LIVE: Move Into Friday with Special Guest Ed O'Brien | Morning Becomes Eclectic

Ajouté : 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]Washington.

[00:00:01]>> And support for NPR News comes from Duck Duck.Go, where believe who believes AI should be optional and private. That's why they created Duck.ai, where users can chat privately with AI, no tracking.

[00:00:14]Learn more at duck.ai.

[00:00:17]Hey gang, stand up for KCRW is back. We got another hot show for you. We have Steve Fury, Macy Issacs, Ray Laauo, and Janesh Rollins. Plus, from NPR's Prairie Home Companion, Tom Papa. It'll be more fun than Cash Patel has in the Poodle Room this Sunday at the world famous Comedy Store. Get your tickets at kcrw.com/standup.

[00:00:48]KCRW DJ Silva here inviting you to lock in tomorrow night and every weekend for KCRW's Saturday night dance party. I'm your DJ from 6:00 to 8:00 with the very best in electronic music guaranteed to get you moving. So, listen live to KCRW's Saturday night dance party tomorrow night starting at 6:00 only on 89.9 KCRW and the KCRW app.

[00:01:34]And good morning. This is 89.9 KCRW. I'm Novina Carmel here with you for morning becomes eclectic. We're also live on YouTube. YouTube.com/kcrw.

[00:01:45]It is Friday. Very excited about that.

[00:01:47]But we're bringing you some Friday energy throughout the morning, especially in this moment. We're going to kick things off with German duo. I think it's Coo. I've never quite nailed down quite how to say their name. It's C O EO all in caps. Absolutely love this one, and it's Brazilian flavor. Right afterwards, we're going to hear a track that has Brazilian flavor from Ed O'Brien, who is our special guest today.

[00:02:09]You may know him from his own solo projects including Blue Morpho out now or perhaps as a member of the band Radio Head. We've got a lot to talk about and he's going to share some songs that have meaning to him from other artists. So be here for all of that. Tune in, let us know where you're listening and are watching from on the YouTube and let's enjoy this Friday morning or maybe Friday evening depending on what time zone you're in. It's KCRW.

[00:03:23]Hey. Hey.

[00:03:25]She'll know. Say hey. Hey.

[00:03:49]for heyouble.

[00:04:20]No saving.

[00:04:51]Hey, hey, hey.

[00:05:09]Fore.

[00:05:40]Nal everybody.

[00:07:13]Sunny days and sunny days and sunny days away.

[00:07:24]Sunny days and sunny days and sunny days away me.

[00:07:55]Spirit of the rising sun. Lift me up and keep me warm in your embrace.

[00:08:06]Every day a symphony. The birds are singing heavenly.

[00:08:12]resue me.

[00:08:16]And if the soul rise here anymore and the soul here anymore. Oh, there we go.

[00:08:50]So I got heat.

[00:09:34]Thank you for the tiny wind days and then you fly away.

[00:09:44]Thank you for the autumnist that cloaks young lovers as they kiss. Thank you for the kiss.

[00:09:55]Thank you for the golden night. So we all dance in love and light. Thank you for this night and seek you for this troubled time to feel the grace in all of life. Thank you for this time.

[00:10:28]Police.

[00:10:30]Notice she was here anymore.

[00:10:58]And if the sun won't rise here anymore.

[00:11:01]Amen.

[00:12:06]Praise God. Mhm.

[00:12:51]of God.

[00:12:59]Heat. Heat.

[00:13:09]Heat.

[00:13:33]Hey. Hey. Hey.

[00:13:36]Mhm.

[00:14:36]Heat. Heat.

[00:14:47]Heat. Heat. N.

[00:15:38]What a track right there.

[00:15:43]This morning becomes eclectic here on 89.9 KCRW. That one's called Obriado from Ed O'Brien's second solo album, Blue Morpho, out now. And uh there was a few singles that were released from the album. It didn't include that one, but once the album was out, I was like, "Oh, this is my new favorite. So beautiful."

[00:16:02]And you also know Ed O'Brien as founding member, guitarist, songwriter, atmospheric texture crafter in the band Radio Head, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019, and so on and so on. And obri means thank you in Portuguese and obligado for being here.

[00:16:20]Ed O'Brien obri to >> to my brain is like oh my god there's so many things happening. So you're here with us right now that beautiful track.

