Ed O'Brien

Edward John O'Brien (born 15 April 1968) is an English guitarist, songwriter, and member of the rock band Radiohead. O'Brien attended Abingdon School in Oxfordshire, England, where he formed Radiohead with schoolmates. He said his role was to "service the songs" and support the songwriter, Thom Yorke. He creates ambient sounds and textures using effects, sustain units and the EBow, and provides backing vocals.

In the 2000s, with musicians including the Radiohead drummer, Philip Selway, O'Brien toured and recorded with the 7 Worlds Collide project. In 2020, he released his first solo album, Earth, under the name EOB. It was inspired by his time living in Brazil and attending Carnival. A solo tour was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. His second album, Blue Morpho, was released in May 2026. O'Brien has campaigned on topics including climate change and artist rights.

Rolling Stone named O'Brien among the greatest guitarists of all time in 2010 and 2023. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Radiohead in 2019.

Early life

O'Brien was born on 15 April 1968. His family comes from Ballyporeen, Ireland. As a child, O'Brien enjoyed cricket and theatre. His parents separated when he was 10; O'Brien said this was when music became his "refuge". He grew up listening to post-punk acts such as Siouxsie and the Banshees, Adam and the Ants, Depeche Mode, the Police and David Bowie. He said: "It was a very foetal [time] for music because people who went to art college or artists, or musicians, suddenly thought, 'Oh, I can be that.

The members of Radiohead met while attending Abingdon School, a private school for boys in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. While O'Brien was playing Lysander in a school production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, he met Thom Yorke, who was scoring the production.

O'Brien was one school year below the drummer, Philip Selway, the year above Yorke and the bassist, Colin Greenwood, and four years above Colin's brother, the guitarist Jonny Greenwood. In 1985, they formed a band, On a Friday, the name referring to their usual rehearsal day in the school's music room. They continued to rehearse during holidays while the members attended university. O'Brien studied economics at the University of Manchester,

Career

1991–1999: Early success with Radiohead

In 1991, On a Friday signed a record contract with EMI and changed their name to Radiohead. For their second album, The Bends (1995), the guitarists' roles were more divided, with Yorke generally playing rhythm, Greenwood lead and Ed O'Brien providing effects. The Bends received positive reviews and elevated Radiohead's profile.

right|thumb|[[Colin Greenwood, Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien, and Phil Selway discussing OK Computer in 1997]]

Radiohead's third album, OK Computer (1997), brought them international fame and is often acclaimed as one of the best albums of all time. O'Brien used less distortion and more delay and other effects, creating a sound that was "more about textures". He became depressed during the extensive OK Computer tour, but focused on supporting Yorke. After the tour, he returned to Oxford, used large amounts of drugs and fell further into depression. He said: "I was single, on my own … I was the lowest I've ever been. It was the irony as well – you're at the top, that old cliché."

2000–2007: Developing sound and 7 Worlds Collide

thumb|O'Brien (left) with Radiohead in Amsterdam, May 2006

Radiohead's next albums, Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001), marked a dramatic change in sound, incorporating influences from electronic music, classical music, jazz and krautrock. O'Brien initially struggled with the change, saying: "It's scary – everyone feels insecure. I'm a guitarist and suddenly it's like, well, there are no guitars on this track, or no drums." He began using effects units more extensively to process his guitar, creating synthesiser-like sounds. O'Brien kept an online diary of Radiohead's progress.

With Selway and other musicians, O'Brien toured and recorded with Neil Finn as part of the 7 Worlds Collide project, providing guitar and backing vocals. He appeared in a 2011 episode of the BBC Radio 5 Live sports programme Fighting Talk in support of Record Shop Day. He contributed guitar to the 2003 Asian Dub Foundation album Enemy of the Enemy.

During the sessions for Radiohead's seventh album, In Rainbows (2007), O'Brien believed Radiohead might never record another album. He said later: "One of my mantras throughout the recording was, 'This is the last time I'm doing this. I'll never summon up the energy to do this again. So I'm going to put everything I can into it.'" He was motivated by a desire to secure Radiohead's legacy as a great band, and said in 2008: "In my view, we've made three really great records, The Bends, OK Computer and Kid A. What we needed was another great record just to seal it."

In 2013, O'Brien cofounded the Laundry, a workspace, restaurant and nightclub converted from a laundry in London Fields. In 2019, Hackney Council announced that the building would be demolished to make way for luxury flats. In 2014, O'Brien and Selway signed an open letter protesting a ban on guitars in British prisons and stating that music was important for rehabilitation.

In 2012 and 2013, O'Brien and his family lived on a farm near Ubatuba, where he began working on solo music. Following the tour, Radiohead went on hiatus. In April, 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.

