Jonny Greenwood

Jonathan Richard Guy Greenwood (born 5 November 1971) is an English musician who is the lead guitarist and keyboardist of the rock band Radiohead. He has also composed numerous film scores. He has been named one of the greatest guitarists by numerous publications, including Rolling Stone.

Along with his elder brother, Colin, Greenwood attended Abingdon School in Abingdon near Oxford, where he formed Radiohead. Their debut single, "Creep" (1992), was distinguished by Greenwood's aggressive guitar work. Radiohead have achieved acclaim and sold more than 30 million albums. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Radiohead in 2019.

Greenwood is a multi-instrumentalist and a prominent player of the ondes Martenot, an early electronic instrument. He uses electronic techniques such as programming, sampling and looping, and writes music software. He described his role in Radiohead as an arranger, helping transform Thom Yorke's demos into finished songs. The only classically trained member of Radiohead, Greenwood has composed for orchestras including the London Contemporary Orchestra and the BBC Concert Orchestra, and his arrangements feature on Radiohead records.

Greenwood released his first solo work, the soundtrack for the film Bodysong, in 2003. In 2007, he scored There Will Be Blood, the first of several collaborations with the director Paul Thomas Anderson. In 2018, he was nominated for an Academy Award for his score for Anderson's Phantom Thread. He was nominated again for his score for The Power of the Dog (2021), directed by Jane Campion. Greenwood also scored the Lynne Ramsay films We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) and You Were Never Really Here (2017). He has collaborated with Middle Eastern musicians including the Israeli songwriters Shye Ben Tzur and Dudu Tassa. In 2021, Greenwood debuted a new band, the Smile, with Yorke and the drummer Tom Skinner.

Early life

Jonny Greenwood was born on 5 November 1971 in Oxford, England.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His brother, the Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood, is two years older. Their father served in the British Army as a bomb disposal expert.<ref name="Ross-2001">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Buxton-2016">Template:Cite web</ref> The Greenwood family has historical ties to the Communist Party of Great Britain and the socialist Fabian Society.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="RS greatest guitarists 2011"/>

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 and My Fair Lady, and cover versions of Simon & Garfunkel 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.<ref name="NonesuchPopcornsuperhetreciever" /> He credited his older siblings with exposing him to rock bands such as the Beat and New Order.<ref name="BBC">Template:Cite web</ref> The first gig Greenwood attended was the Fall on their 1988 Frenz Experiment tour, which he found "overwhelming".<ref name="BBC" />

The Greenwood brothers attended the private boys' school Abingdon. The Abingdon director of music, Michael Stinton, recalled Jonny as a "charming student" and "committed musician" who would spend as much time in the music department as possible.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Greenwood's first instrument was a recorder given to him at age four or five. He played baroque music in recorder groups as a teenager,<ref name="BBC" /> and continued to play into adulthood.<ref name="NPR Conversation" /> He played the viola in the Thames Vale youth orchestra, 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!Template:'"<ref name="Jonny Greenwood on Penderecki">Template:Cite web</ref> Greenwood also spent time programming, experimenting with BASIC and simple machine code to make computer games.<ref name="rolling stone 2012" /> According to Greenwood, "The closer I got to the bare bones of the computer, the more exciting I found it."<ref name="Pask-2014">Template:Cite web</ref>

On a Friday

At Abingdon, the Greenwood brothers formed a band, On a Friday, with the singer Thom Yorke, the guitarist Ed O'Brien and the drummer Philip Selway.<ref name="MCLEAN">Template:Cite news</ref> Jonny, the youngest, was three school years below Yorke and Colin and the last to join.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was previously in another band, Illiterate Hands, with Matt Hawksworth, Simon Newton, Ben Kendrick, Nigel Powell and Yorke's brother, Andy.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Greenwood initially played harmonica and keyboards for On a Friday.<ref name="RANDALL">Template:Cite journal</ref> As they 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".<ref name="Gross-2022" /> 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."<ref name="Gross-2022">Template:Cite news</ref> According to Selway, at On a Friday's first gig, in Oxford’s Jericho Tavern, Greenwood sat on the stage with a harmonica, "waiting for his big moment to arrive".<ref name="RANDALL" /> He eventually became the lead guitarist.<ref name="RANDALL" />

Although the other members of On a Friday had left Abingdon by 1987 to attend university, they continued to rehearse on weekends and holidays.<ref name="Ross-2001" /> Greenwood studied music at A Level, including chorale harmonisation.<ref name="Jonny Greenwood on Penderecki" />

