Classic Desert Island Discs - Thom Yorke

Lauren Laverne· Host0:00

Lauren Laverne here. We're taking our Easter break, so until we're back on air, we're showcasing a few programs from our archive. As usual, the music's been shortened for rights reasons. This week's guest is the musician Thom Yorke. I cast him away in 2019. [waves crashing] [classical music] You know you're in trouble when people stop listening to sad music because they're turning themselves off. So speaks this week's castaway, Thom Yorke, and if anyone would know, it's him. Along with his bandmates in Radiohead, he has expanded ideas about what pop music can be and what it can do. As a child, he learned to play the guitar and then built his own. He wrote his first song at 11 about an atomic bomb, and has been performing in a band since his school days. Radiohead have endured for 34 years, been critically acclaimed the world over, and sold over 30 million albums. Beyond the band, Thom has continued to push boundaries as a solo artist and now as a composer. He recently created his first classical piece, Don't Fear the Light, and scored the horror film Suspiria. He says, "When an artist starts repeating themselves because they think that's what people want, it's all over. All I've done with the band is try and create enough of a space of safety around what we're doing