people

say stuff i kind of thought it was like

a badge of pride

i still do

i think uh we're all born with something

wrong with us and that was mine

let's go to the music tell me about your

next choice talking heads so going back

to my friends with the tolerant mother

john he was cool right john i remember

him one weekend saying i've got this new

record talking heads it was remaining

light he puts this thing on

and it was like a bomb going off in my

head

i'd literally never heard anything like

it and

didn't realize that you could

put people into a trance like that i

later realized that its influences were

from felicity and afrobeat and all that

stuff but talking heads did something

with a studio that had never been done

before and even at a young age i could

kind of

see that

and still now it's not like

anything else

ever

and i would ask you are you going to say

no because there's rules about this

thing but i'd have to say i have to take

the whole record

oh come on cool come on don't kill me

that way tom it's a bold play but it's

not going to happen

1942 start doing this come on fine

anyway i'll just have to imagine the

rest of the record won't i yeah

you

[Music]

punches

[Music]

[Applause]

talking heads and born under punches tom

york radiohead are of course named after

a talking head song yes and you met your

band mates brothers johnny and colin

greenwood philip selway and ed o'brien

at abingdon school in oxfordshire so

it's your music teacher there terence

gilmore james remembers you as i quote

full-on and a little isolated oh really

yeah thanks terry

you wouldn't have thought it would you

judging by what i've been saying so far

um

yeah probably right i mean to me the

music school and the art school was my

sanctuary that's where i spent all my

time

sanctuary from what

uh a posh private boys school

full of [ __ ]

not completely obviously um there was

some good teachers but the system of it

i didn't really get on with i'm not

really a what'd you call it

i don't blend

well

um anyway there i was

mostly with my headphones on or playing

guitar or playing piano and i guess i

was really

lucky two of these teachers the head of

the art department and the head of music

department

saw something

in me and were incredibly supportive i

couldn't read music but terry's like i'm

not bothered about that i can see you

have something did you try to learn to

read music i tried and tried i can't i

still can't and the same with them mr

hunter the art teacher i didn't really

see

myself as an artist and he came to me

and said i can see something in what

you're doing

that's very different and

you don't realize until after how

important that is

i'm absolutely convinced

that if both those

kind men

if they had not done

that

i wouldn't be

here today doing this

convinced

have you ever thought about where you

might have ended up if

god knows so you had music to kind of

shield you from what was going on did

you feel like you'd found your place or

did you still kind of feel like you

hadn't found a place that you fit in

well what's weird about it is that music

became like my escape but also the only

thing

that i could use to

resolve

the schisms of of life

right and i could not do without it like

physically not possible

i mean i've read a lot about

what music does to people now

you know the mathematics of music the

the

the frequencies what they do to human

beings you know the these emotions that

the music can give you

they're real things and they're precious

things to me

and i might sound completely gaga these

days because

music is now seen as just another

product i mean i'm one of many many

content providers

but i've never seen it like that and i

never will sit like that it's it's a

sacred thing to me because i believe

that human beings need it

uh i never ever say this stuff publicly

so this is a good time to do it right

let's get it out yeah i think now's the

time uh where was i i have no idea we

were talking about school how did i get

to that point anyway you couldn't be

without it how did your parents react to

that they were pretty

tolerant actually i got to be fair

especially when i got like my big amp

and then the amp was above

the tv room

and my dad would come up and say i

literally cannot hear the television

at the time i'm like i'll go away i'm

doing my thing man

but uh it's like yeah you know what fair

enough

they would you know take me along to

gigs when i had gigs but

i was really very very determined to do

what i did you know there's a few times

when they said you can't do something

this weekend and i would just go awol

and report back sheepishly on a sunday

because

i was going to do a concert and that was

that

it's time for your fourth disc tell us

about this one this is a square pusher

and aphex twin

freeman hardy and willis acid

i choose this because this was one of

those pivotal musical moments

in one's life when um i had just been on

tour for too long at the end of this

massive cycle of endlessly endlessly

endlessly playing the same songs being

in a band playing with guitars

and

i'm driving through the night down to

cornwall

and john peel is on and he in his dower

manner announces this

this track

and um i'm driving quite fast down

country lanes

halfway through

something happens in this track it's

like i'm having a seizure or something

you know i'd slam the car to a halt pull

into the side

and just i can't i can't

i can't drive i'm like completely

transfixed it's so intense

it's electronic but it's got jazz in it

it's just really vicious but it also

harkens back to this whole period that i

felt like i'd missed

because i decided to be in a rock band

and

you know sometimes you hear a piece of

music like thank god someone's done that

thank god

this track came on and it was like a

door opening up for me

it was like this is really important to

me there's something in here that i need

[Music]

[Music]