[00:16:30]H >> the closer of your new album blue morpho which I think may be one of my top albums of the year. I'm going to call it right now. We at the end we're required to share with people our like top 10 or our top 30. So that one is in there for me.

[00:16:44]>> Beautiful. Um, and that song is such a trip like midway through it just totally changes.

[00:16:49]>> Yeah.

[00:16:50]>> Into something else. Tell me about that track.

[00:16:54]It >> it starts it I mean the the the sentiment of the track comes from obviously Thank you.

[00:17:00]>> Mhm.

[00:17:01]>> And I was This album came from a sort of a dark period. I went to this dark place and I came through it and came back out into the light and I was just the gratitude that I had in so many ways, not only for my life but for what I'd been through. You know, I think these dark periods if we can sit in them and we learn and we we heal and we process why we were, you come out the other side and you're healed and you feel more whole. And I just had and I do still have this overwhelming feeling of gratitude. And and another thing I mean there are lots of things that sort of go into it. The other thing was um I've sort of been a bit of I have a I've quite I have a strong kind of spiritual foundation and it's I'm not a Buddhist but I really resonate with a lot of Buddhist principles and one of them being reincarnation and this idea that we enter our soul into the phys the soul enters this physical form and when we die the the soul leaves the physical body and I you know if you read about near-death experiences what people experience This is what this is what they they say.

[00:18:11]>> Mhm.

[00:18:12]>> So I just had this feeling. So what am I for what am I going to feel like when when my soul leaves my physical body?

[00:18:19]This will happen to all of us. What's that going to be like? Cuz I had this image of sort of the soul coming out the top of your head and sort of floating up. And I just that end part that the the first part of the song is kind of rooted in kind of the joy of the beauty of the planet and this Brazil and dancing and then and then you drift up and then what what do you see? And I just I had this I my music is very visual when I connect with it for me >> and I just saw this unbelievable beautiful planet this home Gia >> this earth that we live on. She's so beautiful >> and she's she's she's magical. So I just had this feeling of I'm just going to have so much gratitude for having lived a life on this planet with all the you know and I've lived an incredible had an incredible life but all the challenges as well and all the people I love and even all the people who I didn't love who challenged me you learn from them right so so I felt like this I wanted a it was just a song of gratitude >> yeah I love that idea there is inspiration everywhere whether it's you're inspired um of what you do love or what you disl It's like, you know, >> exactly. It's all part of it. If you loved everything, there wouldn't there wouldn't be the contrast, right?

[00:19:31]>> Yeah. The contrast is important.

[00:19:33]>> Yeah. Super important.

[00:19:34]>> Um, and you've spent a good amount of time in in Brazil itself, too, right?

[00:19:38]>> Yeah.

[00:19:38]>> Yeah. I mean, how did you you've lived there for a while?

[00:19:40]>> Yeah, we lived there. Me and my family, my little family went out there in 2012 and we lived there for 6 months and we lived on a little on the edge of a little farm next to a Kashwara, a waterfall and the kids were like six and eight and they went to the little village school. No one could speak English there. So it was this big adventure. We lived on the edge of the Matcha Atlantica, the rainforest.

[00:20:01]>> And it was, you know, the the the nature there is so extraordinary. And the monkeys and the trees and the bees and the butterflies and the and you know, the blue morpho, that's what we saw in the birds.

[00:20:14]>> So the blue morpho is a sort of butterfly, right? And that's what you named your album after.

[00:20:18]>> Yeah. and and that the track Blue Morpho is all about the time living in these hills and it was it was just a magical time, you know, >> we had a my wife and I had have a such a love for Brazil for we, you know, for me it started with the with the soccer and and music.

[00:20:35]>> Yeah.

[00:20:36]>> And we've gone there a lot and then we were like, well, >> you know, I think it was at the end of a tour and I said to the guys in the band, I said, 2013, I'm taking a year off cuz I want to have an adventure with my family. and we decided we're going to live in Brazil and it was kind of the greatest thing we've done.

[00:20:52]>> It was such a magical time and and you know I I left a part of my heart there >> you know I left it in those hills with those people and so it's >> it's always in there and I love Brazilian music.

[00:21:05]>> Yeah.

[00:21:05]>> The salaj with the joy and exactly >> I'm getting excited right now. I want to go straight to Brazil after this. Have you been recently?

