Creativity Quote by Ed O'Brien

There’s a deliberate shrug baked into Ed O’Brien’s line, a way of refusing the camera’s invitation to turn self-awareness into content. “We’re not aware of fame itself” isn’t literal; it’s a posture. The phrasing suggests fame is a substance you can “be aware of,” like a smell you notice on your clothes. O’Brien denies that sensory relationship, implying that the band’s attention stays on the work, not the halo around it.

The kicker is the second clause: “we’re not that kind of band.” That’s identity-policing, but in a sympathetic way. He’s drawing a boundary between Radiohead and the archetype of the fame-forward rock act: the band that narrates its own legend, performs authenticity on talk shows, turns touring into an ongoing brand story. It’s not that they’re unknown; it’s that they don’t want fame to become the subject they’re forced to sing about offstage.

The subtext is a quiet critique of the attention economy before we had better words for it. Fame doesn’t just reward you; it recruits you, pressuring you to become a character who reacts to being famous. O’Brien is rejecting that recursion. It also functions as a protective charm: if you claim you’re “not aware,” you can keep the machinery at arm’s length, preserving the band’s mystique without admitting you’re curating it. The line lands because it’s both earnest and strategic - a modesty that doubles as an aesthetic.