The genius behind Radiohead, lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, has embarked on a new venture.
(Jonny Greenwood by Stephen Booth, Greenwood Oil via W.A.S.T.E. website)
Radiohead have entered the olive oil business.
Well, lead guitarist and composer Jonny Greenwood has - he’s just unveiled Greenwood Oil, which you can buy now on the band’s W.A.S.T.E. website for £35.00 or £60 for the 500 ml or 1-litre bottles signed by the Paranoid Android guitarist.
That transfers to $64.80 and $111.15 - brutal prices for Aussie fans, but at the time of writing, Greenwood Oil can only be shipped to UK addresses.
When not making music, Greenwood has lived on his own farm in the Le Marche region of Italy for eight years. In that time, he’s harvested and pressed olives with friends and family to create this artisan olive oil.
Greenwood tweeted, “I’m really proud of the final product, for all that this is what rockstarsofacertainage* (It’s Sting we’re all thinking of) seem to drift into doing.”
He continued, “It’s an addictive thing through, harvesting and pressing this glorious fruit, and spending more and mroe time with Italian friends in this beautiful country.”
Take a look at the bottle, designed by Radiohead’s longtime artist, Stanley Donwood, here.
When Greenwood is making music, he’s releasing one of the best albums of 2022: A Light For Attracting Attention, the debut album from The Smile, made up of Radiohead’s Greenwood and Thom Yorke and Sons Of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner.
In December, the band released a live album, The Smile at Montreux Jazz Festival, July 2022.
Montreux Jazz Festival was one of the first gigs the trio ever played together after forming in late 2020. That show also marked the band's live debut of the song Bending Hectic, which Thom Yorke admitted to writing half an hour before their festival appearance.
In 2021, Radiohead celebrated the 20th and 21st anniversaries of their critically acclaimed albums, Kid A and Amnesiac.
Along with the release of the massive triple album Kid A Mnesia (the deluxe reissue of their 2000 and 2001 mega LPs mentioned above), the band came together with longtime producer/collaborator Nigel Godrich (who also produced The Smile's album) to create a virtual exhibition of previously unseen artworks, sounds and designs from the making of the two albums, in a wholly realised space online. You can learn more about those releases here.