Colin Greenwood: Fans are key for Radiohead

Posted on July 28th, 2008.

Radiohead’s bass player Colin Greenwood was interviewed for the Montreal Gazette. In the interview with the Canadian newspaper Colin talked about the ‘pay-what-you-want-release’ of ‘In Rainbows’, Arcade Fire and Canadian venues.

“It’s very exciting,” Greenwood said of the internet release of Radiohead’s seventh album. “It feels like all the decisions we’ve made with this record have had to be made in real time. Everything moved so quickly once we released the record. What was cool about it is that it worked for us then and there. It was like a snapshot. To do the same thing again, we would fall into (a whole other trap). It taught us that the most important thing is the people who like our music - our relationship with them,” Greenwood said. “The fact that we can talk to people, we can share our music with (them) in concert, on CD and on the Internet - it can all be part of the same thing. It doesn’t have to be so mediated by going through a traditional record company.”

Radiohead play Jean Drapeau Park on August 6 in Montreal. “I remember playing the Spectrum in ‘93,” he said. “We played the Spectrum a few times. It’s such an amazing place to be and play. For OK Computer, we played an indoor arena (the Molson Centre). We have gratitude for being part of a city’s cultural life. It’s just an important thing to us.” When I informed him that the Spectrum closed its doors just last summer, he gave his condolences. “It’s a real shame.” On its last visit, in 2006, Radiohead performed two nights at Place des Arts’ Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, where it previewed songs from In Rainbows. Greenwood recalled the venue.

“It was this modern concrete building. It was really cool. I remember working on the bassline for 15 Step upstairs in the dressing room. (Place des Arts) is like the Montreal version of the Royal Festival Hall, or the Queen Elizabeth Hall.”

“Arcade Fire came to see us,” he said. “It was really fun. They took us up to their part of town (Mile End), where they live. We had bagels and coffee on the church steps. It was really cool. We went to some bar - this European community centre - and watched football during the World Cup.

“They came and saw both shows. They took me, Ed and Phil to see some gaming/Dungeons and Dragons thing in the park (that would be the weekly, theatrically recreated battle scenes that take place during the summer, just up from the tam-tams on Mount Royal), then we walked to the top of the hill and looked down across Montreal with them.

“We talked to Régine and Win about life and touring. It was really cool. It relates to what I said earlier, about how it’s important to be in one place and space. It would be mad, otherwise - if you didn’t connect to the places where you were touring.”

[read the full interview]

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