He has worked with acts including Radiohead, Travis, Beck, Air, Paul McCartney, U2, R.E.M., Pavement, Roger Waters, Arcade Fire and Idles.

Early in his career, Godrich worked as the house engineer at RAK Studios, London, under the producer John Leckie.

[1] Godrich was educated at William Ellis School in North West London, where he shared classes with his friend and the future Zero 7 member Henry Binns.

[citation needed] Godrich began playing guitar, inspired by Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa.

[3] After graduating from SAE, Godrich became a junior staff member at the Audio One studio complex, working as a tea boy.

[4] After four years, Godrich left RAK to go freelance and set up his own studio, Shabang, where he planned to create dance music.

Godrich first worked with the rock band Radiohead when John Leckie hired him at RAK to engineer their EP My Iron Lung (1994) and their second album, The Bends (1995).

[3] When Leckie left the studio to attend a social engagement, Radiohead and Godrich stayed to record B-sides.

[7] Working in improvised studios without supervision, Godrich and the band learned as they went, and credited the success to the open process.

[15] Godrich has produced most of the solo work by the Radiohead singer, Thom Yorke, including his albums The Eraser (2006), Tomorrow's Modern Boxes (2014)[16] and Anima (2019).

[17] Yorke credits Godrich with helping edit his work, identifying which parts need improvement and which have potential.

The band also includes the bassist Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the drummer Joey Waronker of Beck and R.E.M., and the percussionist Mauro Refosco of Forro in the Dark.

[24] Godrich produced A Light for Attracting Attention (2022), the debut album by the Smile, a band comprising Yorke, Greenwood and the drummer Tom Skinner.

[25] The Guardian critic Alexis Petridis said the Smile "sound like a simultaneously more skeletal and knottier version of Radiohead", exploring more progressive rock influences with unusual time signatures, complex riffs and "hard-driving" motorik psychedelia.

[26] Godrich mixed Jarak Qaribak, a 2023 album by Greenwood and the Israeli rock musician Dudu Tasaa.

[citation needed] Godrich produced several albums by Travis, including their commercial breakthrough, The Man Who (1999), and its followup, The Invisible Band (2001).

[28] Healy felt it was good for Godrich to work with "melodic" bands such as Travis as well as more experimental acts such as Radiohead.

[citation needed] Godrich produced Pavement's final album, Terror Twilight (1999), with Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood contributing harmonica on two tracks.

[31] In 2001, Godrich remixed U2's "Walk On" for its single release, and mixed and contributed production to Air's albums Talkie Walkie (2004) and Pocket Symphony (2007).

In 2015, he produced the live album Roger Waters: The Wall,[37] and made a cameo as a Stormtrooper in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

[41] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Godrich worked with the Arcade Fire in isolation in El Paso, Texas, producing their album We (2022).

[46][47] The United States premiere was on Rave HD on 22 February 2008, followed by a run on Independent Film Channel, as part of the network's "Automat" block of television programmes in the autumn of 2008.

[50] Godrich credited the producers Phil Thornalley, John Leckie and Steve Lillywhite for teaching him his craft, saying they were "people I watched directly and emulated".

[1] He named his "heroes" as the Beatles producer George Martin, for "inventing the job", and Trevor Horn, for being "the thing that really made me sit up and listen".

[33] He said Joni Mitchell was his favourite artist, citing her "unique combination of musical and lyrical talent".

[1] Godrich said he believes people place too much emphasis on studio equipment and "trickery", which is less important than musical sensibility and communication.