Loder: In the studio, what part has Nigel Godrich, the producer on both "Kid A" and "OK Computer," played in the recording of the albums?

Yorke: He's brilliant. He's the voice of reason a lot of the time. When things just get really out of hand, he's sitting there going, "No, that doesn't work." Also, he's just really good at knowing when something's sparking off properly. He has the ability to take some not-so-good sounds and turn them into really amazing sounds. The way of sort of piecing things together, which stops it from being just a mess. I don't know. I'm not quite sure how it works, you know. He also bosses us around, which is good. He makes us have meetings every day at midday.

Loder: Is there an example of his handiwork you can point out on the new album?

Yorke: On "Everything In Its Right Place," [the vocal sampling] was actually Nigel's thing. You know, you discover these techniques as you go along, bits and pieces. It's amazing how you can take really weird, unformed things and make them coherent. That's the thing that really keeps me interested in music, really. You can just take chaos and refine it down into something that's really, really exciting.

Loder: Who has the final say in the studio? Who says, "This track is done, let's move on to the next thing?"

Yorke: Well, it's usually me or Nigel, I guess. It's usually the case of, "I don't want to hear this anymore, blah." That's what normally happens.

Loder: Considering all the effects you employ on the records, what is the studio setting like? Do you have a lot of old equipment lying around?

Yorke: Our studio is just a mess of broken furniture and lids. We really need a woman's touch in the studio, actually. It's really quite a man's den. It's disgusting.

Loder: Is "Morning Bell" about a breakup or a divorce?

Yorke: Not really, no. That [one's] actually quite weird. When we came off of "OK Computer," I bought this house, this empty house, and it had a ghost in it.

Loder: Pardon?

Yorke: It had a ghost in it.

Loder: What sort of ghost?

Yorke: Well, quite friendly, but a ghost.

Loder: How did you know it was there?

Yorke: You just knew. You didn't say it, but you knew. So I filled up a whole MiniDisc of stuff, of songs and half-formed ramblings or whatever. Then there was a lightning strike and it wiped it all [out]. I was really upset, 'cause there was some really good stuff on it. But that was the general vibe of the house at the time, so I didn't think any of it.

Then I forgot it, and six months later, I was in an airplane coming back from Japan or something and I didn't sleep at all. I hadn't slept for ages and ages. Suddenly, I was lying there, and I'd forgotten all the stuff from the MiniDisc, and "Morning Bell" just came back to me, exactly as I had written it, with all the words and everything. It sounds like it's about a breakup, but it's really not. It's about being in this house. So there you go. You know, things are never that direct with me, unfortunately. [RealVideo]

Loder: Do you still have the house? Do you still have the ghost?

Yorke: No, he's gone now. He was trapped in the plaster, and we got rid of the plaster.

Loder: Like a carpentry exorcism sort of thing?

Yorke: I hate to say it, but yeah. And I really didn't want to do it, but it kind of sorted things out for me a bit in my head.