Jonny Greenwood
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Jonathan Richard Guy Greenwood (born 5 November 1971) is an English musician and composer. He is the
lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...
ist and
keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instr ...
of the alternative rock band
Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...
, and has written numerous
film score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...
s. Along with his elder brother, the Radiohead bassist Colin, Greenwood attended
Abingdon School Abingdon School is a day and boarding independent school for boys in Abingdon-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England. The twentieth oldest independent British school, it celebrated its 750th anniversary in 2006. The school was described as "highly ...
in Abingdon near
Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, England, where he met the future band members. The youngest of the group, Greenwood was the last to join, first playing keyboards and harmonica but soon becoming lead guitarist. He abandoned a degree in music when the band signed to
Parlophone Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a German–British record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 192 ...
; their debut single, " Creep", (1992) was distinguished by Greenwood's aggressive guitar work. Radiohead have since achieved critical acclaim and sold over 30 million albums. Along with the other members of Radiohead, Greenwood was inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and othe ...
in 2019. Greenwood was named the 48th greatest guitarist of all time by ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
.'' A
multi-instrumentalist A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays two or more musical instruments at a professional level of proficiency. Also known as doubling, the practice allows greater ensemble flexibility and more efficient employment of musicians, where ...
, he also uses instruments including the bass guitar, piano, glockenspiel and drums, and is a prominent player of the
ondes Martenot The ondes Martenot ( ; , "Martenot waves") or ondes musicales ("musical waves") is an early electronic musical instrument. It is played with a keyboard or by moving a ring along a wire, creating "wavering" sounds similar to a theremin. A player ...
, an early electronic instrument. He uses electronic techniques such as programming, sampling and looping, and writes music software used by Radiohead. He described his role in the band as an
arranger In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...
, helping to transform Thom Yorke's demos into finished songs. Radiohead albums feature Greenwood's string and brass arrangements, and he has composed for orchestras including the London Contemporary Orchestra and the
BBC Concert Orchestra The BBC Concert Orchestra is a British concert orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five BBC orchestras which is not a full-scale sym ...
. He has collaborated several times with the Israeli composer
Shye Ben Tzur Shye Ben Tzur (שי בן צור) is an Israeli musician who lives in India and Israel. He composes Qawwalis, instrumental and devotional music in Hebrew, Urdu and Hindi. Ben Tzur has been living and creating music in India and Israel for over a d ...
, including on the 2015 album '' Junun''. In 2021, Greenwood debuted a new band, the Smile, with Yorke and the drummer
Tom Skinner Sir Thomas Edward Skinner (18 April 1909 – 11 November 1991) was a New Zealand politician and Trades Union leader. Sir Tom served as President of the Auckland Trades Council from 1954 to 1976, and President of the New Zealand Federation of ...
. Greenwood's first solo work, the soundtrack for the film ''
Bodysong ''Bodysong'' is a 2003 BAFTA-winning documentary about human life and the human condition directed by Simon Pummell and produced by Janine Marmot. Synopsis The film tells the story of an archetypal human life using images taken from all ...
,'' was released in 2003. In 2007, he scored ''
There Will Be Blood ''There Will Be Blood'' is a 2007 American historical drama, period drama film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, loosely based on the 1927 novel ''Oil!'' by Upton Sinclair. It stars Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview, a Silver mini ...
'', the first of several collaborations with director
Paul Thomas Anderson Paul Thomas Anderson (born June 26, 1970), also known by his initials PTA, is an American filmmaker. He made his feature-film debut with ''Hard Eight (film), Hard Eight'' (1996). He found critical and commercial success with ''Boogie Nights'' ( ...
; in 2018, he was nominated for an
Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
for his score for Anderson's ''
Phantom Thread ''Phantom Thread'' is a 2017 American historical drama film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, and starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Vicky Krieps and Lesley Manville. Set in 1950s London, it stars Day-Lewis as an haute couture dressmaker w ...
''. He was nominated a second time for his score for '' The Power of the Dog'' (2021), directed by
Jane Campion Dame Elizabeth Jane Campion (born 30 April 1954) is a New Zealand filmmaker. She is best known for writing and directing the critically acclaimed films ''The Piano'' (1993) and '' The Power of the Dog'' (2021), for which she has received a tot ...
. Greenwood also scored '' We Need to Talk About Kevin'' (2011) and ''
You Were Never Really Here ''You Were Never Really Here'' (released as ''A Beautiful Day'' in France and Germany) is a 2017 neo-noir crime psychological thriller film written and directed by Lynne Ramsay. Based on the 2013 novella of the same name by Jonathan Ames, it st ...
'' (2017), both directed by
Lynne Ramsay Lynne Ramsay (born 5 December 1969) is a Scottish film director, writer, producer, and cinematographer best known for the feature films '' Ratcatcher'' (1999), ''Morvern Callar'' (2002), '' We Need to Talk About Kevin'' (2011), and '' You Were N ...
.


