Thom Yorke
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Thom Yorke | ||
|---|---|---|
 Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke in concert
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| Background information | ||
| Birth name | Thomas Edward Yorke | |
| Also known as | Dr. Tchock Tchocky The White Chocolate Farm |
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| Born | October 7, 1968 | |
| Origin |  Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, England |
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| Genre(s) | Experimental rock, Indie electronic, Alternative rock | |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, Vocalist | |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, Guitar, Piano | |
| Label(s) | XL | |
| Associated acts |
Radiohead, UNKLE | |
| Website | http://www.theeraser.net/ | |
| Notable instrument(s) | ||
| Vocals, Guitar, Piano | ||
Thomas Edward Yorke (born October 7, 1968 in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, England) is best known as the lead singer of the English alternative rock band Radiohead. He has also recorded as a solo musician: his debut album, The Eraser, was released 10 July 2006 in the UK and 11 July in the US.
He mainly plays electric guitar, acoustic guitar and piano, but has also played drums and bass guitar (notably during the Kid A and Amnesiac Radiohead sessions). He has one brother, Andy, ex-vocalist of the band the Unbelievable Truth. Yorke currently lives in central Oxford with his partner, Rachel Owen, a printmaker who holds a doctorate in art history, and their two children, Noah, born in 2001 (to whom the Radiohead album Amnesiac was dedicated) and Agnes, born 2004 (to whom Yorke dedicated The Eraser).
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early years
As a young child Yorke underwent surgical operations to correct a paralysed left eye he has had since birth.[1] In his first five years he underwent many operations, which he has claimed were "botched", leaving the eye mostly blind and giving him his trademark ptosis (drooping eyelid). This, coupled with the fact that the Yorke family would never stay rooted in one spot for long, meant that finding friends was to prove difficult throughout his childhood, creating an atmosphere of isolation. Yorke's father worked as a chemical engineering instruments salesman, which necessitated the family's frequent relocation.
The Yorke family finally settled in Oxfordshire and Yorke received his first guitar at the age of seven, having been inspired by a TV screened performance of Queen guitarist Brian May. His first song, "Mushroom Cloud" described a nuclear explosion, and by age ten he had joined his first band at the public Abingdon School for boys. It was at this school that he was to meet his future Radiohead bandmates Ed O'Brien, Phil Selway, Colin Greenwood and Colin's younger brother, Jonny.
The group was named On A Friday, as Friday was the only day on which the members were allowed to rehearse. The band would prove to have considerable longevity, surviving the members' attendance at different universities and eventually evolving into Radiohead. Yorke, in this early line up, played guitar and provided vocals, and was already developing his songwriting and lyrical skills. In 1987, when Yorke was still a teenager, he and his girlfriend were involved in a car crash. He walked away unharmed, but the girl suffered from whiplash. This brought on Yorke's phobia of cars that can be heard in later Radiohead songs "Airbag", "Killer Cars", and "Stupid Car".
While attending the University of Exeter, where he studied Fine Art and English, he worked as a DJ at Guild nights and played with the band Headless Chickens. He also held a part time position as an orderly at a psychiatric hospital. In his second year, he was introduced to computers, Exeter’s newly acquired Macs, and he was fascinated with them. It was also around this time that he met Stanley Donwood, an artist who from 1994 on would become an important collaborator on single and album artwork for Radiohead. Yorke has often used an alias ('The White Chocolate Farm', 'Tchock') while working on projects with Donwood. Together, the duo would later win the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Recording Package.
On A Friday reformed in 1991 as the members were finishing their degree courses. Now relocated to Oxford, they signed to Parlophone and changed their name to Radiohead, the name taken from the Talking Heads album True Stories.
Thom Yorke suffers from tinnitus [citation needed].
[edit] Radiohead
Radiohead, with Yorke as a blonde-haired figurehead, first gained notice with the hit single "Creep" (allegedly written in the men's toilets of Exeter University's student club The Lemon Grove)[2] although some speculated the band would only achieve status of one-hit wonders. The song appeared on the band's first album Pablo Honey, which received mixed reviews.