[00:21:14]>> I was there at Christmas in Baya. Ah, >> which is just the greatest place on the planet.

[00:21:19]>> The greatest place. No, truly. Like, if you're listening right now and you're thinking, "Where do I need to go?" It is Brazil. It's It's beautiful. It It has like every single thing that our senses enjoy. From the way the food tastes to the climate to the feeling of the people being so warm and fun and easygoing. The language is like one of my most favorite languages in the world, particularly the way it's spoke in Brazil. Yeah.

[00:21:46]>> Um, and like you said, the music. So, um, I I share that love for you so much.

[00:21:50]How how similar, Ed, was Brazil, um, to where you grew up.

[00:21:57]>> I mean, if you could have the the direct opposite, you know, I grew up in Oxford and and you know, like I said, Brazil was so good for me because you know what the British are like and you Americans know what the British are like. We're so zipped up, right?

[00:22:11]>> Just a different way of being.

[00:22:13]>> Yeah. But we're so zipped up, right? But I always say that Brazil I needed to go to Brazil because I I started the unzipping >> and and I think that's what what the the the the >> literally and figuratively >> and and Oxford where I come from is a very very academic city obviously the university it's like the Harvard of >> so it's all about the mind and I you know you realize what you resonate as you get older. I'm a heart person that's where I that's I'm a heart and soul person. you are a heart >> and that for me and I and and that's just how I am and but I Britain wasn't a heart and soul place growing up. So going to Brazil was just like oh I can be like this. this is cool. And it it it was just a it was just a way of I I guess it was a kind of validating how I felt and and it was so good to go from somewhere like Britain and and I love the for me also I love the whole spiritual dynamic in in Brazil, you know, you know, I love the way I I always loved um I know he was from Colombia, but Gabriel Garcia Marquez his his work his his his books and that whole magical realism Yeah.

[00:23:19]>> Where you have the world of spirit and the world of matter and they sort of coexist and entwine. And in Brazil, when we went to Brazil, that's how it was.

[00:23:29]And and that's how I resonate and I really resonate with that.

[00:23:33]>> So yeah, it's it's it's funny when you when you when you go to a country and you go like I I've never been here before, but this kind of feels like home, >> you know?

[00:23:43]>> Yeah.

[00:23:44]>> So yeah. So take us back a bit as we start listening to some of the songs you're sharing. Um speaking of your childhood, a song that has held a new meaning for you currently that you know from your childhood.

[00:23:57]>> Yeah, it was funny when I went to this sort of dark place. I I sort of I I had this kind of ground zero with music. I kind of I I remember in that first lockdown I was listening to the radio and I heard a sort of you know a song that was beautiful song by a band who were huge inspiration to radio head and I had this thing like I don't need to hear that song again and in a way it was about the music that I'd done I was done with get I basically think the genre of music that I came from >> and I was trying to find so what happened was I sort of didn't listen I just listened to bird song I was side and listened to bird song for weeks and didn't want to listen to any music and then I gradually music came back in and listened to a lot of jazz, you know, I was listening to Cold Train, a lot of Brazilian music, >> but also classical music and this this piece of music that I've I've chosen is I sang in and I realized I had this I s I had this very classical musical upbringing like I sang in a choir until I was 13 until I thought it was uncool >> and I went to my new school and faked the voice test and I pretended I But I had all these >> Well, you pretend you faked the voice.

[00:25:07]What does that mean? Like, >> well, you know, the piano teach the the teacher would play a note on play a G or something. I go, uh, >> on purpose. Bad >> on purpose. And he said, we're not having you in the choir. I was like, good. I can I can go and smoke cigarettes and do, you know. Um, but I one of the most extraordinary. So I sang in this choir and one of the most formative experiences I had was as a as a I was a soprano before my voice broke as a treble >> singing in this singing in this cathedral in Mulvin in Worcester in Britain >> and it was this midnight per midnight it was this candle lit performance >> of for recquam and that was a piece that really helped me during this >> this during this you know dark time I was in but also connected me to my childhood and I was just oh my god I had all these I'd sort of locked away all these amazing kind of >> experiences with classical music because you know when you're a teenager I was like I'm done with that I want to you know I want to listen to Echo and the Bunny Man I want to listen to the Smiths you know >> but that it was this remembrance of this time and and you know and as a as a n as an 11-year-old kid you're just you're excited about the day out and you're kind of playing with your mates and you're you know you're in the stalls you're with the choir and you're kind of But when something penetrates when you have a transcendent moment when you're 11 years old singing it suddenly it's just like oh my god this is amazing. So this piece of music is is the I think it's like the closing piece of foray's reququum and it's so so beautiful.

