The brilliant Thom Yorke has had a busy 18 months. But when is he not busy?
Fresh from composing the soundtrack for Luca Guadagninoâs excellent reimagining of Suspiria last year, he flew into 2019, finishing off and releasing his third stunning solo album away from Radiohead and Atoms for Peaceâs own stellar catalog. Anima was released digitally at the end of June alongside a superb Netflix film by Paul Thomas Anderson, with a physical release coming July 19.
We caught up as he was putting the finishing touches to it earlier this year, and talked Elektron inspiration, new Radiohead albums, nuclear energy, and breaking Tomb Raider.
There was also a request for Elektronauts usersâŚ
Anima is really cool, definitely worth a watch
Great interview. Probably the first interview by Elektron from an artist I genuinely love to listen to (rather than just admire for technical ability or the likes).
Radiohead, along with Pulp and Super Furry Animals, were my gateway into music in the late 90s as I was in my mid teens and winding up for uni years. Kid A genuinely blew my mind. It still does!
Great interview! Good job Elektron
Didnât get the request for elektronauts usersâŚ
that bit definitely got me to read the article tho. Fascinating part about the dance scene in suspira
Thanks for the interview! Absolute hero. He wrote about two-thirds of the most important songs in my life
to figure out the vocoder thing on max
I was not expecting to learn about his stance on nuclear power, but I am glad I did.
âThey canât get rid of waste safely, they canât make it work financially, they canât secure it properly,â
âThere are all these solutions about localized power usage, which the government completely refuse to explore, because we have this grid system. When you make the decision to use nuclear power in the mix, you dictate this structure in a way that will work from then on, and you restrict the potential for renewables. Thatâs essentially my problem with it.â
I used to work for a utility watchdog group and these were the same arguments we made, on behalf of rate payers.
Good talk. I didnât know he used Elektron at all, let alone had such a soft spot for the monomachine. He also said heâs been using the Octatrack and never touches a manual⌠Dear God.
I do take umbrage with the statement that Radiohead is one of the first rock bands to incorporate synthsâŚThe way theyâve done it is certainly unique to them, and theyâre probably more in that world than most ârock groupsâ, but still
Beach Boysâ "I Just Wasnât Made for These Times"Pet Sounds (1966) was the first recorded use of a âsynthâ on a rock album, Moog came a long a bit later. Apparently! My expert friend Wik OâPedia tells me.
It is hard to nail down what band really integrated synths prominently to their music whilst retaining ROCK as their genre; if that is the nuance to the question.
I think there was a lot in the 70s who could claim that. CAN, Floyd, Zeppelin etc
My gut reaction is Floyd. The synth work on wish you were here and animals is out of this world. Zeppelin played with synths a bit, but Floyd incorporated them to crazy extremes (for the time).
And of course On the RunâŚ
Iâd go with Floyd too.
Silver apples (1968) did a good job too
Kid A, Amnesiac, Hail to The Thief, and the Eraser, albums i really enjoyed listening to! (and still every now and then) Nice interview, unfortunately no new (solo) albums in the works, though the soundtrack to Anima is a treat ofcourse. (correction: silly me, just found out Anima is actually Thoms latest solo Album !!! Confused by the Netflix Short)
I also was very curious about the Elektronauts Request, kinda hoped it would be some of Thomâs Multis and an Elektronaut remix compo of sorts??? So i read it a couple times over, aw shucks, no luck thereâŚ
Funny, the whole time I was listening to Anima, I was getting an Elektron vibe and wondering if he used Elektron gear. Well, thereâs my answer.
Oddly enough, I thought I was hearing Digitone FM sounds, and thatâs the one piece of gear that wasnât mentioned.
Same. I swear I can hear the DN all over that record. 
Anyone know if thereâs any Machinedrum on The Eraser? Always got that vibe from it
maybe thats MNM?
Yes, and not only, he has been playing the machinedrum for a while, also w/radiohead, and live with his piano or other electronic devices