THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS HAVE BEEN ANSWERED BY RADIOHEAD:
SUBMITTED BY: Matthew Cand from England

QUESTION:
Hiya, Question for Colin Greenwood: given your professed diverse musical tastes, from German electronic music to David Bowie, how do you go about composing your basslines? Do you try to fit all those influences or just go with your instinct?

ANSWER:
I suppose the biggest influences are the melodies from thom's songs and the rhythms that phil matches them with. Then it's just a case of tagging along for a bit with the bass, until it's time to stop. I also like how the bass drops on hip hop records like ghost dog by rza and how repetitive hooks are used and cut up on those kind of records. I like it when the bass stays the same with everything else, or everything else changes around it. But it's just about what' s already there in the music - you can usually hear the bass line before you go anywhere near the bass.

SUBMITTED BY: Andy Pisanu from England

QUESTION:
Hi, I would love to know what Thom and the boys plan to do with "Big Ideas", if anything. It doesn't take a genius to identify the song as one of the greatest ever written. Thankyou.

ANSWER:
I think you'd get a different answer from each person....I loved the one from New York that we did at radio city music hall about six years ago. I like the al green shuffle to it, that chamber soul intimacy to the beautiful melody, all that rising and falling through the song. I hope we do record it. Thom does play it when something breaks on stage; very fine, better than party ballon animals.

SUBMITTED BY: Julian Marshall from England

QUESTION:
How are your plans coming along for playing that improvised dance event with Sigur Ros and Merce Cunningham? What can we expect?

ANSWER:
aaAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHAHAHAHAHHHHHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. we are in denial. fine. really. fine. not telling you what to expect.not because we dont know. because we do. really we do. thom

SUBMITTED BY: Michelle from Canada

QUESTION:
Is 2+2=5 influenced by Thom's reading Camus's The Plague by any chance? Any other literary selections that may have influenced the material on Hail to the Thief? Thanks, George Peterman

ANSWER:
childrens books? maisy. chicken licken. dr seuss. err. very literary me thom

SUBMITTED BY: Ken Okumura from UK

QUESTION:
Where do you see yourself going from here? As a band you seem to have been enjoying the last 3 years a lot more - short bursts of touring and a lot of time to relax and lay down material in the studio. Are you planning on sticking to that?

ANSWER:
i think we r planning on sticking to nothing. no routine. its completely open. which is very scary. we ar e refusing to make any plans. i find it difficult to see what we should do next. time is definetly important. time away from the whole machinery that we seem to have built up around us. then we shall see. hopefully it iwll become obvious once the dust settles. thom

SUBMITTED BY: Michelle from Canada

QUESTION:
For Thom: You've said that you've avoided sitting on a song for too long during the recording process because after a while you start hating it. How do you keep the songs you did record, alive, every night on tour without starting to hate them? Why have you started flashing the word forever across the back of the stage at the end of the concert...? For Phil: Is it hard to sing and drum at the same time? Jason Schupper, New York

ANSWER:
its a bit better now because we have alot of stuff to choose from. we can sort of get away with dropping most things when we do get bored with thm.its funny how some songs come back into focus after years nt understanding where they came from. Forever? Andy our lighting director wanted to stream messages at the end. he asked me the day before glastonbury what we would like to stream at glastonbury. i has a list of all the words that stanley had used on the paintings and forever just kept coming up. and it seemed to say how i felt that night, so nervous again, thinking about glastonbury. and so far it has stuck. it looks beautiful in the colours andy chooses. thom

SUBMITTED BY: Latinamerican fans from Argentina

QUESTION:
When we announced on our website that fans could e-mail us their questions for you, it took them a couple of days to actually start sending them and when they did, the first 15 questions pivoted around the same topic, so this is a compendium of what we got: Why hasn't Radiohead toured Latinamerica? Is it a security issue? (asked by people in Colombia) Is it because of the profit vs expense issue? (asked by people in Argentina). We even have polls about it, with responses you wouldn't believe, such as: 'They think we don't understand their music' and 'We're not worthy' Will you ever play here? Any time soon? Thank you!

ANSWER:
we are desperate to play in latin america. it is absolutley nothing to do nwhat you quote, with anything but making it work the correct way. which is not playing to the elite of those countries who could afford overpriced tickets, bu t making it accessible to as much people as we can. so we are working on it. it also depends on where our heads are at by next year. thom

SUBMITTED BY: Christian Stiegler from Austria

QUESTION:
When are you planning to come to Austria/How do you choose the countries you want to play in?

