Inside ‘Junun’: Jonny Greenwood, Shye Ben-Tzur Talk Indian-Music Odyssey
Ever since Rolling Stone Brian Jones stumbled through Morocco in a hash haze, only to come upon the Master Musicians of Jajouka in a small village in 1968, there’s been an interconnectedness between Western rock stars and Eastern mysticism. From the Beatles and the Beach Boys holed up in Rishikesh with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to the Beastie Boys making a “Bodhisattva Vow” and raising consciousness about Tibet, there’s been a quest for enlightenment amid the flash of rock stardom, a search for ancient roots deep inside of modern music.
But when Radiohead‘s Jonny Greenwood recently traveled to Jodhpur to make an album in a 15th-century fort, that passage to India came with a twist. He was collaborating with the Israeli-born, India-based composer Shye Ben-Tzur, and Ben-Tzur had assembled not a classical Indian music ensemble, but one that evoked the myriad faiths, musics, languages and sounds that India has to offer. Sung in Hindi, Hebrew and Urdu, Junun (which signifies “the madness of love”) is credited to Ben-Tzur, Greenwood and the 19-member strong Rajasthan Express, recorded by longtime Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich and filmed in situ by P.T. Anderson. And rather than scanning as a rock star making a “world music” album, the end result is a startling hybrid of devotional Sufi poetry, thundering Nagara drums, and Greenwood’s ondes Martenot and sputtering drum machines, all topped by snaking brass and pigeon coos. We reached out to Ben-Tzur and Greenwood to learn how the two musicians connected across disciplines, the perils of recording an album in India, and why Greenwood felt during the sessions like he was in a Seventies funk band.
How did you become aware of one another’s music? On the outside, it would appear there’s not much overlap between Radiohead and traditional Sufi Qawwali music, so who heard whom first?
Jonny Greenwood: I heard a band playing one of his songs in the Negev desert: I really complimented the band on having written the song, only to find out that it was written by someone else …
Shye Ben-Tzur: After a concert I played in Calcutta, I received a call from a friend who knew Jonny. He told me that Jonny had heard my music, liked it, and wanted to know if I was interested in meeting. I obviously know Radiohead, and was very curious. When we met, it was without any agenda of doing something together. We had some great talks, and an inspiring exchange of ideas regarding different aspects of music.
A year ago I had a concert in London with my group. Jonny joined us as a guest musician. He really merged into the music in the most fabulous way. The songs in Junun correspond with Indian ragas. The aesthetics of most composition are based on melodic movements within the scales. Jonny’s concept of using chords delicately, not imposing harmonic progression and using his guitar more as part of the rhythm was brilliant. Keeping this in mind, every line he brought into the songs was so full of character and always with a twist. After the London concert I felt that working with Jonny would be an opportunity to experiment with this music and allow it to take higher creative flight. Eventually the reality of playing all together in a Jodhpur fort for three weeks was one of the most profound experiences. Making an album was a great excuse to do that.