Last week, O'Brien unveiled his latest EOB single, "Cloak of the Night" featuring Laura Marling. It followed his earlier releases "Olympik", "Shangri-La" and "Brasil".
In a new interview with NME, O'Brien has spoken about his decision to pursue a solo project. He says that approval from his friends and wife urged him to pursue it, and adds, "If I don’t do this, a part of me will die."
When asked if he's approached Radiohead's Thom Yorke for advice on how to be a leader, O'Brien replies, "No, I haven’t. How do you ask one of the best frontmen for advice? I probably should the next time I see him! It’s funny – I don’t think any of us have sought advice from each other on our external projects. We just do our thing."
On future Radiohead material, he adds, "We’re an ongoing band and have online meetings – there was a Zoom call recently. We’re talking about stuff, but for the foreseeable future everyone is doing their own thing. When it feels right to plug back into Radiohead, then we will."
Discussing plans for the 20th anniversaries of Kid A and Amnesiac, EOB says, "Due to the nature of it, I can’t fully reveal anything - but there have been talks about ways of doing something. Everything gets thrown up in the air with coronavirus, so a lot of ideas are being mooted. It would be nice to honour it, but then there’s the struggle - how can you get that excited about an album that came out 20 years ago? I can’t. I’m thankful it was a moment and know that it means a lot to people, but it was a long time ago."
EOB's album was written and recorded over five years during the creation and touring of Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool LP. It'll feature contributions from bassist Nathan East, drummers Omar Hakim and Glenn Kotche, The Invisible’s David Okumu, and Portishead’s Adrian Utley.
