While Radioheadphiles scratch their heads in bewilderment, not knowing quite what to do with themselves while their heroes take their time recording their next studio album, the band's drummer Phil Selway is not using the break to take any vacation time. Oh, no: The married dad of three is finally releasing his long-awaited solo disc, the gripping Familial, tomorrow — and chatting with UsMagazine.com all about it! See below, where he gives me an update on the project, how Radiohead's next offering is starting to shape up, and if Kate Hudson REALLY made a move on Radiohead singer Thom Yorke at Coachella this past April (don't get TOO excited).
UsMagazine.com: You've been with Radiohead for so long, and this is your first solo album. What was the process of getting it off the ground?
Phil Selway: It was something that has been at the back of my mind for a while. I just got to the point where I'd written enough of these pieces that things have kind of been falling into a bigger body of work, which had very much of my character in it. It didn't feel appropriate to do in Radiohead, and I was about to turn 40, so I think that makes you go through the process of reflection of all your accumulated experiences and any ambitions that you had.
US: Did you sort of break with the other guys? I know Thom was working on his solo stuff. You are still in the studio working on Radiohead stuff, right?
PS: We are. And the way we work is that we work for short, intense periods because we want to have time away. The time away from Radiohead allows us to all go off and do other stuff, which is great. We haven't sat down and discussed and said, 'well, I think it would be really healthy if we all did solo stuff.' I think we all just listened to each other's requests and supported them and tried to make them happen as much as possible.
US: And by the way, when is the next Radiohead record due?
PS: Who knows? We don't know yet. We're still working on it.
US: OK. This record has the same brooding vibe; it's got the darkness to it but very poetic at the same time. How is it different from the stuff that you've done with Radiohead?
PS: I suppose if you're suggesting musically on the whole, Radiohead operates on a much larger picture, if you like. Musically, there is a lot of space and you have these delicate layers, delicate detailed layers all on top of each other, and in the middle of that I suppose there's me, which is a different side of me from what's emerged in Radiohead. It filled something that is identifying me in there, which I don't think would be a very appropriate thing for me to do in Radiohead.
US: Did you find that you wrote the lyrics first or did you write the music?
PS: The music very much came first. Odd words and odd lines would come at the same time as the music, but actually the complete lyrics took a lot more grasping than that. There's as much music in words themselves — if you do them well — as there is with another instrument on there. You just have to find something that ultimately makes sense for you and also something that sits well in the arrangement.
US: Do you like being front and center as opposed being in the back with the drums?
PS: It's something I'm learning about, really. It has its fun moments. It certainly sheds a different light on yourself as well. That whole sense of actually moving on and learning more about yourself, yeah. It's a good process to go through. It's all part of the same grand plan, isn't it? From a performance point of view, it's all stagecraft; it's just learning a different kind of stagecraft.
US: Did you get any pointers from Thom about taking over the singing duties?
PS: Really, no. I think Thom found something that is very appropriate for him. You define your own style, something that is authentically you. You watch Thom or anyone else in the band over the years find that in themselves, I suppose that's what I'm trying to do to become a singer-songwriter.
US: You've been touring a lot to support the disc overseas. Any big Radiohead shows that prepared you for that?
PS: We did Bonnarroo, and that was a very memorable show. It was the longest we ever played in one show. I think it was about just over two-and-a-half hours. At the time it seemed like a mammoth task. I suppose that actually we've done the majority of our touring in the States. When you're touring around, you're in a country for a week at most, and coming to America where you're here for a couple of months at a time and then immerse yourself in that country and all of the different nuances of it, I think that by the end of the tour you feel fairly rooted here.
US: I know I was at Coachella, I thought that was an amazing show, too. That was in April.
PS: That's where we had to follow The Pixies. That raised our heartbeat a little bit.
US: Did you meet Kate Hudson, by the way? I heard she was backstage hitting on Thom — per a lot of stories out there.
PS: Really? No! I missed that and didn't hear about that.
US: That was some story here, I don't know. What are the future plans for the album, tour, everything else you've got going on? What else is up?
PS: After the touring for my stuff finishes at the end of September, then I will throw myself back into Radiohead, working more on material that we are writing at the moment. I would hope to find time and the right situation to come back and do some dates but also look forward to doing some Radiohead dates back here as well.
US: Great. Anything you can tell me about the Radiohead stuff? Obviously we are all dying to know!
PS: That side is so difficult to know until we've finished. It's still all five of us on there and each one is always a reaction to the last record, anyway. It is difficult to know until you’ve actually finished it, until you've made all of your final decisions because it can change quite radically at the drop of a hat.
By Ian Drew for UsMagazine.com. To read more of Ian's blog, click here, and don't forget to follow him on Twitter.
