Edward John O'Brien (born 15 April 1968) is an English guitarist, songwriter, and co-founder of the rock band Radiohead. O'Brien attended Abingdon School in Oxfordshire, England, where he formed Radiohead with schoolmates. He said his role was to "service the songs" and support the songwriter, Thom Yorke. He creates ambient sounds and textures using effects, sustain units and the EBow, and provides backing vocals.
In the 2000s, with musicians including the Radiohead drummer, Philip Selway, O'Brien toured and recorded with the 7 Worlds Collide project. In 2020, he released his first solo album, Earth, under the name EOB. It was inspired by his time living in Brazil and attending Carnival. A solo tour was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. His second album, Blue Morpho, was released in May 2026. O'Brien has campaigned on topics including climate change and artist rights.
Rolling Stone named O'Brien among the greatest guitarists of all time in 2010 and 2023. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Radiohead in 2019.
O'Brien was born on 15 April 1968. His family comes from Ballyporeen, Ireland. One of his grandmothers was American and he has family in Texas. As a child, O'Brien enjoyed cricket and theatre. His parents separated when he was 10; O'Brien said this was when music became his "refuge". He grew up listening to post-punk acts such as Siouxsie and the Banshees, Adam and the Ants, Depeche Mode, the Police and David Bowie. He said: "It was a very foetal [time] for music because people who went to art college or artists, or musicians, suddenly thought, 'Oh, I can be that.'" As a child, O'Brien played violin and sang in a choir.
The members of Radiohead met while attending Abingdon School, a private school for boys in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. While O'Brien was playing Lysander in a school production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, he met Thom Yorke, who was scoring the production. Yorke asked him to join him for a jam. According to O'Brien, "Before that, [life] was a bit confusing, a bit crap. And then suddenly ... I felt something very strong, almost like some kind of epiphany, almost like: 'This is it.'"
O'Brien was one school year below the drummer, Philip Selway, the year above Yorke and the bassist, Colin Greenwood, and four years above Colin's brother, the guitarist Jonny Greenwood. In 1985, they formed a band, On a Friday, the name referring to their usual rehearsal day in the school's music room. They continued to rehearse during holidays while the members attended university. O'Brien studied economics at the University of Manchester, where he took part in the Second Summer of Love.
1991–1999: Early success with Radiohead
In 1991, On a Friday signed a record contract with EMI and changed their name to Radiohead. They found early success with their debut single, "Creep", from their debut album, Pablo Honey (1993). For their second album, The Bends (1995), the guitarists' roles were more divided, with Yorke generally playing rhythm, Greenwood lead and Ed O'Brien providing effects. The Bends received positive reviews and elevated Radiohead's profile.
Radiohead's third album, OK Computer (1997), brought them international fame and is often acclaimed as one of the best albums of all time. O'Brien used less distortion and more delay and other effects, creating a sound that was "more about textures". He became depressed during the extensive OK Computer tour, but focused on supporting Yorke. After the tour, he returned to Oxford, used large amounts of drugs and fell further into depression. He said: "I was single, on my own … I was the lowest I've ever been. It was the irony as well – you're at the top, that old cliché." In 1999, O'Brien contributed to the soundtrack for the BBC drama series Eureka Street.
2000–2007: Developing sound and 7 Worlds Collide
Radiohead's next albums, Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001), marked a dramatic change in sound, incorporating influences from electronic music, classical music, jazz and krautrock. O'Brien initially struggled with the change, saying: "It's scary – everyone feels insecure. I'm a guitarist and suddenly it's like, well, there are no guitars on this track, or no drums." He began using effects units more extensively to process his guitar, creating synthesiser-like sounds. O'Brien kept an online diary of Radiohead's progress.
With Selway and other musicians, O'Brien toured and recorded with Neil Finn as part of the 7 Worlds Collide project, providing guitar and backing vocals. He appeared in a 2011 episode of the BBC Radio 5 Live sports programme Fighting Talk in support of Record Shop Day. He contributed guitar to the 2003 Asian Dub Foundation album Enemy of the Enemy.
During the sessions for Radiohead's seventh album, In Rainbows (2007), O'Brien believed Radiohead might never record another album. He said later: "One of my mantras throughout the recording was, 'This is the last time I'm doing this. I'll never summon up the energy to do this again. So I'm going to put everything I can into it.'" He was motivated by a desire to secure Radiohead's legacy as a great band, and said in 2008: "In my view, we've made three really great records, The Bends, OK Computer and Kid A. What we needed was another great record just to seal it."
2009–2018: A Moon Shaped Pool and other projects
O'Brien contributed to the 2009 album The Sun Came Out by 7 Worlds Collide. In 2013, he cofounded the Laundry, a workspace, restaurant and nightclub converted from a laundry in London Fields. In 2019, Hackney Council announced that the building would be demolished to make way for luxury flats.
In 2012 and 2013, O'Brien and his family lived on a farm near Ubatuba, where he began working on solo music. He was inspired by "the spirit and being in Brazil ... open-heartedness, rhythm, colour". He was hesitant to join the tour for Radiohead's ninth album, A Moon Shaped Pool (2016), saying he no longer "resonated" with Radiohead, but was glad to have seen it through. Following the tour, Radiohead went on hiatus. In 2018, O'Brien became an "informal patron" for the environmental pressure group Extinction Rebellion, which he described as "incredibly enlightened".
Radiohead were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2019. O'Brien and Selway attended the induction ceremony and gave speeches. O'Brien thanked his bandmates for their musicianship and friendship, saying that "some of the nights we have in the rehearsal studio [are] like transcendental moments".
O'Brien released his first solo music under the name EOB. His solo debut, the non-album track "Santa Teresa", was released on 4 October, 2019. Stereogum described it as a "haunting" ambient instrumental in the style of Brian Eno and Fennesz. O'Brien released his debut solo album, Earth, on 17 April 2020 on Capitol Records to positive reviews. It features the Radiohead bassist, Colin Greenwood, plus the drummer Omar Hakim, the Invisible members Nathan East and Dave Okumu, the folk singer Laura Marling, the Portishead guitarist Adrian Utley and the Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche. The first track, "Brasil", was released on 5 December 2019, followed by "Shangri-La" on 6 February.