Early life

Jonny Greenwood was born on 5 November 1971 in
Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, England. His brother, the Radiohead bassist
Colin Greenwood Colin Charles Greenwood (born 26 June 1969) is an English musician and the bassist for the rock band Radiohead. Along with bass guitar, Greenwood plays upright bass and electronic instruments. With his younger brother, the Radiohead guitari ...
, is two years older. His father served in the
British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
as a bomb disposal expert. The Greenwood family has historical ties to the
British Communist Party The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPGB ...
and the socialist
Fabian Society The Fabian Society is a British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow. The Fa ...
. 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 ''Flower Drum Song'' was the eighth musical by the team of Rodgers and Hammerstein. It is based on the 1957 novel, '' The Flower Drum Song'', by Chinese-American author C. Y. Lee. It premiered on Broadway in 1958 and was then performed in the ...
'' and ''
My Fair Lady ''My Fair Lady'' is a musical based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play ''Pygmalion'', with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons f ...
'', and cover versions of
Simon and Garfunkel Simon & Garfunkel were an American folk rock duo consisting of the singer-songwriter Paul Simon and the singer Art Garfunkel. They were one of the best-selling music groups of the 1960s, and their biggest hits—including the electric remix of " ...
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 Beat, beats or beating may refer to: Common uses * Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area ** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols ** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men * Battery (c ...
and New Order. The first gig Greenwood attended was the
Fall Autumn, also known as fall in American English and Canadian English, is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Southe ...
on their 1988 ''Frenz Experiment'' tour, which he found "overwhelming". Greenwood's first instrument was a
recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...
given to him at age four or five. He took the instrument seriously, playing it into adulthood, and played
baroque music Baroque music ( or ) refers to the period or dominant style of Western classical music composed from about 1600 to 1750. The Baroque style followed the Renaissance period, and was followed in turn by the Classical period after a short transiti ...
in recorder groups as a teenager. He also learnt the
viola The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...
and joined the Thames Vale
youth orchestra A youth orchestra is an orchestra made of young musicians, typically ranging from pre-teens or teenagers to those of conservatory age. Depending on the age range and selectiveness, they may serve different purposes. Orchestras for young stude ...
, 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 spent time as a child programming computers, experimenting with
BASIC BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College ...
and simple
machine code In computer programming, machine code is any low-level programming language, consisting of machine language instructions, which are used to control a computer's central processing unit (CPU). Each instruction causes the CPU to perform a very ...
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

The Greenwood brothers attended the independent boys' school Abingdon, where they formed a band, On a Friday, with the singer
Thom Yorke Thomas Edward Yorke (born 7 October 1968) is an English musician and the main vocalist and songwriter of the rock band Radiohead. A multi-instrumentalist, he mainly plays guitar and keyboards and is noted for his falsetto. He has been describe ...
, the guitarist Ed O'Brien and the drummer
Philip Selway Philip James Selway (born 23 May 1967) is an English musician and the drummer of the English rock band Radiohead. Along with the other members of Radiohead, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019. Selway released his deb ...
. Jonny had previously been in another band, Illiterate Hands, with Matt Hawksworth, Simon Newton, Ben Kendrick,
Nigel Powell Nigel Powell (born 1 October 1971) is an English multi-instrumental musician from Abingdon. Powell was born in Bromley, London, and educated at Abingdon School. While at school he was in a band called Illiterate Hands, which also featured futu ...
and Yorke's brother
Andy Yorke Andy Yorke (born 10 January 1972) is an English musician and former lead singer and guitarist for the band Unbelievable Truth. He is the younger brother of Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke. Early life Yorke began singing when he was ten. At the ...
. The youngest member of On a Friday, Greenwood was two school years below Yorke and Colin and the last to join. He first played harmonica and keyboards, but soon became the
lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...
ist. As the band 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." Greenwood studied music at
A Level The A-Level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational aut ...
, including
chorale harmonisation A Lutheran chorale is a musical setting of a Lutheran hymn, intended to be sung by a Church (congregation), congregation in a German Protestant Church service. The typical four-part harmony, four-part setting of a chorale, in which the sopranos ...
.


Career


1991—1992: ''Pablo Honey'' and early success

In 1991, Greenwood was three weeks into a degree in music and psychology at
Oxford Polytechnic Polytechnic is most commonly used to refer to schools, colleges, or universities that qualify as an institute of technology or vocational university also sometimes called universities of applied sciences. Polytechnic may also refer to: Educatio ...
when On a Friday signed a recording contract with
EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...
. He dropped out of university and On a Friday changed their name to Radiohead. The band found early success with their debut single, " Creep" (1992). According to ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'', "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." Greenwood played harmonica on Blind Mr. Jones's 1992 single "Crazy Jazz".


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

Greenwood wrote his first Radiohead string part for the
middle eight The 32-bar form, also known as the AABA song form, American popular song form and the ballad form, is a song structure commonly found in Tin Pan Alley songs and other American popular music, especially in the first half of the 20th century. A ...
of "
My Iron Lung ''My Iron Lung'' is the third EP and fifth single by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 26 September 1994 by Parlophone Records in the UK and by Capitol Records in the US. It was produced by Radiohead, John Leckie and Nigel Godrich. T ...
", which appeared on Radiohead's second album, '' The Bends'' (1995). On tour for ''The Bends'', 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 "Paranoid Android" is a song by English alternative rock band Radiohead, released as the lead single from their third studio album ''OK Computer'' (1997) on 26 May 1997. The lyrics were written by singer Thom Yorke following an unpleasant expe ...
". For "Climbing up the Walls", Greenwood wrote a part for 16 stringed instruments playing quarter tones apart, inspired by the Polish composer
Krzysztof Penderecki Krzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki (; 23 November 1933 – 29 March 2020) was a Polish composer and conductor. His best known works include ''Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima'', Symphony No. 3, his '' St Luke Passion'', ''Polish Requiem'', ''A ...
. For the 1998 film ''
Velvet Goldmine ''Velvet Goldmine'' is a 1998 musical drama film written and directed by Todd Haynes from a story by Haynes and James Lyons. It is set in Britain during the glam rock days of the early 1970s, and tells the story of fictional bisexual pop star ...
'', Greenwood formed Venus in Furs with Yorke,
Suede Suede (pronounced ) is a type of leather with a fuzzy, napped finish, commonly used for jackets, shoes, fabrics, purses, furniture, and other items. The term comes from the French , which literally means "gloves from Sweden". The term was fir ...
's
Bernard Butler Bernard Joseph Butler (born 1 May 1970) is an English musician, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the first guitarist with Suede, until his departure in 1994. He has been hailed by some critics as the greatest guitarist of his ...
, and
Roxy Music Roxy Music are an English rock music, rock band formed in 1970 by Bryan Ferry—who became the band's lead vocalist and principal songwriter—and bassist Graham Simpson (musician), Graham Simpson. The other longtime members are Phil Manzanera ...
's Andy Mackay and recorded covers of the Roxy Music songs " 2HB", "
Ladytron Ladytron are a largely British electronic band formed in Liverpool in 1999. The group consists of Helen Marnie (lead vocals, synthesizers), Mira Aroyo (vocals, synthesizers), Daniel Hunt (synthesizers, guitar, vocals), and Reuben Wu (synthesize ...
" and "Bitter-Sweet". Greenwood played harmonica on the tracks "Platform Blues" and "Billie" on Pavement's final album, ''
Terror Twilight ''Terror Twilight'' is the fifth and final studio album by American indie rock band Pavement, released on June 8, 1999, on Matador Records in the US and Domino Recording Company in the UK. ''Terror Twilight'' was produced by Nigel Godrich, w ...
'' (1999).


