Nostalgia for the New

Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke get a lot of the ink and attention when it comes to Radiohead's music, and justly so. But Colin Greenwood, the band's bassist, is not only a key part of the band's questing sound; he is also responsible for two of my favorite things, one musical and one extra-musical. The first is his utterly idiosyncratic, un-grooved bass line for "Airbag" (it is never less than delightful to listen for it, not least because it doesn't distract from the song's architectonic splendor; indeed it seems only to enhance it, like a flashlight bouncing around the walls of a cathedral).

The other is a quote from an interview he gave to Kodwo Eshun at Culture Lab in 2008. I think of it often, and not only in a musical context. It deserves wider circulation; I personally find it axiomatic, counter-intuitive, and oddly reassuring. It also squares with my own experience, and again, not only in music. It reminds me, in fact, of something I heard a theater director I love, Jessica Kubzansky, once say: that she strives to approach classic plays as if they're brand new and new plays as if they're proven classics. It's great advice, in short:

COLIN GREENWOOD: The trick with computers, I think, is to approach old and new things with the same reverence as you would like your favourite chair and not be seduced by the constant innovation, otherwise you never do anything...You should approach technological things in a nostalgic way. You should approach a sequencer like you would a Dobro guitar. You shouldn’t think of it as the latest thing I’ve downloaded. You should think of it as, "Look what I’ve dug up from the attic." If you think of it like that, you start making music on it as supposed to, like, becoming an engineer.

KODWO ESHUN: Does it work the other way round?

CG: I guess! I guess.

KE: Approaching a guitar like a laptop?

CG: The guitar is a much more efficient machine than a computer. More responsive.