ANSWER:
I'd love us to come and play in Austria. I hope we will soon. We try to play wherever we're liked, so I hope that would include Austria. It can be very annoying when you're lumped in with other countries - ' well, we'll play Germany, that's close enough' etc. I'd love us to play Vienna, especially at Christmas time. Maybe next time we play in Europe. sorry to be so vague; I hope we do come soon. colin. I n Salt Lake City, backstage after the soundcheck, the night after Tom Jones!!

SUBMITTED BY: Christian Stiegler from Austria

QUESTION:
Thom, have you ever considered to write a song that Ed would sing, and you would do backharmonies? Like Mike Mills sometimes does for R.E.M., while Michael only sings in the back.

ANSWER:
that would be great if he'd be up for doing it. its a confidence thing. i think he would have to have a few drinks first. or maybe not. tchock

SUBMITTED BY: Charlie Pinder from UK

QUESTION:
Loved South Park concert. Did you?

ANSWER:
yes thankyou. bit shaky at first. a lot of pressure. then very emotional experience. lots of crying at the end. tchocky

SUBMITTED BY: maxj k from uk

QUESTION:
do you still feel you should be quoted so prominently on napster.com now that its been sunk to the level of all the other shit on the internet. cheap advertising is all very well and good, but this really stinks.

ANSWER:
ive never been. what does it say? i dont care its not our responsibility. cheap advertising? dont understand sorry.. tchock

SUBMITTED BY: chris lloyd from England

QUESTION:
With the current influx of bands that have come out in recent times (examples: limp bizkit and n'sync), what direction do you predict the music market will head into? (this question is meant to stand for "where do you think music will head to next .. what is the next big fad, trend, etc?)

ANSWER:
im not into speculating on this sort of thing, maybe its like the seventies and we're in the shit cocaine disco bit. who knows. its sympotmatic of whats going on elsewhere..... a climate of fear.. where is it heading. into an asteroid with no-one driving. tchocky

SUBMITTED BY: John Earls from UK

QUESTION:
Why have you chosen Pyramid Song as the single from Amnesiac? How will you feel if it gets to No1/how will you celebrate? And what are the chances of there being further singles from the album (which song will it be if there are?) PS: Can I get a fuller phone/face-to-face/e-mail interview with any of the band? (Caffy seems happy with the idea in principle, but says it's a question of time.) Puuuurrrrrllleeeeaaaaasseeeee?

ANSWER:
absolutley no chance whatsoever. ask alex. yes there will be more singles. all aimed at radio3. tchocky

SUBMITTED BY: Jenny Jarvie from Britain

QUESTION:
I read in the NME that your new album features a song which attacks Tony Blair - and that it will be released three days before the election. I am writing a piece on political parties' growing reliance on celebrity backing and would very much appreciate your comments. I appreciate that you are all busy, but wonder if I can throw the following questions out: What is it New Labour that particularly frustrates you? How do you feel about the other main political parties? Will you vote? Young people are increasingly labelled as 'apathetic' and criticised for not voting. What do you think about this idea? Do you think it is irresponsible to vote for someone you don't believe in? Would you consider launching "You And Whose Army" as an official anti-election tune? Of course, please feel free to mention any aspect of contemporary politics you feel strongly about. Thanks very much, Jenny

ANSWER:
never believe anything you read in the NME. that is a formal denial in case your wondering ,...dont waste your time reading etc.... much like never believe anything reeled out by Alistair "unelected" Campbell... this song is not a personal attack. but no i wont vote and havent votedfor a man willing to go along with son of star wars. its not exactly surprising that a large section of the population will not give a flying fuck about the election. everybody blames evryobody else. and new labour is happy to let filingdales be used in world war 3. they are not in touch and have blatantly betrayed all who supported them except those friendly business interests. we were involved in a campaign to encourage people to vote a few years ago in the uK. this was hijacked by labour. labour are good at highjacking and betraying. they attempted something rather similair with jubilee2000. frightening levels of paranoid bullshit. err oh dear. world war 3. tchocky

SUBMITTED BY: Tique De Koninck from Belgium

QUESTION:
I was wondering why Morning Bell appears on Amnesiac. I heard the new version and it sounds great, but why did you decide to include it on the album ?