2000: ''Kid A''

Radiohead's albums ''
Kid A ''Kid A'' is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 2 October 2000 by Parlophone. It was recorded with their producer, Nigel Godrich, in Paris, Copenhagen, Gloucestershire and their hometown of Oxford. After th ...
'' (2000) and ''
Amnesiac Amnesia is a deficit in memory caused by brain damage or disease,Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R., & Mangun, G. (2009) Cognitive Neuroscience: The biology of the mind. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. but it can also be caused temporarily by the use o ...
'' (2001) marked a dramatic change in sound, incorporating influences from
electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...
,
classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...
,
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
and
krautrock Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments ...
. Greenwood employed a modular synthesiser to build the drum machine rhythm of "
Idioteque "Idioteque" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released on their fourth album, '' Kid A'' (2000). In 2008, the song was featured on '' Radiohead: The Best Of.'' A live version appears on the 2001 EP '' I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings ...
", and played
ondes Martenot The ondes Martenot ( ; , "Martenot waves") or ondes musicales ("musical waves") is an early electronic musical instrument. It is played with a keyboard or by moving a ring along a wire, creating "wavering" sounds similar to a theremin. A player ...
, an early electronic instrument similar to a
theremin The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone/etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named afte ...
, 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 Nigel Timothy Godrich (born 28 February 1971) is an English record producer, recording engineer and musician. He is known for his work with the English rock band Radiohead, having produced all their studio albums since '' OK Computer'' (1997). ...
, 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 played guitar on Bryan Ferry's 2002 album '' Frantic''.


2003—2005: ''Bodysong'' and first solo work

In 2003, Greenwood released his first solo work, the soundtrack for the documentary film ''
Bodysong ''Bodysong'' is a 2003 BAFTA-winning documentary about human life and the human condition directed by Simon Pummell and produced by Janine Marmot. Synopsis The film tells the story of an archetypal human life using images taken from all ...
''. It incorporates guitar, jazz, and classical music. In 2004, Greenwood and Yorke contributed to the
Band Aid 20 Band Aid 20 was the 2004 incarnation of the charity supergroup Band Aid. The group, which included Daniel Bedingfield, Dido, Justin Hawkins of The Darkness, Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead, Chris Martin of Coldplay, Bono of U2, an ...
single "
Do They Know It's Christmas? "Do They Know It's Christmas?" is a charity song written in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise money for the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. It was first recorded by Band Aid, a supergroup assembled by Geldof and Ure consisting of pop ...
", produced by Godrich. Greenwood's first work for orchestra, ''Smear'', was premiered by the
London Sinfonietta The London Sinfonietta is an English contemporary chamber orchestra founded in 1968 and based in London. The ensemble has headquarters at Kings Place and is Resident Orchestra at the Southbank Centre. Since its inaugural concert in 1968—givi ...
in March 2004. In May, Greenwood was appointed composer-in-residence to the
BBC Concert Orchestra The BBC Concert Orchestra is a British concert orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five BBC orchestras which is not a full-scale sym ...
, for whom he wrote "Popcorn Superhet Receiver" (2005), which won the Radio 3 Listeners' Award at the 2006 BBC British Composer Awards. The piece was inspired by radio static and the elaborate, dissonant tone clusters of Penderecki's ''
Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (''Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima for 52 string instruments'') , other_name = , year = , catalogue = , period = Contemporary, postmodernism , genre = Sonorism, avant-gar ...
''(1960). Greenwood wrote the piece by recording individual tones on viola, then manipulating and overdubbing them in
Pro Tools Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture (sound design, audio post-productio ...
. As part of his prize, Greenwood received £10,000 from the PRS Foundation towards a commission for a new orchestral work. For the 2005 film ''Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'', Greenwood appeared as part of the wizard rock band
Weird Sisters The Three Witches, also known as the Weird Sisters or Wayward Sisters, are characters in William Shakespeare's play '' Macbeth'' (c. 1603–1607). The witches eventually lead Macbeth to his demise, and they hold a striking resemblance to t ...
with the Radiohead drummer
Philip Selway Philip James Selway (born 23 May 1967) is an English musician and the drummer of the English rock band Radiohead. Along with the other members of Radiohead, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019. Selway released his deb ...
, the
Pulp Pulp may refer to: * Pulp (fruit), the inner flesh of fruit Engineering * Dissolving pulp, highly purified cellulose used in fibre and film manufacture * Pulp (paper), the fibrous material used to make paper * Molded pulp, a packaging material ...
members
Jarvis Cocker Jarvis Branson Cocker (born 19 September 1963) is an English musician and radio presenter. As the founder, frontman, lyricist and only consistent member of the band Pulp, he became a figurehead of the Britpop genre of the mid-1990s. Following P ...
and
Steve Mackey Stephen Patrick Mackey (born 10 November 1966) is an English musician and record producer best known as the bass guitarist for the alternative rock band Pulp, which he joined in 1989. As a record producer, he has produced songs and albums by ...
, the electronica artist
Jason Buckle The All Seeing I were a British electronic music group from Sheffield, England, comprising Dean Honer, Jason Buckle and DJ Parrot (real name Richard Barratt). Biography The band released their first single "I Walk" in 1997, but it was not unti ...
and the
Add N to (X) Add N to (X) were an English electronic music band formed in London in 1994. The original members were Andrew Aveling, Barry Smith (aka Barry 7) and Ann Shenton. Steven Claydon replaced Aveling in 1997. After several releases on small labels ...
member
Steven Claydon Steven Claydon (born 1969) is a sculptor and musician based in London. Claydon was born in London. He has performed and shown work internationally in exhibitions at Tate Modern in London, Art Basel in Switzerland, in Düsseldorf and Portikus in ...
. At the 2005 Ether Festival, Greenwood and Yorke performed "Arpeggi" with the
London Sinfonietta The London Sinfonietta is an English contemporary chamber orchestra founded in 1968 and based in London. The ensemble has headquarters at Kings Place and is Resident Orchestra at the Southbank Centre. Since its inaugural concert in 1968—givi ...
orchestra and the Arab Orchestra of Nazareth. It was released in a different arrangement on Radiohead's seventh album, ''
In Rainbows ''In Rainbows'' is the seventh studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was self-released on 10 October 2007 as a pay-what-you-want download, followed by a physical release internationally through XL Recordings and in North America ...
'' (2007), retitled "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi".