Career

1991–1992: Pablo Honey

In 1991, the members of On a Friday regrouped in Oxford, sharing a house on the corner of Magdalen Road and Ridgefield Road.<ref name="Fricke-2012">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Greenwood played harmonica on the 1992 Blind Mr. Jones single "Crazy Jazz".<ref name="Kellman">Template:Cite web</ref> He enrolled at Oxford Brookes University to study psychology and music, but left after his first term after On a Friday signed a record contract deal with EMI.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Greenwood said he had been "headed for the back of the viola section at some minor orchestra".<ref name="Gill-2003">Template:Cite news</ref>

The band changed their name to Radiohead and released their first album, Pablo Honey, in 1993.<ref name="Irvin-1997">Template:Cite journal</ref> Radiohead found early success with their debut single, "Creep", released in 1992.<ref name="Irvin-1997" /> According to Rolling Stone, "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."<ref name="RS greatest guitarists 2011">Template:Cite magazine</ref> The Independent wrote that it was "the kind of transformative moment that has become his signature contribution to the Radiohead style".<ref name="Gill-2003" />

1995–1999: The Bends and OK Computer

Radiohead's second album, The Bends (1995), brought them significant critical attention.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Greenwood said it had been a "turning point" for Radiohead: "It started appearing in people's [best of] polls for the end of the year. That's when it started to feel like we made the right choice about being a band."<ref name="LAUNCH22">Template:Citation</ref> On tour, Greenwood damaged his hearing and wore protective ear shields for some performances.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> File:Radiohead Matters.ogg Radiohead's third album, OK Computer (1997), achieved acclaim,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> showcasing Greenwood's lead guitar work on songs such as "Paranoid Android".<ref name="Guitar World-2008">Template:Cite web</ref> For "Climbing up the Walls", Greenwood wrote a part for 16 stringed instruments playing quarter tones apart, inspired by the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki.<ref name="Barrett-2015">Template:Cite web</ref>

For the soundtrack of the 1998 film Velvet Goldmine, Greenwood, Yorke, Andy Mackay of Roxy Music and Bernard Butler of Suede formed a band, the Venus in Furs, and covered three Roxy Music songs.<ref name="Scheim-2016">Template:Cite web</ref> Greenwood played harmonica on "Platform Blues" and "Billie" on Pavement's final album, Terror Twilight (1999).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

2000–2003: Kid A, Amnesiac and Hail to the Thief

Radiohead's albums Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001) marked a dramatic change in sound, incorporating influences from electronica, classical music, jazz and krautrock.<ref name="REYNOLDS">Template:Cite web</ref> Greenwood employed a modular synthesiser to build the drum machine rhythm of "Idioteque",<ref name="mixing-it22" /><ref name="public-interview2">Template:Cite web</ref> and played ondes Martenot, an early electronic instrument similar to a theremin, on several tracks.<ref name="McNamee-2009">Template:Cite web</ref>

For "How to Disappear Completely", Greenwood composed a string section by multitracking his ondes Martenot playing.<ref name="mixing-it22">Template:Cite interview</ref> According to Radiohead's producer, Nigel Godrich, 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".<ref name="Pappademas-2012">Template:Cite news</ref> The orchestra leader, John Lubbock, encouraged the musicians to experiment and work with Greenwood's "naive" ideas.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Greenwood also arranged strings for the Amnesiac songs "Pyramid Song" and "Dollars and Cents".<ref name="Kornhaber-2021">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Greenwood played guitar on Bryan Ferry's 2002 album Frantic.<ref name="AllMusic">Template:Cite web</ref> For Radiohead's sixth album, Hail to the Thief (2003), Greenwood began using the music programming language Max to sample and manipulate the band's playing.<ref name="Astley-Brown-2017">Template:Cite news</ref> After having used effects pedals heavily on previous albums, he challenged himself to create interesting guitar parts without effects.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

2003–2006: Bodysong and first orchestral work

Greenwood performing with Radiohead in 2006

In 2003, Greenwood released his first solo work, the soundtrack for the documentary film Bodysong. It incorporates guitar, jazz, and classical music.<ref name="Pappademas-2012" /> Greenwood played instruments such as the ondes Martenot, banjo, glass harmonica and vocoder, and employed the Gerard Presencer jazz quartet.<ref name="Gill-2003" /> In 2004, Greenwood and Yorke contributed to the Band Aid 20 single "Do They Know It's Christmas?", produced by Godrich.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Greenwood's first work for orchestra, Smear, was premiered by the London Sinfonietta in March 2004.Template:Citation needed In 2005, Greenwood curated a concert as part of the Ether festival in London at with the London Sinfonietta. It featured a new version of Smear, the new work Piano for Children, and performances of pieces by classical modernist composers.<ref name="theguardian.com" /> With the orchestra, Greenwood also performed two Radiohead songs with Yorke: "Where Bluebirds Fly" and "Weird Fishes / Arpeggi".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Woolfrey-2014">Template:Cite web</ref>

In May 2004, Greenwood was appointed composer-in-residence to the BBC Concert Orchestra.<ref name="Gledhill-2004">Template:Cite web</ref> Radiohead's co-manager, Bryce Edge, said Greenwood would use the residency to learn how orchestras work.<ref name="Gledhill-2004" /> For the BBC, Greenwood wrote "Popcorn Superhet Receiver" (2005), inspired by radio static and the elaborate, dissonant tone clusters of Penderecki's Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (1960). He wrote the piece by recording individual tones on viola, then manipulating and overdubbing them in Pro Tools.<ref name="Pappademas-2012" /> For "Popcorn Supherhet Receiver", Greenwood was named Composer of the Year by BBC Radio 3.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

For the 2005 film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Greenwood and the Radiohead drummer, Philip Selway, appeared as the wizard rock band Weird Sisters alongside Jarvis Cocker, Steve Mackey, Steven Claydon and Jason Buckle. They recorded three songs for the soundtrack and appeared in the film.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Greenwood contributed piano to "The Eraser" from Yorke's debut solo album, The Eraser (2006).<ref name="Rolling_Stone3">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

2007–2010: There Will Be Blood and In Rainbows

Greenwood composed the score for the 2007 film There Will Be Blood, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. The soundtrack won an award at the Critics' Choice Awards and the Best Film Score award in the Evening Standard British Film Awards for 2007.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> As it contains excerpts from "Popcorn Superhet Receiver", it was ineligible for an Academy Award.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Rolling Stone 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".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In 2016, the film composer Hans Zimmer said the score was "recklessly, crazily beautiful".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In March 2007, Trojan Records released Jonny Greenwood Is the Controller, a compilation album of reggae tracks curated by Greenwood.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It features mostly 70s roots and dub tracks from artists including Lee "Scratch" Perry, Joe Gibbs and Linval Thompson. The title references Thompson's track "Dread Are the Controller".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Radiohead released their seventh album, In Rainbows, in October 2007, in a landmark use of the pay-what-you-want model for music sales. Greenwood said Radiohead were responding to the culture of downloading free music, which he likened to the legend of King Canute: "You can't pretend the flood isn't happening."<ref name="observer1">Template:Cite news</ref> Greenwood wrote the title music for Adam Buxton's 2008 sketch show Meebox,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and contributed to the 2009 album Basof Mitraglim Le'Hakol by the Israeli rock musician Dudu Tasaa.<ref name="Strauss-2023">Template:Cite web</ref> Greenwood cowrote Yorke's 2009 single "Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses".<ref name="NME_0903">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

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, written in hotels and dressing rooms while on tour with Radiohead.<ref name="Carlick-2010">Template:Cite web</ref> He expanded "Doghouse" into the score for the Japanese film Norwegian Wood, released later that year.<ref name="Carlick-2010" /> Greenwood and Yorke performed a surprise set at Glastonbury Festival 2010, performing Radiohead and Eraser songs.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Greenwood also played guitar on Bryan Ferry's 2010 album Olympia.<ref name="Stereogum-2010">Template:Cite web</ref>

Radiohead's recorded their eighth album, The King of Limbs (2011), using sampler software written by Greenwood.<ref name="rolling stone 2012">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="outtake22">Template:Cite episode</ref> By 2011, Radiohead had sold more than 30 million albums.<ref name="BBC Worldwide takes exclusive 201123">Template:Cite web</ref> That year, Greenwood scored We Need to Talk About Kevin, directed by Lynne Ramsay,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> using instruments including a wire-strung harp.<ref name="Woolfrey-2014" /> With Yorke, he also collaborated with the rapper MF Doom on the track "Retarded Fren".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2012, Greenwood composed the score for Anderson's film The Master.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> That March, Greenwood and the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, one of Greenwood's greatest influences, released an album comprising Penderecki's 1960s compositions Polymorphia and Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima, Greenwood's "Popcorn Superhet Receiver", and a new work by Greenwood, "48 Responses to Polymorphia".<ref name="Michaels-2012">Template:Cite news</ref>

In the same year, Greenwood accepted a three-month residency with the Australian Chamber Orchestra in Sydney and composed a new piece, "Water".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Greenwood, Yorke, and other artists contributed music to The UK Gold, a 2013 documentary about tax avoidance in the UK. The soundtrack was released free in February 2015 through the online audio platform SoundCloud.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

