Jonny Greenwood tells Adam Buxton OK Computer was trying to be Miles Davis

Jonny Greenwood is the guest on the latest Adam Buxton Podcast, an hour with his friend the comedian, recorded in Lyon on 1 June, the day Radiohead played the Théâtre Antique de Fourvière. Asked about the risks the band take, he says A Moon Shaped Pool skirts the edge of something that could be terrible, with touches of jazz piano they had the nerve to try because they love Alice Coltrane's records. They have always aimed that high. Pitchfork has a write-up of the interview.

The songs on OK Computer, in our swollen heads, were trying to be Miles Davis, frankly. Even though no one plays the trumpet.

Jonny Greenwood¹

Songs drop out of the set when they stop sounding good to the band. “No Surprises” went unplayed for three or four years after it felt wrong in rehearsal, and this tour it is back. It’s got a swagger in it now.¹

On “Everything in Its Right Place” he records Thom Yorke live on his Kaoss Pad and makes him sound as if he is singing backwards. Throughout the song, I take little snippets and fire it back in a timing best designed to put him off.¹

The guitar is still a clumsy struggle for him; at the piano he pictures himself at home, where he practised the songs, and the crowd bothers him less. Asked whether he will take up the harmonica again, his first job in the band, he says he is waiting for the moment.

Buxton also gets him onto Pixies, Pavement and the four-page Curb Your Enthusiasm script he owns, which has no dialogue in it. As for why Radiohead have never followed the industry's rules, in our heads, we still wanna be Sonic Youth¹.