2007: ''There Will Be Blood''

Greenwood composed the score for the 2007 film ''
There Will Be Blood ''There Will Be Blood'' is a 2007 American historical drama, period drama film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, loosely based on the 1927 novel ''Oil!'' by Upton Sinclair. It stars Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview, a Silver mini ...
'' by the director
Paul Thomas Anderson Paul Thomas Anderson (born June 26, 1970), also known by his initials PTA, is an American filmmaker. He made his feature-film debut with ''Hard Eight (film), Hard Eight'' (1996). He found critical and commercial success with ''Boogie Nights'' ( ...
. The soundtrack won an award at the
Critics' Choice Awards The Critics' Choice Movie Awards (formerly known as the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award) is an awards show presented annually by the American-Canadian Critics Choice Association (CCA) to honor the finest in cinematic achievement. Writ ...
and the Best Film Score trophy in the
Evening Standard British Film Awards The Evening Standard British Film Awards were established in 1973 by London's ''Evening Standard'' newspaper. The Standard Awards is the only ceremony "dedicated to British and Irish talent," judged by a panel of "top UK critics." Each ceremony ...
for 2007. As it contains excerpts from "Popcorn Superhet Receiver", an earlier piece, it was ineligible for an
Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
. ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' 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 Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Academy Awards, Oscars and four Grammy Awards, Grammys, and has been nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards, Emmys and a Tony Awar ...
said the score was the one that had most "stood out to him" in the past decade, describing it as "recklessly, crazily beautiful". Greenwood curated a compilation album of
reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...
tracks, '' Jonny Greenwood Is the Controller,'' released by
Trojan Records Trojan Records is a British record label founded in 1968. It specialises in ska, rocksteady, reggae and dub music. The label currently operates under the Sanctuary Records Group. The name ''Trojan'' comes from the Croydon-built Trojan truck t ...
in March 2007. It features mostly 70s
roots A root is the part of a plant, generally underground, that anchors the plant body, and absorbs and stores water and nutrients. Root or roots may also refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''The Root'' (magazine), an online magazine focusing ...
and dub tracks from artists including
Lee "Scratch" Perry Lee "Scratch" Perry (born Rainford Hugh Perry; 20 March 1936 – 29 August 2021) was a Jamaican record producer, composer and singer noted for his innovative studio techniques and production style. Perry was a pioneer in the 1970s development o ...
,
Joe Gibbs Joe Jackson Gibbs (born November 25, 1940) is an American auto racing team owner and former professional football coach. In football, he was head coach for the Washington Redskins of the National Football League (NFL) from 1981 to 1992, and a ...
, and
Linval Thompson Leval Alphonso Thompson (born 12 October 1954, Kingston, Jamaica), also known as Linval Thompson, is a Jamaican reggae and dub musician and record producer. Biography Thompson was raised in Kingston, Jamaica, but spent time with his mother in ...
; the title references Thompson's track "Dread Are the Controller". In 2008, Greenwood wrote the title music for
Adam Buxton Adam Offord Buxton (born 7 June 1969) is an English actor, comedian, podcaster and writer. With the filmmaker Joe Cornish, he is part of the comedy duo Adam and Joe. They presented the Channel 4 television series '' The Adam and Joe Show'' (19 ...
's sketch show ''Meebox''. He also collaborated with the Israeli rock musician Dudu Tasaa on the Hebrew-language single "What a Day".


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 Maida Vale Studios is a complex of seven BBC sound studios, of which five are in regular use, in Delaware Road, Maida Vale, west London. It has been used to record thousands of classical music, popular music and drama sessions for BBC Radio 1 ...
. Greenwood wrote the piece 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.'' In 2011, he and Yorke collaborated with the rapper
MF Doom Daniel Dumile ( ; July 13, 1971October 31, 2020), best known by his stage name MF Doom or simply Doom (both stylized in all caps), was a British-American rapper and record producer. Noted for his intricate wordplay, signature metal mask, and ...
on the track "Retarded Fren". Radiohead's eighth album, ''
The King of Limbs ''The King of Limbs'' is the eighth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was self-released on 18 February 2011 as a download, followed by a physical release on 28 March through XL Recordings internationally and TBD Records in Nor ...
'' (2011), was recorded using sampler software written by Greenwood. In 2011, Greenwood scored '' We Need to Talk About Kevin,'' directed by
Lynne Ramsay Lynne Ramsay (born 5 December 1969) is a Scottish film director, writer, producer, and cinematographer best known for the feature films '' Ratcatcher'' (1999), ''Morvern Callar'' (2002), '' We Need to Talk About Kevin'' (2011), and '' You Were N ...
, using instruments including a wire-strung harp. In 2012, he composed the score for Anderson's film '' The Master''. That March, Greenwood and the Polish composer
Krzysztof Penderecki Krzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki (; 23 November 1933 – 29 March 2020) was a Polish composer and conductor. His best known works include ''Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima'', Symphony No. 3, his '' St Luke Passion'', ''Polish Requiem'', ''A ...
, one of Greenwood's greatest influences, released an album comprising Penderecki's 1960s compositions ''
Polymorphia ''Polymorphia'' (Many forms) is a composition for 48 string instruments (24 violins and 8 each of violas, cellos and basses) composed by the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki in 1961. The piece was commissioned by the North German Radio Hambur ...
'' ''and
Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (''Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima for 52 string instruments'') , other_name = , year = , catalogue = , period = Contemporary, postmodernism , genre = Sonorism, avant-gar ...
,'' 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 The Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) was founded by cellist John Painter in 1975.Verghis, Sharon"Bach with more bite pays off" ''Sydney Morning Herald'', 2 September 2005. Richard Tognetti was appointed Lead Violin in 1989 and subsequently appo ...
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 Tax avoidance is the legal usage of the tax regime in a single territory to one's own advantage to reduce the amount of tax that is payable by means that are within the law. A tax shelter is one type of tax avoidance, and tax havens are jurisdict ...
in the UK. The soundtrack was released free in February 2015 through the online audio platform
SoundCloud SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming se ...
.


