Four Radiohead members have been involved in side-projects in recent years, and Ed O’Brien (guitar/backing vocals) will join them by releasing his own solo album. Inspired by his relocation to Brazil, his album will be released after Radiohead’s world tour.

In an interview with BBC 6 Music, Ed O’Brien said:

“[My] kids were born in 2004 and 2006. And I said to the [Radiohead] guys: in five years’ time, me and my wife are gonna go and live in Brazil for a year. I don’t wanna put the kibosh on anything but this is something we have to do. Don’t feel you can’t make a record. Make a record without me, if I can come in later on, whatever … I’d had so many adventures with this band; I wanted to have an adventure with my family.

“So we went to live in Brazil, in the middle of the Brazilian countryside, and we lived on a little farm in basically a hut the size of this room next to a waterfall. Life was really simple. Kids went to the local school. No one could speak English, so they picked it up, the language of play and stuff. And life was reduced to its simple parts. For me, it was music and my family. And I would go each day, walk up the hill to this beautiful little hut next to this lake, and I started writing.”

Ed O’Brien was highly inspired by Brazil’s carnival culture:

“It was the greatest thing I’ve ever, ever, ever experienced in terms of music. Everyone sings. There must be 4,000 people in each samba school who parade down there, and the combination of writing music and that feeling of being there and being like, ‘Oh my god, music can be like this.’ It was so profound, so it’s fed my whole inspiration and writing. There’s an element of that joy of music. But, like a lot of Brazilian music, there’s a dark heart.”

Favourites to headline the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury 2017, Ed O’Brien could not confirm if Radiohead were definitely going to be there:

“I would love to. I go to Glastonbury every year, it’s my carnival. To be asked to play at Glastonbury again would be magic. I also think Glastonbury is like our spiritual home. It is the mother of all festivals… there’s nothing like that one… It would be great to play there.”

Watch Radiohead’s debut single ‘Creep’ (1992) below: