Jonny Greenwood

Jonathan Richard Guy Greenwood (born 5 November 1971) is an English musician. He is the lead guitarist and keyboardist of the rock band Radiohead, and has composed numerous film scores. He has been named one of the greatest guitarists by numerous publications, including ''Rolling Stone''.

Along with his elder brother, Colin, Greenwood attended Abingdon School in Abingdon near Oxford, where he formed Radiohead. Their debut single, " Creep" (1992), was distinguished by Greenwood's aggressive guitar work. Radiohead have achieved acclaim and sold more than 30 million albums. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Radiohead in 2019.

Greenwood is a multi-instrumentalist and a prominent player of the ondes Martenot, an early electronic instrument. He uses electronic techniques such as programming, sampling and looping, and writes music software. He described his role in Radiohead as an arranger, helping transform Thom Yorke's demos into finished songs. The only classically trained member of Radiohead, Greenwood has composed for orchestras including the London Contemporary Orchestra and the BBC Concert Orchestra, and his arrangements feature on Radiohead records.

Greenwood released his first solo work, the soundtrack for the film '' Bodysong'', in 2003. In 2007, he scored ''There Will Be Blood'', the first of several collaborations with the director Paul Thomas Anderson. In 2018, he was nominated for an Academy Award for his score for Anderson's '' Phantom Thread''. He was nominated again for his score for '' The Power of the Dog'' (2021), directed by Jane Campion. Greenwood also scored the Lynne Ramsay films '' We Need to Talk About Kevin'' (2011) and '' You Were Never Really Here'' (2017). He has collaborated with Middle Eastern musicians including the Israeli songwriters Shye Ben Tzur and Dudu Tassa. In 2021, Greenwood debuted a new band, the Smile, with Yorke and the drummer Tom Skinner.

Early life

Jonny Greenwood was born on 5 November 1971 in Oxford, England. His brother, the Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood, is two years older. Their father served in the British Army as a bomb disposal expert. The Greenwood family has historical ties to the Communist Party of Great Britain and the socialist Fabian Society.

When he was a child, Greenwood's family would listen to a small number of cassettes in their car, including Mozart's horn concertos, the musicals ''Flower Drum Song'' and ''My Fair Lady'', and cover versions of Simon & Garfunkel songs. When the cassettes were not playing, Greenwood would listen to the noise of the engine and try to recall every detail of the music. He credited his older siblings with exposing him to rock bands such as the Beat and New Order. The first gig Greenwood attended was the Fall on their 1988 ''Frenz Experiment'' tour, which he found "overwhelming".

The Greenwood brothers attended the private boys' school Abingdon. The Abingdon director of music, Michael Stinton, recalled Jonny as a "charming student" and "committed musician" who would spend as much time in the music department as possible. Greenwood's first instrument was a recorder given to him at age four or five. He played baroque music in recorder groups as a teenager, and continued to play into adulthood. He played the viola in the Thames Vale youth orchestra, which he described as a formative experience: "I'd been in school orchestras and never seen the point. But in Thames Vale I was suddenly with all these 18-year-olds who could actually play in tune. I remember thinking: 'Ah, that's what an orchestra is supposed to sound like! Greenwood also spent time programming, experimenting with BASIC and simple machine code to make computer games. According to Greenwood, "The closer I got to the bare bones of the computer, the more exciting I found it."

On a Friday

At Abingdon, the Greenwood brothers formed a band, On a Friday, with the singer Thom Yorke, the guitarist Ed O'Brien and the drummer Philip Selway. Jonny, the youngest, was three school years below Yorke and Colin and the last to join. He was previously in another band, Illiterate Hands, with Matt Hawksworth, Simon Newton, Ben Kendrick, Nigel Powell and Yorke's brother, Andy.