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

Greenwood composed the soundtrack for the Paul Thomas Anderson film ''
Inherent Vice ''Inherent Vice'' is a novel by American author Thomas Pynchon, originally published in August 2009. A darkly comic detective novel set in 1970s California, the plot follows sleuth Larry "Doc" Sportello whose ex-girlfriend asks him to investiga ...
'' (2014). It features a new version of an unreleased Radiohead song, "Spooks", performed by Greenwood and two members of
Supergrass Supergrass are an English rock band formed in 1993 in Oxford. For the majority of the band's tenure, the line-up consisted of brothers Gaz (lead vocals, guitar) and Rob Coombes (keyboards), Mick Quinn (bass, backing vocals) and Danny Goffey ( ...
. 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 Shye Ben Tzur (שי בן צור) is an Israeli musician who lives in India and Israel. He composes Qawwalis, instrumental and devotional music in Hebrew, Urdu and Hindi. Ben Tzur has been living and creating music in India and Israel for over a d ...
and his band. Greenwood described Tzur's music as "quite celebratory, more like
gospel music Gospel music is a traditional genre of Christian music, and a cornerstone of Christian media. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music varies according to culture and social context. Gospel music is com ...
than anything—except that it's all done to a backing of Indian
harmoniums The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. T ...
and percussion". He said he would play a "supportive" rather than "solistic" role. In 2015, Greenwood, Tzur and Godrich recorded an album, '' Junun'', with Indian musicians at
Mehrangarh Fort Mehrangarh Fort covers an area of 1,200 acres (486 hectares) in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India. The complex is located on a hilltop around 122 metres above the surrounding plain, and was constructed by Rajput ruler Rao Jodha, though most of the exi ...
in
Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...
, India. Greenwood insisted they hire only musicians from
Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...
and only use string instruments native to the region. Ben Tzur wrote the songs, with Greenwood contributing guitar, bass, keyboards,
ondes Martenot The ondes Martenot ( ; , "Martenot waves") or ondes musicales ("musical waves") is an early electronic musical instrument. It is played with a keyboard or by moving a ring along a wire, creating "wavering" sounds similar to a theremin. A player ...
and programming. Whereas western music is based on harmonies and
chord progression In a musical composition, a chord progression or harmonic progression (informally chord changes, used as a plural) is a succession of chords. Chord progressions are the foundation of harmony in Western musical tradition from the common practice ...
s, Greenwood wanted to use chords sparingly, and instead write using North Indian
raga A ''raga'' or ''raag'' (; also ''raaga'' or ''ragam''; ) is a melodic framework for improvisation in Indian classical music akin to a musical mode, melodic mode. The ''rāga'' is a unique and central feature of the classical Indian music tradit ...
s. 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 Endless or The Endless may refer to: Business * Endless (private equity), a British firm * Endless.com, an e-commerce website selling shoes and accessories * Endless Computers, an American operating system company Film * ''The Endless'' (film ...
'' and ''
Blonde Blond (male) or blonde (female), also referred to as fair hair, is a hair color characterized by low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin. The resultant visible hue depends on various factors, but always has some yellowish color. The color can ...
''. Radiohead's ninth album, ''
A Moon Shaped Pool ''A Moon Shaped Pool'' is the ninth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was released digitally on 8 May 2016, and physically on 17 June 2016 through XL Recordings. It was produced by Radiohead's longtime producer Nigel Godrich. ...
'', 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—2016: ''Phantom Thread'' and ''The Power of the Dog''

Greenwood wrote the score for Anderson's 2017 film ''
Phantom Thread ''Phantom Thread'' is a 2017 American historical drama film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, and starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Vicky Krieps and Lesley Manville. Set in 1950s London, it stars Day-Lewis as an haute couture dressmaker w ...
.'' It was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Original Score The Academy Award for Best Original Score is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by t ...
and earned Greenwood his sixth
Ivor Novello award The Ivor Novello Awards, named after the entertainer Ivor Novello, are awards for songwriting and composing. They have been presented annually in London by the Ivors Academy (formerly the BASCA) since 1956, and over 1,000 statuettes have been a ...
. In the same year, he reunited with Ramsay to score her film ''
You Were Never Really Here ''You Were Never Really Here'' (released as ''A Beautiful Day'' in France and Germany) is a 2017 neo-noir crime psychological thriller film written and directed by Lynne Ramsay. Based on the 2013 novella of the same name by Jonathan Ames, it st ...
.'' At the 2019
BBC Proms The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...
in London, Greenwood debuted his composition "Horror Vacui" for solo violin and 68 string instruments. Radiohead were inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and othe ...
in March 2019. Greenwood did not attend the event; in the year before Radiohead became eligible for nomination, he 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 2019, Greenwood launched a record label, Octatonic Records, to release contemporary classical music by soloists and small groups. He started the label to record the musicians he had met as a film composer. In 2021, he expressed uncertainty about releasing further Octatonic records, as the two they had released "seemed to not really connect with anybody". 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 A player piano (also known as a pianola) is a self-playing piano containing a pneumatic or electro-mechanical mechanism, that operates the piano action via programmed music recorded on perforated paper or metallic rolls, with more modern i ...
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 The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
and jazz music, creating a conflict between the "rigid" and "colourful" styles. He also contributed cues to Anderson's 2021 film ''
Licorice Pizza ''Licorice Pizza'' is a 2021 American comedy drama, comedy-drama film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. It stars Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman in their film debuts, alongside an ensemble supporting cast including Sean Penn, Tom Wait ...
''.


