(Paris) Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, two brains of Radiohead, join forces with Tom Skinner, drummer of the Sons of Kemet, a pioneering formation: here is The Smile, a new group that is bringing smiles back to the rock planet.
Posted at 11:26
Their album, which comes out this Friday, is called A light for attracting attention. “A light to attract attention”: one could not find a better title for this album, one of the most exciting of the year.
It all started with Jonny Greenwood, whom Thom Yorke had not seen for a long time and who brought him a “lot of ideas” as the singer confided in one of his rare media outings, in the podcast Smartless.
And Yorke plunged back into the creative pot with relish. Making music “gets me up in the morning and probably always will, unless I lose my mental faculties. There is nothing else “.
“There is no ‘we have to go in this direction’, there is no aesthetic agenda. You are influenced by what you listen to. And I always buy new things in music”, slips the multi-instrumentalist again.
The fans of The bends Where OKComputer, Radiohead’s reference discs, will be on familiar ground. Yorke’s head voice touches the stars on pana vision Where The smoke. And the trio find fuel for their combustion engine on You will never work in television again. Without forgetting the rises in tension of A hairdryer.
Enough to thrill the stages of the European tour which begins on Monday, with, as usual at Yorke, dates chosen with care, off the beaten track.
“Something very nervous”
PHOTO FROM THE GROUP’S FACEBOOK PAGE
A light for attracting attention
Among the French stages, we find the Magnifique Society, a young festival based in Reims which is only in its 5and editing. “Having attended the discussions with the management, it was our artistic programming on the day that allowed us to bring them in”, tells AFP Cédric Cheminaud, director and programmer of the festival.
On June 24, The Smile will play there among a line-up that includes, among others, jazz legend Herbie Hancock and a young Canadian group, Badbadnotgood, who are reshuffling the cards between jazz and hip-hop.
“We are dealing with musicians who still take pleasure in playing in a setting where they are associated with other artists they like”, develops the manager of the Magnificent Society.
Even if Tom Skinner, the least known of the three, comes from a group that regenerates jazz to take it elsewhere, you shouldn’t foresee a peaceful set. “We expect something very nervous. The titles that have been released so far or the few rehearsal videos that we have been able to see are very energetic, very rock”, adds Cédric Cheminaud.
studio wizard
To be complete on the cast of The Smile, we must mention a man in the shadows, Nigel Godrich. This English recording studio wizard has been working on the sound architecture of Radiohead since The bends (1995) and we obviously find it behind the settings of The Smile. He has also collaborated with Beck and Paul McCartney. And he had even shown himself in the spotlight in Atoms for Peace, a super-group where he notably played keyboards alongside Yorke and Flea (bassist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers).
Godrich’s name is coming up a lot these days, as he’s also behind Arcade Fire’s return to form (We). Like Yorke, he is a maniac and an obsessive of sound research.
And as Yorke a music junkie, as he explained to the Guardian. “I can’t fall asleep if there’s music on, I can’t make love if there’s music on, because then my brain tunes into it and makes me unable to do anything. either else”.