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Ed O’Brien has always been the quiet architect behind Radiohead’s most textural moments, but lately he’s been stepping further into the light. Speaking with Kyle Meredith, the guitarist digs into his second solo outing, the newly announced Blue Morpho, a record born out of lockdown isolation, creative reset, and a long walk through the emotional wilderness. Picking up where his 2020 solo debut Earth left off, O’Brien traces how a period of uncertainty turned into something restorative, with nature and introspection guiding the way forward. Listen to the episode above or wherever you get your podcasts.
“I start[ed] working with Paul Epworth in September, October 2020,” O’Brien says, recounting how a chance meeting with the producer over a prototype “circle guitar” led to a creative partnership. But what followed wasn’t exactly a smooth ride. “Second lockdown was quite grim… I sort of spiraled down and found myself in this dark place, this sort of deep depression.” What emerged instead was a daily ritual of picking up the guitar without expectation, just searching for calm. “It was literally as a form of finding some peace,” he explains, describing months of recording fragments that would later become the album’s foundation. “There’s a beauty in that place as well… if you don’t keep running.”
When the conversation shifts to Radiohead, O’Brien lights up. The band’s recent reunion shows reframed everything: “Those nights were magical,” he says. There’s even a sense of rediscovery in the catalog itself. “It was the first time I realized… these are actually really good songs,” he admits, laughing at the distance time has given him. He traces it all the way back to their earliest days — an awkward first gig derailed by a broken drum machine that led them to recruit drummer Philip Selway the very next night. “We huddled backstage and went, ‘We’ve got to find a drummer,’” he recalls.
These days, the band operates more like a constellation than a monolith, with members orbiting in different directions — he notes that Thom Yorke also has a new solo record on the way later this year (!) — yet when they reconvene, it still snaps into place like family, the “mothership” waiting whenever they’re ready to return.
Listen to Ed O’Brien talk about Blue Morpho, Radiohead, and more in the new episode above or by watching the video below. Keep up on all the latest episodes by following Kyle Meredith With… on your favorite podcast platform; plus, check out all the series on the Consequence Podcast Network.