2021—present: the Smile

In 2021, Greenwood debuted a new band, the Smile, with Yorke and the jazz drummer
Tom Skinner Sir Thomas Edward Skinner (18 April 1909 – 11 November 1991) was a New Zealand politician and Trades Union leader. Sir Tom served as President of the Auckland Trades Council from 1954 to 1976, and President of the New Zealand Federation of ...
. Greenwood said the project was a way for him and Yorke to work together during the
COVID-19 lockdowns Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of non-pharmaceutical interventions colloquially known as lockdowns (encompassing stay-at-home orders, curfews, quarantines, and similar societal restrictions) have been implemented in numerous countrie ...
. The Smile made their surprise debut in a performance streamed by
Glastonbury Festival Glastonbury Festival (formally Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts that takes place in Pilton, Somerset, England. In addition to contemp ...
on May 22, with Greenwood playing guitar and bass. The ''
Guardian Guardian usually refers to: * Legal guardian, a person with the authority and duty to care for the interests of another * ''The Guardian'', a British daily newspaper (The) Guardian(s) may also refer to: Places * Guardian, West Virginia, Unite ...
'' critic Alexis Petridis said the Smile "sound like a simultaneously more skeletal and knottier version of Radiohead", exploring more
progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...
influences with unusual
time signature The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note value ...
s, complex riffs and "hard-driving"
motorik Motorik is the 4/4 beat often used by, and heavily associated with, krautrock bands. Coined by music journalists, the term is German for "motor skill". The motorik beat was pioneered by Jaki Liebezeit, drummer with German experimental rock band ...
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 The Peaky Blinders were a street gang based in Birmingham, England, which operated from the 1880s until the 1910s. The group consisted largely of young criminals from lower- to middle-class backgrounds. They engaged in robbery, violence, racke ...
'' in 2022.


Musicianship


Guitar

Greenwood is Radiohead's
lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...
ist. He is known for his aggressive playing style; in the 1990s, he developed
repetitive stress injury A repetitive strain injury (RSI) is an injury to part of the musculoskeletal or nervous system caused by repetitive use, vibrations, compression or long periods in a fixed position. Other common names include repetitive stress disorders, cumula ...
, necessitating a brace on his right arm, which he likened to "taping up your fingers before a boxing match". For most Radiohead songs, Greenwood has long used a Fender Telecaster Plus, a model of
Telecaster The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is an electric guitar produced by Fender. Together with its sister model the Esquire, it is the world's first mass-produced, commercially successful Les Paul had built a prototype solid bod ...
that uses
Lace Sensor The Lace Sensor is a guitar pickup designed by Don Lace and manufactured by AGI (Actodyne General International) since 1985. Lace Sensors are true single coil pickups; however, internally they are different from classic single coils. The chief di ...
pickups. According to '' Far Out'', Greenwood used the Telecaster's "power and instability" to produce a "punchy" sound that helped set Radiohead apart in the 1990s. On softer tracks, such as "Subterranean Homesick Alien" and " Let Down" from ''OK Computer'' and "You And Whose Army?" from ''Amnesiac,'' Greenwood plays a
Fender Starcaster The Fender Starcaster is a series of semi-hollowbody electric guitars made by the Fender company. The Starcaster was part of Fender's attempt to enter the semi-hollowbody market, which was dominated by Gibson's ES-335 and similar designs. His ...
. He plays a
Gibson Les Paul The Gibson Les Paul is a solid body electric guitar that was first sold by the Gibson Guitar Corporation in 1952. The guitar was designed by factory manager John Huis and his team with input from and endorsement by guitarist Les Paul. Its typi ...
for solo performances and his work with the Smile. For bass, he plays a
Fender Precision Bass The Fender Precision Bass (often shortened to "P-Bass") is a model of electric bass guitar manufactured by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. In its standard, post-1957 configuration, the Precision Bass is a solid body, four-stringed instrum ...
, using an aggressive picking style. He sometimes plays with a violin bow. 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. Greenwood often uses effect pedals, such as the
Marshall ShredMaster The Marshall ShredMaster (also known as the Shred Master) is a discontinued distortion pedal which was manufactured by Marshall Amps. It was the high-gain pedal of a triad, also including the Marshall DriveMaster and the Marshall BluesBreaker. ...
distortion pedal used on many 90s Radiohead songs. For the "
My Iron Lung ''My Iron Lung'' is the third EP and fifth single by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 26 September 1994 by Parlophone Records in the UK and by Capitol Records in the US. It was produced by Radiohead, John Leckie and Nigel Godrich. T ...
" riff, he uses a
DigiTech Whammy The DigiTech Whammy is a pitch shifter pedal manufactured by DigiTech. It was the first widely used effects pedal that could do foot-controlled pitch shifting effects. The pedal emulates sounds that a guitarist normally makes using the vibrato ...
pedal to pitch-shift his guitar by one octave, creating a "glitchy, lo-fi" sound. On "Identikit" and several Smile songs, Greenwood uses a
delay effect Delay is an audio signal processing technique that records an input signal to a storage medium and then plays it back after a period of time. When the delayed playback is electronic mixer, mixed with the live audio, it creates an echo-like effec ...
to create "angular" synchronised repeats. His main amplifiers are a
Vox AC30 The Vox AC30 is a guitar amplifier manufactured by Vox. It was introduced in 1958 to meet the growing demand for louder amplifiers. Characterised by its "jangly" high-end sound it has become widely recognized by British musicians and others, su ...
and a Fender 85. In 2010, ''NME'' named Greenwood one of the greatest living guitarists. He was voted the seventh-greatest guitarist of all time in a 2010 poll of more than 30,000 BBC 6 Music listeners. In 2011, ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' ranked Greenwood the 48th-greatest guitarist of all time, and in 2012 '' Spin'' ranked him the 29th. In 2008, Greenwood's
guitar solo A guitar solo is a melodic passage, instrumental section, or entire piece of music, pre-written (or improvised) to be played on a classical guitar, electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. In 20th and 21st century traditional music and popular m ...
in "Paranoid Android" was named the 34th-best guitar solo by ''
Guitar World ''Guitar World'' is a monthly music magazine for guitarists – and fans of guitar-based music and trends – that has been published since July 1980. ''Guitar World'', the best-selling guitar magazine in the United States, contains original art ...
.'' "Paranoid Android", "
Just Just or JUST may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Just (surname) * Just (given name) Arts and entertainment * ''Just'', a 1998 album by Dave Lindholm * "Just" (song), a song by Radiohead * "Just", a song from the album ''Lost and Found'' by Mudvayne ...
" and " The Bends" appeared in ''NME'''s 2012 list of the best guitar solos.