The band came to resent Creep and the expectation around it soon became a weight on their shoulders. Their feelings towards the song were clearly indicated on their second album, The Bends, particularly on "My Iron Lung". It has been argued that this is the album on which the qualities for which Radiohead is best known today first appear. Yorke himself, being chief songwriter, lyricist and vocalist, is attributed many of the same personal qualities as exist in Radiohead's music from this period to the present day — themes of isolation, hope, resignation, and urban-existentialism to name several.
How Yorke, as the driving influence of Radiohead, has dealt with his growing status and reverence has been arguably one of the more interesting aspects of the band's evolution. 1997's OK Computer, whilst heralded as a landmark album by virtually every publication that reviewed it, forced Yorke into a period of depression brought about by fear that the personalities behind Radiohead — chiefly, his own — were more prominent than the actual music. 2000's Kid A was again a musical departure for the band, Yorke in particular having struggled with the idea of a follow-up to the mammoth success of OK Computer.
Yorke has explained in various interviews that he dislikes the "mythology" he feels is endemic within the rock genre, and hates the media's obsession with celebrity [3]. In interviews, he does not seem to be particularly taken with the idea of being famous, or even show that he feels it is necessary that he is asked questions about his music. Despite his efforts to downplay his status, he is still looked upon as one of the most important musicians of his time.
In terms of talent and ability, Yorke is known for his distinctive falsetto ("Fake Plastic Trees", "How To Disappear Completely") and ability to reach, and sustain, high notes ("Creep", "Exit Music (For a Film), Let Down"). His singing voice has been directly compared, and indeed partially attributed to, that of Jeff Buckley. During the recording sessions for The Bends in 1994, the band watched Buckley in concert; Yorke later said the concert had a direct effect on his vocal delivery on "Fake Plastic Trees." [4] Aside from vocal duties, Yorke's musical contributions to Radiohead include piano (including Rhodes piano, especially on Kid A) and especially guitar, both acoustic and electric. He also plays bass guitar (The bass line for "The National Anthem" was recorded by him) as well as drums on occasion; in concerts performed in 2006 he performed drums on stage in tandem with drummer Phil Selway. Since Kid A, however, Radiohead, and in particular Yorke, have moved away from using solely these "rock" instruments for creating music, and have often seen fit to incorporate elements of electronic music in Radiohead's work.
While appearing on Jo Whiley's Radio 1 show in 2003 to publicise the release of Hail to the Thief, Yorke remarked that he would rather make an album just with a computer rather than with only an acoustic guitar. Additionally, Yorke has stated that he thinks that computer programs such as Pro Tools give the musician more power over the direction of one's music than traditional instruments [citation needed]. The Eraser, his first solo album, indeed stayed true to this notion.
Radiohead are currently recording their new album. [5] Though it was originally expected to be released sometime in 2006, a recent press release has stated that a new album should not be expected until 2007. Yorke has said that recordings for the new album have been difficult, yet well enough to play some new material on tour in 2006. Radiohead played several more dates later in the year, the V Festival in England in August. Once the album is finished, the band plans to release a DVD of their performance at Bonnaroo sometime after the release of their new album. [6]
Yorke has claimed never to listen to Radiohead records after they are released, and it appears this will be the case for the forthcoming album. "I will dread listening to it all after we have left in the real world. I always dread that. I'd much rather start something new and forget," Yorke recently wrote in Radiohead's blog Dead Air Space.
It is important to note that the band has fulfilled its contract with EMI, and as such has no label or deal. Recently the band have spoken about the pressures of working with no set deadline; Yorke has stated he prefers this freedom, yet bandmember Jonny Greenwood does not. [7]
Yorke said that the band will sign a new contract with a new label, on their own terms and not before the new album is finished and ready to release.
