Head Poets Society - Hot Press meets Philip Selway

It’s a strange fact that Radiohead are simultaneously the most surprising and predictable of musicians. From 2000 onwards, they have been on a mission to destroy from within monolithic concepts of what stadium rock should and should not stand for. They’ve scared the bejaysus out of fans with their horror-show bleeps and blurts, released an album for free back when this was actually revolutionary, and elevated exaggerated grumpiness into something admirable, even noble.

At the same time, they’re hardly spontaneous jesters, thrilling and beguiling with their post-modern japery, and their curve-balls can feel preordained. Was anyone truly surprised when Thom Yorke released a solo LP via Bittorrent recently? Many of us had assumed he’d done something along those lines years ago. Nor can there be much disbelief at guitarist Jonny Greenwood’s extra curricular forays into atonal soundtracks (reinvent yourself as a happy house DJ Jonny and then you’ll have our undivided attention).
Into this tradition of shocking us, but not really, falls Philip Selway, nominally Radiohead’s drummer. Of course, in a band such as Radiohead – where ‘band’ isn’t even the appropriate descriptive really – the drummer isn’t simply the guy manning a high-hat. In fact, Selway’s influence is discernible on some of the group’s most iconic compositions: his tender shuffles give ‘Karma Police’ its dystopian shiver; vast swathes of Kid A – that glorious finger poked in the eye of expectations – are informed by his penchant for feverish percussion patterns and balls-out bonkers song structures.
He’s just released a second solo album Weatherhouse and, as we’ve alluded, it is both surprising and oddly comforting. Surprising because well, who knew one fifth of Radiohead could make such a respectable fist of recording what sounds suspiciously like a proper, full-fat Radiohead album? It might, dare we suggest, even be better than their last official LP, King Of Limbs. Quixotically it’s comforting for the same reason, suggesting that, no matter what afflictions strike the world, every three years or so, a member of Radiohead will put out something Radiohead-esque: it will be dark and wheezy and we will embrace it like a long lost friend.
In person Selway is precisely as you would imagine – that is to say, softly spoken and deeply polite. He’s just back in suburban Oxford, where he’s lived all his life, from a visit to America where his promotional campaign for the new LP included a high-profile live turn on Jimmy Fallon. He was performing with doo-wop aces The Dap Kings and, honestly, was bricking it. If you’re a drummer all your career, adulation can take some getting used to.
“I was nervous,” he admits. “You can tell from my performance. That first verse, it’s in my voice. Ultimately it was fun. The Dap Kings make a big sound – it’s good to be musically challenged.”
If you’ve watched the clip you will know that Selway fully adheres to the Radiohead policy of never, ever smiling in public. Face to face, however, it’s a relief that he is rather more open than his bandmates, who rarely consent to interviews (this journalist recently spent many hours assembling a list of written questions for Jonny Greenwood only to be later told he wouldn’t have time to reply – cheers Jonny!).
He’s a good sport too, happy to tackle a banana-skin query regarding U2 and their recent, internet gobblingly controversial iTunes giveaway of new LP Songs Of Innocence. For the benefit of that one reader who has spent the past six months frozen in carbonite, the collection was made available in conjunction with Apple and uploaded to the accounts of 300 million iTunes customers, without their permission. In the age of Edward Snowden, Wikileaks etc, this struck many as a gesture too far: artists as diverse as Noel Gallagher and Wallis Bird have criticised U2 and Bono himself subsequently apologised for his chutzpah, blaming a bout of ‘megalomania’.
Radiohead were, of course, the first band to discern which way the technological winds were blowing and offer an LP for free. In 2007, they made In Rainbows, that gleefully squidgy mishmash of electronica, dubstep and bedsit pop, available for whatever the customer felt appropriate: you could pony up 50 quid, you could download its 10 tracks for nowt. Many perceive U2 as following in Radiohead’s footsteps – you wonder what Selway makes of the ongoing brouhaha.
“There’s a lot of noise around it isn’t there?” he says. “It seems to have attracted a lot of negative comment. When you’re trying to rethink ways of distributing music, getting it out to people, sometimes you take risks that, in hindsight, you might not be happy with.
“At the time, you jump in with both feet, probably from the best of intentions. Given some time to step back from it, you realise that, actually, it might not be the best way. But, you know, everyone is trying to find new and appropriate ways to get your music out there.”
U2 seemed caught unawares by the controversy their giveaway has engendered. Radiohead had much the same response to the fuss surrounding In Rainbows. They weren’t, says Selway, seeking to shift paradigms or redefine the artist-audience relationship. Given where we were at technologically, it just seemed the sensible course.
“It was an experiment on our part. We were taken aback at the time by the attention it drew – you see it being referred to as a reference point again and again. We were surprised. As I said, you jump in with both feet and hope it’s the appropriate thing to do.”
Before our interview, Hot Press had delved deeply into both of Selway’s solo records (he released his stand-alone debut, Familial, in 2010 ) via-Spotify. Thom Yorke and Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich have come out against the streaming service, pulling their music on the grounds Spotify does not offer decent royalties to young artists. Given their anti-Spotify fervour, it might be considered a surprise Selway is comparatively relaxed about streaming and its impact on music.
“Thom and Nigel have been very present in the debate. I like the platform of Spotify. I listen to a lot more music through it. Also, wanting to work with [record label] Bella Union… I wanted to do justice to a release through them and to the channels that best support what they do.”
It only takes a few minutes in the drummer’s company for some of Radiohead’s monastic aura to fade. Under the reserve, he is dryly humorous, quite normal really. Indeed the way Selway tells it, the entire band – currently mucking around with ideas that may or may not cohere into a new Radiohead LP – are more seat of their pants than fans might think. For instance, their transition from arena-rockers to bleep-happy pop weirdos – begun with Kid A and doubled down on with In Rainbows – was never a long-term strategy. They were making it up as they went along.
“The moment you try to second guess anything you’re in trouble,” he ventures. “With everything we’ve done in Radiohead, there was always a sense the music has to come first. It has to be a genuine representation of where you are at that point. You build everything else on top. With Kid A, there wasn’t a huge amount of choice in our minds other than making a record like that. It felt like the right thing to do at that point. I’m pleased we did – that we followed our gut instincts. We all have our gut instincts and ultimately the smart thing is to listen to them. That’s what helps you make music that connects to people.”
Selway’s songwriter career took shape as his 40th birthday approached. Prior to Radiohead he’d been a budding acoustic singer around Oxford. Fifteen years as sticksman in one of the world’s biggest bands necessitated putting his solo ambitions on the back-burner As he got older, however, he had a sense that unless he did something soon his opportunity to compose his own material would pass forever. So, he locked himself in a studio and wrote and wrote.
“Landmark birthdays make you focus on what you’ve done and what you want to do,” he says. “I had an awareness of ‘wow, I’ve had this at the back of my mind – it’s now or never’. Drumming with Radiohead was brilliant. I have absolutely no complaints on that front. There is a lot of spare time — when you’re touring for instance. I took advantage of that. In the long run, it seems to have worked out positively.”

Weatherhouse is out now.