Ondes Martenot

Greenwood is a prominent player of the
ondes Martenot The ondes Martenot ( ; , "Martenot waves") or ondes musicales ("musical waves") is an early electronic musical instrument. It is played with a keyboard or by moving a ring along a wire, creating "wavering" sounds similar to a theremin. A player ...
, an early electronic instrument played by moving a ring along a wire, creating sounds similar to a
theremin The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone/etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named afte ...
. He is credited with bringing the ondes Martenot to a larger audience. He first used it on Radiohead's 2000 album ''
Kid A ''Kid A'' is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 2 October 2000 by Parlophone. It was recorded with their producer, Nigel Godrich, in Paris, Copenhagen, Gloucestershire and their hometown of Oxford. After th ...
,'' 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 is a
multi-instrumentalist A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays two or more musical instruments at a professional level of proficiency. Also known as doubling, the practice allows greater ensemble flexibility and more efficient employment of musicians, where ...
and plays instruments including piano, synthesiser, viola, 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 "Idioteque" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released on their fourth album, '' Kid A'' (2000). In 2008, the song was featured on '' Radiohead: The Best Of.'' A live version appears on the 2001 EP '' I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings ...
" (from ''Kid A'') with a modular synthesiser and
sampled Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of so ...
the song's four-chord synthesiser phrase from "mild und leise", a
computer music Computer music is the application of computing technology in music composition, to help human composers create new music or to have computers independently create music, such as with algorithmic composition programs. It includes the theory and ap ...
piece by Paul Lansky. He uses a
Kaoss Pad The Kaoss Pad is an audio sampling instrument and multi-effects processor originally launched by Korg in 1999. It allows users to record and process audio samples and apply various effects using an X-Y touchscreen. Features Kaoss Pads allow use ...
to manipulate Yorke's vocals during performances of the ''Kid A'' song "
Everything in its Right Place "Everything in Its Right Place" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released on their fourth album, ''Kid A'' (2000). It features synthesiser, manipulated vocals, and lyrics inspired by the stress singer Thom Yorke experienced while ...
". In 2014, Greenwood wrote of his fascination with Indian instruments, particularly the
tanpura The tanpura (), also referred to as tambura and tanpuri, is a long-necked plucked string instrument, originating in India, found in various forms in Indian music. It does not play melody, but rather supports and sustains the melody of an ...
, 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 A transistor radio is a small portable radio receiver that uses transistor-based circuitry. Following the invention of the transistor in 1947—which revolutionized the field of consumer electronics by introducing small but powerful, convenien ...
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 Nigel Timothy Godrich (born 28 February 1971) is an English record producer, recording engineer and musician. He is known for his work with the English rock band Radiohead, having produced all their studio albums since '' OK Computer'' (1997). ...
, Greenwood began using the music programming language Max. He said: "I got to reconnect properly with computers… I didn't have to use someone else's idea of what a delay, or a reverb, or a sequencer should do, or should sound like—I could start from the ground, and think in terms of sound and maths. It was like coming off the rails." 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 "Go to Sleep" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released as the second single from their sixth studio album ''Hail to the Thief'' (2003) on 18 August 2003. It reached number two on the Canadian Singles Chart, number nine on the Ita ...
". He also used Max to write sampling software used to create Radiohead's eighth album, ''
The King of Limbs ''The King of Limbs'' is the eighth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was self-released on 18 February 2011 as a download, followed by a physical release on 28 March through XL Recordings internationally and TBD Records in Nor ...
''.


Songwriting

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 ''My Iron Lung'' is the third EP and fifth single by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 26 September 1994 by Parlophone Records in the UK and by Capitol Records in the US. It was produced by Radiohead, John Leckie and Nigel Godrich. T ...
", 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), whose "sweet" quality inspired Yorke to sing the song's "angry" lyrics. Promotional interview CD sent to British music press. The ''New York Times'' described Greenwood as "the guy who can take an abstract Thom Yorke notion and master the tools required to execute it in the real world". Greenwood described his role as
arranger In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...
:
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? Part of the problem is Thom will sit at the piano and play a song like "
Pyramid Song "Pyramid Song" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released as the lead single from their fifth studio album, '' Amnesiac'' (2001). It features piano, strings, a "shuffling" rhythm and lyrics inspired by the Egyptian underworld. It was ...
" and we're going to record it and how do we not make it worse, how do we make it better than him just playing it by himself, which is already usually quite great.
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 and recorded it with period home recording equipment, attempting to create a recording that one of the characters might have made. Many of Greenwood's compositions are
microtonal Microtonal music or microtonality is the use in music of microtones— intervals smaller than a semitone, also called "microintervals". It may also be extended to include any music using intervals not found in the customary Western tuning of t ...
. He often uses modes of limited transposition, particularly the
octatonic scale An octatonic scale is any eight-note musical scale. However, the term most often refers to the symmetric scale composed of alternating whole and half steps, as shown at right. In classical theory (in contrast to jazz theory), this symmetrical ...
, saying: "I like to know what I ''can’t'' do and then work inside that."