Greenwood initially played harmonica and keyboards for On a Friday. As they had fired their previous keyboardist for playing too loudly, Greenwood spent his first months playing with his keyboard turned off. No one in the band realised, and Yorke told him he added an "interesting texture". According to Greenwood, "I'd go home in the evening and work out how to actually play chords, and cautiously, over the next few months, I would start turning this keyboard up." According to Selway, at On a Friday's first gig, in Oxford’s Jericho Tavern, Greenwood sat on the stage with a harmonica, "waiting for his big moment to arrive". He eventually became the lead guitarist.

Although the other members of On a Friday had left Abingdon by 1987 to attend university, they continued to rehearse on weekends and holidays. Greenwood studied music at A Level, including chorale harmonisation.

Career

1991–1992: ''Pablo Honey''

In 1991, the members of On a Friday regrouped in Oxford, sharing a house on the corner of Magdalen Road and Ridgefield Road. Greenwood played harmonica on the 1992 Blind Mr. Jones single "Crazy Jazz". He enrolled at Oxford Brookes University to study psychology and music, but left after his first term after On a Friday signed a record contract deal with EMI. Greenwood said he had been "headed for the back of the viola section at some minor orchestra".

The band changed their name to Radiohead and released their first album, '' Pablo Honey'', in 1993. Radiohead found early success with their debut single, " Creep", released in 1992. According to ''Rolling Stone'', "It was Greenwood's gnashing noise blasts that marked Radiohead as more than just another mopey band ... An early indicator of his crucial role in pushing his band forward." The ''Independent'' wrote that it was "the kind of transformative moment that has become his signature contribution to the Radiohead style".

1995–1999: ''The Bends'' and ''OK Computer''

Radiohead's second album, '' The Bends'' (1995), brought them significant critical attention. Greenwood said it had been a "turning point" for Radiohead: "It started appearing in people's est ofpolls for the end of the year. That's when it started to feel like we made the right choice about being a band." On tour, Greenwood damaged his hearing and wore protective ear shields for some performances.

Radiohead's third album, ''OK Computer'' (1997), achieved acclaim, showcasing Greenwood's lead guitar work on songs such as "Paranoid Android". For "Climbing up the Walls", Greenwood wrote a part for 16 stringed instruments playing quarter tones apart, inspired by the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki.

For the soundtrack of the 1998 film '' Velvet Goldmine'', Greenwood, Yorke, Andy Mackay of Roxy Music and Bernard Butler of Suede formed a band, the Venus in Furs, and covered three Roxy Music songs. Greenwood played harmonica on "Platform Blues" and "Billie" on Pavement's final album, ''Terror Twilight'' (1999).

2000–2003: ''Kid A, Amnesiac'' and ''Hail to the Thief''

Radiohead's albums ''Kid A'' (2000) and '' Amnesiac'' (2001) marked a dramatic change in sound, incorporating influences from electronica, classical music, jazz and krautrock. Greenwood employed a modular synthesiser to build the drum machine rhythm of " Idioteque", and played ondes Martenot, an early electronic instrument similar to a theremin, on several tracks.

For "How to Disappear Completely", Greenwood composed a string section by multitracking his ondes Martenot playing. According to Radiohead's producer, Nigel Godrich, when the string players saw Greenwood's score "they all just sort of burst into giggles, because they couldn't do what he'd written, because it was impossible—or impossible for them, anyway". The orchestra leader, John Lubbock, encouraged the musicians to experiment and work with Greenwood's "naive" ideas. Greenwood also arranged strings for the ''Amnesiac'' songs " Pyramid Song" and "Dollars and Cents".

Greenwood played guitar on Bryan Ferry's 2002 album '' Frantic''. For Radiohead's sixth album, '' Hail to the Thief'' (2003), Greenwood began using the music programming language Max to sample and manipulate the band's playing. After having used effects pedals heavily on previous albums, he challenged himself to create interesting guitar parts without effects.

2003–2006: ''Bodysong'' and first orchestral work

In 2003, Greenwood released his first solo work, the soundtrack for the documentary film '' Bodysong''. It incorporates guitar, jazz, and classical music. Greenwood played instruments such as the ondes Martenot, banjo, glass harmonica and vocoder, and employed the Gerard Presencer jazz quartet. In 2004, Greenwood and Yorke contributed to the Band Aid 20 single "Do They Know It's Christmas?", produced by Godrich.

