Thom Yorke contributes a track to Norton’s new adaptation of Jonathan Lethem’s novel.
A new track from Thom Yorke will feature in the score of Edward Norton’s new film, Motherless Brooklyn. According to Rolling Stone, Norton, who is a longtime fan of Radiohead, reached out to Yorke before production began on the film. “I wanted Thom to write an old-world melancholy ballad, and I wanted his voice to be the properties for [Norton’s character] Lionel’s voice,” Norton told Rolling Stone.
“He sent me this track of him on a piano singing it, and I was sitting on the edge of my bed in the dark, crying from listening to this song,” he continues. “It’s so instantly heartbreaking and evocative of so many of the themes to the movie without being overly specific to them, but so much so, I thought the idea of daily battles that everyone is fighting, that you’re trying to rise up and out of, was so evocative that I went back into the script and put the phrase into a scene.”
Titled Daily Battles, the track also features Yorke’s Atoms For Peace bandmate Flea on bass and horns. Legendary jazz musician Wynton Marsalis also contributed a version of the track to the soundtrack. Both renditions will be released ahead of the film on digital formats and a split seven-inch vinyl.
Motherless Brooklyn, which stars and was written and directed by Edward Norton, is due for release in November.
Revisit our Crack 100 cover feature with Thom Yorke.