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

Greenwood performing with the London Contemporary Orchestra in Geneva, 2015

Greenwood composed the soundtrack for the Anderson film Inherent Vice (2014). It features a new version of an unreleased Radiohead song, "Spooks", performed by Greenwood and two members of Supergrass.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2014, Greenwood performed with the London Contemporary Orchestra, performing selections from his soundtracks alongside new compositions.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In the same year, Greenwood performed with the Israeli composer Shye Ben Tzur and his band. Greenwood described Ben Tzur's music as "quite celebratory, more like gospel music than anything—except that it's all done to a backing of Indian harmoniums and percussion". He said he would play a "supportive" rather than "solistic" role.<ref name="Evening Standard-2014">Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2015, Greenwood, Ben Tzur and Godrich recorded an album, Junun, with Indian musicians at Mehrangarh Fort in Rajasthan, India.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Greenwood insisted they hire only musicians from Rajasthan and only use string instruments native to the region.<ref name="Ehrlich-2018">Template:Cite news</ref> Ben Tzur wrote the songs, with Greenwood contributing guitar, bass, keyboards, ondes Martenot and programming.<ref name="Ehrlich-2018" /> Whereas western music is based on harmonies and chord progressions, Greenwood used North Indian ragas.<ref name="Ehrlich-2018" /> 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.<ref name="Ehrlich-2018" /> The recording is the subject of a 2015 documentary, Junun, by Paul Thomas Anderson.<ref name="HollywoodReporter2">Template:Cite web</ref>

Greenwood contributed string orchestration to Frank Ocean's 2016 albums Endless<ref name="pitchfork.com-2">Template:Cite web</ref> and Blonde.<ref name="Needham-2016">Template:Cite news</ref> Radiohead's ninth album, A Moon Shaped Pool, was released in May 2016,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> featuring strings and choral vocals arranged by Greenwood and performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra.<ref name="Pitchfork 5 Things">Template:Cite web</ref> With Ben Tzur and the Indian ensemble, Greenwood supported Radiohead's 2018 Moon Shaped Pool tour under the name Junun.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

2017–2020: Phantom Thread and The Power of the Dog

Greenwood receiving an ovation after a performance of his piece Horror Vacui at the BBC Proms in London, 2019

Greenwood wrote the score for Anderson's 2017 film Phantom Thread. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and earned Greenwood his sixth Ivor Novello award.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Greenwood reunited with Ramsay to score her film You Were Never Really Here, also released in 2017.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> That August, Yorke and Jonny Greenwood performed a benefit concert in the Marche, Italy, to help restoration efforts following the August 2016 Central Italy earthquake.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> At the 2019 BBC Proms in London, Greenwood debuted his composition "Horror Vacui" for solo violin and 68 string instruments.<ref name="Lewis-2019">Template:Cite news</ref>

Greenwood was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Radiohead in March 2019.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Greenwood did not attend the event, and 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."<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In September, Greenwood launched a record label, Octatonic Records, to release contemporary classical music by soloists and small groups he had met as a film composer.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2021, he expressed uncertainty about releasing further Octatonic records, as the two Octatonic records "seemed to not really connect with anybody".<ref name="NME-2021">Template:Cite web</ref> In 2024, Greenwood said he planned to revive Octatonic with a release from the cellist Oliver Coates.<ref name="Lewis-2024" />

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 controlled with the software Max.<ref name="Ross-2021">Template:Cite magazine</ref> The soundtrack earned Greenwood his second nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Score.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> For his soundtrack to Spencer (2021), Greenwood combined Baroque and jazz music, juxtaposing their "rigid" and "colourful" styles.<ref name="Ross-2021" /> He also contributed cues to Anderson's 2021 film Licorice Pizza.<ref name="Pitchfork-2021">Template:Cite web</ref>

2021–2023: the Smile and Jarak Qaribak

Greenwood (left) performing with the Smile in January 2022

In 2021, Greenwood debuted a new band, the Smile, with Yorke and the jazz drummer Tom Skinner.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Greenwood said the project was a way for him and Yorke to work together during the COVID-19 lockdowns.<ref name="NME-2021" /> Pitchfork attributed the Smile to Greenwood's frustration with Radiohead's slow working pace and his desire to release records that are "90 percent as good [that] come out twice as often".<ref name="Pitchfork review">Template:Cite web</ref> The Smile made their surprise debut in a performance streamed by Glastonbury Festival on 22 May, with Greenwood playing guitar and bass.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Guardian critic Alexis Petridis said the Smile "sound like a simultaneously more skeletal and knottier version of Radiohead", exploring more progressive rock influences with unusual time signatures, complex riffs and "hard-driving" motorik psychedelia.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In May 2022, the Smile released their debut album, A Light for Attracting Attention, and began an international tour.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Greenwood and Yorke contributed music to the sixth series of the television drama Peaky Blinders, broadcast that year.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Greenwood composed and conducted strings for the Pretenders song "I Think About You Daily", released in June 2023.<ref name="Lewry-2023">Template:Cite web</ref> On 9 June, Greenwood and the Israeli musician Dudu Tassa released Jarak Qaribak, comprising reworkings of Middle Eastern love songs.<ref name="Guardian rev">Template:Cite news</ref> It was produced by Greenwood and Tassa and mixed by Godrich, and features several Middle Eastern musicians. Greenwood said he and Tassa had "tried to imagine what Kraftwerk would have done if they'd been in Cairo in the 1970s". He denied any intent to make a political point with the album, and said: "I do understand that as soon as you do anything in that part of the world it becomes political ... possibly especially if it's artistic."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A European tour for Jarak Qaribak was canceled following the outbreak of the Gaza war in 2023.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