ANSWER:
because it came from such a different place from the other version. because we only found it again by accident after having forgotten about it. because it sounds like a recurring dream. it felt right. tchocky

SUBMITTED BY: David Peschek from UK

QUESTION:
Thom - I'm writing an introductory 'Mojo Rising' piece on Mark Mulcahy. He seemed very touched by your support in the past, and I was wondering if you could offer a few words as to why he's so fantastic, why he was inportant to you etc - there's a 'references' bit at the end of the piece for well-known fans to rave about the subject of the piece. It only need be, literally, a few words, but feel free to ramble on should the mood take you. Have you heard the new album, BTW? It's lovely. Thanks a lot, David.

ANSWER:
When i was 15 the best song in the entire world and the most beautiful voice i had ever heard sang "all for the best" of Miracle Legions Surprise Surprise Surprise. it was the voice of someone who was only truly happy when he was singing. it affected me a great deal. the record never seemed to get anywhere, i had to go to London especially to get it. no-one seemed to know who they were but my brother & i played that record until it was completely unplayable. it changed the way i thought about songs and singing. thom

SUBMITTED BY: marylouise harding from UK

QUESTION:
Your're know for beong stong advocates of the web in terms of using it to communicate and swap ideas and information with your fans (and the media!) and, with Kid A, using it to give people free access to your music. Do you forsee that you will eventually use the medium as your primary tool for distributing your music, in addition to ideas and information? What changes need to take place for that to happen both in terms of existing business relationships and technological environments?

ANSWER:
its all going to morph into one media again isnt it? i dont understand how anyone will make a living necessarily, or maybe lots of people will make a small living, we have no idea how we shall deal with these changes, it still is a novelty for most of the people on this planet unless you live in north america. there is still this element of goldrush bullshit that seems to go with any discussion about the internet. the main thing is that you can copy anything digitally without anyloss of sound. (it makes you very paranoid about walking round town with maybe a Cd in your bag, or leaving it on the kitchen table when you go out.) but hopefully people trying to get somewhere wont have to expend so much time and energy dealing with idiot A&R men and crazy corporate shakeups, perhaps it will encourage the DIY thing again. tchocky

SUBMITTED BY: Michael Christian from Canada

QUESTION:
Maybe the artifice of copywriting recordings is like copywriting textual pieces, but I find it difficult to understand. Public libraries are mostly free, and so you don't need to buy a book to take it home and read it to your kids. Some libraries even let you take out movies, records, tapes and CD's. My university library is great in that respect. But with digital content, there seems to be an intolerance in the commercial media industries for online public libraries of music and texts. It seems improbable that an Andrew Carnegie of this day and age would ever invest in making libraries again. Carnegie Libraries of digital content are considered lazy dreams. If mp3's had a public library, and we all had cards, would that change how threatened some people feel? It seems unlikely now. But Napster had an enormous effect on the popularity of Kid A, helping to build enthusiasm and community from little seeds of curiousity last summer and fall. Do you see mp3's still shaping Amnesiac's impact in any way? Can something like that ever occur again in the current climate, with the RIAA against Napster, or in the future? How does it make you feel with Amnesiac being released into this atmosphere?

ANSWER:
The record industry is reaping its bad karma for repackaging music in a crap Cd format and destroyng vinyl, getting away with charging too much for too long, as well as buying the sources of distribution and trying to sow the whole thing up completely. the loosers for too long have been the listener, there have been some benefits in reissues and etc but the money the majors made out of it all merits the sprawling abuse of copyright that they will never completely be able to control over then net. tchocky

SUBMITTED BY: MARK CUNNINGHAM from AUSTRALIA

QUESTION:
Radiohead fans tend to be extremely devoted to the band - they seem to connect with your music and ideals. What do you see as the major aspects of your music which people connect with so well?

ANSWER:
to be really truthful i dont see it myself. when we play soemthing new we dont how people will react. if i show an idea to the rest of the band im terrified if they will respond or not. they are the same. it always amazes me how complex this remains. there was a time when we could make the correct moves and the required response. and that was the time when the shine started to fade.\ do people connect with our ideals? i dont know, surely encouraging people to make informed decisions is more useful? ignorance is the biggest problem isnt it? we are no purer than anyone else, no smarter. equally we are not little rag dolls you play with but say nothing and go back in the box when your finished with us. tchocky

SUBMITTED BY: MARK CUNNINGHAM from AUSTRALIA

QUESTION:
Kid A was a total change of direction for the band. Was everyone committed to this new direction? How did Jonny feel about focussing more on keyboards than guitar?

