The Australian has posted an interview they did with Jonny recently. The band has been in their Oxford studio rehearsing for the upcoming festival tour dates later this month. They’ve also been recording new songs. “There’s a bunch of stuff slowly growing, some more finished than others,” Jonny says.
Two years ago, no longer signed to a major record label, the band released In Rainbows online, inviting fans to pay whatever they thought the album was worth. It was a bold move, seen as undermining the recording industry and testing new modes of distribution. Where Radiohead goes next, though, is less certain. The members aren’t even sure whether to release another conventional album at all.
“Traditionally we’d be looking for 10 or 11 songs and putting them together, but that doesn’t feel as natural as it used to, so I don’t know what we’ll do. Maybe we’ll find four songs that work together and we’ll call that a release. I don’t know,” Greenwood says.
After changing direction so many times, it’s perhaps no surprise that Radiohead finds itself, once again, at a crossroads. After starting off in 1993 with Pablo Honey and then the more accessible The Bends, the band established its place at the cutting edge of contemporary music with the landmark OK Computer. It then headed off in new directions with Kid A, Amnesiac and Hail to the Thief, embracing alternative forms of rock and electronics before 2007’s In Rainbows. Meanwhile, digital music and downloads changed the way music was consumed.
During the past few days, music circles around the world have been in a flutter after the band’s singer, Thom Yorke, told an American magazine he was “not very interested in the album at the moment”. Greenwood confirms that a conceptual shift is under way. “No one knows how to release music any more, including us,” he says. “How to put it together, in what format, how long. We’re in the dark as much as anyone I think.”
Apart from that, Greenwood isn’t giving much away. He doesn’t seem worried though: Radiohead has always had a thing for reinvention. It’s no wonder, then, that the 38-year-old sounds relaxed as he discusses one of his other projects.
Could “These Are My Twisted Words” be one of the new songs Jonny talks about?
