Radiohead’s Philip Selway discusses his favourite drummers
Since the mid-1980s, a time when they performed under the initial name On A Friday, Radiohead has carved one of the most impressive and seminal journeys in the history of rock music. From their grunge-informed period of the mid-1990s, through the Aphex Twin-infused albums at the turn of the century, to the breathtaking A Moon Shaped Pool, the Oxford-born assemblage has always found a way to keep their sound fresh and inspiring.
After releasing A Moon Shaped Pool in 2016, Radiohead embarked on their final touring campaign before announcing an indefinite hiatus in 2018. The members have since dispersed to work on respective solo endeavours, with Jonny Greenwood continuing to assert a cinematic edge with his breathtaking film scores. Most notably, he reunited with Thom Yorke in 2020 to establish The Smile, a side project featuring Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner.
Meanwhile, Radiohead’s drummer Philip Selway has been working on a solo project of his own. On February 24th, he will release his third studio album as a solo artist, Strange Dance. The album has been previewed with three singles so far and promises to be one of the stand-out records of 2023.
In recent weeks, Selway has dropped mild hints at a potential Radiohead reunion. “We’re going to get together at the start of [2023],” he told Spin. “And I’m sure we’re going to start looking at other ideas for what comes next.”
During a recent interview with Far Out, Selway elaborated after being asked what he might bring to the table at said “get-together” and explained: “Going into a Radiohead meeting, it’s probably best to go in with an open mind – that’s how I go in there with them,” he said. “I would love for us to – if it works for everybody and we’re doing it for the right reasons – make music together again in one form or another. Beyond that, I can’t really say at the moment, but it’s a very important musical relationship to me and to all of us. I think, also, it’s been good taking some time for other projects as well.”
For now, it seems that Radiohead fans will have to wait a little longer for solid news on a reunion. But in the meantime, Selway has offered us some interesting insight into his drumming background and identified some of his favourite beat-keepers. “I guess the first one would have been Stewart Copeland of The Police,” Selway exclusively told Far Out of his early drumming hero. “I’m still dazzled by what he’s done over the years. He just had that kind of complexity in there and this drive, a real energy to what he was doing.”
“I got into music around that new-wave era, so just after punk,” he added. “So it was very much drummers from that period, people like Dave Ruffy from The Ruts, Stephen Morris from Joy Division and New Order. That’s really what influenced me at the time.”
Later, as Selway began to perform with Radiohead, he became increasingly inspired by those he worked alongside. “Clive Deamer in Radiohead! I’ve long loved his drumming,” Selway beamed. “When we were looking to expand the drumming arsenal in the live stuff for Radiohead, we approached him and asked him if he would and [I remember] being completely made up when he agreed to do it”.
“Glen Kochi from Wilco and Valentina Magaletti, who’s just done all the drumming for me on Strange Dance,” he added to the list. “I’m very lucky with the drummers I’ve got to work with!”
Later in the interview, Selway also singled out a specific song that inspired him to pick up the sticks. “Killing Joke, a song of theirs called ‘Follow the Leaders’ and the drumming on that – shamefully, I don’t know the name of the drummer in Killing Joke [Paul Ferguson] – but that was a big inspiration too, that song made me want to play the drums actually,” he said.
Naturally, Selway’s head was swirling with the myriad drummers to have touched his soul over the years. When asked who he’d pick if he could work with any late legend, he was reminded of The Rolling Stones’ founding drummer, Charlie Watts. “I would love to have done some kind of drumming along with Charlie Watts, another one of my idols,” Selway replied. “I was very lucky to get to drum for Ringo Starr at one point as well, which was because I’d been doing an interview with him in New York, and he was doing a show that evening. He very kindly invited me to go along and drum for him on a couple of songs. That was just mind-blowing, sitting down behind Ringo’s kit and him out front doing his thing”.
“It was one of those bizarre and wonderful twists and turns that life can take sometimes,” he added humbly.
Watch Philip Selway drum for Ringo Starr at New York City’s Beacon Theatre in 2017 below.
