We’re in the middle of the biggest Radiohead drought in the iconic band’s history: Their most recent album, A Moon Shaped Pool, came out in 2016, over eight years ago at this point. Inversely, The Smile, a new project featuring Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, has been particularly active: The trio, which also includes Tom Skinner, just released Cutouts, their second album of the year and third since 2022.
This situation might leave fans wondering what Radiohead’s deal is. Well, Yorke doesn’t especially feel like he owes anybody any explanations, he indicated in a new interview with Australia’s ABC News.
As far as prioritizing The Smile over Radiohead these days, Yorke said, “No offense to anyone and err, thanks for caring. But I think we’ve earned the right to do what makes sense to us without having to explain ourselves or be answerable to anyone else’s historical idea of what we should be doing.”
He went on to add, “I don’t think we feel the need to live up to anything. That feels like a non-problem. We are in this privileged position where we are still able to make music because of Radiohead, so no complaints.”
Check out the full interview here.