Greenwood's first work for orchestra, ''Smear'', was premiered by the London Sinfonietta in March 2004. In 2005, Greenwood curated a concert as part of the Ether festival in London at with the London Sinfonietta. It featured a new version of ''Smear'', the new work ''Piano for Children'', and performances of pieces by classical modernist composers. With the orchestra, Greenwood also performed two Radiohead songs with Yorke: "Where Bluebirds Fly" and "Weird Fishes / Arpeggi".

In May 2004, Greenwood was appointed composer-in-residence to the BBC Concert Orchestra. Radiohead's co-manager, Bryce Edge, said Greenwood would use the residency to learn how orchestras work. For the BBC, Greenwood wrote "Popcorn Superhet Receiver" (2005), inspired by radio static and the elaborate, dissonant tone clusters of Penderecki's '' Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima ''(1960). He wrote the piece by recording individual tones on viola, then manipulating and overdubbing them in Pro Tools. For "Popcorn Supherhet Receiver", Greenwood was named Composer of the Year by BBC Radio 3.

For the 2005 film ''Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'', Greenwood and the Radiohead drummer, Philip Selway, appeared as the wizard rock band Weird Sisters alongside Jarvis Cocker, Steve Mackey, Steven Claydon and Jason Buckle. They recorded three songs for the soundtrack and appeared in the film. Greenwood contributed piano to "The Eraser" from Yorke's debut solo album, ''The Eraser'' (2006).

2007–2010: ''There Will Be Blood'' and ''In Rainbows''

Greenwood composed the score for the 2007 film ''There Will Be Blood'', directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. The soundtrack won an award at the Critics' Choice Awards and the Best Film Score award in the Evening Standard British Film Awards for 2007. As it contains excerpts from "Popcorn Superhet Receiver", it was ineligible for an Academy Award. ''Rolling Stone'' named ''There Will Be Blood'' the best film of the decade and described the score as "a sonic explosion that reinvented what film music could be". In 2016, the film composer Hans Zimmer said the score was "recklessly, crazily beautiful".

Greenwood curated a compilation album of reggae tracks, ''Jonny Greenwood Is the Controller'', released by Trojan Records in March 2007. It features mostly 70s roots and dub tracks from artists including Lee "Scratch" Perry, Joe Gibbs and Linval Thompson. The title references Thompson's track "Dread Are the Controller".

Radiohead released their seventh album, '' In Rainbows'', in October 2007, in a landmark use of the pay-what-you-want model for music sales. Greenwood said Radiohead were responding to the culture of downloading free music, which he likened to the legend of King Canute: "You can't pretend the flood isn't happening." Greenwood wrote the title music for Adam Buxton's 2008 sketch show ''Meebox'', and contributed to the 2009 album ''Basof Mitraglim Le'Hakol'' by the Israeli rock musician Dudu Tasaa.

2010–2013: ''Norwegian Wood'' and ''The King of Limbs''

In February 2010, Greenwood debuted a new composition, "Doghouse", at the BBC's Maida Vale Studios. He wrote it in hotels and dressing rooms while on tour with Radiohead. He expanded "Doghouse" into the score for the Japanese film '' Norwegian Wood'', released later that year. Greenwood played guitar on Bryan Ferry's 2010 album '' Olympia''.

Radiohead's recorded their eighth album, '' The King of Limbs'' (2011), using sampler software written by Greenwood. By 2011, Radiohead had sold more than 30 million albums. That year, Greenwood scored '' We Need to Talk About Kevin'', directed by Lynne Ramsay, using instruments including a wire-strung harp. With Yorke, he also collaborated with the rapper MF Doom on the track "Retarded Fren".

In 2012, Greenwood composed the score for Anderson's film '' The Master''. That March, Greenwood and the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, one of Greenwood's greatest influences, released an album comprising Penderecki's 1960s compositions '' Polymorphia'' ''and Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima'', Greenwood's "Popcorn Superhet Receiver", and a new work by Greenwood, "48 Responses to ''Polymorphia''".

In the same year, Greenwood accepted a three-month residency with the Australian Chamber Orchestra in Sydney and composed a new piece, "Water". Greenwood, Yorke, and other artists contributed music to ''The UK Gold'', a 2013 documentary about tax avoidance in the UK. The soundtrack was released free in February 2015 through the online audio platform SoundCloud.

2014–2016: ''Inherent Vice'', ''Junun'' and ''A Moon Shaped Pool''

Greenwood composed the soundtrack for the Anderson film ''Inherent Vice'' (2014). It features a new version of an unreleased Radiohead song, "Spooks", performed by Greenwood and two members of Supergrass.

In 2014, Greenwood performed with the London Contemporary Orchestra, performing selections from his soundtracks alongside new compositions. In the same year, Greenwood performed with the Israeli composer Shye Ben Tzur and his band. Greenwood described Ben Tzur's music as "quite celebratory, more like gospel music than anything—except that it's all done to a backing of Indian harmoniums and percussion". He said he would play a "supportive" rather than "solistic" role.

In 2015, Greenwood, Ben Tzur and Godrich recorded an album, '' Junun'', with Indian musicians at Mehrangarh Fort in Rajasthan, India. Greenwood insisted they hire only musicians from Rajasthan and only use string instruments native to the region. Ben Tzur wrote the songs, with Greenwood contributing guitar, bass, keyboards, ondes Martenot and programming. Whereas western music is based on harmonies and chord progressions, Greenwood used North Indian ragas. Greenwood and Godrich said they wanted to avoid the "obsession" with high fidelity in recording world music, and instead hoped to capture the "dirt" and "roughness" of music in India. The recording is the subject of a 2015 documentary, '' Junun'', by Paul Thomas Anderson.

Greenwood contributed string orchestration to Frank Ocean's 2016 albums '' Endless'' and ''Blonde''. Radiohead's ninth album, '' A Moon Shaped Pool'', was released in May 2016, featuring strings and choral vocals arranged by Greenwood and performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra. With Ben Tzur and the Indian ensemble, Greenwood supported Radiohead's 2018 ''Moon Shaped Pool'' tour under the name Junun.

2017–2020: ''Phantom Thread'' and ''The Power of the Dog''

Greenwood wrote the score for Anderson's 2017 film '' Phantom Thread''. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score and earned Greenwood his sixth Ivor Novello award. Greenwood reunited with Ramsay to score her film '' You Were Never Really Here'', also released in 2017. That August, Yorke and Jonny Greenwood performed a benefit concert in the Marche, Italy, to help restoration efforts following the August 2016 Central Italy earthquake. At the 2019 BBC Proms in London, Greenwood debuted his composition "Horror Vacui" for solo violin and 68 string instruments.

Greenwood was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Radiohead in March 2019. Greenwood did not attend the event, and told ''Rolling Stone'': "I don't care. Maybe it's a cultural thing that I really don't understand ... It's quite a self-regarding profession anyway. And anything that heightens that just makes me feel even more uncomfortable." In September, Greenwood launched a record label, Octatonic Records, to release contemporary classical music by soloists and small groups he had met as a film composer. In 2021, he expressed uncertainty about releasing further Octatonic records, as the two Octatonic records "seemed to not really connect with anybody". In 2024, Greenwood said he planned to revive Octatonic with a release from the cellist Oliver Coates.

For the soundtrack for '' The Power of the Dog'' (2021), Greenwood played the cello in the style of a banjo and recorded a piece for player piano controlled with the software Max. The soundtrack earned Greenwood his second nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Score. For his soundtrack to'' Spencer'' (2021), Greenwood combined Baroque and jazz music, juxtaposing their "rigid" and "colourful" styles. He also contributed cues to Anderson's 2021 film '' Licorice Pizza''.

2021–2023: the Smile and ''Jarak Qaribak''

In 2021, Greenwood debuted a new band, the Smile, with Yorke and the jazz drummer Tom Skinner. Greenwood said the project was a way for him and Yorke to work together during the COVID-19 lockdowns. ''Pitchfork'' attributed the Smile to Greenwood's frustration with Radiohead's slow working pace and his desire to release records that are "90 percent as good hatcome out twice as often". The Smile made their surprise debut in a performance streamed by Glastonbury Festival on 22 May, with Greenwood playing guitar and bass.

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. In May 2022, the Smile released their debut album, '' A Light for Attracting Attention'', and began an international tour. Greenwood and Yorke contributed music to the sixth series of the television drama ''Peaky Blinders'', broadcast that year.

Greenwood composed and conducted strings for the Pretenders song " I Think About You Daily", released in June 2023. On 9 June, Greenwood and the Israeli musician Dudu Tassa released '' Jarak Qaribak'', comprising reworkings of Middle Eastern love songs. It was produced by Greenwood and Tassa and mixed by Godrich, and features several Middle Eastern musicians. Greenwood said he and Tassa had "tried to imagine what Kraftwerk would have done if they'd been in Cairo in the 1970s". He denied any intent to make a political point with the album, and said: "I do understand that as soon as you do anything in that part of the world it becomes political ... possibly especially if it's artistic." A European tour for ''Jarak Qaribak'' was canceled following the outbreak of the Gaza war in 2023.

2024–present: ''Wall of Eyes'' and ''Cutouts''

In January 2024, the Smile released their second album, '' Wall of Eyes''. They began a European tour in March. In May, a drone-based composition by Greenwood for church organ, "X Years of Reverb" — where X is substituted for the age of the building in which it is performed – premiered at the Norfolk and Norwich Festival. The composition is eight hours long and was performed by the organists James McVinnie and Eliza McCarthy playing in shifts using stopwatches. Greenwood composed it after becoming involved in charities to repair churches damaged by an earthquake near his home in Marche, Italy.

On 25 May, Greenwood joined protests in Israel calling for the removal of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, elections for new leadership, and the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. The next day, he and Tassa performed songs from ''Jarak Qaribak'' in Tel Aviv. The performance was criticised by pro-Palestine activists; the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel called for "peaceful, creative pressure on his band Radiohead to convincingly distance itself from this blatant complicity in the crime of crimes, or face grassroots measures". On 4 June, Greenwood responded in a statement that Israeli artists should not be silenced. He described the project as a group of Middle Eastern musicians "working together across borders" and made no mention of Israel's war efforts.

In July, the Smile canceled their upcoming European tour after Greenwood was temporarily hospitalised with a serious infection. In a statement, the Smile said Greenwood had been receiving emergency treatment in an intensive care unit, but was now safe. In October, Greenwood said he was mostly recovered and was focusing on film soundtracks until he was fully well. The Smile's third album, '' Cutouts'', recorded simultaneously with ''Wall of Eyes'', was released that month. Greenwood scored his sixth film for Paul Thomas Anderson, '' One Battle After Another,'' due for release in September 2025.

In May 2025, Greenwood and Tassa's performances in Bristol and London supporting ''Jarak Qaribak'' were canceled following "credible threats" to the venues and staff. They released a statement criticising the cancellations as censorship, emphasised the mixed heritage of the performers, and compared the cancellations to the controversy surrounding the hip-hop group Kneecap following their Coachella 2025 performance.

Musicianship

Guitar

Greenwood is Radiohead's lead guitarist. He is known for his aggressive playing style. '' Guitar.com'' wrote that Greenwood's playing on Radiohead's debut album, '' Pablo Honey'', was an "exhilarating melange of tremolo-picked soundscapes, chunky octaves, screaming high-register runs and killswitch antics". In the 1990s, Greenwood developed repetitive stress injury, necessitating a brace on his right arm, which he likened to "taping up your fingers before a boxing match".

