Easy Star All-Stars Re-Imagine Radiohead's 'Ok Computer'

From Christopher O’Riley transforming Radiohead’s music into classical pieces, to producers and artists in the urban & jazz worlds re-working well-known Radiohead tracks on ‘Exit Music: Music With Radio Heads,’ when I got wind of another pending reworking I was of course a little apprehensive. I mean as much as I enjoy a good cover, there is a point when it becomes redundant, stale and somehow cheapens the original work. Take Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” for example. With news a few months back that Paris Hilton wanted to cover the song, it seemed to have become too much of a good thing. Granted she might be able to bring a fresh and interesting take on the song, but I won’t place any bets on it. So is the music of Radiohead on the brink of reaching that “Crazy” point? While it might be, the answer is not with this latest reworking.

Known for masterfully producing a complete reggae version of Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ in 2003, the Easy Star All-Stars will return on August 22nd with a complete reggae version of Radiohead’s ‘Ok Computer’ titled 'Radiodread.' Featuring guest artists Citizen Cope, Horace Andy, Toots & The Maytals, Morgan Heritage and more, the Easy Star All-Stars and executive producers, Eric Smith, Lem Oppenheimer and Michael Goldwasser, have done it again, creating something that is far more than a cover record. Yes there are going to be dissenters, but when looked at in the context of reggae music, you begin to see that this is something special, and not merely a group jumping on the bandwagon of covering Radiohead, but a group that is truly giving a new perspective to Radiohead’s music. With such an ambitious project, we sat down with executive producer Lem Oppenheimer to understand the time, effort and thinking that went into making this record.

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GIANT STEP: After releasing a complete reggae re-vision of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon in 2003 to critical acclaim, what made you decide that your next undertaking would be Radiohead's 'Ok Computer'?

LEM OPPENHEIMER: Bottom line is that we all really loved ‘OK Computer’ and felt it could work in this ongoing experiment. But we really looked at tons of albums as possibilities. We tried to assess them in terms of a few different criteria: whether the album itself could be re-arranged musically; whether the album had a loyal fanbase that would be into reggae; whether the audience was even big enough to merit the time and energy to put into a release (we weren’t about to do an album that only had a tiny cult following, as we’d never sell enough copies to warrant making our version). ‘OK Computer’ was one of the strongest in all of the criteria. Also, we wanted to do something more recent as opposed to just tackling a baby boomer era classic, so it would be a bit more of the moment. We wanted to stretch ourselves!

GS: Did you have other albums in mind to re-work?

LO: Plenty! And we may still tackle some of those if we continue with this musical experiment. So we’ll probably not reveal too many of the front-runners here…wait and see!

GS: As conspicuous of a band Radiohead is, was it difficult to get the rights to create this reggae version of 'Ok Computer'?

LO: It was definitely a bit difficult. Understandably, ‘OK Computer’ is an important piece of art for Radiohead, so they didn’t want someone coming in and just doing some weak skank version of the record. Because we had gotten Pink Floyd to approve “Dub Side of the Moon”—and Pink Floyd are notoriously difficult to get answers out of, due to their personnel split, different publishing houses, etc—we figured it’d be no problem to get Radiohead to allow it. After all, they are into musical experimentation, indie label support, and reggae! So we went ahead and began laying down tracks for the album and got about half way done before we suddenly got word that they weren’t going to allow it. We decided we’d try to appeal directly to the band, as scrapping this project would have probably sunk the label after we had put the time and money into the project already. Michael worked on finishing up two very early mixes of songs that had vocals (“Lucky” and “Electioneering”) and we sent those on with a “passionate plea” that Eric and I spent a few days crafting. Within two days we had approval and had heard that they really liked the tracks. I think once they heard that we were taking a very serious approach and were creating good reggae and not just resort music, they were comfortable entrusting us with their sacred album. Since then, they’ve been great and have even bigged up “Let Down” from the stage in Philly.

GS: There are a handful of notable guests on this album, how did you go about choosing an artist that would best work for each song? Any guest artists that you were hoping to get that you couldn't?

LO: In general, the process would start with dialogue between Michael, Eric and me, where we’d assess the song, the arrangement and decide who had a voice that fit it. But we also had a few people we’d always wanted to work with (like Horace Andy) who we found the best track to fit him in. A good example is “Let Down”—once Michael had arranged that as a ska tune, we all instantly thought of Toots, being the greatest ska and rock steady singer of all time. We didn’t expect we’d get him, so we had some back ups in mind, but were really happy when he agreed to do the project. We almost had Jack Johnson doing a song, but he backed out at the last minute when his recent release made it too busy for him. Luciano was going to do a song, but when he started working on it with Michael, he found that the lyrics were too dark and violent for him. We can respect that, as he is a very upful Rasta, and we didn’t want anyone to do a track they weren’t comfortable with and weren’t totally into.

GS: Any ideas on what Easy Star All-Stars will tackle next?

LO: We are already looking into which album might work next. But for much of the band, the fall will include a lot of touring, as the Radiodread tour kicks off September 14 in Baltimore. They’ll be doing three legs in North America, then about 10 dates in the UK before the end of the year. Then probably Europe and South America in early 2007 and maybe more dates here. From the studio side, Ticklah, who played keys on Radiodread (and co-produced Dub Side of the Moon), is working on a solo record which we will be releasing in early 2007. It is a very cool record—incorporating hardcore King Tubby style dub, reinventions of classic salsa songs by Eddie Palmieri, and some deep roots tunes. Michael has been helping him with that one as well.