ANSWER:
I don't remember much time playing keyboards. It was more an obsession with sound, speakers, the whole artifice of recording. I see it like this: a voice into a microphone onto a tape, onto your CD, through your speakers is all as illusory and fake as any synthesizer - it doesn't put Thom in your front room - but one is perceived as 'real' the other, somehow 'unreal'. I'm straying from the point. What was the point ? Well, it's the same with guitars versus samplers. It was just freeing to discard the notion of accoustic sounds being truer. The inverted snobbery amongst some people even extends to keyboards. Mellotrons are 'truer' than Synths, apparently. But remember that hearing a band rehearse will never be the same coming from two speakers. That's fine. Of course, you want your music still to sound beatiful, or to somehow make you react. It's not about just spuring tradition, or rationalizing rubbish because it's 'different'. SO we'll still fill tapes with violins and guitars as much as anything else. Whatever sounds cool. Whatever isn't boring. Whatever is addictive.And ANYWAY There's nothing like a guitar for physically making music - like a drumkit for making rhythms - so I don't get bored playing the thing. I've been telling people, glibly, that there's so little guitar on the new stuff because there are only five Pixies albums, and there are other sounds out there. They hit at their instruments in striving to not be boring - whilst avoiding muso drudgery. Remember the advert The Pixies placed to get Kim Deal (the only applicant):"Band into Husker Du and Peter, Paul and Mary seeks bass player. No Chops."

SUBMITTED BY: MARK CUNNINGHAM from AUSTRALIA

QUESTION:
You seem to be making a concerted effort to move away from the commercialisation of music - do you think this is possible, given that there is a tension between getting your music heard and becoming pawns in the music industry, especially since the industry is very much consumer driven?

ANSWER:
i dont agree that we are making any concerted effort to move away from commercialisation. perhaps we are just choosing not to play the usual stupid games because at least for the time being we are in a position to do so because people still buy our records. the main corporate music industry is very conservative at the moment, sandbagging against the floods, but it is maintaining a complete stranglehold on good shit because it is totally uninterested in taking risks and has a cartel over formats and distribution. that ultimately will be its own funeral. i dont think the industry is consumer driven either. unless you are 10 yrs old that is. small labels are right to stay away from the large companies, their methods historically are those of any large corporate structure, we ended up inside the perimeter fence when the music business decided to stop having faith in new music and fatten itself off for the big merge. lucky us. tchocky

SUBMITTED BY: MARK CUNNINGHAM from AUSTRALIA

QUESTION:
Alternative media seems to be a better way to access a wider range of info on sensitive global issues rather than through the media monopolies. Do you feel that alternative media outlets have a significant impact on the way we view the world today?

ANSWER:
yes. it never ceases to amaze me how shit mainstream news has become. dismissing WTO and the iMF protesters as ignorant trouble makers or anarchists or some such bullshit will some day in the future look very daft. tchock

SUBMITTED BY: MARK CUNNINGHAM from AUSTRALIA

QUESTION:
how effective do you think the current anti-globalisation protests - including anti-WTO and -WEF protests, are in in altering the way the large corporations and governments operate? Do you think community-based activism has a significant impact?

ANSWER:
i dont think it is any way altering the way that large corporations operate because i think they are mostly stupid enough to still believe they can fob people off with expensive public relations. governments? i dont know in this country there are laws that may soon be passed making legitimate legal protest into terrorist activity, i wonder what 'the thief' will come up with in the US................ but this is all encouraging from the point of view that obviously they feel there to be a genuine threat out there. tchocky

SUBMITTED BY: MARK CUNNINGHAM from AUSTRALIA

QUESTION:
Third World debt relief is a huge issue these days, with calls from Bono, Michael Stipe and yourselves to cancel all unpayable third world debt. Do you actually envisage this ever being achieved? Do you think the G8 will ever bow to the pressure to act on this?