Greenwood said he dislikes the reputation of guitars as something to be "admired or worshipped", and instead sees them as a tool like a typewriter or a vacuum cleaner. He said he disliked guitar solos: "There's nothing worse than hearing someone cautiously going up and down the scales of their guitar. You can hear them thinking about what the next note should be, and then out it comes. It's more interesting to write something that doesn't outstay its welcome."

Greenwood's main amplifiers are a Vox AC30 and a Fender 85. He has long used a Fender Telecaster Plus, a model of Telecaster with Lace Sensor pickups. He uses a killswitch to create a stuttering effect on songs such as "Airbag", "Paranoid Android" and "Electioneering". On softer tracks, such as " Street Spirit (Fade Out)" and " Pyramid Song", Greenwood plays a Fender Starcaster, which he sometimes plays with a cello bow. For solo performances and his work with the Smile, he plays a Gibson Les Paul; for bass, he plays a Fender Precision Bass, using an aggressive picking style.

For distorted tones on many 1990s Radiohead songs, Greenwood uses the Marshall ShredMaster. For the " My Iron Lung" riff, he uses a DigiTech Whammy pedal to pitch-shift his guitar by one octave, creating a "glitchy, lo-fi" sound. He has used a Roland RE-201 Space Echo unit on several albums. On "Identikit" and several Smile songs, Greenwood uses a delay effect to create "angular" synchronised repeats. Greenwood said that "treating the delay as he guitar'sequal opened up lots of directions".

In 2008, ''Guitar World'' named Greenwood's guitar solo in "Paranoid Android" the 34th-greatest. In 2010, ''NME'' named Greenwood one of the greatest living guitarists, and he was voted the seventh-greatest guitarist of all time in a poll of more than 30,000 BBC 6 Music listeners. That year, the ''Rolling Stone'' journalist David Fricke named Greenwood the 60th-greatest guitarist. A panel of musicians and ''Rolling Stone'' writers voted him the 48th-greatest guitarist in 2011, and in 2012 ''Spin'' ranked him the 29th. In its updated 2023 list of the greatest guitarists, ''Rolling Stone'' ranked Greenwood and O'Brien joint 43rd, writing: "Even as he blossomed into a noted neo-classical composer, Greenwood always made sure to throw in at least one brain-scrambling banger of a guitar part per album."

Ondes Martenot

Greenwood is a prominent player of the ondes Martenot, an early electronic instrument played by moving a ring along a wire, creating sounds similar to a theremin. Greenwood said it was "the most expressive electronic instrument that's ever been invented". He first used it on Radiohead's 2000 album ''Kid A'', and it appears in Radiohead songs including " The National Anthem", " How to Disappear Completely" and "Where I End and You Begin".

Greenwood became interested in the ondes Martenot at the age of 15 after hearing Olivier Messiaen's ''Turangalîla Symphony''. He said he was partly attracted to the instrument as he cannot sing: "I've always wanted to be able to play an instrument that was like singing, and there's nothing closer." As production of the ondes Martenot ceased in 1988, Greenwood had a replica created to take on tour with Radiohead in 2001 for fear of damaging his original model.

Other instruments

Greenwood plays instruments including piano, viola, cello, glockenspiel, harmonica, recorder, organ, banjo and harp. He said he enjoyed "struggling with instruments I can't really play", and that he enjoyed playing glockenspiel with Radiohead as much as he did guitar.

Greenwood created the rhythm for " Idioteque" (from ''Kid A'') with a modular synthesiser and sampled the song's four-chord synthesiser phrase from "mild und leise", a computer music piece by Paul Lansky. He uses a Kaoss Pad to manipulate Yorke's vocals during performances of the ''Kid A'' song " Everything in Its Right Place". In 2014, Greenwood wrote of his fascination with Indian instruments, particularly the tanpura, which he felt created uniquely complex "walls" of sounds.

Greenwood uses a "home-made sound machine" comprising small hammers striking objects including yoghurt cartons, tubs, bells, and tambourines. He has used found sounds, using a television and a transistor radio on "Climbing Up the Walls" (from ''OK Computer'') and "The National Anthem" (from ''Kid A'').

