“that was fun, thanks for the questions,” wrote Atoms for Peace “supergroup” founders Thom Yorke and Nigel Godrich following their “Ask Me Anything” Reddit session on Monday. “you can now stream the new album AMOK here: https://amok.atomsforpeace.info/“
And now, a few choice tidbits from the Reddit AMA (sometimes who said what got a little fuzzy, though Yorke was generally the one with bad grammar):
Yorke on Radiohead’s Jack White collaboration: “We was at AJck Jack Whites places… we now have two unfinished tracks, one of which is identikit. Its nice there, red and black and white nshit. err, we work slower than him (umderstatement)hi everyone” See what I mean?
On whether man is good or evil by nature: “Definitely good. That was an easy one.”
Yorke on whether he’s interested in exploring the lower end of his vocal range as on “Hail to the Thief” track “Wolf at the Door”: “Yes i would love to. I know its there, ive heard it. its not naturally where i end up. So it’s a good place to head, deep into the woods. The back of the cupboard.. ya nah? thm”
On how they feel about the “Amok” leak: “oh did it? how nice.” And then: “Well.. unsurprised?”
Yorke on determining whether a song should be an Atoms for Peace song or a Radiohead song: “its a grey area. getting greyer. obviously depends on who is being sampled. are you being in sampled? tmh”
Yorke on his songwriting process: “this here is a hedge. im going to drag myself backwards through it.” Right.
On whether fans will ever hear official versions of bootleg-only Radiohead tracks “Present Tense” and “Burn the Witch”: “def the first one!”
Yorke on his pre-stage rituals: “many many many, upside down time. tuning up time. lying down time etc thm”
Yorke on whether he plans to collaborate with Burial again (as on the 2011 12″ “Ego”/”Mirror”): “I very much hope so. Both me Kieran and Burial are all as busy/ vague as each other.. Well ok Kierans more together maybe :) But we talks about it. in fact as usual i gotta write some words thm”
Godrich on his favorite/most influential supergroup: “The Beatles”
Yorke on whether he’ll ever tour with Flying Lotus again: “He’s a mate of mine! Hes so great. He’s a lot more popular now so im not sure he’d wanna but yes it was a great great vibe. thm”
Yorke on the toughest “Amok” track to get right: “maybe Amok was tricky , only cuz the lyrics came from a really different headspace, which took me a while to feel good about. but its the one im most proud of and gets me in the ass everytime. can i say that? apparently so thm”
Yorke on his biggest achievement thus far: “ummmmmmmm getting through the last tour despite all that had happened in toronto. and the lights. and having clive play with us. i was terrified about it, then it got dark but in the end we were all very proud of managin to pull it off. even in the O2 in London. it was not an easy time, but it was cool. thm”
Yorke on what he has against nuclear power: “it is too costly. i think the storage of renewables will tip thier balance of viability. that is starting to happen. read around and you’ll see. i have some good environmentalists friends who think otherwise and understand the desperation of this, but all the feasibility studies that have recently been done and costings make nuclear increasingly looks nuts. however it means we have to DRASTically reduce our consumption of energy quite quickly. thm”
Care for more? You can check out the full Reddit AMA here.
“Amok” will be available for purchase on February 26.