[00:26:39]>> Let's check this one out. You're tuned in to Morning Becomes Eclectic on 89.9 KCRW. We're here with Ed O'Brien. You know him from the band Radio Head and also his solo work. His album Blue Morpho is out now.

[00:27:06]to God.

[00:27:25]So she So Sh.

[00:29:05]to This morning becomes eclectic here on 89.9 KCRW. Oh, how beautiful was that one? Happy Friday to you. We're going to continue here with our guest Ed O'Brien, whose new album Blue Morpho is out now.

[00:30:36]Support comes from Clean Power Alliance.

[00:30:38]Their programs are designed to help customers save money and our communities thrive. Whether it's solar battery rebates, resiliency projects, EV charging incentives, or help lowering the electricity bill. Clean Power Alliance makes it easy to find programs right for each customer. Change is electric. Visit cleanpoweralliance.org/programs to learn more.

[00:30:59]I'm Evan Klyman. This week on Good Food.

[00:31:02]Ever wonder where the food scraps in your green bin are going? We've got the answer. Good food tomorrow and Sunday at 10 on 89.9 KCRW.

[00:31:13]KCRW sponsors include Focus Features presenting Pressure, the untold true story of D-Day. As two massive storms threaten the largest sea invasion in history, Eisenhower faces an impossible choice. Starring Brendan Fraser and Andrew Scott. now playing only in theaters.

[00:31:29]>> Thanks so much for joining us here for our Friday of Morning Becomes Eclectic.

[00:31:32]We're live from KCRWHQ. We're also on YouTube right now, youtube.com/kcrw where you can see what live radio looks like. Our special guest today, Ed O'Brien. His album Blue Morpho just was released and it's absolutely gorgeous.

[00:31:47]We've been talking about it and some of the inspiration uh that he's had along the way. So Ed, you're in the early to mid 80s. I mean, continuing with your childhood, you're attending a boy school in England, and you meet some fellow musicians, Philip Cellway, Colin Greenwood, Johnny Greenwood, Tom York, and you form a band called On a Friday.

[00:32:07]>> Today is a Friday.

[00:32:08]>> Yes, because we used to rehearse on a Friday.

[00:32:11]>> And that was the reason you called your band that, right?

[00:32:13]>> Yeah. Very original.

[00:32:15]>> Sometimes you just got to grab what's right in front of you.

[00:32:17]>> Yeah. And we did, right?

[00:32:20]>> What skill level were you all at when you were in started the band? Well, I was on if on a scale of 1 to 10, I was probably on a 0.25, >> but with a with a desire like a 10. Tom was he was always like that. He was always the the kid at school who could really play guitar.

[00:32:38]>> Yeah.

[00:32:38]>> Um, and Cos was he was uh he was a classical guitarist, but he was always he I think he played he played in a band with Tom. Johnny was three four years younger than me. He was like a music scholar. M.

[00:32:53]>> So he was and then Philip had played drums for he played in a he was in the coolest school band up until that time and they were called Jungle Telegraph and he played drums and sang.

[00:33:03]>> Oh, at the same time.

[00:33:05]>> Same same time.

[00:33:06]>> Um, so yeah, I had to pull my socks up.

[00:33:10]>> Yeah, sounds like it. And were you at that point still hiding the fact that you had an angelic voice?

[00:33:17]>> Yeah, I think I was. I think I've done a lot of hiding >> really.

[00:33:23]>> Well, yeah. I mean, uh there's always moments that uh we remember who we really are, you know, once we've hidden those parts. So, I think like as long as you can um get back to it at some point, >> then you're on the right track.