Software

At the suggestion of Radiohead's producer, Nigel Godrich, Greenwood began using the music programming language Max. He found it liberating to abandon existing notions of audio effects and create his own from scratch, thinking "in terms of sound and maths". Examples of Greenwood's use of Max include the processed piano on the ''Moon Shaped Pool'' track "Glass Eyes" and his signature "stutter" guitar effect used on tracks such as the 2003 single " Go to Sleep". He used Max to write sampling software used to create Radiohead's eighth album, '' The King of Limbs''.

Songwriting

Greenwood is the only classically trained member of Radiohead. The ''New York Times'' described him as "the guy who can take an abstract Thom Yorke notion and master the tools required to execute it in the real world". In 2016, Greenwood described his role in Radiohead as an arranger, and said: "It's not really about can I do my guitar part now, it's more ... What will serve this song best? How do we not mess up this really good song? ... How do we make it better than homjust playing it by himself, which is already usually quite great?" He said he was the most impatient member of Radiohead: "I'd much rather the records were 90 per cent as good, but come out twice as often ... I've always felt that, the closer to the finish, the smaller the changes are that anyone would notice."

Greenwood's major writing contributions to Radiohead include " Just" (which Yorke described as "a competition by me and Jonny to get as many chords as possible into a song"); " My Iron Lung", co-written with Yorke, from '' The Bends'' (1995); "The Tourist" and the "rain down" bridge of "Paranoid Android" from ''OK Computer'' (1997); the vocal melody of "Kid A" from ''Kid A'' (2000); and the guitar melody of "A Wolf at the Door" from ''Hail to the Thief'' (2003). Promotional interview CD sent to British music press.

For his film soundtracks, Greenwood attempts to keep the instrumentation contemporary to the period of the story. For example, he recorded the '' Norwegian Wood'' soundtrack using a 1960s Japanese nylon-strung guitar with home recording equipment from the period, attempting to create a recording that one of the characters might have made. Many of Greenwood's compositions are microtonal. He often uses modes of limited transposition, particularly the octatonic scale, saying: "I like to know what I ''can't'' do and then work inside that." Greenwood has used unusual notation for his scores to convey complexities such as microtonality or improvisation. His piece "X Years of Reverb" requires organists to play to stopwatches. For "48 Responses to ''Polymorphia''", he placed an oak leaf on a stave and wrote a part using the veins.

Influences

Greenwood admires the alternative rock bands Pavement, the Pixies and Sonic Youth. He said the guitarist that had most influenced him was John McGeoch of Magazine, whose songwriting "informs so much of what adioheaddo". He declined an offer to fill in for McGeoch, who died in 2004, during Magazine's 2009 reunion tour. According to the Radiohead collaborator Adam Buxton, Jonny was "overwhelmed" and too shy to accept the role.

Greenwood first heard Olivier Messiaen's Turangalîla Symphony at the age of 15 and became "round-the-bend-obsessed with it". Messiaen was Greenwood's "first connection" to classical music, and remains an influence; he said: "He was still alive when I was 15, and for whatever reason I felt I could equate him with my other favourite bands—there was no big posthumous reputation to put me off. So I'm still very fond of writing things in the same modes of limited transposition that he used."

Greenwood is an admirer of the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, and cited a concert of Penderecki's music in the early 90s as a "conversion experience". He is also a fan of the composers György Ligeti, Henri Dutilleux and Steve Reich. He has performed Reich's 1987 guitar composition ''Electric Counterpoint'' and recorded a version for Reich's 2014 album '' Radio Rewrite''. Greenwood cited the jazz musician Alice Coltrane as an influence.

Greenwood was exposed to Middle Eastern music through his wife's family. He said he particularly admired the textures and complexity of the rhythms in songs such as those by Abdel Halim Hafez, which he tried to emulate. He also said he enjoyed their rhythmic ambiguity, when it is difficult to tell where the first beat in a bar is.

