Phil continues, growing more eager as he goes on. "And in that way, you're stretching yourself, so it has this different level of excitement. This time around--because we've been having to re-write the songs, re-arrange them to actually be able to play them live--that's been exciting in itself!"

Speaking of which, I want to know if there's ever been a song that the band has been dying to play live but just couldn't get it together to pull off. Phil giggles, and begins to say something but stops himself before what I assume might be giving away a shrouded band secret. Instead, he offers, "We're getting close to being able to play 'Kid A' now. It's very close. It's almost out from under the covers at the moment. It might be debuted soon." That satisfies my curiosity and we move on in our discussion of Radiohead's songwriting process.

"When do you get that feeling that a song is finished--or do you ever? Are you always thinking, shoot, we should've done this or we could've made that better?" He considers this gravely. "We do need to set ourselves some cut-off points--or you would just go on obsessively meddling with what's down on tape. It's not healthy!"

I ask him what his favorite Radiohead song is, the one that he's proudest of and believe demonstrates a true sense of the band. "Taking quite a wide range of what we can do would probably be 'Paranoid Android'," he decides. "That covers a lot of ground." I agree -- "that's like the epic of Radiohead right there." He laughs.

Going back to talk of record labels, I tell Phil that I'm curious as to why Radiohead didn't go off on their own label for Kid A or Amnesiac. Are they considering it for the near future? Also, is it really debilitating to have to think so much about business rather than just having the freedom to make music, or is that the benefit they get from being with a big label--that they can just focus on the music?