Ed O'Brien: "The guitar to me is like an oscillator on a synthesizer - it’s the start of a sound rather than the sound in itself"

Ed O'Brien
(Image credit: Future)

“It’s magnificent... Like an old Rolls Royce,” says Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien, pointing to the Cadac desk which once belonged to his main band and ended up being sold to producers Alan Moulder and Flood. 

It was here at West London’s Assault & Battery Studios, with Moulder and Flood, that O’Brien recorded and mixed parts of his first solo record as EOB. Prior to that, the analogue console had resided at Wessex Sound Studios and was used to track some of the greatest rock albums of the late '70s, including the Sex Pistols’ Never Mind The Bollocks, The Clash’s London Calling and Queen’s Sheer Heart Attack. 

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Amit Sharma

Amit has been writing for titles like Total GuitarMusicRadar and Guitar World for over a decade and counts Richie Kotzen, Guthrie Govan and Jeff Beck among his primary influences as a guitar player. He's worked for magazines like Kerrang!Metal HammerClassic RockProgRecord CollectorPlanet RockRhythm and Bass Player, as well as newspapers like Metro and The Independent, interviewing everyone from Ozzy Osbourne and Lemmy to Slash and Jimmy Page, and once even traded solos with a member of Slayer on a track released internationally. As a session guitarist, he's played alongside members of Judas Priest and Uriah Heep in London ensemble Metalworks, as well as handled lead guitars for legends like Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols, The Faces) and Stu Hamm (Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, G3).