Greenwood has gotten lots of attention lately, especially because he played a show in Tel Aviv during the 2024 war.
Talking about it, Greenwood threw out this thought: “It’s the embodiment of the left.” He mentioned he finds it sad that some people on the left keep searching for traitors, while the right tries to gain new fans, and somehow, the two sides meet at him. He’s writing new music now, putting together a record with artists from Israel and other Middle Eastern spots—kind of like the Jarak Qaribak project from the year before—but honestly, he’s straight-up nervous to tell anyone. In his own words, “that feels progressive to me—booing at a concert does not strike me as brave or progressive.”
Sitting with him, Yorke replied in a completely dry way, “But you are whitewashing genocide, mate. And so am I, apparently, by sitting next to you on this sofa.” Not exactly the most comfortable sofa chat.
Greenwood talked more about the politics, saying he’s joined the crowds in Israel protesting the government, covered in “F*** Ben-Gvir” stickers everywhere you look. Family keeps him coming back, but politics don’t decide who he collaborates with: “I have no loyalty—or respect, obviously—to their government, but I have both for the artists born there.” He can’t just shut out everyone’s art because of who’s in charge—a pretty wild thing to balance, honestly.
Sometimes, people just want bands to solve it all, but maybe that’s too much to ask.
Both Ed O’Brien and Philip Selway joined in, chatting to The Sunday Times about the whole Israel-Palestine topic. O’Brien thought back to their show in Tel Aviv in 2017 and said they should have played Ramallah too, right in the West Bank. Selway shared how BDS’s requests just couldn’t work for them: if they totally stopped working with Jonny, the band itself would be finished. “But it’s odd to be ostracised by artists we generally felt quite aligned to.” This stuff gets messy.
Colin Greenwood skipped commenting on the Middle East, choosing instead to remember a totally different moment: the Berlin show Radiohead played on September 11, 2001. Apparently, some Americans in the crowd yelled at Yorke to “say something,” and all Yorke could do was answer, “What do you want me to say?”
The chat with Jonathan Dean for The Sunday Times showed up just before Radiohead’s first tour since 2018, and they’re set to hit the stage in Madrid on November 4.
Sometimes, humans just can’t untangle these knots even if they try really, really hard.
