The Greenwood brothers had an interview with Belgian Focus Knack. Colin and Jonny talk about releasing ‘In Rainbows’, not signing with EMI and reveal that there’s a Spice Girl and every one of them.

One of the goals set for ‘In Rainbows’ was to prevent the album from leaking on the internet beforehand, as had happened with the previous three albums.
Colin: “It felt like a gigantic risk. Like Mission: Impossible, almost. We destroyed all CDs after every day of recording. And on the master we’d always write a name which would probably nobody would listen to if we had lost it; ‘Eagles: Greatest Hits.’ ‘Kula Shaker Demo’s.’ ‘Phil Collins’s Hip Hop Covers.’

Jonny: “Did you ever hear that record? You won’t believe your ears!”

In the meantime it turned out ‘only’ 38 percent of your fans paid for the ‘In Rainbows’ download. Were…

Colin : (interupts) “There were a lot more, although I have no idea of the latest figures. The last thing I heard from our manager was that our German fans were the cheapest, our Italian fans the most generous.”

Do we have the right image Thom creates for himself in interviews; The dictator who creates a ‘climate of fear’?

Jonny: No, that’s the image the media like to create. Scary Thom.
Colin : (dry) There’s a Spice Girl and every one of us.
Jonny: The only thing he can be really unreasonable about, is his hate for banjos. For fourteen years now, I’m trying to tell him you can make very dark and warm sounds with those. But every time again it’s ‘ No. Fucking. Way. ‘
Is it correct that you didn’t want to work with EMI anymore after they were taken over by money machine Terra Firma?

Jonny: Absolutely. At the takeover, Guy Hands, the new CEO, announced that he wanted to quadruple the profits around 2012. But not on very ethical way with handling music, it seemed. So, we tried elsewhere.

(more later)

Radiohead news on this day..

• Thom Yorke DJs for Occupy protesters in London – 2011
• Radiohead in talks with iTunes for ‘In Rainbows’ – 2007
• Manic Street Preachers: Radiohead Ruining Music – 2007
• Thom Yorke’s ‘From The Basement’ on SkyArts – 2007
• The Eraser nominated for Grammy Award – 2006
• Strung Out on Kid A – 2004
• Bodysong reviews in Japan Times & Sunday Times – 2003