freeman hardy and willis acid square

pusher and aphex twin banging banging it

is

but also jazz balls jazzy isn't it

really basically tom york you took a gap

year after you left school

how come because i wanted to figure out

whether i was completely insane whether

i really wanted to be a musician or not

um i just did a bunch of dead end jobs

and and made a demo tape working in the

shop would that be one of the dead end

jobs oh yes debenhams i sold suits that

was one of the jobs were you good at

that well what do you think no no i

think no no

sorry

my first fatal flaw was being brutally

honest

my second fatal flaw was the old boy i

worked with was an amazing guy and these

these old boys would come in and they

tried these brown suits and they're all

brown and tweedy and whatever none of

them fit right i mean this lovely old

man would say i'm sorry that really

doesn't look very good

and then they would leave

um and then i got called up to the

manager's office he said you really

don't have the right motivation and i

said well you really don't have the

right suits so it really didn't go very

well after that

pay was terrible god damn

you made a demo

you said

and i think that that was quite well

received right yeah

yeah i made this demo um this was what i

was really doing my life

sent it in

there was this free magazine

in the music shop of course i went to

the music shop every weekend annoyed the

people in there and tried drum machines

whatever

and then in this music monthly magazine

they had a

demo review thing

so i

sent this demo

in there with ed's help

um and ed put his name in the bottom one

because two nerves to put my name in the

bottom

um

i didn't think really much of it and

then i was back in the shop a few weeks

later

and uh pick up the magazine and there's

my face and it says

who is this guy this is amazing top demo

he sounds just like neil young to which

my response was

who's neil young

so i went and bought after the gold rush

the record

so ed o'brien had his name on there as

well was it was it him that they

contacted yes because you were afraid

yeah they contoured that so me and ed

found ourselves in the offices of

ireland records shortly afterwards

what was that like it was cool

neither of us felt mentally ready for

what was going on so we kind of just

basically said listen

we don't think we're ready for this yet

and the head of a and i was like that's

cool don't worry

come back when you're finished because

we're like

you know we want to be good boys and get

university and in the back of mind am i

going to don't do it don't do it

but we did it we went to university

instead

and why did you make that choice so you

i don't know i don't know

i know i do know it's like

i felt like i really wanted to go and

study art especially and i wanted i

didn't feel

i was mentally ready

to spend my life on tour and it was like

actually the best decision i made

because

i did english and i did fine art and the

art college thing just blew my mind and

without that those three years i

wouldn't have been

creatively

prepared for them what happened after

we've got to go to the music now it's

your fifth disc today tom

tell us about it why have you chosen it

uh well i feel like one of the things

i've been thinking about on this desert

island is

when i first started thinking about what

music to choose uh obviously i

gravitated towards weirdness and

ambience and electronic

and then i realized like okay hang on a

minute i'm gonna be on my own on a

desert island i'm gonna need human

voices

and i'm gonna need the voices that

really

have helped me and neil young from that

moment after that demo tape

i bought after the gold rush i took it

home and it's always been one of my

favorite records

and um this particular song especially

the lyrics i remember

just thinking wow someone's writing that

i still now i

blows my mind the words to this song

after

many years and going the circles of life

i end up being asked to

play a benefit concert of his

and i agreed to do it and uh the night

before you go to his house and you hang

out with all these other musicians who

are doing it so me being me i'm not a

particularly sociable kind of guy not

very good in these situations so i have

to sort of prepare myself by

drinking heavily

and eventually after pretty much the

entire evening's gone by and he keeps

walking past me and i'm like freezing

you know because it's basically like

someone meeting elvis in their house

eventually he stops to talk to me and i

just go

i really want to play after the god rush

tomorrow he's like really

that's great you could do it on the

piano um i recorded it on i'm like

so there i am on the day unique voice

tom york and i can see why you know

early reviews and people subsequently

have drawn parallels between you know

his voice and yours in my dreams

yeah it's funny listening to it i

remember when i got that record

it was the first time i thought

wow it's so fragile

even when a singer is singing

technically brilliantly

the powerful stuff

is the stuff that where there's

the vulnerability that sense that things

could just fall apart at any minute

i mean you know i was only like 18 but

until i got that record i didn't realize

how important that was going to be to me

and the other guys picked up on it

quicker than i did and i was always

trying to hide behind turn the vocal

down

i had things on top but i think by the

time we were doing the ben's second

record it was like oh okay

and we actually gone to see

jeff buckley the night before or

something and that was the final nail

for me i'm like okay now i get it

because he was just on his own

so i

sort of gradually put all the layers

away and said okay well sometimes it's

just going to be vulnerable and that's

going to be okay

and radiohead were a hit straight away

you connected pretty quickly was that

something you were expecting and and how

did it feel when it happened

was it fun

yeah it was kind of cool we were

suddenly

arriving america for the first time

and

stretch limos bless them they've all

gone now thank god

and i remember being in the record

company and they'd laid out a hundred

records and we had to sign them and i

was looking at this pen thinking and i

said i've never done this

i've never signed a record before it was

mad so they put us in first class on an

aeroplane i'm like wow and

then

it was really kind of

out of control and we were being asked

to go on like live television we'd never

been on live television we'd been in a

van driving around doing support gigs

so how did it feel it felt

funny a bit of a panic

it imbued the sense that we absolutely

didn't deserve this

thus

10 years of overcompensating for that by

never ever ever doing anything that

wasn't

the best that we could possibly do to

the point of total obsessiveness you

know we'd we expected to be able to

build up our ability to do what we

needed to do get better at it and then

one day the doors would open but

unfortunately the doors open way before

we were ready

i mean i'm not complaining actually

because basically without that we never

would have been given the chance never

been allowed to spend months in the

studio because that's the way that

record companies worked in those days if

you were making the money they'll let

you do what you want and i mean that

downside processing it at a pretty young

age you know 22 23 maybe very sensitive

person

how did you cope with it emotionally uh

i got angry

because i've been i've been pretending

all programmed that i'm like this

sensitive

you know but um i'm i'm also an

extremely

angry person and um

i got more control freakery i became

more unbearable

more like it's going to be like this or

it's not going to happen

i sort of put my hands on the steering

wheel and i white knuckled

and i didn't care who got hurt and i

didn't care what i said until the end of

okay computer

i just was white knuckled don't mess

with me because this is what's happening

years later i sat down with the guys and

i apologized

i'm sorry i didn't realize

how bad it got

but that was my way up i dealt with it

and actually by the time we got to

recording okay computer we'd had the

doors had opened up and we had just the

best time doing that record

because

we knew that people were interested in

us finally for what we actually were and

we the possibilities just seemed

completely endless suddenly we had all

this support and we fought so hard to

get it and i think the problem for me if

i'm honest is i wasn't enjoying it until

later on because i've had my

hands so stuck on that steering wheel

white knuckling i didn't want to make a

mistake i was terrified of making a

mistake

let's go with the music time for your

sixth disc today

yes well now we're on to rem

rem were extremely important to us in

fact just through this period that i'm

talking about

we went on tour them and the back story

to this was like michael stipe the

singaporean was my hero

and

this to me

was like the hand of god reaching down

from the clouds saying you

[Laughter]