Personal life

Greenwood is married to the Israeli visual artist Sharona Katan, whom he met in 1993 when Radiohead performed in Israel. Her work, credited as Shin Katan, appears on the covers of ''Junun'' and several of Greenwood's soundtracks. Katan said she considers their family Jewish: "Our kids are raised as Jews, we have a mezuzah in our house, we sometimes have Shabbos dinners, we celebrate Jewish holidays. The kids don't eat pork. It's important to me to keep this stuff." Greenwood's nephew served in the Israel Defence Forces and was killed in the ongoing Gaza war.

Greenwood and his family live in Oxford and Marche, Italy. In February 2021, Greenwood appeared on the BBC Radio 4 programme '' Saturday Live;'' his selected "Inheritance Tracks" were " Sweetheart Contract" by Magazine and " Brotherhood of Man" by Oscar Peterson and Clark Terry. Greenwood is red–green colour blind. In April 2023, Greenwood began selling olive oil produced on his farm in Italy from Radiohead's online shop.

Discography

Collaborative albums

Soundtracks

Compilations

EPs

Appearances

* 1992 – Blind Mr. Jones, "Crazy Jazz" – harmonica
* 1999 – Pavement, Terror Twilight – harmonica on "Platform Blues" and "Billie"
* 2002 – Bryan Ferry, '' Frantic'' – guitar
* 2006 – Thom Yorke, ''The Eraser'' – piano on "The Eraser"
* 2009 – Dudu Tassa – ''Basof Mitraglim Le'Hakol''
* 2010 – Bryan Ferry, ''Olympia'' – guitar''''
* 2011 – '' We Need to Talk About Kevin'' – score
* 2014 – Steve Reich, '' Radio Rewrite'' – "Electric Counterpoint"
* 2016 – Frank Ocean, ''Endless'' – string arrangement
* 2016 – Frank Ocean, ''Blonde'' – string arrangement
* 2021 – '' Licorice Pizza (Official Motion Picture Soundtrack)'' – "Licorice Pizza"
* 2023 – The Pretenders, '' Relentless'' – string arrangement for "I Think About You Daily"
* 2024 – Dudu Tassa & The Kuwaitis, ''Dudu Tassa & The Kuwaitis (2024 Reissue)'' – "Eshrab Kasak Withana (Live)"

Concert works

*2004 – ''smear'' for two ondes Martenots and chamber ensemble of nine players
*2004 – ''Piano for Children'' for piano and orchestra (withdrawn)
*2005 – ''Popcorn Superhet Receiver'' for string orchestra
*2007 – ''There Will Be Blood'' live film version
*2010 – ''Doghouse'' for string trio and orchestra
*2011 – ''Suite from 'Noruwei no Mori' ( Norwegian Wood)'' for orchestra
*2011 – ''48 Responses to Polymorphia'' for 48 solo strings, all doubling optional pacay bean shakers
*2012 – ''Suite from 'There Will Be Blood for string orchestra
*2014 – ''Setting Up Arrows'' for string ensemble of 7 players
*2014 – ''Water'' for two flutes, upright piano, chamber organ, two tanpura & string orchestra
*2015 – ''88 (No 1)'' for solo piano
*2018 – ''Three Miniatures from 'Water for violin, piano, 2 tampuras, and cello/bass drone
*2019 – ''Horror vacui'' for solo violin and 68 strings
*2024 – ''X'' ''Years of Reverb'' for organ

Awards and nominations

See also

* List of Old Abingdonians

References

Citations

External links

*
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StringsReunited.com
a website by Plank, the guitar technician for Radiohead

Greenwood's composer page on the Faber Music website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Greenwood, Jonny
1971 births
British alternative rock guitarists
Alternative rock pianists
English male pianists
English film score composers
English male film score composers
English male guitarists
English multi-instrumentalists
English rock guitarists
English rock keyboardists
Grammy Award winners
Ivor Novello Award winners
English lead guitarists
Living people
Nonesuch Records artists
Ondists
People educated at Abingdon School
Musicians from Oxford
Radiohead members
The Smile (band) members