VENICE, Italy (Reuters) - Thom Yorke has produced some "really frightening noises" for horror movie "Suspiria" - his first venture into making a film soundtrack - as well as tunes of "sadness and sweetness".
The Radiohead front-man has followed bandmate Jonny Greenwood into film music. Greenwood wrote the acclaimed score for the 2007 Daniel Day-Lewis movie "There Will Be Blood", and was nominated for an Oscar this year for another Day-Lewis/Paul Thomas Anderson collaboration, "Phantom Thread".
But for Yorke it has marked a big departure
"It was like nothing I'd ever done before, even vaguely ... It was 'in at the deep end'," he told Reuters in Venice where "Suspiria", a remake of the 1970s cult classic, had its world premiere.
The movie stars Dakota Johnson as an American ingenue studying at a deeply sinister dance academy in Berlin run by Tilda Swinton. As the opening credits roll, Radiohead fans in the audience will instantly recognize Yorke's voice, accompanied by a simple piano backing.
"It's me making a record that's not essentially one of my electronic things," said Yorke, whose two solo albums left Radiohead's rock guitars behind in favor of computerized music.
"It's me making some really, really, really frightening noises. But then there's a sadness and sweetness and it goes in lots of different places."
Yorke, who was 23 when unknown English band Radiohead released "Creep", a song that set the template for their tendency to combine gentle melodies with furious rock, turns 50 next month.
"My daughter is very fond of telling me that," he laughed.
"I think it's highly amusing that I'm still doing what I'm doing and I'm 50 and I'm still taking stupid risks."
Famed for his angst-ridden songs, Yorke said he was actually a happy person.
"You know, I’m alright with it," he said about ageing, "I'm happy every day I wake up, I'm still going 'I'm alright'. It's that simple."
(Writing by Robin Pomeroy; Editing by Gareth Jones)