2024–present: Wall of Eyes and Cutouts

In January 2024, the Smile released their second album, Wall of Eyes. They began a European tour in March.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In May, a drone-based composition by Greenwood for church organ, "X Years of Reverb" — where X is substituted for the age of the building in which it is performed – premiered at the Norfolk and Norwich Festival. The composition is eight hours long and was performed by the organists James McVinnie and Eliza McCarthy playing in shifts using stopwatches. Greenwood composed it after becoming involved in charities to repair churches damaged by an earthquake near his home in Marche, Italy.<ref name="Lewis-2024">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Greenwood" />

On 25 May, Greenwood joined protests in Israel calling for the removal of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, elections for new leadership, and the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.<ref name="DeVille-2024">Template:Cite web</ref> The next day, he and Tassa performed songs from Jarak Qaribak in Tel Aviv. The performance was criticised by pro-Palestine activists; the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel called for "peaceful, creative pressure on his band Radiohead to convincingly distance itself from this blatant complicity in the crime of crimes, or face grassroots measures".<ref name="DeVille-2024" /><ref name="Wilkes-2024">Template:Cite web</ref> On 4 June, Greenwood responded in a statement that Israeli artists should not be silenced.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He described the project as a group of Middle Eastern musicians "working together across borders" and made no mention of Israel's war on Gaza.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In July, the Smile canceled their upcoming European tour after Greenwood was temporarily hospitalised with a serious infection. In a statement, the Smile said Greenwood had been receiving emergency treatment in an intensive care unit, but was now safe.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In October, Greenwood said he was mostly recovered and was focusing on film soundtracks until he was fully well.<ref name="Trendell-2024">Template:Cite web</ref> The Smile's third album, Cutouts, recorded simultaneously with Wall of Eyes, was released that month.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Greenwood scored his sixth film for Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another, released in September 2025.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In May 2025, Greenwood and Tassa's performances in Bristol and London supporting Jarak Qaribak were canceled following threats to the venues and staff.<ref name="Snapes-2025">Template:Cite news</ref> They released a statement criticising the cancellations as censorship, emphasised the mixed heritage of the performers, and compared the cancellations to the controversy surrounding the hip-hop group Kneecap following their Coachella 2025 performance.<ref name="Snapes-2025" /> In an interview later that year, Yorke said he would not perform in Israel again, while Greenwood disagreed, saying boycotts of Israel empower the government to act as they please. He said he was "ashamed of dragging [his Radiohead bandmates] into this mess", but was not ashamed of working with Arab and Jewish musicians.<ref name="Dean-2025">Template:Cite web</ref> In November, Radiohead began a European tour, their first tour in seven years.<ref name="Martoccio-2025">Template:Cite web</ref>

Musicianship

Guitar

Greenwood playing bowed guitar

Greenwood is Radiohead's lead guitarist.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> He is known for his aggressive playing style.<ref name="RANDALL" /> Guitar.com wrote that Greenwood's playing on Radiohead's debut album, Pablo Honey, was an "exhilarating melange of tremolo-picked soundscapes, chunky octaves, screaming high-register runs and killswitch antics".<ref name="guitar.com">Template:Cite web</ref> In the 1990s, Greenwood developed repetitive stress injury, necessitating a brace on his right arm, which he likened to "taping up your fingers before a boxing match".<ref name="RANDALL" />

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.<ref name="Woolfrey-2014" /><ref name="Sood">Template:Cite web</ref> He said he disliked guitar solos: "There's nothing worse than hearing someone cautiously going up and down the scales of their guitar. You can hear them thinking about what the next note should be, and then out it comes. It's more interesting to write something that doesn't outstay its welcome."<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Greenwood's main amplifiers are a Vox AC30 and a Fender 85.<ref name="Mixdown-2024">Template:Cite web</ref> He has long used a Fender Telecaster Plus, a model of Telecaster with Lace Sensor pickups.<ref name="Mixdown-2024" /> He uses a killswitch to create a stuttering effect on songs such as "Airbag", "Paranoid Android" and "Electioneering".<ref name="Mixdown-2024" /> On softer tracks, such as "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" and "Pyramid Song", Greenwood plays a Fender Starcaster, which he sometimes plays with a cello bow.<ref name="Mixdown-2024" /> For solo performances and his work with the Smile, he plays a Gibson Les Paul; for bass, he plays a Fender Precision Bass, using an aggressive picking style.<ref name="Michael-2022">Template:Cite web</ref>