O'Brien released his first solo music under the name EOB. His solo debut, the non-album track "Santa Teresa", was released on 4 October, 2019. Stereogum described it as a "haunting" ambient instrumental in the style of Brian Eno and Fennesz. O'Brien released his debut solo album, Earth, on 17 April 2020 on Capitol Records to positive reviews. It features the Radiohead bassist, Colin Greenwood, plus the drummer Omar Hakim, the Invisible members Nathan East and Dave Okumu, the folk singer Laura Marling, the Portishead guitarist Adrian Utley and the Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche. The first track, "Brasil", was released on 5 December 2019, followed by "Shangri-La" on 6 February. He said he intended Earth to be the first album in a trilogy. A larger tour was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, O'Brien contributed to Ear Opener, an online video course aimed at helping young people write music. That November, he gave evidence to a DCMS Committee inquiry into the impact of streaming on the music industry. He said he wanted to speak for less successful artists, who he felt were exploited. O'Brien contributed a remix of Paul McCartney's song "Slidin to the 2021 remix album McCartney III Imagined.

2022–present: Blue Morpho and Radiohead reunion

During Radiohead's hiatus, O'Brien became depressed and felt he was finished with Radiohead. He took solace in making music alone, going for long walks in his home in Wales, and using magic mushrooms with friends in Dartmoor. O'Brien was one of more than 1,000 musicians to support Is This What We Want?, an album of silence released on 25 February protesting the use of unlicensed copyrighted work to train AI. O'Brien criticised Israel following the outbreak of the Gaza war and expressed support for Palestinians, calling for the release of hostages and a ceasefire.

O'Brien's second solo album, Blue Morpho, was released on 22 May 2026. It was produced by Paul Epworth and features musicians including Selway, Okumu, Shabaka Hutchings and Tõnu Kõrvits. O'Brien said that, for Earth, he had not wanted to "put himself front and centre", but that now he had "stopped hiding". He usually plays Fender Stratocasters, including an Eric Clapton Stratocaster. He also plays Gretsch and Rickenbacker guitars, including a twelve-string Rickenbacker. He said of the technique: "It's a bit like you're creating a canvas. That would be in accompaniment with Thom playing chords on the piano — you're building up a cloud of effects behind."

O'Brien sings backing vocals for Radiohead, which Pitchfork described as their "most consistent secret weapon". For years, he was insecure about singing with Yorke, but became more confident after recording solo records. When writing solo, he said he found lyrics the most difficult part as he had spent his career with Radiohead focused on sounds. In the Kid A sessions, at the suggestion of Michael Brook, the creator of the Infinite Guitar, O'Brien began using sustain units, which allow guitar notes to be sustained indefinitely. He combined these with looping and delay effects to create synthesiser-like sounds.

To create the high-pitched chiming sound that introduces "Lucky", O'Brien strums above the guitar nut. The ambient track "Treefingers" was created by processing O'Brien's guitar loops.

For "All I Need", he used a sustain unit and a guitar strung with four bottom E strings, creating a thicker sound.

Influences

O'Brien's earliest guitar influence was Andy Summers of the Police, particularly his use of delay and chorus effects on "Walking on the Moon". Influences on Earth include Earth, Wind & Fire, Arcade Fire, Underworld, Bill Withers, Talking Heads, the "Celtic, folky" music of Led Zeppelin, and the music of Brazil, such as the music of Carnival and Jorge Ben. They have a son, born in January 2004, and a daughter, born in 2006. Around 2000, O'Brien gave up alcohol, saying it was "fucking him up", and began practising meditation. The Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr helped him become sober and recover from depression.

! scope="col" |GER

! scope="col" |SCO

! scope="col" |US Sales

! scope="col" |US Heat.

! scope="row" |Earth

Release: 17 April 2020
Label: Capitol
Formats: LP, CD, cassette, download

|13

|94

|51

|19

! scope="row" |Blue Morpho

Release: 22 May 2026
Label: Transgressive
Formats: LP, CD, cassette, download

|73

|—

Singles

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

! rowspan="2" scope="col" |Title

! rowspan="2" scope="col" |Year

! colspan="2" scope="col" |Peak chart positions

! rowspan="2" scope="col" |Album

! scope="col" |UK Phys.

! scope="row" |"Santa Teresa"

| rowspan="2" |2019

|—

! scope="row" |"Brasil"

|—

| rowspan="4" |Earth

! scope="row" |"Shangri-La"

| rowspan="3" |2020

|—

! scope="row" |"Olympik"

|—

! scope="row" |"Cloak of the Night"

|—

! scope="row" |"Slidin' (EOB Remix)"

| 2021

|—

|McCartney III Imagined

! scope="row" |"Incantations"

| rowspan="2" | 2026

|—

| rowspan="2" | Blue Morpho

! scope="row" |"Blue Morpho"

|—

| colspan="15" |"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.