Radiohead’s Kid A 20 Years On – Pianist Rick Simpson re-imagines an alt.rock classic

Having graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2008, London-based pianist and composer Rick Simpson has gone on to play in a number of ensembles and venues across the city, with artists such as Michael Janisch, Christian Scott, Leo Richardson, and a whole crowd of fellow London jazz musicians.

Four years on from 2016’s Klammer, comes the announcement of a new album with a new line-up – featuring James Allsopp (baritone saxophone), Tori Freestone (tenor saxophone), Will Glaser (drums) and Dave Whitford (double bass). Due for release on 23 October, Everything All Of The Time: Kid A Revisited takes a look at Radiohead’s seminal 2000 album through a jazz lens.

The impact that the rock band has had on jazz – and vice versa – is no secret, and Radiohead have had a significant influence on Simpson himself. We caught up with Rick ahead of the album’s release.

Hi Rick – Looking forward to the new album. What made you decide on Radiohead’s Kid A?

I wanted to do a series of gigs where we could attract a new audience to the Vortex Jazz Club, because I’d been trying to help out in various ways over the last two or three years. And one of the ways I thought we could get more people to come was to do classic non-jazz albums.

I didn’t really listen to much music as a kid. I didn’t listen to piano music or anything like that, but I kinda mucked about on the piano. And then I got into techno, which was a bit weird as a ten-year-old. And then it was jazz after that. Then the first music I ever heard after jazz was OK Computer, and that blew my mind and I got obsessed. I was crazy about Radiohead for like ten years.

I remember having this thought in December: “Oh, you know what, it’ll be nice to document some music”. So, we went in [the studio] and we had five hours. It was really tight. I think because of the time constraints everybody just played their asses of and just went for it. And you can hear that on the record: The tracks are all quite short. But they’re all vibey.

Was there a particular creative process you went through in interpreting the originals?

No, not really. The arrangement for ‘Everything In Its Right Place’ I came up with in the car. I just kind of sang something into voice notes.

There are varying degrees of involvement with the original source material in there. ‘Idioteque’ pretty much doesn’t have any resemblance to ‘Idioteque’ on the record. It’s got a chord sequence at the end and it’s got a couple of fragments of melody, so it’s pretty much a new composition.

But in terms of process I was always just trying to make good music out of the amazing source material. And everyone in that band is so strong – their personalities and their playing. It's one of those things where you can give them something complicated or give them something really simple, and they're just going to do something incredible with it. Those guys made it really.

On your last album, Klammer, you played a range of instruments – piano, Rhodes, glockenspiel and even a Wurlitzer. Can we expect a similar range with the new album?

No, no, it’s just a piano. What’s kind of nice about this record for me is that when I did Klammer, the reason I had that band was because I didn’t really have any confidence in playing. I kind of started that band where I could write loads of music and just hide behind everyone else.

I don’t know why, I just never listened to much music before I found Jazz. My Grandad loved the Bee Gees and we saw some musicals but from the start of learning piano, I was always improvising and always composing.

Do you have a favourite track on the new album?

I really like ‘Treefingers’ because it’s just me and Will improvising, and we just play free pretty much. And that’s an amazing sample of Will Glaser just being like a telepathic musician – he just knows what to do.

And I like ‘The National Anthem’ because that’s really vibey. I think the ending of that is really nuts. We had to tune the piano twice in that. It was like this 187-year old Steinway and I was batting the crap out of it and I could see the engineer being a bit like: “Oh God”. But it came out okay in the end (laughs).

You said earlier you didn’t listen to much music as a kid?

Yeah, it’s stupid isn’t it? I don’t know why, I just never listened to any music. It wasn’t like a musical house or anything. But from the start of learning piano, I was always improvising and always composing.

I used to get told off all the time by my classical teacher. He used to come around to my house like two or three times a year to complain about me making music up instead of playing what’s written. And then I got fired from a ballet job that I had when I was like 11. It was £12 an hour in cash, which is amazing – it seems amazing even now – but I got fired because I kept making the music up.

So, what got you into jazz?

It’s because I had to play ‘In The Mood’ in a Year 11 end of school concert with a clarinet player. I tried to do a solo, and it went wrong and kind of fell apart. Then my dad – bless him – he was like, “Ooh son, don’t look so sad”. He could tell I was really embarrassed. He said: “Oh I’ve got a mate who likes jazz”, and he came back with Bitches Brew and it scared the crap out of me.

Then we found this guy who lived on the Moors – he used to live in New York – called Race Newton. He would come to the house and bring Tower Records and Keith Jarrett and Django Bates. Stuff like that. Yeah, he used to bring Django Bates albums when I’d just started out and I loved it, and I never turned back.

How do you feel you’ve developed as a pianist and a composer since your debut album Semi-Wogan?

A lot! That record was recorded 10 years ago, which in any serious musician time is an enormous space for development. I've been working seriously hard at my piano technique and improvising ability. Hopefully the results are clear.

As a composer, well, I want to do a large ensemble next – maybe even with vocals in. It’s cool to put out this new record,  but next I want to do a proper big composed project. Because that’s something really personal.

Tell me more about this large ensemble project.

Not a big band. But something large, like a John Hollenbeck sort of thing – he’s one of my heroes. It’s pretty scary, a pretty big amount of work to do. But I’d like to give it a go.

It’s a bit ego-centric but you can be like: “Oh, I did this” (laughs). I’ve always said that gigs are like sex and writing and recording something is like having a nice relationship. But you need both to be fulfilled. You can’t just have a load of one-night stands and then get to 80 and full of syphilis and alone. So that’s why I want to do something with a large ensemble because it feels like a real achievement. And I’ve always said that all I really want to do is get to the end of my life and be like, “Hey, I made some music!” and have something to show.

Listen to 'Kid A' from 'Everything All of the Time: Kid A Revisited' by Rick Simpson on YouTube