For distorted tones on many 1990s Radiohead songs, Greenwood uses the Marshall ShredMaster.<ref name="Mixdown-2024" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> For the "My Iron Lung" riff, he uses a DigiTech Whammy pedal to pitch-shift his guitar by one octave, creating a "glitchy, lo-fi" sound.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> He has used a Roland RE-201 Space Echo unit on several albums.<ref name="Mixdown-2024" /> On "Identikit" and several Smile songs, Greenwood uses a delay effect to create "angular" synchronised repeats.<ref name="Michael-2022" /> Greenwood said that "treating the delay as [the guitar's] equal opened up lots of directions".<ref name="Trendell-2024" />

In 2008, Guitar World named Greenwood's guitar solo in "Paranoid Android" the 34th-greatest of all time.<ref name="Guitar World-2008" /> In 2010, NME named Greenwood one of the greatest living guitarists,<ref name="NME.COM">Template:Cite web</ref> and he was voted the seventh-greatest guitarist of all time in a poll of more than 30,000 BBC 6 Music listeners.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> That year, the Rolling Stone journalist David Fricke named Greenwood the 60th-greatest guitarist.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In 2011, a panel of musicians and Rolling Stone writers voted him the 48th-greatest guitarist,<ref name="RS greatest guitarists 2011" /> and in 2012 Spin ranked him the 29th.<ref name="Spin">Template:Cite web</ref> In its updated 2023 list of the greatest guitarists, Rolling Stone ranked Greenwood and O'Brien joint 43rd, writing: "Even as he blossomed into a noted neo-classical composer, Greenwood always made sure to throw in at least one brain-scrambling banger of a guitar part per album."<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Ondes Martenot

Greenwood performing on an ondes Martenot in 2010

Greenwood is a prominent player of the ondes Martenot, an early electronic instrument played by moving a ring along a wire, creating sounds similar to a theremin.<ref name="McNamee-2009" /> Greenwood said it was "the most expressive electronic instrument that's ever been invented".<ref name="Gill-2003" /> He first used it on Radiohead's 2000 album Kid A, and it appears in Radiohead songs including "The National Anthem", "How to Disappear Completely" and "Where I End and You Begin".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Greenwood became interested in the ondes Martenot at the age of 15 after hearing Olivier Messiaen's Turangalîla Symphony.<ref name="Ross-2001" /> 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."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name="McNamee-2009" />

Other instruments

Greenwood plays instruments including piano, viola, cello, glockenspiel, harmonica, recorder, organ, banjo and harp.<ref name="Ross-2021" /><ref name="Sood" /><ref name="Michael-2022" /> 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.<ref name="Woolfrey-2014" />

Greenwood created the rhythm for "Idioteque" (from Kid A) with a modular synthesiser<ref name="public-interview2" /> and sampled the song's four-chord synthesiser phrase from "mild und leise", a computer music piece by Paul Lansky.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="mixing-it22" /> He uses a Kaoss Pad to manipulate Yorke's vocals during performances of the Kid A song "Everything in Its Right Place".<ref name="pitchfork.com">Template:Cite web</ref> In 2014, Greenwood wrote of his fascination with Indian instruments, particularly the tanpura, which he felt created uniquely complex "walls" of sounds.<ref name="Evening Standard-2014" />

Greenwood uses a "home-made sound machine" comprising small hammers striking objects including yoghurt cartons, tubs, bells, and tambourines.<ref name="Adam Thorpe">Template:Cite web</ref> He has used found sounds, using a television and a transistor radio on "Climbing Up the Walls" (from OK Computer) and "The National Anthem" (from Kid A).<ref name="Sood" />

Software

At the suggestion of Radiohead's producer, Nigel Godrich, Greenwood began using the music programming language Max.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He found it liberating to abandon existing notions of audio effects and create his own from scratch, thinking "in terms of sound and maths".<ref name="Pask-2014" /> Examples of Greenwood's use of Max include the processed piano on the Moon Shaped Pool track "Glass Eyes"<ref name="NPR Conversation">Template:Cite web</ref> and his signature "stutter" guitar effect used on tracks such as the 2003 single "Go to Sleep".<ref name="Astley-Brown-2017" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He used Max to write sampling software used to create Radiohead's eighth album, The King of Limbs.<ref name="rolling stone 2012" />

Songwriting

Template:Quote boxGreenwood is the only classically trained member of Radiohead.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The New York Times described him as "the guy who can take an abstract Thom Yorke notion and master the tools required to execute it in the real world".<ref name="Pappademas-2012" /> In 2016, Greenwood described his role in Radiohead as an arranger, and said: "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? ... How do we make it better than [Thom] just playing it by himself, which is already usually quite great?"<ref name="NPR Conversation" /> He said he was the most impatient member of Radiohead: "I'd much rather the records were 90 per cent as good, but come out twice as often ... I've always felt that, the closer to the finish, the smaller the changes are that anyone would notice."<ref name="NME-2021" />