[00:33:36]>> It's interesting, isn't it? Because as you get older, you find I mean, you know, and I been through the process of being a father and you know, being a father is the most and and a parent is the most extraordinary experience. I mean, it's it's it's been amazing. And now my kids are coming out the other side and I've had so many learnings and I'm actually at the moment I'm like I'm trying to figure out who I am. And a lot of a lot of it is kind of like going back. It's like, oh yeah, that's so you're right. There's a lot of stuff that we, you know, habits and things that we take on that are coping mechanisms, right, from childhood. And so, yeah, I'm it's interesting with the vocal thing because it you have to it's like you have to inhabit it. You can't you c you can't sort of go in halfass on it and and it it it demands a sort of uh you have to be allin >> and because the thing is with it with with singing and all singers will know this it's you know guitarists you can you know you can it's not the voice it's the fingers it come you know it's through your body or whatever. Same with keyboards. But your voice, the voice doesn't lie.

[00:34:41]>> You know, >> you can hear when someone's not confident.

[00:34:43]>> You know, and you know that and you know when you're singing and partly what I was trying to find out in the studio is trying to how do I get to that place where how do I get to that place where I connect with what I'm singing, you know, and so it's for me it's the start of a new journey really.

[00:34:57]>> I mean and your voice does sound so beautiful on your album.

[00:35:00]>> Well, thank you.

[00:35:01]>> Yes.

[00:35:02]>> I'm glad you've unzipped that part of your soul.

[00:35:04]>> I am unzipping.

[00:35:06]>> A constant unzipping. Yeah. So, um, let's take it back to I mean your band on a Friday would then become Radio Head, but when you were still on a Friday, what's a song that helped inspired the sound that you were creating?

[00:35:18]>> Well, we all had our kind of little fftoms of areas that we love. So, Philillip was really and we were all into these bands, but I remember he was particularly into the beat who you guys knew as the English Beat.

[00:35:29]>> Colin was really he was Joy Division.

[00:35:33]>> We love We all loved these bands. Tom was >> M. M >> I was the Smiths, Johnny was the Fall, but I I over overlapped a lot withm and we all did. And I remember so the track that I've chosen as an RM track and when document came out in 1987, I just gone to Manchester University to well I went to Manchester because of the Smiths and New Order and the Housei Enda Nightclub.

[00:35:59]I didn't go for any kind of academic ambition. I went purely because I was in this band and I was like I need to be in a city that has a great music scene. A bit like if I gone to Detroit or somewhere, >> you know, and I need I wanted to learn.

[00:36:12]So I immersed myself in the you know I I put on gigs. I promoted a night I did a night. Oh wow. Yeah. I did all this stuff cuz I wanted to learn. Mhm.

[00:36:21]>> But that first September or October of uh ' 87, I came back and I remember the RM album was released, document was released on the Monday and Tom lived in the same village as I did and I I think I came back for a dental appointment in in a little town called Whitney.

[00:36:39]>> So I said to Tom, should we go to the Outpric Records in Whitney and we'll get the RM album document. both got the vinyl on the first morning on the Monday because we were so excited because we loved Life Switch Pageant. I mean, you know, the albums that preceded it were were and and Murmur is like one of my favorite albums. So, >> yeah, it's been amazing and like part of the journey, our journey was that we actually got to tour with RM and, you know, became friends and Tom and Michael are super tight and super close and Michael's been really was really helpful for Tom in, you know, becoming the Tom Yorkers we all know and love now. those, you know, and and and that those kind of growing pains.

[00:37:16]>> So, yeah, it's it's it's been a it's been a pretty amazing. And they were our heroes.

[00:37:20]>> Yeah. I know. Isn't that crazy when uh you get to meet and collaborate with your heroes?

[00:37:25]>> Yeah. At some point, you have to kind of like not be nervous anymore, too, right?

[00:37:28]>> I Yeah. I mean, it's funny. I was such a nerd the first time I met Peter Buck because he was a big guitar hero of mine. And I remember it was like the second show we did with them and it was they'd done their set and stuff and they we're sort of hanging out and I I you know when you cringe in life and you look back on why did I do that >> every day?

[00:37:45]>> Oh, okay. Yeah, exactly. And I just went up to Peter and I bombarded him with questions about Murmur >> and I was like that track uh on uh on Sitting Still, how what was is that a double track guitar? Thankfully Peter is a music nerd as well. So He was happy to like, oh, this guy knows him.

[00:38:05]>> Yeah. He's like, you know, >> he knows this. Yeah, exactly. I'm like, yeah, yeah. And that. Yeah. So, yeah.

