Uni of Yorke Class 5: Gatekeeper, Fatima Al Qadiri & Actress

For the February Issue of Dazed & Confused, our coverstar, Radiohead and Atoms For Peace frontman Thom Yorke was faced with a series of 14 questions from 14 of our favourite, most innovative electronic producers today, in a one-off 'digital seminar. In the final part today from Gatekeeper, Fatima Al Qadiri and Actress, we find out more about the intentions behind Atoms For Peace album AMOK and adhering to the OK Computer gym regime. Check back on Dazed Digital today as we open up our Art Department...

GATEKEEPER: What is your astrological sign and what effect does it have on your music-making?

Thom Yorke: Bloody hippies! (laughs) Okay, so I’m a Libran, a double Libran apparently, whatever that means. It affects my music very directly. The Libran is very conscious of those around him and conscious of everyone going in the right way. So in one way it’s very ideal and in another way not ideal at all because I’m very bad at making decisions. If it’s an important decision, no problem, but it’s all the little ones I have trouble with.

FATIMA AL QADIRI: Was AMOK a compromise between your desire to make a dance record and the audience’s demand for your vocals? If so, is an instrumental dance record on the horizon?

Thom Yorke: Oh, God no. It felt like the right thing to do. In fact, I think if you just had the instrumentals it wouldn’t really amount to enough. I struggle with working on instrumental stuff because it’s not like my window, it’s not like my first skill. Maybe it is, I don’t know. Honestly, my laptop is full of it. I find it so hard to do remixes. I
wonder if that’s because my weakness is having to have a vocal at the core of it or whether I can’t think like that. Maybe ultimately I’m still a guitar strummer and I need three simple ideas and I’m off. I hope not.

ACTRESS: Do you stick to the OK Computer regime of going to the gym three days a week?

Thom Yorke: I do a minimum of an hour’s yoga a day, usually an hour and a half. I run or do something else, most days. That’s as much a mental thing as anything else. Coming on and off tour you have this mad adrenaline thing going on, so it’s a way of stopping the adrenaline crash that you get. It’s also good for depression, which is another one of the main reasons I do it – it stops me dropping. Meditation, yoga and exercise has helped me
more than anything else.

Check back on Dazed Digital this week for daily updates of the Uni of Yorke project