Ed O'Brien

Ed O’Brien likes to quote the Kentucky poet and farmer Wendell Berry: “To know the dark, go dark.” That philosophy became both compass and catalyst for Blue Morpho - born from one of the most challenging periods of his life. Though he remains one of rock music’s most lauded guitarists, Blue Morpho finds O’Brien beginning anew, finally starting to figure out his approach. In April 2020, after releasing his solo debut, Earth, under his initials, O’Brien almost immediately regretted waiting nearly a decade to record those songs while balancing his schedule with Radiohead. Some of its impulses had been lost in the gap, and there was only so much he could do to support it as the world confronted catastrophe. Later that year, he entered the deepest depression of his life. Encouraged by his wife to sit in the fire of his emotions, he began a daily ritual, immersing himself in the teachings of Wim Hof, then retreating into his small London studio, playing guitar for hours until his brain began to fray.  There were no directions or preconceptions; he was simply using his instrument to navigate 50 years of emotional trauma and turmoil that had finally rushed to the surface. As he played now through his past, his spiritual connection to nature in the Welsh countryside and his beliefs in the possibility of healing, he kept a record of what he was making. Over the next four years, those moments evolved into Blue Morpho, his first album fully detached from past regrets.