[edit] The Eraser
Yorke released The Eraser, an album of solo material, on July 10, 2006 in the UK and July 11, 2006 in the U.S. [8] Produced and arranged by Nigel Godrich, featuring cover art by Stanley Donwood, it was released on the independent label XL Recordings. Yorke has said that this album is "more beats & electronics" and has denied that it means he is leaving Radiohead stating "I want no crap about me being a traitor or whatever splitting up blah blah... this was all done with their blessing, and I don't wanna hear that word solo. It doesn't sound right" [9]. It reached number 9 on the Irish charts in its first week, number 2 in the US and Australia, as well as number 3 in the UK. The album was nominated for the prestigious Mercury Music Prize.
[edit] Activism
Yorke's enigmatic persona has made him a cult figure, but he has also been outspoken on various contemporary political and social issues. Radiohead had read No Logo by Naomi Klein during the Kid A sessions ("No Logo" was also briefly considered as the album title) and all the members were reportedly heavily influenced by it. Yorke is also a professed fan of Noam Chomsky's work [10].
He is friends with the environmentalist writer, academic and journalist George Monbiot; Yorke lent a quote to feature on the front cover of Monbiot's book Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain. He has garnered attention as a political activist campaigning for causes including fair trade, anti-war movements such as CND, Amnesty International, and most recently the Friends of the Earth campaign "The Big Ask". [11] He played at the Free Tibet concert in both 1998 and 1999.
He has also appeared in Animal Aid's "Eat This!" film and condemned factory farming. He is a long-time vegetarian [3].
Asked about his activism, Yorke said that "the difference between me and Bono is that he's quite happy to go and flatter people to get what he wants and he's very good at it, but I just can't do it. I'd probably end up punching them in the face rather than shaking their hand, so it's best that I stay out of their way. I can't engage with that level of bullshit. Which is a shame, really, and in a way it would help if I could, but I just can't. I admire the fact that Bono can, and can walk away from it smelling of roses." [10]
[edit] Discography
- See also: Radiohead discography.
[edit] Studio albums
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[edit] Compilations
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[edit] Singles
| Title | Release date | Album | Peak chart positions |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK | U.S. | |||
| "Black Swan" | July 2006 | The Eraser | - | 40 |
| "Harrowdown Hill" | August 2006 | The Eraser | 23 | - |
| "Analyse" | October 2006 | The Eraser | - | - |
[edit] Collaborations
- Drugstore
- Yorke shared vocals with Isabel Monteiro from the English band Drugstore on the band's single, "El President", off their album White Magic For Lovers. Yorke also appeared in the music video. Monteiro was born in Chile, and the song was inspired by the events of the 1973 military coup by Augusto Pinochet against President Salvador Allende of Chile.
- Sparklehorse
- Yorke sings part of this cover of Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" with Sparklehorse's Mark Linkous. Yorke sang his part on the telephone from his hotel room and you can hear his TV in the background. Sparklehorse were Radiohead's opening act on the European leg of the OK Computer tour in 1997.
- UNKLE
- Yorke and DJ Shadow got together during the OK Computer tour in San Francisco and recorded "Rabbit in Your Headlights" for the James Lavelle project going under the name UNKLE. The song is the closing track on UNKLE's first album Psyence Fiction (1998), which also features contributions by many other artists.
- The Venus in Furs
- Yorke and Radiohead bandmate Jonny Greenwood got together with Bernard Butler, Andy Mackay, and Paul Kimble to form the band, The Venus in Furs (named after the Velvet Underground song). They recorded five songs for the Todd Haynes film Velvet Goldmine (1998), which was produced by Yorke's friend Michael Stipe. All the tracks sung by Yorke are Roxy Music covers, originally sung by Bryan Ferry. The tracks are:
- "2HB"
- "Ladytron"
- "Baby's on Fire" (Vocal: Jonathan Rhys Meyers)
- "Bitter-Sweet"
- "Tumbling Down" (Vocal: Jonathan Rhys Meyers)
- Björk
- Yorke and Björk sang a duet called "I've Seen It All" on Selmasongs (2000), the soundtrack album to Lars Von Trier's award winning film Dancer in the Dark. In the movie, a different recording is heard, as the song isn't sung by Yorke, but actor Peter Stormare. The song was nominated for an Academy Award, and the two were to have performed it together at the 2001 Oscars, but it was cut to a Björk solo peformance due to time requirements.
