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Jonny Greenwood: ‘I’m still arsing around on instruments like when I was a kid’
The Radiohead guitarist changed rock music, then conquered the world of soundtracks. But can he revolutionise the church organ with an eight-hour composition?
Of course, this being Greenwood, there’s nothing straightforward about it – he’s written an ambient, drone-based piece that’s eight hours long, and sees organists James McVinnie and Eliza McCarthy playing in shifts. He explains how he listens obsessively to every new Bach release on Apple Music; he remembers how, in preteen years, he and his brother, Radiohead bassist Colin, annoyed their older sister by playing her copy of X-Ray Spex’s Germfree Adolescents 20 times in a day; he explains how his introduction to jazz was hearing Courtney Pine’s second LP in his mid teens; he evangelises about the genius of Dennis Bovell’s reggae pioneers Matumbi, and laments how their 1980s EMI releases are, scandalously, not available on any streaming services. “Well, the Smile are on tour, Ed is making another solo record, Colin is playing bass with Nick Cave – they’ve just done five sold-out nights at the Sydney Opera House – so lots of music is being made.
Or read this on The Guardian