Influences

Greenwood has cited influences from genres including jazz, classical, rock, reggae, hip-hop, and electronic music. His jazz favourites include
Lee Morgan Edward Lee Morgan (July 10, 1938 – February 19, 1972) was an American jazz trumpeter and composer. One of the key hard bop musicians of the 1960s, Morgan came to prominence in his late teens, recording on John Coltrane's '' Blue Train'' (1 ...
,
Alice Coltrane Alice Coltrane (' McLeod; August 27, 1937January 12, 2007), also known by her adopted Sanskrit name Turiyasangitananda, was an American jazz musician and composer, and in her later years a swamini. An accomplished pianist and one of the few har ...
and
Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of music ...
. Along with the other members of Radiohead, he admires Scott Walker and the
Krautrock Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments ...
band Can. Greenwood said the guitarist that had most influenced him was
John McGeoch John Alexander McGeoch (25 August 1955 – 4 March 2004) was a Scottish musician and songwriter. He is best known as the guitarist of the rock bands Magazine (1977-1980) and Siouxsie and the Banshees (1980-1982). He has been described as one o ...
of
Magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...
, and that Magazine's 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 Adam Offord Buxton (born 7 June 1969) is an English actor, comedian, podcaster and writer. With the filmmaker Joe Cornish, he is part of the comedy duo Adam and Joe. They presented the Channel 4 television series '' The Adam and Joe Show'' (19 ...
, 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 Krzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki (; 23 November 1933 – 29 March 2020) was a Polish composer and conductor. His best known works include ''Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima'', Symphony No. 3, his '' St Luke Passion'', ''Polish Requiem'', ''A ...
, 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 György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde composers in the latter half of the twentieth century" ...
,
Henri Dutilleux Henri Paul Julien Dutilleux (; 22 January 1916 – 22 May 2013) was a French composer active mainly in the second half of the 20th century. His small body of published work, which garnered international acclaim, followed in the tradition of ...
, and
Steve Reich Stephen Michael Reich ( ; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer known for his contribution to the development of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, a ...
. He has performed Reich's 1987 guitar composition ''
Electric Counterpoint ''Electric Counterpoint'' is a minimalist composition by the American composer Steve Reich. The piece consists of three movements, "Fast," "Slow", and "Fast". Reich has offered two versions of the piece: one for electric guitar and tape (the ...
'' and recorded a version for Reich's 2014 album ''
Radio Rewrite ''Radio Rewrite'' is a 2012 musical composition by American composer Steve Reich (born 1936), inspired by two songs by British rock band Radiohead: "Jigsaw Falling into Place" and " Everything in Its Right Place". It is the first time that Reich ...
.''


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 Greenwood's soundtracks for ''Bodysong,'' ''There Will'' ''Be Blood'', ''Norwegian Wood'', ''The Master'', ''Inherent Vice'', and ''Phantom Thread''. Their first son was born in 2002; Radiohead's 2003 album '' Hail to the Thief'' was dedicated to him. Their daughter was born in 2005, and a second son was born in February 2008. Katan said she considers their family Jewish: "Our kids are raised as Jews, we have a
mezuzah A ''mezuzah'' ( he, מְזוּזָה "doorpost"; plural: ''mezuzot'') is a piece of parchment, known as a '' klaf'', contained in a decorative case and inscribed with specific Hebrew verses from the Torah ( and ). These verses consist of the ...
in our house, we sometimes have
Shabbos Shabbat (, , or ; he, שַׁבָּת, Šabbāṯ, , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical storie ...
dinners, we celebrate Jewish holidays. The kids don’t eat pork. It's important to me to keep this stuff." In February 2021, Greenwood appeared on the
BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
program '' Saturday Live,'' where his selected "Inheritance Tracks" were " Sweetheart Contract" by
Magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...
and "
Brotherhood of Man Brotherhood of Man are a British pop group who achieved success in the 1970s. They won the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest with "Save Your Kisses for Me". Created in 1969 by songwriter and record producer Tony Hiller, Brotherhood of Man was initia ...
" by
Oscar Peterson Oscar Emmanuel Peterson (August 15, 1925 – December 23, 2007) was a Canadian virtuoso jazz pianist and composer. Considered one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time, Peterson released more than 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, ...
and
Clark Terry Clark Virgil Terry Jr. (December 14, 1920 – February 21, 2015) was an American swing and bebop trumpeter, a pioneer of the flugelhorn in jazz, and a composer and educator. He played with Charlie Barnet (1947), Count Basie (1948–51), Duke ...
. Greenwood is red-green colour blind.


Discography


Collaborations


Soundtracks


Compilations


Extended plays


Appearances

* 2009 –
Dudu Tassa David "Dudu" Tassa ( he, דודו טסה; born February 10, 1977) is an Israeli rock musician, singer, songwriter and record producer of Mizrahi Jewish descent. Besides having had a successful solo career in Israel, Tassa has been the leader of ...
– "Eize Yom" * 2016 –
Frank Ocean Christopher Francis "Frank" Ocean (born Christopher Edwin Breaux; October 28, 1987), is an American singer, songwriter, and rapper. His works are noted by music critics for featuring avant-garde styles and introspective, elliptical lyrics. Ocean ...
, ''Endless'' – string arrangement * 2016 – Frank Ocean, ''
Blonde Blond (male) or blonde (female), also referred to as fair hair, is a hair color characterized by low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin. The resultant visible hue depends on various factors, but always has some yellowish color. The color can ...
'' – string arrangement * 2021 – '' Licorice Pizza (Official Motion Picture Soundtrack)'' – "Licorice Pizza"


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 ''There Will Be Blood'' is a 2007 American historical drama, period drama film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, loosely based on the 1927 novel ''Oil!'' by Upton Sinclair. It stars Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview, a Silver mini ...
'' 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 ''Polymorphia'' (Many forms) is a composition for 48 string instruments (24 violins and 8 each of violas, cellos and basses) composed by the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki in 1961. The piece was commissioned by the North German Radio Hambur ...
'' for 48 solo strings, all doubling optional pacay bean shakers *2012 – ''Suite from 'There Will Be Blood for string orchestra *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


Awards and nominations


See also

*
List of Old Abingdonians Old Abingdonians are former pupils of Abingdon School or, in some cases, Honorary Old Abingdonians who have been awarded the status based on service to the School. The Old Abingdonians also run the Old Abingdonian Club (OA club) which is an organ ...


References


Notes


Citations


External links

* *
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 Alternative rock guitarists Alternative rock pianists British 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 Lead guitarists Living people Nonesuch Records artists Ondists People educated at Abingdon School Musicians from Oxford Radiohead members The Smile (band) members