Shortly after his third solo album was released, Philip Selway talked about it to Johnnie Walker on his radio broadcast. The musician mentioned the album’s creation process and his experience as a solo artist in the interview.
Radiohead‘s long-lasting drummer has been utilizing the songs he wrote but didn’t fit the band’s style in his solo projects. The latest of these projects, ‘Strange Dance,’ came out a few days ago with contributions from artists like Adrian Utley of Portishead.
Contributions aside, according to the interview, the writing process was a ‘lone furrow’ for Selway. He wrote the songs on his own with his guitar or piano in a ‘mini-lockdown,’ which he didn’t think would be a shared experience worldwide, as he stated.
The musician expressed his view on the process as follows:
“It really was [lonesome], yes, initially. Um, and you know that’s – I guess that’s just – that part of the process is, well, when you’re starting off on something you do. You do have to go into your own mini-lockdown anyway. So, I was kind of expecting that. Just wasn’t expecting the rest of the world to be doing the same thing at the same time.”
The album’s creation was not the only experience Selway talked about in the interview. He also explained his feelings and opinions on going to the front of the stage from the back as a drummer. The Radiohead drummer said he was happy to be in the center of the stage because he got to be in close contact with the audience and added that he was looking forward to getting more shows like that.
He expressed in the interview:
“You know, when it lands, um, and when you actually feel that it’s connecting with people in the audience, then it’s a fantastic feeling. Um, and it’s been a real learning curve for me this past decade or so of doing it. So, yeah! I’m really looking forward to kind of getting kind of more shows on them about.”
Getting to connect with his audience more by being closer to them on stage is apparently an experience Philip Selway embraces with positive feelings. Although his songwriting process is lonesome, he prefers to interact with his fans and other musicians for the rest of the way.
