Jonny Greenwood tells us about The Smile’s ‘Cutouts’ and the “fun and natural” Radiohead reunion

nme.com:

Jonny Greenwood has spoken to NME about the creation of The Smile‘s new album ‘Cutouts’, and the recent “fun and natural” reunion rehearsals of Radiohead.Greenwood along with Thom Yorke and jazz drummer Tom Skinner (formerly of Sons Of Kemet) released their surprise third album ‘Cutouts’ last week as the follow-up to 2022’s ‘A Light For Attracting Attention’ and ‘Wall Of Eyes’, which was released just this January.Discussing the quick turn-around between records, Greenwood said it was because “small teams move more quickly”, as opposed to the more resources being required for a Radiohead album (their last being 2016’s ‘A Moon Shaped Pool’.“And we had a lot of pent-up energy when we started,” he continued, “so it’s felt very natural to just keep going.”Check out the rest of our interview below (conducted via email as Greenwood continues to recover following a recent stay in intensive care) – where the multi-instrumentalist told us about The Smile’s work ethic, plans for the future, and the chances of Radiohead returning to the road or the studio any time soon.NME: Hello Jonny.

At the Prince Charles Cinema playback of ‘Wall Of Eyes’ earlier this year, you and Thom described the songs as “unfinished canvases around a room”.

How do the canvases of ‘Cutouts’ relate to those on ‘Wall Of Eyes’? “I think we had one-and-a-half records when we decided to release ‘Wall Of Eyes’ – so it was simply about finishing a few of the other canvasses off.

There’s certainly no sense that these are leftovers: it’s just another record.”How would you describe the sonic DNA of this record?“The guitar parts are often focused on using a delay pedal.