[00:38:10]>> So, what song should we hear from that album?

[00:38:12]>> I think the first one, finest work song.

[00:38:14]It's just an amazing opener and it's a kind of the perfect statement of intent.

[00:38:17]>> Do you remember how much that album cost when you bought it on the first day it was out back in the day?

[00:38:22]>> O, I think it was like £5.99. £5.99.

[00:38:25]>> Here's from 1987 RM finest work song.

[00:38:28]Our guest today is Ed O'Brien. It's KCRW.

[00:38:42]The time to rise has been engaged.

[00:38:47]We're better to rearrange.

[00:38:53]I'm talking here to be alone.

[00:38:58]I listen to the finest work song.

[00:39:06]Your finest hour.

[00:39:13]The finest hour.

[00:39:27]Another chance has been engaged to throw the rope.

[00:39:35]Rearrange.

[00:39:38]You are following this time. I beg you not beg to the finest hour.

[00:39:58]The finest hour take your instinct by the rain.

[00:40:17]You're better to rearrange what we want and what we need has been confused.

[00:40:30]Been confused.

[00:40:36]The finest hour.

[00:40:43]The finest hour.

[00:41:07]Take your instinct by the rings.

[00:41:13]Better best. Rearrange.

[00:41:18]What we want and what we need has been confused.

[00:41:26]Been confused.

[00:41:31]The finest hour finest hour.

[00:41:44]The finest hour.

[00:41:50]The finest hour.

[00:42:18]Oh yes, RM right there. It's morning becomes the eclectic final uh finest work song is the name of that track as selected by our guest today Ed O'Brien.

[00:42:27]We got some more selections and chat with him. Stay close. Support comes from the Bowowers Museum presenting the American Quilt Cloth and Commerce on View through August 30th. As America approaches its 250th anniversary, discover how quilts help tell the story of a nation from the Revolutionary era to today. Featuring more than 40 historic quilts and coverlets, this colorful exhibition explores the fabrics, dyes, and innovations that shaped generations of American life, industry, and creativity. On view now, tickets at bowers.org.

[00:43:01]KCRW DJ Silva here inviting you to lock in tomorrow night and every weekend for KCRW's Saturday night dance party. I'm your DJ from 6:00 to 8:00 with the very best in electronic music guaranteed to get you moving. So, listen live to KCRW's Saturday night dance party tomorrow night starting at 6:00 only on 89.9 KCRW and the KCRW app.

[00:43:30]>> There are lots of reasons to love life in LA. Just ask Margaret.

[00:43:35]>> I love living in LA. I love the nature.

[00:43:38]I love the culture. I love the people. I love hikes. If I'm on my terrace, I talk to the hummingbirds in between listening to KCRW all day. I just love the community that we build here and the beauty that surrounds us. I love you, LA.

[00:43:53]>> Read more letters or submit to celebrate your LA at kcw.com/loters.

[00:44:00]>> I love LA, too, because KCRW lives here and we get to enjoy these amazing Friday mornings together. We're live here from KCRW HQ. I'm Novina Carmel here with you. Thanks so much for tuning in. We're also on YouTube. YouTube.com/kcrw.

[00:44:15]The chat is very lively. I'm seeing questions for our guest Ed O'Brien. I just saw one right now and someone asked what your favorite Smith's song is, Ed.

[00:44:24]>> Oh, I think um uh R uh what's the Oh, uh not uh Headmaster Ritual.

[00:44:32]>> Okay, there you go. Boom. We're not going to play that one right now, but that was just a last minute question that came in. Um, your new album is out now. It's called Blue Morpho, and um, as I've said, it's just beautiful. A lot of people in in the chat are saying how much they love it as well. And one of the things that I love about it is hearing it, I can really get a deeper understanding of like what it is that you did that made Radio Head beautiful, like all the textures, and I'm like, "Oh my god, that reminds me of this song or that song." And so I just think it's nice because I know like the band was very democratic as far as like, you know, everybody kind of wrote everything, made everything. It wasn't necessarily written out who did what.

[00:45:10]Um, but hearing you do your thing, it's like, okay, this is Ed's thing. I can hear him shining. Um, and then I'm also curious like since you know you were in a band where a lot of the songwriting maybe was done by somebody else, what sort of um advice you've gotten from Tom York about songwriting?

