As the drummer of Radiohead, Philip Selway's been the backbone of one of rock's most influential and obsessed-over bands, an act that's broken sonic ground on albums such as "OK Computer" and "Kid A" and shocked the music industry with the pay-what-you-want release of 2007's "In Rainbows." But as members such as Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood have struck out on their own, so has Selway, releasing the acoustic-driven "Familial" in 2010 and following it up with last year's stormier "Weatherhouse." After tapping Wilco's Glenn Kotche to play drums on his debut, "Weatherhouse" finds Selway behind the kit himself, unleashing ecstatic rhythms on songs such as "Around Again."

He'll play his first solo U.S. tour dates in April, including the two weekends of the Coachella Music Festival in Indio, California, with his West Coast tour touching down in Portland on April 16 at the Old Church. We talked about his songwriting process, his solo future and yes, Radiohead's next album.

Where am I catching you today?

Philip Selway: I'm back at home in Oxford, just outside Oxford, in the UK.

It must be pretty late there, thanks for doing this call. You did an interview recently talking about how you didn't want to avoid the Radiohead sound with "Weatherhouse." A song like "Around Again" reminds me of "How to Disappear Completely." Was there a sense with some of this material of wanting to go back to territory you'd explored before?

PS: I suppose it was more a case of, if things came up... I was much more willing to embrace it this time around. on "Familial," I really didn't want to go there. As I was doing it outside of Radiohead, I really felt that I wanted to establish it in its own right. One of the things with "Weatherhouse" is I'm drumming on the record, so that's very much an identifiable Radiohead voice there. I felt more at ease with doing that.

What's the starting point for you in songwriting? Are you at your guitar, or working on a melody?

PS: Probably sitting at the guitar and melodies will come. Then the lyrics come a long way down the line for me. I think initially there will be some lines will just fall into place, and you have sounds of words that you'd like in the songs. But, say, for "Weatherhouse," the bulk of the lyrics were written once we'd recorded all the arrangements on the songs. That was a nice place to be, actually. You know the kind of the context that those words are going to be in. And so I think that influences what you do, how you write them.

Having done two solo albums now, do you feel satisfied or are you realizing, "Oh, I have more to do?"

PS: It make sense continuing to do it if you've got the songs coming along. And that's kind of what drives it. At the moment I've still got material coming through, what I hope will be another record.

You did an interview to talk about "The Bends" turning 20 recently. Radiohead's never seemed like a nostalgic band -- does an anniversary like that mean something to you and to the band?

PS: We reflect on it in that way... you start thinking about, O.K., we're coming up to 30 years as a band. I think one of the strengths of a band is to make sense of actually continuing and make it worthwhile. You're thinking what's next for it, or where do you want to take it next. And is that valid, does that still have life to it? There's an awful lot of sentimentality about that (laughs). After how long it's been going, it's about where it's bound to be going next, I think.

I should ask you how recording sessions and plans for the new album are coming.

PS: It's all coming along, we're working away at it, we've been in the studio this week. We're just shaping new ideas. Seeing where that leads at the moment.

The band has been very forward-thinking in the way albums have been released, whether it was the way you did "In Rainbows" or Thom Yorke using BitTorrent to put out his new solo album. Are you starting to think about how you might do that this time?

PS: I think with every record that we do, I think we just have to wait till we, A, see if we've got a record, see what that record is like, and then you do what's kind of the most appropriate thing in relation to what's happening. Things change so rapidly, don't they? Those are the decisions we'll make when we've finished the record.

I want to ask you a more obscure Radiohead question. The song "These Are My Twisted Words" went online in 2009, and there was an attached file that mentioned a "Wall of Ice" EP. Was that a hoax or was that a real thing Radiohead was working on at the time?

PS: Um, I can't even remember that to be honest with you (laughs). So, yeah, I couldn't tell you.

With "The King of Limbs" in 2011, that seemed like it was the first Radiohead album to come out without a lot of b-sides or extra tracks. Was there other material in the works or was that album what you had at the time?

PS: That's what we had completed at the time. So, no, nothing else from those sessions. Material was coming together when we went out and did the live set up so we did a single, double-sided single, which had "Daily Mail" and "Staircase" on there. That came out very much from what we were doing live and how we were approaching that. No, "King of Limbs" was very self-contained in that respect.

You've never been shy with new technology. Are there any new musical tools you're excited about at the moment?

PS: One thing that I've really grown to love, it's something that's very central to my own live set-up -- it's a MIDI controller called a Xylosynth. It basically looks like a marimba. When you've kind of got all those different samples, being able to play them in real time and make much more of a performance of it, I think it makes you think about putting those elements together. I found that very exciting and it's been very central to how we put together the live show for "Weatherhouse" as well.

On another note, there was an interview with you where you mentioned going to see the "Guardians of the Galaxy" movie. (Selway laughs) I'm curious if you're a Marvel Comics fan and if you are going to see the new "Avengers"?

PS: (Laughs) Actually, I have to admit, that is my kids, who are much more, you know, comic enthusiasts. As the tag-along dad, I do end up going on to Comic-Con. Which I never expected to do. I will probably will go and see it, I will probably be taken along by my son.

Philip Selway, the Old Church, Thursday, April 16, 8:30 p.m. doors, 9 p.m. show. all ages.