ANSWER:
yes. i think so. what it demands now is for the G8 to admit the reason they are holding on to indirect debts through the IMF/WOrld Bank et all is because they are still rather fond of the political and economic influence the has afforded them. consiquently the indebted countries should use their political weight to resist such influence, they should form their own union against such blatant bully tactics. it is bullshit to say the west cannot afford debt cancellation and they know it. tchocky

SUBMITTED BY: Brooke McIntosh from Kansas City

QUESTION:
i just wanted to say that your music is like a 7th grader who plays with science. no forumulas, just a mess. and that's a good thing. it's like those drawings that 5th grade boys make of spaceships or cars from the future. there's so many parts and labels and detail it's interesting to look at, but it's so unreal. it's fucking wonderful you it's like listening to a kid sing to himself when he thinks no one is listening. okay do you feel grown up, like adults? i don't want to sound like an ass, i don't think your music sounds juvenile at all, but definately not um adult i guess. i dont' know. nevermind, just wanted you to know your music makes me feel happy. makes me want to grab some crayons.

ANSWER:
ha ha you should see our studio. or our new drawings and paintings. or jonny infront of his huge patchbay. or colin staring at the screen for hours on end. tchocky

SUBMITTED BY: Sean Wong from Hong Kong

QUESTION:
Tell us something about your forthcoming album.

ANSWER:
i read that the gnostics believe when we are born we are forced to forget where we have come from in order to deal with the trauma of arriving in this life. i thought this was really fascinating. its like the river of forgetfulness. it may have been recorded at same time as `Kid a but it comes from a different place i think. i used to listen to it on my laptop on tour supposedly trying to find a running order but really becuase i was so happy to have soemhting we had done that nobody else had heard and was our secret. it sounds like finding an old chest in someones attic with all these notes and maps and drawings and descriptions of going to a place you cannot remember. thats what i think anyway tchocky

SUBMITTED BY: HSNNHAL HSNNHAL from Hong Kong

QUESTION:
Many artists have been involved in making music for movies, like Bono for "Million Dollar Hotel", Bjork "Dancer in the Dark"....... Have you ever thought of producing a movie and the music to it? Any other parts of the movie production process you're interested in?

ANSWER:
I've just got back from Park City, Utah, where the Sundance Film Festival was held. I saw Jamie Thrave's " the low down ", and also Jonathan Glazer's " Sexy Beast ", ( en route, not at the festival ). I went to see " Scratch ", about turntablism, but they gave our tickets away! So it was frustrating to see film because of the demand and small seating numbers. So I spent most of the days learning how to snowboard, which involved falling on my arse alot...The good stuff that came out was meeting film makers and music supervisors ( they put film makers and musicians together in a matchmaking kind of way), and letting people know we were interested in cool projects. It's such a time consuming and completely different field that I don't think we'd ever do anything in the ' production ' thing...but it's true that a screenwriter often has the soundtrack in their head when they write a cool movie, like Anderson's ( i think ) " Magnolia ", and if we were in their head and we liked the idea, then that would be great. What we hated was being tacked on to some soundtrack to an ' action ' movie that would include, say, the Cardigans (no disrepect ), or whoever would appeal to a middle america demographic to sell cds and bums on seats. I know Jonny is interested in doing some scoring, but again the time commitment is a big deal, so maybe a strong short would be a good first experience. Ed thought that it would be interesting having to work to someone else's vision - the director - since we've never done that, and that could be an interesting discipline. Or maybe a nightmare!

SUBMITTED BY: Stephen Kwok from Hong Kong

QUESTION:
Which of your songs are you least satisfied with?

ANSWER:
the unfinished ones without words. tchocky

SUBMITTED BY: Koen Kwan from Hing Kong

QUESTION:
If you could only bring 1 and only 1 CD to the moon (with your discman, of course!), what would it be?

ANSWER:
if you listen to any piece of music long enough it will drive you insane. therefor it would have to be a programmed DVD that would create randomnly.

SUBMITTED BY: Old Wife from Rocklands

QUESTION:
The arts have always expressed the salt-of-the-earth's version of life, the universe, everything and nothing... do you feel radiohead's simplicity is over-scrutinsed as being some kind of sinister, political marketing plan and any plans to do a u turn (musically, in the media) in the future to make life easier for yourselves in the public eye? (p.s. personally hope not, i like you evolving and like being continually surprised but musicians have been worn down in the past...) ARTS NOT ARMS!

ANSWER:
if it was so well thought out and planned it would be shite and none of us would have bothered. i would love to make my life easier in the public eye, maybe then i would nt get these pains in my stomach and be short of breath and wake in the middle of the night with these fucked up thoughts going through my head. and maybe evrybody gets worn down in the end. amd there is nothing the british like better than sticking the knife in. its infectious. we all have it. proffesional lifestyle opinion demographic tail chasing bullshit. tchocky:)

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