45 Facts About Ed O'Brien

Edward John O'Brien was born on 15 April 1968 and is an English guitarist, songwriter, and member of the rock band Radiohead.

Ed O'Brien attended Abingdon School in Oxfordshire, England, where he formed Radiohead with schoolmates.

Ed O'Brien said his role was to "service the songs" and support the songwriter, Thom Yorke.

Ed O'Brien often creates ambient sounds and textures, using effects, sustain units and the EBow, and provides backing vocals.

Ed O'Brien had been writing songs for years, but lacked confidence and felt their character would be lost with Radiohead.

Ed O'Brien began a North American tour in February 2020; a larger tour was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ed O'Brien has campaigned on topics including climate change and artist rights.

Ed O'Brien was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Radiohead in 2019.

Ed O'Brien's parents separated when he was 10; O'Brien said this was when music became his "refuge".

Ed O'Brien grew up listening to post-punk acts such as Siouxsie and the Banshees, Adam and the Ants, Depeche Mode, the Police and David Bowie.

One year below the drummer, Philip Selway, Ed O'Brien was in the year above Yorke and the bassist, Colin Greenwood, and four years above Colin's brother, the guitarist Jonny Greenwood.

Ed O'Brien studied economics at the University of Manchester, where he took part in the Second Summer of Love.

Ed O'Brien used less distortion and more delay and other effects, creating a sound that was "more about textures".

Ed O'Brien became depressed during the extensive OK Computer tour, but focused on supporting Yorke.

Ed O'Brien kept an online diary of Radiohead's progress during the recording.

Ed O'Brien thanked his bandmates for their musicianship and friendship, saying that "some of the nights we have in the rehearsal studio [are] like transcendental moments".

In 2020, Ed O'Brien said his role in Radiohead was to "service the songs" and support Yorke.

Ed O'Brien had written songs for years, but lacked the confidence to bring them to Radiohead and felt they had a "distinct energy" that would be lost if they became a "hybrid product".

Ed O'Brien denied that he had ever felt "creatively stifled" in Radiohead.

The music was inspired by Ed O'Brien's time living in Brazil and attending Carnival, which he described as a "musical eureka moment".

Ed O'Brien began a North American tour in February 2020; a larger Earth tour was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ed O'Brien contributed a remix of Paul McCartney's song "Slidin" to the 2021 remix album McCartney III Imagined.

Ed O'Brien said he intended Earth to be the first album in a trilogy.

In 1999, Ed O'Brien contributed to the soundtrack for the BBC drama series Eureka Street.

Ed O'Brien contributed guitar to the 2003 Asian Dub Foundation album Enemy of the Enemy.

Ed O'Brien provided guitar and backing vocals on their 2001 live album and the 2009 album The Sun Came Out.

In 2009, along with the musicians Dave Rowntree, Jazzie B, Billy Bragg, Mark Kelly, Master Shortie and Kate Nash, Ed O'Brien co-founded the Featured Artists Coalition, a nonprofit organisation set up to protect the rights of featured musicians, particularly in the digital age.

Ed O'Brien appeared in a 2011 episode of the BBC Radio 5 Live sports programme Fighting Talk in support of Record Shop Day.

In 2013, Ed O'Brien cofounded the Laundry, a workspace, restaurant and nightclub converted from a laundry in London Fields.

In 2018, Ed O'Brien became an "informal patron" for the environmental pressure group Extinction Rebellion, which he described as "incredibly enlightened".

In 2019, Ed O'Brien joined the RSPB Let Nature Sing project, which aimed to get birdsong into the UK charts to raise awareness of the decline in Britain's birdlife.

In 2020, Ed O'Brien contributed to Ear Opener, an online video course aimed at helping young people write music.

Ed O'Brien said he wanted to speak for less successful artists, who he felt were exploited.

In February 2025, Ed O'Brien spoke about climate change at Sao Paulo International Music Week.

Ed O'Brien usually plays Fender Stratocasters, including an Eric Clapton Stratocaster.

Ed O'Brien worked with Fender to design a signature model guitar, the EOB Stratocaster, which went on sale in November 2017.

Ed O'Brien plays Gretsch and Rickenbacker guitars, including a twelve-string Rickenbacker.

Ed O'Brien sings backing vocals, which Pitchfork described as Radiohead's "most consistent secret weapon".

Ed O'Brien said in 2017 that his most used effects for Radiohead were distortion, an Electro-Harmonix Memory Man delay and a DigiTech Whammy pitch shifter.

Ed O'Brien combined these with looping and delay effects to create synthesiser-like sounds.

Ed O'Brien creates the reverberating pops on the introduction of "2 + 2 = 5".

On "Dollars and Cents", Ed O'Brien uses a pitch shifter pedal to shift his guitar chords from minor to major.

Ed O'Brien admired how these guitarists created "space" rather than playing conventional solos.

Ed O'Brien is a cricket fan and once played a match against the musicians Richard Thompson and Chris Martin.

In March 2020, Ed O'Brien announced that he had contracted COVID-19 and was recovering in isolation.