Colin Greenwood was interviewed by the Vancouver Sun. “WhenThom wants to get off and have an early night and doesn’t want to talk with anyone, then he deploys me. I just got back from having seafood with my brother and we had lobster. It was lovely.”
Radiohead has said it is making every effort to avoid Clear Channel owned venues this time around, to circumvent the monopoly claimed by the concert behemoth. “What we’re trying to do is strike a balance between providing music and entertainment between people who want to come and see it without excluding audiences or places and trying to work as independently as possible at the same time,” he rattles off.
“I had a really good one in Italy with a television journalist who said, ‘Haven’t you had death threats? Aren’t you worried about censorship in America?’ I said to the guy, ‘You come from a country where the president has passed laws exempting himself from any kind of prosecution on corruption charges, and you are slagging off America. Don’t you think that’s a bit hypocritical?’ And he looked at me, and said, ‘We can’t use that.’”
One of the album’s best songs is A Wolf at the Door, written by Jonny Greenwood. It almost fell victim to the overwrought process.
“It’s one of my favourites, too, and it nearly didn’t get on the record,” says Greenwood. “I don’t know why. I can’t remember. I think it would have been terrible, though. That’s the thing, if you spend too long doing things, you don’t have a clue do you?”
Greenwood wants to shake up the band’s work ethic next time around. He wants to write and record a few songs, and if they are beautiful enough, play them live before returning to the studio to finish the album.
“Spruce it all up over time,” he says. “Break down the recording process.”
As for solo projects, the band is keen on seeing Yorke dive in, and feels it could even be a beneficial exercise for their frontman, but they are more reluctant to go forth themselves.
“It’s funny you should say that, because we were talking about it over the seafood today in Boston at the aquarium and we decided we wouldn’t straight away,” says Greenwood, referring to the idea of doing a side project with Jonny. “But my brother’s done a wonderful [soundtrack] project called Bodysong, and it’s really good. So that’s really exciting. and it’s coming out in October on EMI.
“But that’s about as far as it goes, because we are still really excited about Radiohead stuff, and we have lots of ideas for that.”
On what label these ideas will end up is another matter. Radiohead is currently between labels, having fulfilled its six-album contract with Parlophone/EMI. For the last several months, it has appeared to be in negotiations, though Greenwood is unable to say.
“We’ll see how well the record does,” he says. “Oh it will be fine. Uh, is there anything new? No. It’s all completely up in the air. It’s a very frustrating answer, but it’s the truth. I wish I could say we’ve got all these plans or we haven’t. But it’s still nothing. Still waiting desperately to see whether anyone wants to carry on working with us again. I hope so,” he adds, sounding falsely desperate.
Read the interview in full.
Radiohead news on this day..
- Radiohead live in Santa Barbara – 2008
- Radiohead to webcast Santa Barbara show – 2008
- Radiohead live in Amsterdam (Night 2) – Live Report – 2006
- Okay Computer – 2004
- BB6 MUSIC REPLAYS GLASTONBURY 1997 – 2003
- SUMMER HOLIDAY – 2003
