Then a funny thing happened on the way to their coronation. Radiohead had twins: Kid A, released last fall, and the just-released Amnesiac. Together, they represent a full-blown detour into the avant-garde side of the rock spectrum from a band supposedly on the brink of mainstream superstardom. Instead of anthems, Kid A and Amnesiac offer disquieting lullabies. Instead of Thom Yorke in full roar, they present Yorke sounding adrift in space, if not muted entirely. And instead of ringing guitars, they brim with computer-generated sounds. 

These are entrancing, otherworldly albums that find Radiohead expanding on the most radical elements of OK Computer rather than the most instantly accessible. Think these albums represent just a blip in Radiohead's development, rather than a blueprint for its future? Guess again, says singer Thom Yorke in an e-mail interview. 

CDNOW: Some of your bandmates say you initially wanted to release the material that eventually ended up as Kid A and Amnesiac as a double album. What persuaded you to change your mind? Do you feel in retrospect this was the correct decision?

Thom Yorke: Do you? Imagine the shit we would have got. They are separate because they cannot run in a straight line with each other. They cancel each other out as overall finished things. Originally we thought about making them EPs, but that would have been a cop-out. They come from two different places, I think. And I don't worry about things in retrospect much anymore. You can listen to them together, but they are separate, although they do fit very well on either side of a C100 cassette. In some weird way I think Amnesiac gives another take on Kid A, a form of explanation.

You have guitarists in the band not playing guitar on these two albums. You have members of the band not playing anything at all on certain tracks. How well did the band adapt to this way of working? Are you all on one page in terms of how far to push the envelope, what kind of band Radiohead is, and what it should sound like?

There is a restriction about people defending their own musical patch, which just gets a bit daft after a while. It wasn't really the point. I think everybody was surprisingly cool with not being involved necessarily directly in certain tracks. It was a bit boring at points, however -- staring at laptops all day is only so rewarding. But it was quite liberating to get used to the idea of music on a screen. 
Being in a band is also about having/sharing ideas, especially now that there is so much instrument changing going. If everybody is into it, if everybody likes what's happening musically, then they don't give a shit. The trick is letting someone pursue an idea without stepping over it too early -- that's the hard bit. I felt very strongly that if we wanted to pick up different styles, go completely electronic, whatever, that it is all still us, otherwise you are pandering to the nice little stylistic boxes, to this tribe or that tribe. 

Bono says U2 has "reapplied for the job of the greatest rock band in the world." For U2, being a rock band and being part of the rock tradition is important. How important is that to Radiohead? Do you still consider Radiohead part of the family of rock bands, past and present? And if so, is it important for Radiohead to be part of a larger dialogue with other bands -- raising the stakes, pushing the art form, and, in turn, being pushed by each other to outdo yourself with each album?

All of that stuff is not interesting to us. Bono said to me, I'll be on the corner of the bar singing quietly into the mike, while he's belting it out demanding your attention -- that's right I think. I'm not sure we are in a rock band anymore, and competition between bands is a bit destructive sometimes, re: the Suede-Blur-Oasis Britpop scene a few years ago. We tried to stay the fuck away from any of that. It doesn't seem to matter much anymore. 
We were influenced so much by [pioneering German electronic bands] Can and Kraftwerk, and Faust, and [avant-garde classical composers Olivier] Messian and [Krzysztof] Penderecki, and the 13th Floor Elevators, and all this electronic malarkey, it is difficult to still justify just being a rock band, and that's it. I think toleration and absolutely no musical or technological restriction is going to change the way we feel about music. Laptops are the new electric guitar, I reckon, but I still love electric guitars, and drums, and singing ... And I don't disown our old stuff at all. 

Family? An interesting choice of words. Both U2 and R.E.M. are cool and generous, and have been absolutely supportive of us, and we are very grateful, very, very, very, very lucky. 

A number of so-called Radiohead "imitators" crept up in the last few years in the wake of OK Computer. How big a factor was that in the radical new direction taken by Kid A? Do you feel proud or dismayed by the fact that other bands are so obviously influenced by your sound and trying to make their own version of it?

This question makes me feel ill. A&R departments all around the world went on a feeding frenzy for months circa 1998-99, as Colin [Greenwood, Radiohead's bassist] puts it, and perhaps now we are witnessing the results. We, however, have moved on. 

Amnesiac and Kid A were both widely available on the Web weeks before they were released. Has this helped or hindered the band?

Over Kid A there was too much paranoia about it being out before we wanted. That was a mistake that made us look precious. This time we tried to be chilled about it. The best bit for Napster for us is all the live bootlegs, people singing along to stuff at gigs that is not even out yet only because we have played it live. Stuff we haven't even recorded yet. Home taping is killing music? 
 

Many listeners perceived Kid A as a "radical new direction for the band," and there were rumors that you put it out because Amnesiac would be a more pop-oriented record closer in spirit to OK Computer. Do you agree?

No, I really don't. I think Amnesiac explains that it was not necessarily such a radical step. I think it was as simple as disappearing for three years and moving on. There is stuff on both records that to me, represents no departure at all, but just survived because it was too good to miss, like "Knives Out." There are straight-ahead tracks on both records. I enjoyed having Amnesiac to myself for so long. But I don't think it's any more accessible. If we'd released Amnesiac first, I think the same sort of reactions would have occurred. I don't think Kid A is so experimental; I think we're just getting warmed up.