Image credit: EOB, Chuff Media
Ed O’Brien, who is most famously known for being the guitarist of Radiohead, has unveiled details surrounding his much-anticipated album, Earth, the first album under the moniker of EOB. Tara Pilkington reports.
Composed by O’Brien and featuring the production talents of Flood, who has worked with the likes of a-ha, New Order, The Killers and U2, this album offers up an eclectic mix of sounds that reflects its complex journey.
On Earth, songs have been brought to life by a diverse and stellar array of musicians including an appearance by O’Brien’s Radiohead bandmate Colin Greenwood, Portishead guitarist Adrian Utley, Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche, drum legend Omar Hakim, masterful bass player Nathan East, Laura Marling, David Okumu of The Invisible, Adam ‘Cecil‘ Bartlett, Richie Kennedy, Marcelo S. Silva, Flood and Catherine Marks.
The current lockdown has been particularly eventful for O’Brein, who has recently recovered from coronavirus and is currently resting in his family home in Mid Wales. While the current climate is a particularly strange time for the release of his new album, he notes how the Covid-19 crisis is already having a ‘huge impact’ with many younger acts, in particular those who are reliant on live gig revenues.
Having spent the past three decades as part of a stadium-filling band, that has so far shifted over 30 million records, O’Brein explains that having spent more than seven years finalising his album’s material, it was a mission he felt had to be completed.
Talking to Neill Barston, the Radiohead alumni said: “Making a record isn’t easy, it takes a lot of work and a lot of soul searching. But doing this was something I felt compelled to do. If I didn’t do it, then a creative part of me might have died. It was one of those ‘what if’ moments, you just have to follow your instincts,”
The inspiration for this album straddles everything from early Primal Scream rave anthems, through to its closing track, Cloak of the Night, an elegant duet with Laura Marling, which demonstrates it is certainly not lacking in ambition or scope.
“For me, doing this was about becoming a better singer and making better albums…
“My debut has elements of soul, rock and ambient music, but lyrically it’s a gospel album, about having been through the dark and moving towards the light.”
He says there’s a sense of vindication in finally completing the album: “I feel really happy about where I am now that my album is done after all that has been put into it. It has just made me want to carry on writing the next one”.
Listen to Shangri-La, taken from the album Earth, below:
- Dates and locations of EOB’s first full scale North American tour will be announced shortly.