and now i'm friends with him it's it's

an odd thing for me

so we're on tour with him and then

he helps me through this

the end of that period when things just

went crazy when people started to talk

to me like it was jesus or something in

the street i would call him and say i

can't handle it i can't i can't handle

it

and he taught me so much and he would

say use some of what i taught you about

making yourself invisible

um

so

he said

do the stuff i taught you put the

shutters down you know walk away

and uh

i was in a really lucky position

at that point and

they taught us how to be gracious with

people and have fun

and uh

um

anyway rem

when i was a kid

they were the

link

for me between

the art student part of me

and the musician part of me

and uh

michael

and the people he worked with

had this attitude about what they were

doing

which to me was like folk art

you know um strangeness mystery

um and this first record

murmur

was just a again another door opening in

my life

making me think about music in a

completely different way even at that

age even now

you know it's simple but the words are

there but they're not what are they i

still don't know there's a sort of joy

in it and a madness to it

[Music]

in the world

[Music]

talk about the passion by rem

tom york you clearly feel things very

deeply i think you've described waking

up every night as a newish father

worrying about climate change

oh my god i sound like a nightmare

[Laughter]

um

i did then yep i was um obsessed with it

and i think actually in retrospect for

good reason

and

my response was to try and do something

about it before that i got involved with

the drop the debt thing with bono the

jubilee 2000 campaign and

i felt like it was just really weird in

the end it was i find it really

stressful

however i couldn't i couldn't look at my

little boy

and not think

okay i'm gonna try and do something

and then sometime later i got involved

with friends of the earth in the

campaign to bring about a climate change

act and

it was kind of cool actually i'm very

proud but it was very stressful you went

on after that experience to work with

greenpeace for many years i mean from

your side what are the responsibilities

that come with campaigning do you think

i think the thing i've always struggled

somewhat with is that you know

if i'm campaigning on climate change i'm

someone who has to fly for my work

so

boom i'm a hypocrite yes i totally agree

i'm a hypocrite but i'm trying to do

something about it but yes you're right

i'm a hypocrite what do you want to do

about it

but fighting that battle all the time i

think at some point it can become like

detrimental to the people who are doing

all this hard work so i'm really

painfully aware that it can be a good

thing if i support and it can be a

distraction as well at the same time

but you know the truth of the matter is

we're all part

of a system systemic thing that has to

change

you know there are a million things that

need to change on a structural level and

us arguing amongst ourselves about oh

what could i do to make a difference is

like you can do stuff but

the real stuff it has to happen in

parliament it has to happen at the u.n

and it has to happen now i mean we're

out of time

um

so all

our governments have to turn around and

say

we cannot live like this anymore we have

to change and you have to accept that

none of them want to do this they need

to do this

and that's why people are on the streets

that's why people are gluing themselves

to buildings because

mainstream politics is too terrified to

turn around and tell people things are

going to have to change and you're not

going to like it

let's go to music it's your seventh disc

why have you chosen this one sidney

bashe i came late to sydney bechet

the man was a total lunatic but i also

realized that my mother she was really

into triad jazz when she was a also an

art student

but i've i found something about sydney

bechet

that i didn't find anywhere else in jazz

the way he plays

it's incredibly

sexy to me

this song

is so sexual and so

what's the word like there's an elation

in the way the band are playing anyway

sidney bechet just this performance the

way he plays

the way it sings the way it opens up

i went through a phase of the dejan

quite a lot it's a way of not speaking

to people but still being in a room

and um oh i know yeah right

and uh i'd be playing like banging

techno or whatever blah blah blah and

then i'd drop this tune

and the place would just go

nuts in a really cool way you know

because it's so sexy it's so sexual i'll

shut up

[Music]

huh

[Music]

[Music]

hmm foreign

[Music]

