Jonny Greenwood: “Radiohead seems to be slowing down”

Jonny Greenwood has given The New York Times his view of where Radiohead stand. Anthony Tommasini asked him, on the phone to his home near Oxford, how he balances film work with Radiohead and a big American tour this summer. Radiohead seems to be slowing down.¹ Thom Yorke is making great music on his own, he says, and Ed O'Brien is recording a solo record. Every time I write a new piece of music, in my head it's headed for a Radiohead song; that's where my head really is¹.

Greenwood is 46 and up for the Oscar for Best Original Score. Hearing Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie at 15 sent him to the ondes Martenot. He keeps coming back to Messiaen, Penderecki and Bach, and to the idea of Messiaen's modes inside Bach chorales. It's like you've got a bunch of beautiful animals in a room, crossbreeding into something revolting.¹

Paul Thomas Anderson called the first two piano pieces too dark, saying they gave away what would happen. What worked began with Reynolds, the designer at the film's centre. Greenwood sold Anderson the idea that Reynolds was devoted to Glenn Gould's recordings, which led to Bach-like piano music. Anderson asked for it bigger until a full orchestra played it. “House of Woodcock” was called “Bill Piano” for ages, because Greenwood had been listening to Bill Evans.