[00:45:29]>> It's really interesting because yeah, it's it's a really good question. It's funny. for years. I never asked him how he how because what he what Tom would do, he would present these musical ideas and songs and sometimes they were fully formed and sometimes they were sketches and we'd flesh it out.

[00:45:47]>> But I never asked him how he got from the initial phase to bring it to the band and I always thought they just sort of came like that.

[00:45:56]And for me, in the process of of learning how to write music myself or how to find a process, I had to learn I never asked Tom about that thing, but I had to find out myself. But once I did, I remember I was talking to I I sort it was Johnny's 50th and we were standing around a fire and I was just I thought I'm going to ask him about, you know, songwriting because he's such a maestro.

[00:46:20]Mhm.

[00:46:21]>> And I said, um, we started talking and he gave me brilliant bit of advice and it's a real, it's really practical. He said, you've got to be a good librarian because what happens is you get >> you get lots of musical ideas and they could be musical motifs. They can be anything from 15 second song, a little pattern to to something that's more fleshed out.

[00:46:45]>> But you don't always record those songs or develop them. you devel at that time you develop them when they feel right >> but you can lose you can forget what you've done so you've got to be a good librarian so you have to like make playlists you have to be have a certain order and I love that kind of >> you know he went to art school and I think one of the things about art school that they learn they teach you >> is they teach you ways of harnessing your creativity and making it flourish and making the most of it and a lot of that is purely practical have a notebook book, write it down, record it, >> review it, go back, know what you've got, you know?

[00:47:23]>> Yeah. And it's kind of like setting yourself up to be organized so then you can be free within the organization, right? That's how I feel coming in here talking to you. I organized myself and now I feel free.

[00:47:34]>> Exactly. You have a framework. Great.

[00:47:36]>> We're in the framework.

[00:47:37]>> Yeah.

[00:47:38]>> Um, so let's talk more about music. We want to ask you uh we could talk forever and we're we're sort of towards the end of our time. We have about 10 more minutes left together. Share with us an artist that you feel like is an unsung hero.

[00:47:52]>> Yeah. Well, this is Samora Pinda Hughes.

[00:47:54]I don't know if you guys >> Oh, yeah. Yeah, of course.

[00:47:56]>> Bay Area. I'm also from the Bay. He's amazing.

[00:47:58]>> He's amazing.

[00:47:59]>> I've also heard his music and be like, "Oh, this reminds me of Radio Head." So, >> well, you know, funny enough, like, so when I was coming out of this sort of dark period, there's a radio show on Six Music. BBC have this channel called Six Music >> and there's a DJ and very well respected called Jars Peterson.

[00:48:14]>> We know J.

[00:48:15]>> You know J, right? Okay. Love J. And his show, you know, is like this beautifully curated three hours. It's like stepping into a musical universe like it is here.

[00:48:24]>> Oh, yeah.

[00:48:24]>> Yeah. Like the vibe and you know, >> and one of the artists he played in 2022 was Samora Pender Hughes. He played this track grief that you know you're going to play >> and and he actually, unusually for him, he played it the next week as well. And I thought it was the most perfect musical response to >> the whole co time. He had obviously his community had obviously suffered and he lost people. And this track is just mesmeriic. And it does. You're right. It feels to me like it's got a little bit.

[00:48:56]It's kind of one of those things when you hear you go, "God, I wish I'd written that." Yeah.

[00:48:59]>> It's got that very cyclical loop that is very very radiohead. And it's also kind of me. It's like I I love those cyclical and they slightly, you know, they slightly, you know, they move and they flow and they, you know, throw a note in and maybe an extra beat, but it it's just sublime. And I think he's a beautiful artist and he is and one of the great things about we we connected on um cuz I I I dropped his name when I started doing the interviews like uh two months ago and uh and he contact me. He DM'd me, you know, via Instagram and he said, "Oh, I'm a big radio fan." I'm like, "No way." You know, so it's beautiful. I love him. I think he's super talented. Saw him live last year in London, little in a little church.

[00:49:40]>> It was it was immaculate.

[00:49:42]>> Yeah, he is really special. And his voice is one of a kind, which you'll hear right now, too. Here's Samora Pendry Hughes. We're with a guest today, Ed O'Brien. It's KCRW.

