Nigel Godrich
The Smile Builds an Alternate Universe Radiohead on A Light for Attracting Attention
Fifty-nine seconds into “The Same,” the first track from The Smile’s debut release A Light for Attracting Attention, the unmistakable voice of Thom Yorke begins singing about how “we are all the same” atop a sci-fi pulse of piano, acoustic guitar, and analog synthesizers. There’s no easy release from the tension of the song’s slowly creeping dread, and it soon begs an important question: how is an album with Radiohead’s singer, lead guitarist, and producer actually not, well, a Radiohead album? The answer lies somewhere in between Jonny Greenwood’s simple desire to work on something — anything — with Yorke during the lockdown era of the COVID-19 pandemic and a larger philosophical debate about the evolution of Radiohead’s music in the past 15 years. Both are reflected throughout the superl...
The Smile Revels in Creepy Stop-Motion on ‘Thin Thing’ Video
The Radiohead side-project The Smile has unveiled yet another new song, “Thin Thing,” ahead of the Friday (May 13) release of their anticipated debut album, A Light for Attracting Attention. The track is accompanied by a creepy, black and white stop-motion animation video directed by Cristobal Leon and Joaquín Cocina, which features vintage technology being destroyed by an unseen force, severed arms crawling across the ground and the disembodied heads of Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and Tom Skinner doubling as the tops of barren trees. [embedded content][embedded content] Leon and Cocina spent six months assembling the video, of which they said, “Hearing the song for the first time, we imagined a frenetic fluid that carries machines, pieces of human bodies and carnivorous plants. When prese...
Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood to Debut New Band the Smile During Glastonbury Livestream
Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood have formed a new band with drummer Tom Skinner and producer Nigel Godrich called the Smile. The quartet, which got its name from a Ted Hughes poem, is slated to make its debut tonight during Glastonbury’s ticketed Live At Worthy Farm livestream event today. “We’re truly honoured that Thom and Jonny have chosen our livestream event to premiere their brand new project, The Smile,” Glastonbury co-organizer Emily Eavis said in a statement. “Sadly, we are all unable to gather together at Worthy Farm, but alongside sets from other wonderful performers, this has all the makings of a special Glastonbury moment – and one we can broadcast to the world.” Yorke and Godrich have been longtime collaborators. Aside from producing all of Radiohead...
