Don't hate Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood because he's beautiful. Hate him because Radiohead made like 100 gazillion dollars touring with Alanis Morrissette. Still he is an exceptionally talented musician in one of the most critically respected pop bands of the decade. Radiohead's latest album, OK Computer, has gotten nothing but critical acclaim. In an exclusive interview with SPINonline, Greenwood speaks to SPINonline's Roger Scott about recording the new record, Whitesnake's body odor, and slumbering at Jane Seymour/Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman's mansion.

SPINOnLine: Here's your big chance: Is there anything you've always wanted to talk about in a interview that you've never been asked?

Johnny Greenwood: I'd happily talk about nothing.

SOL: So what are you doing so that every time you play the guitar you're slicing yourself up?

J: Oh you know, just clumsy.

SOL: The album doesn't have a lot of power chords on it, you'd think with that kind of reputation, it wouldn't be so subtle, and textured.

J: Well, you know, there's only 12 power chords, and I think we've had about 20 years of them, so maybe it's time to move on, aye?

SOL: I had heard you went on a search for new and innovative sounds, and some of them wound up on OK Computer.

J: That's all I do. Yes, some of them did, that's right. We used some strings for the first time, and I did a few weird things with them.

SOL: OK Computer has a psychedelic feel that reminds me of Pink Floyd, which I heard was a big influence on you growing up.

J: Yeah, there are some good songs. But I don't think they were perfect, really.

SOL: There doesn't seem to be that many American bands, at least not commercial ones, that have explored those kinds of progressive rock sounds. Do you think that has something to do with the English culture?

J: Maybe British bands just get bored faster. I think it's a boredom-driven thing. In Europe, it's harder to get away from every kind of music on the planet, whereas in America, it seems you can isolate yourself a bit more and just listen to new kinds of music, if that's what you want to do. But England's so much smaller, it's more of a musical melting pot.

SOL: Does it have something to do with American radio programmers?

J: American radio was quite good a few years ago, so maybe it'll come back and be good again and everyone will be happy. I think progressive rock was a very big mistake to be honest. The idea that rock music and classical music were as good as each other, and trying desperately to fuse the two was very misguided. I don't think we're doing that, we're just really bored; bored of what we hear and bored of what's around. We're not trying to educate people, or push things forward, we're just alleviating boredom, really.

SOL: The album works as a unified whole. You couldn't single out one song and say, "That's the radio hit." Was that a conscious decision?

J: Not especially. There was no pandering to radio because radio songs only last three or four weeks, don't they? So it wasn't worth torturing ourselves over. But, at the same time, I don't think we're trying to be woefully obscure. If we wanted to eccentric, we could really be much better than this.

SOL: A lot of the songs weren't even recorded in a studio right? Didn't you guys go outside to record a majority of these tracks?

J: Yeah, instead of just doing the cliche thing, of buying our own studio, we decided to buy a mobile studio, and just go to whatever space we felt like being in. So we did some of it in an apple storage room on a farm, we did some of it in a country house Saint Catherine's Court, near Bath, England. It's just that most times, you go into a recording studio, and you can still smell the body odor from Whitesnake, or whichever band was in before you. There's all these gold discs everywhere - it's just not very creative place to be, so we used chose more neutral places.

SOL: Can you tell me a little bit about the mansion? It's owned by Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman's Jane Seymour.

J: You've got to see it for yourself.

SOL: Why would anybody rent out their home to a bunch of rock stars in the first place?

J: Well, normally, she rents it to American corporations so they can meet one another. Maybe she felt like she had had enough of Americans with name tags on wandering around, shaking hands with each other, and wanted something different.

SOL: You guys were way ahead of the new British Invasion we're in the middle of - the third major exodus, after the '60s and the punk/New Wave thing in the '80s. What do you think is responsible for the influx every few years?

J: I don't think the music gets better and worse, I think a few years ago, it was the Smiths, and then it was the Stone Roses. There's always been British bands and some of them have struck a chord with the Americans. We've had a few years of first Nirvana, and then Pearl Jam, and all the Pearl Jam clones coming over to Britain, and I suppose this is the answer.

SOL: You guys had said in another interview that breaking in America was equivalent to climbing Mt. Everest. You guys went to the top first time out, what is it like to now have to live up to that initial success?

J: It doesn't feel like we've been to the top, it feels like one of our songs has. But that was never really Radiohead, it was just four minutes of music. So it's still going on, I think.