[Music]

uh

[Music]

what a badass i'm amazing

sydney bechet and blue horizon tom york

when asked about fatherhood in the past

you once said having kids made a massive

difference to me and with the tragic

death of your ex-wife rachel at just 48

the challenges of parenting are even

more acute what kind of dad are you

i guess i'm more like their friend

uh i can't hope to be

their mum

um

uh

but

we're all right we do quite well i mean

i

i'm probably a fairly relaxed dad

well they would probably argue

differently but

you know we we have a

sort of

semi-chaotic

household

but my son is he's um he's 18 now and

he's just off

making music

you know we just hang out um my

daughter's a really positive great

person makes people laugh i'm just

really proud of them both i mean it just

stuns me

the

most days i'm just like i can't believe

there anything to do with me they're

just

such great people

i think radiohead have 13 kids in total

yeah man there was like last time i

think we went on tour i think they were

all with us and uh they really get on

it's kind of cool i mean i wasn't

supervising luckily

i could handle that but they basically

took control of one bus but yeah they

get on really well together it's very

sweet

we talked earlier about your ambition as

a young man what are your ambitions at

50

um my ambitions at 50 hmm

well i would say my ambition is

when

um

the kids

mum died

it was a very

difficult period

and we went through a lot

and it was

very hard

she suffered a great deal

uh

and my ambition is to make sure

that we have come out of it

all right

um and i hope that's what's happening

i'm lucky now

because i have a new partner

who's come

and brought a light into all of it

um

which has taken a great deal of strength

um

and really

if all that's okay

i then want to be able to go to my

metaphorical putting shed down the end

of the garden and carry on tinkering

away on my new devices and feel

everybody's okay

that's my ambition and if i'm still able

to

make

some music

that expresses all that and is still

important to people

if i'm still taking risks and affecting

people then wow and it's more than i can

ask for that's

way more than i need

it's time for your last disc tom

ah

so we're back on this desert island

right so when i started thinking about

doing this of course my first thought

was uh castaway with tom hanks and to be

honest i'd be looking forward to it the

chance to just you know have a bit of

time to chill i'm into that and as i

said before initially i thought of all

this electronic stuff that would be good

in the mind but then i realized no no no

it's my heart that's going to need help

because i'm on my own

so i ended up with human voices now

lilac wine by nina simone has affected

me

in a way

that not many pieces of music in my life

has affected me what i hear in it is

this incredible woman with this

incredible voice who takes an old 1950s

song

and makes it at once dark but at once

light fragile

obviously on the edge of

crazy there's something really unhinged

about the way she sings it and

if i'm on a desert island i need nina

simone there with me singing this song

because

there'll be moments when

things are really really dark and you

need someone to remind you

that they've been through that but it's

also a song where

you can

wake up in the morning and rise with it

here a fellow human being suffering and

that they are with you and that we all

share the same kind of feelings and

emotions

all that from three

and heady

like my love

[Music]

lilac one

i feel

unsteady

[Music]

nina simone and lila quine okay then

tommy the time has come

you are off to the island you have the

books to read while you're there the

bible and the complete works of

shakespeare

also have another book of your choice

what would you like

ah i'd like a suzuki book it's about zen

meditation zen mind beginner's mind

because i'm going to be spending a lot

of time with my own thoughts and i will

need to come to terms with them in a

certain way i'm not sure quite what i'm

going to do with the bible but thanks

anyway

well it's all right you've got a while

to find out

what about a luxury item for pleasure or

sensory stimulation i'd like a tape

recorder i mean ideally an entire

recording studio but i guess that's not

possible but i just remind you jeremy

della had a motorway and stuff yeah i

mean he did have a motorway that's a

good point right i mean i started off

saying i saw i just have a yoga mat

but i'd prefer to try and weave myself a

yoga mat and try and get a hold of a

tape recorder just simply because being

a musician i'm going to be wandering

around this island and ideas are going

to be coming up my mind if i can't put

them somewhere i will go mad we can do

that we can give you the recording

studio if that's what you want really

yeah it'll have to be solar powered yes

solar powered and i have to have a nice

view of the sea you don't really need

that much in it 24 track you know piano

and uh

the recording studio is yours wow i'm

not coming back

and finally if you could only keep one

of these eight discs with you on the

island which would it be oh god

well

much as i like to be emotional and

everything i think i would end up with

talking heads born under punches just

because i'm going to need to dance

that's absolutely perfect tommy thank

you very much for sharing your desert

island discs with us

is that it that's it cool

thank you it's a pleasure

[Music]

