Philip Selway

Philip James Selway (born 23 May 1967) is an English musician and the drummer of the rock band Radiohead. He combines rock drumming with electronic percussion. Selway was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Radiohead in 2019.

In 2010, Selway released his debut solo album, Familial, comprising folk music. It was followed by Weatherhouse in 2014 and Strange Dance in 2023. He also composed the soundtrack for the 2017 film Let Me Go. In 2023, Selway played drums with the band Lanterns on the Lake.

Early life
Selway was born on 23 May, 1967, in Abingdon, Berkshire. He started learning to play drums and guitar at the age of 15 for "the social cachet and love of music". His earliest influences were Joy Division, the Clash and the Velvet Underground.

The members of Radiohead met while attending Abingdon School, a private school for boys. Selway, along with the guitarist Ed O'Brien, was in the year above the singer, Thom Yorke, and the bassist, Colin Greenwood, and three years above Colin's brother, the multi-instrumentalist Jonny Greenwood. In 1985, they formed, the name referring to their usual rehearsal day in the school's music room.

After Abingdon, Selway studied English and history at Liverpool Polytechnic. He also worked as a TEFL teacher, a copyeditor, and as a drummer in pit bands for touring musicals.

Radiohead
In 1991, On a Friday signed a recording contract with EMI and changed their name to Radiohead. They found early success with their 1992 single "Creep". Their third album, OK Computer (1997), brought them international fame and is often acclaimed as one of the best albums of all time. With their fourth album, Kid A (2000), Radiohead began integrating drum machines and other electronic percussion into their music. Selway said this widened his options and pushed him to create new dynamics, enabling him to express himself more creatively. Describing the process of arranging electronic tracks such as "Idioteque" for live performance, he said: "Trying to give that sense of the electronic in the piece but doing it through your 'normal' instrument playing — that naturally develops your own musical voice ... Performing those songs live definitely affected how I sounded and how I would approach drum parts."

Since 2011, Radiohead have performed with a second drummer, Clive Deamer. Describing their collaboration during Radiohead's 2012 King of Limbs tour, Selway said: "One [of us] played in the traditional way, the other almost mimicked a drum machine. It was push-and-pull, like kids at play, really interesting." Selway contributed drums to "Impossible Knots" on Yorke's third solo album, Anima (2019). In 2019, Selway testified at an inquest into the 2012 stage collapse that killed Radiohead's drum technician, Scott Johnson.

By 2011, Radiohead had sold more than 30 million albums worldwide. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2019. In a speech at the induction ceremony, Selway said: "We may not be the greatest musicians around and we're certainly not the most media-friendly of bands. But we have become very adept at being Radiohead. And when that connects with people, it feels amazing." In 2008, Mojo wrote that Selway and Colin Greenwood were "surely the most inventive rhythm section working close to the rock mainstream". In the same year, Gigwise named Selway the 26th-greatest drummer of all time, praising his "mathematical precision".

Solo work
Selway wrote songs as a teenager, but concentrated on drumming after forming Radiohead. He began writing again later in life, but decided the songs had a distinct character that did not fit Radiohead. Selway's debut solo album, Familial, was released on 30 August 2010. It features Selway on acoustic guitar and vocals, and performances from the Wilco members Glenn Kotche and Pat Sansone and the 7 Worlds Collide artists Lisa Germano and Sebastian Steinberg. Pitchfork described it as a collection of "hushed" folk songs in the tradition of Nick Drake. Selway began a solo tour in 2011. On 25 July, he released an EP, Running Blind, comprising songs left off Familial rerecorded with a full band.

Selway's second solo album, Weatherhouse, was released on 6 October 2014, featuring more ambitious instrumentation and electronic elements. In 2017, Selway composed the score for the feature film Let Me Go, directed by Polly Steele. His third solo album, Strange Dance, was released on 24 February 2023. He chose not to drum on the album, finding he was out of practice and "not in the right mindset", and enlisted the Italian drummer Valentina Magaletti. He began a European tour that year.

Selway contributed a cover of the Nick Drake song "Fly" to The Endless Coloured Ways – The Songs of Nick Drake, a tribute album featuring various artists released on 7 July, 2023. Selway described Drake as an influence on his songwriting, and said: "If I had to shrink my record collection to just one artist, then that would be Nick Drake ... Nick Drake is an artist that I feel speaks to me and for me." On 8 December, Selway released a live album, Live at Evolution Studios, recorded with the string quartet Elysian Collective and the percussionist Chris Vatalaro in Evolution Studios, Oxford.

Other work
Selway is a supporter of the emotional support charity Samaritans, with which he became involved while a university student. He volunteered as a telephone listener for years, including at the height of Radiohead's success, and said this "probably kept my sanity in that period". He is also an ambassador for Independent Venue Week, an initiative that promotes small music venues. In 2014, Selway and O'Brien signed an open letter protesting a ban on guitars in British prisons and stating that music was important for rehabilitation.

Selway performed with the band Dive Dive in March 2005. For the 2005 film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Selway appeared as part of the wizard rock band Weird Sisters with the Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, Jarvis Cocker and Steve Mackey of Pulp, Steven Claydon of Add N to (X), and Jason Buckle of All Seeing I.

Selway toured and recorded with the New Zealand songwriter Neil Finn as part of the 7 Worlds Collide project. He drummed on their 2001 live album and provided drums, guitar and vocals on their 2009 studio album The Sun Came Out, for which he also wrote two tracks. Selway joined as a drummer, but was encouraged by Finn to contribute his own material. It was the first record for which Selway wrote songs and sang.

Selway appears on "Rest on the Rock" and "Out of Light" on the album Before the Ruin by Roddy Woomble, Kris Drever, and John McCusker. He played drums and percussion on the fifth album by Lanterns on the Lake, Versions of Us (2023), after the departure of their previous drummer, Ol Ketteringham. According to the songwriter, Hazel Wilde, Selway helped them create a "whole other version" of the album and restored their confidence in the songs.

Personal life
Selway and his wife, Cait, have three sons and a daughter. Selway's mother Thea died in May 2006; Radiohead cancelled a concert in Amsterdam so that Selway could carry out his family duties. They returned to Amsterdam in August to play the missed show. Radiohead's 2007 album In Rainbows was dedicated to Thea Selway. As of February 2023, Selway had recently moved to London.