The band that inspired Thom Yorke most of all: “They turned my life upside down”
Thom Yorke is one of the most innovative and important names in alternative music. With his distinctive falsetto vocals and devastating lyrics, he brought melancholy into the mainstream. Yorke channelled his depression into sprawling soundscapes with Radiohead before experimenting with electronic music as a soloist and with supergroup Atoms for Peace.
His ever-changing and boundary-pushing musical output brings together a wide range of influences, including Pixies and Aphex Twin, but there was one band who had a particularly potent effect on the songwriter: alternative rock pioneers R.E.M.
Yorke has openly shared his admiration for R.E.M., who were one of the first bands to show him that music could be strange. As he recalls in VinylWriters, they turned his life upside down. Before he discovered them, he recalls spending the mid-1980s listening to “bands like Japan. Music to kill time with”.
When Yorke first came across R.E.M., their impact was monumental. He said: “Then I discovered R.E.M. and it turned my life upside down. Michael Stipe was singing about his flaws and weaknesses and that it is okay to be weird. I was weird”.
He continued: “And through his songs, Stipe spoke to me, ‘It’s okay, you don’t have to justify yourself to anyone.’ Shortly after that, I signed up for art school and started to take making music seriously.”
Yorke had initially wanted to study at Oxford but ended up studying English and Fine Arts at Exeter, an experience which was particularly formative in his creative career. As he recalled during Desert Island Discs for BBC: “The art college thing just blew my mind, and without those three years, I wouldn’t have been creatively prepared for what happened after”. Yorke further explained how R.E.M. married his musicianship and artistry, stating: “When I was a kid, they were the link for me between the art student part of me and the musician part of me.”
Eventually, Stipe transitioned from Yorke’s childhood hero and inspiration to a fond friend, a shift that the Radiohead frontman still can’t quite wrap his head around: “Michael Stipe, the singer of R.E.M., was my hero, and now I’m friends with him, you know? It’s an odd thing!”
The R.E.M. frontman prompted Yorke’s art school education, showed him that music could be weird, and even guided him through the rocky paths of fame: “He helped me through the end of that period when things just went crazy, and people started talking to me like I was Jesus in the street. I would call him and say, ‘I just can’t handle it’.”
Yorke penned his own deeply personal and devastating songs about flaws and weaknesses for Radiohead, inspiring a whole new crop of budding artists. The impact of R.E.M. on Yorke was immense – they turned his life upside down and then set it right again.