[recording starts here]
John Schaefer: This is soundcheck. I'm John Schaefer.
John Schaefer: Running Blind - it is the title track to Philip Selway's newly released EP. But not too many people are questioning Selway's musical vision. It has been sharpened by more than two decades as the drummer from Radiohead. We will talk to Philip Selway in a moment about striking out on his own.
John Schaefer: But first he is going to play something for us live in the studio. From his debut solo album Familial this is Philip Selway with By Some Miracle live on Soundcheck.
[cut]
John Schaefer: That is called By Some Miracle live performance by Philip Selway as you probably know better as "The Drummer" from Radiohead.
John Schaefer: Does everyone in the band sing the falsetto thing? Is that part of being in the group?
Philip Selway: That was, that was the audition, falsetto. [chuckling]
John Schaefer: Clear something up for me. Radiohead fans know you as Phil Selway, but you are Philip Selway on the records, on your own records. Is that an intentional kind of distinction you are making?
Philip Selway: My stage name! [laughing]
John Schaefer: Your "nom de disc" as it were
John Schaefer: The album Familial had you know a full complement of songs, but you, apparently, wrote more that would fit on the CD and thus we had this Running Blind EP. How did you decide, you know, what would make it on to the CD? I mean did this four just seem like outliers somehow? Did they have a different sound
Philip Selway: They did. In someways there are some of the tracks on the EP that I thought were kind of front runners for the record as I was making it. But then, I think the, you know, the character of the record was very much, um, kind of a pillow talk, late night record and these tracks just, for me, didn't really fit in with that. So, but a lot of work had gone into them so, and they held together as an EP in they own right.
John Schaefer: Both Familial the full length and Running Blind the new EP. Have more of a, I guess, kind of a folk sound. I mean, people hear acoustic guitar and someone singing and they think folk songs. Maybe there was a time when the word folktronica was being thrown at people like Juana Molina and the band Tunng and people like that. Were you listening to that scene?
Philip Selway: Oh absolutely. Juana Molina in particular. The album, a few ago, Son I thought was amazing, what she was doing with all the looping…it was so distinctive to her at the time . So it was things like that Juana Molina, also people like Will Holden, Tunng as well. So actually the live band that I have with me when I'm playing at the moment also, someone who is playing in that, Arden who is a solo artist in his own right, he is very much a part of all that and err. So that is where I felt was a good home for my material at the time.
John Schaefer: Did you know that while you were writing the songs or is it sort of in retrospect, oh I must of been in that place when I wrote this?
Philip Selway: Do you know what? I kind of didn't know what I was trying to do while I was writing it! I was just going through that whole process of learning how to, do the compile article, in my own right…
John Schaefer: Right.
Philip Selway: Learning if I could actually sing them and that kind of thing. Yea I suppose it was there in the background, that was something very much, when I got to the end I was thinking agh I can tell what I was listening to.
John Schaefer: So we can hear you singing and playing guitar on the record, we don't hear you drumming. We do hear Glenn Kotche, who these days plays drums for Wilco, but is also, you know, an extraordinary percussionist in his own right…
Philip Selway: Absolutely.
John Schaefer: What was it like for you to cede control of that part of the band?
Philip Selway: Very easy actually. When you are working with Glenn, he is just an amazing player. And actually, for me as the songs were coming together I couldn't hear drum parts which was slightly worrying for me.
John Schaefer: [laughing]
Philip Selway: So for me to see what Glenn brought to it and how he approached it was a completely different approach to something that I would of taken. And it is just so in keeping with the music.
John Schaefer: So we are talking with Phil Selway about two things: the new Running Blind EP is out now and the solo debut Familial was released in August of last year. Radiohead is performing September 28th and 29th at the Roseland Ballroom in New York and you guys also have a date with Stephen Colbert on Monday night.
Philip Selway: We do yea.
John Schaefer: Something that will be the full band. But right now just Phil and his guitar playing for us here in the Soundcheck studio. What Goes Around is one of those four songs that is on the new EP .