i hope you enjoyed my conversation with

tom i'm quite sure he'll be happy idling

away the hours in his studio our desert

island discs back catalogue is bursting

at the seams with amazing singers and

musicians including noel gallagher annie

lennox louis armstrong joan baez bruce

springsteen and christine mcvee and you

can search for them all via bbc sounds

or via our website you'll have heard tom

mentioned that he discovered music in

the same way as the artist jeremy della

i cast jeremy away earlier this year for

me i learned about the outside world

through top of the pops which obviously

is quite a strange way to learn about

the world but that for me was like the

news effectively you were also a history

buff when you were a kid apparently

i did love history i loved museums my

dad just told me to museums that was my

playing ground and it still is in a way

that's where i go and play

in a sense i just wander around the back

stages of museums and just picking out

things and looking at things i'm very at

ease in that world it was the hornyman

museum i think that used to visit yes

which is one of the was then was one of

those amazing museums were just stuffed

full of strange things from around the

world tribal artifacts and then stuffed

animals and then all these odd things

which for a treasure trove for a child

and so it gave me a great visual sense

and there was just amazing there was a

carved buddhist

wooden carved buddhist freeze of like

people going to hell and stuff so you

just look at all of that there's a

torture chair there's all these things

that like a little boy would be obsessed

with all these rather grim things so

it's very it was a very exciting place

for me to be and you joined the art club

there i think i did i mean i was never

very good at art and this became much

clearer later but i

had a sort of after-school

holiday art club which i just like

hanging around just making a mess really

and what sort of thing did you make i

can't really remember i remember at

school when i did pottery i made a

womble i remember that that's the only

thing i remember

that's it for typically 17 starting i

know it's very for some reason i

remember very clearly

your work often involves collaborating

with others like the battle of all

grieve and acid brass as well what

appeals to you about that way of doing

things i wonder well you can't do

everything yourself

can you and i need a lot of help with

what i do and if you're doing something

with musicians obviously i can't play

every part i can't play music for

example

so it's just working with the public and

involving people in what you do is

actually very satisfying

your approach can be very playful too

i'm thinking about the blow up

stonehenge that you came up with for the

2012 cultural olympiad tell me a little

bit about sacrilege well i called it

sacrifice because i just thought i'd get

the criticism in before anyone else did

and i just wanted to make the most

stupid artwork ever made

and in a way it was it was meant to to

counteract what i felt was the pomposity

of sports sometimes and the olympics i

felt was quite pompous as it happened it

wasn't so pompous in the uk but the

whole olympic movement seems to be

really full of itself so i just thought

let's do something about britain that

shows that we have a sense of humor

about our history and we're willing to

satirize ourselves almost and have fun

with our history

and our identity

it's sort of freaked me out almost about

the amount of enjoyment i was giving the

public because i wasn't quite expecting

that but

wherever it goes around the world it's

the same reaction people just want to

jump on it and run around and laugh

the marvelous jeremy della next week my

guest will be dr sabrina cohen hatton

chief fire officer for west sussex fire

and rescue service and one of the most

senior firefighters in the country her

life story is amazing and she's chosen

some great tracks too so do join us then

i find quantum mechanics confusing today

well we hope you've enjoyed that podcast

uh i don't know why actually i don't

even know what the podcast was this

whole thing has been recorded in the

1940s uh but uh anyway if you didn't

enjoy that podcast another podcast you

can also not enjoy is the one that i do

with professor brian cox the infinite

monkey cage yeah there are well over 100

of them now we cover all scientific

subjects from dreams to dinosaurs to the

end of the universe we even did quantum

quantum gravity at the end of the

universe at the glastonbury festival and

ravens we did one on ravens and there

was a raven we actually had a live raven

that outstared you and i think even the

radio listener or the podcast listen you

have to say that

yeah what's reindeer

it's on bbc sounds as well and that's

that's that's enough isn't it just say

that it's on bbc sounds download them on

bbc sounds all of them they're fantastic

and uh i mean everything's brilliant

isn't it it's a baby is it really

about it

[Music]

that cat may be as dead as a rat you can

wage in the infinite monkey cage