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", co-written with Yorke,<ref name="Barrett-2015" /> from The Bends (1995); "The Tourist" and the "rain down" bridge of "Paranoid Android" from OK Computer (1997);<ref name="RANDALL" /> the vocal melody of "Kid A" from Kid A (2000);<ref name="REYNOLDS" /> and the guitar melody of "A Wolf at the Door" from Hail to the Thief (2003).<ref name="official">Template:Cite interview Promotional interview CD sent to British music press.</ref>

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 with home recording equipment from the period, attempting to create a recording that one of the characters might have made.<ref name="Woolfrey-2014" /> Many of Greenwood's compositions are microtonal.<ref name="Woolfrey-2014" /> He often uses modes of limited transposition, particularly the octatonic scale, saying: "I like to know what I can't do and then work inside that."<ref name="Ross-2021" /> Greenwood has used unusual notation for his scores to convey complexities such as microtonality or improvisation. His piece "X Years of Reverb" requires organists to play to stopwatches. For "48 Responses to Polymorphia", he placed an oak leaf on a stave and wrote a part using the veins.<ref name="Michaels-2012" />

Influences

Greenwood admires the alternative rock bands Pavement, the Pixies and Sonic Youth.<ref name="pitchfork.com" /> He said the guitarist that had most influenced him was John McGeoch of Magazine, whose songwriting "informs so much of what [Radiohead] do".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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, Jonny was "overwhelmed" and too shy to accept the role.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Greenwood first heard Olivier Messiaen's Turangalîla Symphony at the age of 15 and became "round-the-bend-obsessed with it".<ref name="Ross-2001" /> 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."<ref name="Woolfrey-2014" />

Greenwood is an admirer of the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, and cited a concert of Penderecki's music in the early 90s as a "conversion experience".<ref name="Pappademas-2012" /><ref name="service">Template:Cite web</ref> He is also a fan of the composers György Ligeti, Henri Dutilleux and Steve Reich.<ref name="theguardian.com">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Greene" /> He has performed Reich's 1987 guitar composition Electric Counterpoint and recorded a version for Reich's 2014 album Radio Rewrite.<ref name="Greene">Template:Cite web</ref> He cited Reich as an influence on the phasing guitars of the Radiohead songs "Let Down" and "Weird Fishes / Arpeggi".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Greenwood cited the jazz musician Alice Coltrane as an influence.<ref name="pitchfork.com" />

Greenwood was exposed to Middle Eastern music through his wife's family. He said he particularly admired the textures and complexity of the rhythms in songs such as those by Abdel Halim Hafez, which he tried to emulate. He also said he enjoyed their rhythmic ambiguity, when it is difficult to tell where the first beat in a bar is.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

Greenwood is married to the Israeli visual artist Sharona Katan, whom he met in 1993 when Radiohead performed in Israel.<ref name="ynet-2017">Template:Cite web</ref> Her work, credited as Shin Katan, appears on the covers of Junun and several of Greenwood's soundtracks.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Katan said she considers their family Jewish: "Our kids are raised as Jews, we have a mezuzah in our house, we sometimes have Shabbos dinners, we celebrate Jewish holidays. The kids don't eat pork. It's important to me to keep this stuff."<ref name="ynet-2017" /> Greenwood's nephew served in the Israel Defence Forces and was killed in the ongoing Gaza war.<ref name="Wilkes-2024" />

Greenwood and his family live in Oxford and Marche, Italy.<ref name="Lewis-2024" /> In April 2023, he began selling olive oil produced on his farm in Italy from Radiohead's online shop.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Discography

Collaborative albums

List of collaborative albums, with selected chart positions

Title	Details	Charts
		UK Sales <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	UK Indie <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	SCO <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	US Curr. <ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	US Heat <ref name="Billboard">Template:Cite magazine</ref>	US World <ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima / Popcorn Superhet Receiver / Polymorphia / 48 Responses To Polymorphia (performed by Aukso Orchestra; conducted by Krzysztof Penderecki and Template:Interlanguage link)	Released: 13 March 2012 Label: Nonesuch Formats: CD, download	–	–	–	–	–	–
Junun (with Shye Ben Tzur and the Rajasthan Express)	Released: 20 November 2015 Label: Nonesuch Formats: LP, CD, cassette, download	–	–	–	–	6	3
Jarak Qaribak (with Dudu Tassa)	Released: 9 June 2023 Label: World Circuit Formats: LP, CD, download	34	13	70	68	–	–