Philip Selway: It is but the tuning I've got on this guitar is, I've just looked, it is going to be the Witching Hour i'm afraid.
John Schaefer: Ahh, OK.
Philip Selway: But yes What Goes Around is on the EP.
John Schaefer: Maybe we do that later. But this guitar is tuned up for The Witching Hour. Let's here The Witching Hour, it is Philip Selway Live on Soundcheck.
[cut]
John Schaefer: Philip Selway Live on Soundcheck with The Witching Hour. A version of that is on his debut solo record called Familial and he has the new EP called Running Blind out as well.
John Schaefer: Phil, did you play guitar as a kid?
Philip Selway: Not, not as such, no. I was a bit obsessed with drums really. I played a little bit but no it was drums that were something.
John Schaefer: At what point did you start writing songs, singing, playing guitar, all of this stuff.
Philip Selway: On my 30th birthday, which for me, sadly, is a long time ago. The rest of the band actually bought me a guitar.
John Schaefer: Really!
Philip Selway: I don't know if it was saying something about my drumming.
John Schaefer: [laughing]
Philip Selway: They bought me a guitar and that was really the start of it.
John Schaefer: Does the success of Radiohead give you a kind of cushion to go out and, you know, try something completely different or does it actually, you know, set the bar so high that it can be actually more difficult, to try and do something like this.
Philip Selway: Erm, it is a Yes and No to that one. It is….I suppose I have learnt so much from having been in Radiohead for such a long time and fortunate enough that when I have released something I suppose more people have been interested than necessarily would have been. But along with that, you know, we have…I suppose at the back of my mind there is that benchmark of Radiohead, which is no bad thing to have over your head really. But yea a bit of both.
John Schaefer: So what does it do to the group dynamic, Thom had his solo record, Jonny Greenwood a very successful career doing film scores and orchestral music, you have done this. Does it change the songwriting process when the five of you come back together.
Philip Selway: I suppose, you will always learn something musically, you will always extend yourself musically when you do stuff outside the band. In terms of how we work, I mean, not necessarily, I don't think it has changed the dynamic in that way. We always try and change the method from record to record anyway, but no that hasn't altered the dynamic. In some ways I think it allows the natural dynamic of the band more space to breath.
John Schaefer: So it isn't the case that the door opens, the drummer walks in and says "Hey guys I've written a song"?
Philip Selway: [laughing] I deliberately avoided that one.
John Schaefer: But Philip Selway has written songs and has recorded them on the album Familial and on the EP Running Blind. Now is this the guitar that is tuned up for What Goes Around?
Philip Selway: I reason so. I think we could be in luck.
John Schaefer: OK let's hear another live performance from Phil Selway on Soundcheck.
[cut]
John Schaefer: Phil Selway. What Goes Around. That is on his newly released EP Running Blind, but a live solo version on guitar, Philip Selway on Soundcheck.
John Schaefer: Phil we were talking earlier in the programme about marking the 20th anniversary of Nirvana's Nevermind. That album came out just as you guys were preparing the first Radiohead record.
Philip Selway: Actually that record came out, it would of been '91 and that was the time when we were signed. 'cos at the time I think EMI were looking for their answer to Nirvana.
John Schaefer: Really!
Philip Selway: Possibly.
John Schaefer: So it did have an impact on your side of the Atlantic as well.
Philip Selway: Oh absolutely it was huge, it was huge absolutely huge. And then we didn't quite turn into Nirvana but they stuck with us anyway.
John Schaefer: You turned into something else and that something else has turned out to be one of the most Important Rock Bands of recent times. The group Radiohead is playing at Roseland Ballroom on September 28th and 29th and doing a show with Stephen Colbert on the Colbert Report comedy central Monday night. Philip Selway's Running Blind EP is out now on None Such Records and Phil it has been great having you here with us.
Philip Selway: Thank you John, thanks for having me
[recording ends]