Here’s my interview with Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien on his new solo project, Earth

[This was my weekly column for GlobalNews.ca. – AC]

Ed O’Brien seems a bit anxious on the phone from London. Content to do his part in everything Radiohead has done as a group — a successful venture, given that the band has sold 30 million albums — he filled downtime between albums and tours by composing soundtracks for the BBC, touring with Crowded House frontman Neil Finn, working on a musicians’ rights non-profit organization, and running a restaurant in the English countryside.

Oh, and he was also part of a nature group’s efforts to get birdsong — actually wild birds singing — onto the British charts as a way to draw attention to the disappearance of this type of wildlife in the U.K.

But in 2017 while taking a break to live in Brazil with his family for seven months, he started to think about recording an entire album on his own. Very slowly, songs started coming together, beginning with this Carnival-inspired track “Brasil,” released late last year under the moniker EOB.

Keep reading for the full story.