Jonny Greenwood

Jonny Greenwood
Greenwood in 2022
Greenwood in 2022
Background information
Birth nameJonathan Richard Guy Greenwood
Born (1971-11-05) 5 November 1971 (age 52)
Oxford, England
Genres
Occupation(s)Musician, composer
Instrument(s)
Years active1985–present
Labels
Member of
Websitewww.radiohead.com

Jonathan Richard Guy Greenwood (born 5 November 1971) is an English musician. He is the lead guitarist and keyboardist of the rock band Radiohead, and has 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. He abandoned a degree in music when the band signed to Parlophone. Their debut single, "Creep" (1992), was distinguished by Greenwood's aggressive guitar work. Radiohead have since achieved critical 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 used by Radiohead. He described his role as an arranger, helping 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.

Greenwood's first solo work, the soundtrack for the film Bodysong, was released 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 several times with the Israeli composer Shye Ben Tzur, including on the 2015 album Junun. In 2021, Greenwood debuted a new band, the Smile, with Yorke and the drummer Tom Skinner.