Ed O'Brien: UKNY Q&A
Ed O'Brien (photo by Steve Gullick PR)
Note: Songs are edited in this stream, but listen to the conversation with full songs in the Archives for up to two weeks.
In the early weeks of the pandemic, in April 2020, Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien released his solo debut album, Earth, under the moniker of EOB. Needless to say, O'Brien, who had caught Covid at a March gig in Paris, knew touring was out of the question, and his decade-long journey to the recording and release of Earth derailed. He dealt with that disappointment, but hit a more worrying crisis.
In lockdown with his family in Wales, O'Brien tumbled into a deep depression — and his emergence from that downward spiral powerfully informs O'Brien's second solo album, Blue Morpho, released under his full name in mid-May.
It was good to connect with O'Brien again after last speaking for an FUV Live session in February 2020. In this new conversation, he discusses the existential relief of recording Blue Morpho, the cocoon of producer Paul Epworth's recording studio in a Crouch End church, and the friends who helped O'Brien make this album, from Shabaka Hutchings to Eska. O'Brien is also frank about his mental health and how he emerged from a place of crippling despair, uplifted by music, nature, and his family.
[Recorded: 3/17/26. Produced by Kara Manning]
