The song that inspired Radiohead’s Philip Selway to learn the drums
Although they attained international fame in 1993 following the release of Pablo Honey and its popular lead single, ‘Creep’, Radiohead formed in the mid-1980s. A group of misfits at Abingdon School, Oxfordshire, sought shelter from haughty teachers and oppressive peers in the music room and soon discovered chemistry and a shared taste in music. Among these aspiring musicians was drummer Philip Selway, the rhythmic backbone that propelled Radiohead through nine extraordinary albums.
Following the arrival of A Moon Shaped Pool in 2016, Radiohead embarked on their final touring campaign before announcing an indefinite hiatus in 2018. On amicable terms, the five-piece dispersed to work on respective solo endeavours, with Jonny Greenwood continuing to assert a cinematic edge with his lauded film scores. In 2020, the multi-instrumentalist reunited with Thom Yorke to form The Smile, the successful side project featuring Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner.
Meanwhile, Selway resumed his solo career, releasing his third studio album, Strange Dance, in February 2023. Around the time of this release, Selway joined Far Out to discuss the new album and his most associated instrument: the drums.
Born in 1967, Selway grew up to the beat of artists such as David Bowie and Roxy Music, but like his Radiohead bandmates, he became musically enlightened through the punk and new-wave eras. His affection for the drums had been triggered long before, however.
“Going back a long time, when I was about two or three, my godmother bought me a little toy drum for Christmas, unbeknownst to my parents – they put it in with Santa’s goods, of course,” Selway remembered. “And I found it at about two or three o’clock in the morning, and I woke up the house banging this drum. I very much shied or, you know, shuffled away from drums after that, but it stuck with me.”
During the punk era, Selway’s infatuation with music was ignited, and his eyes returned to the drums. “I was a bit geeky about it; I would get all the drum manufacturer catalogues and that kind of thing and just sit there looking at drums all the time,” he said. “When I really started getting into music, which would have been when I was about 12 – I guess that’s when I started buying records – the thing that really caught me was songwriting at that point. And so I started to try and learn the guitar and started trying to write stuff at the same time as drumming. So the package came all at the same time for me.”
Radiohead took its name from a song by New York’s new wave icons Talking Heads, but the group was equally enamoured with domestic punk and post-punk artists that bridged the ‘70s and ‘80s. The industrial approach of Killing Joke had a particularly profound effect on a young Selway. One particular track from What’s THIS For…! actually inspired Selway to start playing the drums in earnest at age 14.
“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,” Selway said.
Naturally, Selway’s eclectic style was informed by many drummers, past and present. He also listed Stewart Copeland, Stephen Morris, Glen Kochi and the late Charlie Watts among his drumming heroes.
Listen to ‘Follow the Leaders’ by Killing Joke below.