Soundtracks

Title	Details	Charts
		US OST <ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>	US Heat <ref name="Billboard"/>	US Vinyl <ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Bodysong	Released: 27 October 2003 Label: Parlophone, Capitol, XL<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Formats: LP, CD, download	—	—	—
There Will Be Blood	Released: 17 December 2007 Label: Nonesuch Formats: LP, CD, download	20	—	21
Norwegian Wood	Released: 10 December 2010 Label: Nonesuch Formats: CD, download	—	—	—
The Master	Released: 10 September 2012 Label: Nonesuch Formats: LP, CD, download	21	28	—
Inherent Vice	Released: 15 December 2014 Label: Nonesuch Formats: LP, CD, download	—	—	—
Phantom Thread	Released: 12 January 2018 Label: Nonesuch, WEA<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Formats: LP, CD, download	—	—	—
You Were Never Really Here	Released: 9 March 2018 Label: Lakeshore, Invada Formats: LP, CD, download	—	—	—
Spencer	Released: 12 November 2021 Label: Mercury KX<ref name="NME-2021"/> Formats: LP, CD, download	—	—	—
The Power of the Dog	Released: 17 November 2021 Label: Lakeshore, Invada Formats: LP, CD, download	—	—	—
One Battle After Another	Released: 26 September 2025 Label: Nonesuch Formats: LP, CD, download	—	—	—

Compilations

Title	Charts
	[[Billboard charts|US Template:Small]] <ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Jonny Greenwood Is the Controller (with Various Artists) Released: 6 March 2007 Label: Trojan, Sanctuary Formats: CD, download	5

EPs

Title	Charts
	[[Billboard Charts|US Template:Small]] <ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Octatonic Volume 2: Industry Water (with Michael Gordon) Released: 24 September 2019 Label: Octatonic Records Formats: Vinyl,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> download	10

Appearances

• 1992 – Blind Mr. Jones, "Crazy Jazz" – harmonica<ref name="Kellman" />
• 1999 – Pavement, Terror Twilight – harmonica on "Platform Blues" and "Billie"<ref name="The Quietus | Features | Rock">Template:Cite web</ref>
• 2002 – Bryan Ferry, Frantic – guitar<ref name="AllMusic" />
• 2006 – Thom Yorke, The Eraser – piano on "The Eraser"<ref name="Rolling_Stone">Template:Cite magazine</ref>
• 2009 – Dudu Tassa – Basof Mitraglim Le'Hakol<ref name="Strauss-2023" />
• 2010 – Bryan Ferry, Olympia – guitar<ref name="Stereogum-2010" />
• 2011 – We Need to Talk About Kevin – score
• 2014 – Steve Reich, Radio Rewrite – "Electric Counterpoint"
• 2016 – Frank Ocean, Endless – string arrangement<ref name="pitchfork.com-2" />
• 2016 – Frank Ocean, Blonde – string arrangement<ref name="Needham-2016" />
• 2021 – Licorice Pizza (Official Motion Picture Soundtrack) – "Licorice Pizza"<ref name="Pitchfork-2021" />
• 2023 – The Pretenders, Relentless – string arrangement for "I Think About You Daily"<ref name="Lewry-2023" />
• 2024 – Dudu Tassa & The Kuwaitis, Dudu Tassa & The Kuwaitis (2024 Reissue) – "Eshrab Kasak Withana (Live)"

Concert works

• 2004 – smear for two ondes Martenots and chamber ensemble of nine players<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• 2004 – Piano for Children for piano and orchestra<ref name="theguardian.com"/> (withdrawn)
• 2005 – Popcorn Superhet Receiver for string orchestra<ref name=NonesuchPopcornsuperhetreciever >Template:Cite web</ref>
• 2007 – There Will Be Blood live film version<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• 2010 – Doghouse for string trio and orchestra<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• 2011 – Suite from 'Noruwei no Mori' (Norwegian Wood) for orchestra<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• 2011 – 48 Responses to Polymorphia for 48 solo strings, all doubling optional pacay bean shakers<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• 2012 – Suite from 'There Will Be Blood' for string orchestra<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• 2014 – Setting Up Arrows for string ensemble of 7 players<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• 2014 – Water for two flutes, upright piano, chamber organ, two tanpura & string orchestra<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• 2015 – 88 (No 1) for solo piano
• 2018 – Three Miniatures from 'Water' for violin, piano, 2 tampuras, and cello/bass drone<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• 2019 – Horror vacui for solo violin and 68 strings<ref name="Lewis-2019" />
• 2024 – X Years of Reverb for organ<ref name="Lewis-2024" /><ref name="Greenwood">Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

• List of Old Abingdonians

External links

• Template:Official website
• Template:IMDb name
• StringsReunited.com, a website by Plank, the guitar technician for Radiohead
• Greenwood's composer page on the Faber Music website