Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and his long-time artist collaborator, Stanley Donwood, give fans a behind-the-scenes look at many of their famous artworks in a new short film.
Donwood and Yorke have been working together to create Radiohead’s album artwork since 1995’s The Bends. Ahead of an auction at Christie’s in London featuring six of Donwood’s Kid A–era paintings, Yorke and Donwood came together to discuss their creative partnership.
“When I met him, first day I thought, ‘I’m either really going to hate this bloke or I’m going to end up working with him forever’,” said Yorke, who, at 53, appears to be in his prime.
The video tells the story behind several of Donwood’s original paintings, which were later digitally modified to form the album artwork. Yorke previously told The Guardian of how he and Donwood were obsessed with the Worldwatch Institute website when creating the Kid A artwork.
“[It] was full of scary statistics about icecaps melting, and weather patterns changing,” he said. “At the time these things were being talked about a little, but they weren’t the obsession they are now.
“We became obsessed with it, and it ended up inspiring us to use an image of a mountain range on the cover of the record.”
Take a look at the film below. Last month, Radiohead released the Kid A and Amnesiac outtake, ‘If You Say The Word’. The triple-album compilation, KID A MNESIA, is due out this November to mark the 21st anniversary of Kid A.