- PJ Harvey
- Yorke had a strong presence on PJ Harvey's 2000 release, Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea. He did a duet with Harvey on the song "This Mess We're In" and sang back-up on two other songs: "One Line" and "Beautiful Feeling". Harvey's album won the Mercury Music Prize in 2001.
- Band Aid 20
- In December 2004, Yorke and Radiohead bandmate Jonny Greenwood contributed to the Do They Know It's Christmas charity single.
- Live collaborations
- In 1998, Yorke performed with R.E.M. at the Tibetan Freedom Concert in Washington, D.C., singing "Be Mine" with the group and singing Patti Smith's part of "E-Bow the Letter", a duet with lead singer Michael Stipe (Stipe also joined Radiohead for a song, singing Yorke's part on "Lucky"). In spring 2002, Yorke and Beck made a surprise appearance at an L.A. benefit concert for fairer record label contracts, duetting on an acoustic cover of the Velvet Underground song "I'm Set Free". In 2006, Yorke performed several songs from his solo album The Eraser live on TV and radio programmes with producer Nigel Godrich and members of Radiohead.
[edit] Television appearances
- Late Night with Conan O'Brien 12 June 1995
- Saturday Night Live (with Radiohead) (episode # 26.2) 14 October 2000
- Letadlo 4 June 2001
- South Park (voice) in episode: "Scott Tenorman Must Die" (episode # 5.4) 11 July 2001
- Space Ghost Coast to Coast playing himself in episode: "Knifin' Around" (episode # 7.3) 1 September 2001 (This episode also features friend and collaborator Björk.)
- The Late Show with David Letterman Oct. 17, 2003
- Channel 4 News 25 May 2005
- The Henry Rollins Show 15 July 2006 [4]
- Friday Night With Jonathan Ross (with Radiohead)
- The Culture Show 21 October 2006
[edit] References
- ^ "Radiohead Biography", Green Plastic. URL accessed on 15 June 2006.
- ^ The Association of Student Radio Alumni University of Exeter
- ^ "Yorke derides mainstream music", NME, 5 April 2006. Retrieved 19 May 2006.
- ^ [1], www.greenplastic.com, retrieved 7 November 2006.
- ^ "Radiohead premiere new album", NME, 6 May 2006. Retrieved 16 May 2006.
- ^ [2] Pitchfork Media, August 28, 2006. Retrieved 7 November, 2006.
- ^ Nick Kent, Ghost in the Machine, Mojo magazine, August 2006, Iss. 153, pg. 74-77+79-81+83.
- ^ "Thom's album The Eraser was released in July", ateaseweb.com, 13 May 2006. Retrieved 16 May 2006.
- ^ "All Messed Up: Blackpool, 12 May 2006", Observer.Guardian.co.uk, 12 May 2006.
- ^ a b "Brian Draper's interview with Thom Yorke for Third Way", The London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, 1 July 2005. Retrieved 16 May 2006.
- ^ "Thom Yorke and 'The Big Ask'", Friends of the Earth. Retrieved 16 May 2006.
[edit] External links
- Radiohead.com: The official Radiohead website
- www.greenplastic.com: Another Radiohead fansite. Contains song meanings for almost all of their songs.
- The Eraser: Official website for Yorke's solo album release
- Subculture Magazine's review of "The Eraser"
- A collection of Thom Yorke quotes
- www.ateaseweb.com: The largest Radiohead fan site; includes a highly popular message board.
- andrewkendall.com: Recent promotional photographs of Thom supporting the Friends of the Earth Big Ask campaign.
- Thom Yorke, Going Solo: extensive interview with Yorke, from NPR's "Fresh Air" radio program -- July 2006
- Rolling Stone interivew with Thom Yorke
- Review of Thom Yorke — The Eraser
- Thom Yorke and his Philosophy: Interviewed, TV Footage: 2006, BBC2 - Culture Show
- Listen online: Thom Yorke & Naomi Klein Discuss Globalization