[00:50:33]So long.

[00:50:38]What?

[00:50:43]I can't escape.

[00:50:46]You hold this space in my memory.

[00:50:53]Who's God?

[00:50:59]Makes sense.

[00:51:03]When I cannot face you, I looked away.

[00:51:08]You were gone from me. Nothing to say.

[00:51:14]>> Four losses in one week.

[00:51:24]Too many one more.

[00:51:34]Now I'm exhausted, but I won't leave.

[00:51:44]Cuz last night I heard you called up your phone.

[00:51:55]Death is left behind.

[00:52:00]Don't leave me alone with my dreams.

[00:52:04]I might go crazy.

[00:52:16]Check for what's left in the sur.

[00:52:21]Don't leave me alone with my dreams.

[00:52:24]>> No, don't let them take me >> tonight.

[00:52:37]I double my door. Rivers in private the floor.

[00:52:47]All of me suffers in silence of a blood.

[00:52:57]How do we always survive this? I can't see for down this well. You can't tell what sounds like sirens versus Oh, the time always goes by when you're having fun. It's morning becomes eclectic. We're listening to Samora Pender Hughes selected by our guest today, Ed O'Brien. And one of the things Samara Pender Hughes says is that his goal is for people to live differently after experiencing what he makes. Ed, what would you say? Do you have a goal for what people will do with the music that you make?

[00:53:37]>> Wow, you got me on the spot. I I just I mean, my thing is I feel like the older that I get, it's about service.

[00:53:49]>> You know, what we do is about service.

[00:53:50]human beings as human that's when we really resonate with that's when life becomes meaningful. So for me you know there are many elements of service but the music when it comes out serving the music and then when you play live and when you record it it's serving the song >> when the when in fact when the music comes out it's serving spirit you know because I what I do essentially you know I've realized this I I don't know how I write music but it's a it's a spiritual thing I write with God I write with spirit I'm a vessel >> so it's about serving spirit God it's serving >> you know people who want us who who who who are into this it's it's serving our planetm Mhm.

[00:54:26]>> And I think that I think for me that's the main thing and I think unfortunately the way that society is now we've lost sense of that. I think people used to think that that life was service. You know we are we are not the center of the universe. We are serving something else.

[00:54:42]So for me um I don't know if the music's going to make people think of service but that's quite grand. You know do you know what I'm saying? Well, you know, I feel like the album for me calms my soul, which is import an important service >> and it feels like a warm hug, but then it also kind of like >> tickles my curiosity about what's possible.

[00:55:05]>> So, it is definitely from my perspective, Blue Moro, the album you've created, is a service >> to the humans out here just trying to survive in this world. Um, and you also have a film for it that's coming out as well. Can you tell us about that? We got a couple minutes left. Yeah, you know, it's it's quite hard to talk about some of the themes of this record, particularly when you're British and you're unzipping.

[00:55:28]So, you know, film and images and footage can say a million things that, you know, I might struggle with. Like I'm struggling with talking about spirit because I'm a British man from Oxford, >> right?

[00:55:40]>> So, the film, you know, nature and, you know, nature is my god. That's where I really, you know, the woods are my cathedral, you know, that's where I really feel it. Um, so we did we shot this film and it's a little bit about the journey and where I was and it means I think when people see it, they get an essence of this. A lot of it is is it's all filmed in Wales where we've got a home and um it's wild and it's beautiful and it's so yeah, you I think you just get a you get a you feel the depths of where where I'm coming from without me sort of struggling for words and uming and in a no >> very British way.

[00:56:19]>> It's great. It'll be on YouTube Premium from what I understand. And what is it called again?

[00:56:23]>> It's called Blue Morpho. Um uh a film in an >> act one through three. One through three straight up. Ed O'Brien has been our guest this morning. His new album, Blue Morpho, is out now. This has been so magical. Thank you so much, Ed.

[00:56:37]>> Thank you so much. It's been so much fun.

[00:56:39]>> It's been so much fun. And uh we're going to continue with one more of his songs after news headlines from NPR right here on KCRW. I'll tell you what the prompt was for the song simply because we ran out of time. But um it's been so great having you and thanks so much for tuning in to Morning Becomes Eclectic on 89.9 KCRW. I'm Novina Carmel here with you until noon.