“‘No Surprises’ has got a swagger to it now that I like.”
Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood guests on the the latest episode of Adam Buxton’s podcast and talks about Radiohead’s ever-changing setlists, his loves of the Pixies and Pavement and more.
Greenwood explained that the band tend to find that some songs “suddenly don’t sound very good” to their ears, so they “just leave them off for a while”.
He continues: “Like, ‘No Surprises,’ we didn’t play for three or four years, just ‘cause we tried it in rehearsal and didn’t really feel it. But now it’s back in again. It’s got a swagger to it now that I like.”
Greenwood goes on to explain Radiohead’s reluctance to give in to industry standards (“in our heads, we still wanna be Sonic Youth”) and whether he’ll revive his original role as the band’s harmonica soloist (“I’m waiting for the moment.”
He also admitted that playing guitar is “still a clumsy struggle… But piano, I imagine I’m home sometimes, ’cos I remember practising all the songs at home. And so I pretend I am there, and it makes me a bit less nervous that so many people are watching and listening.”
Listen to the whole thing below.
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