Phil Selway on Talkhouse Podcast

Phil Selway and Dave Rowntree of Blur, drummers in two enormous British bands, turn out to be only passing acquaintances, and are at ease at once. Both have made solo records, and they talk about the anxiety of stepping out from behind a band. Rowntree asks early on what happens if it turns out to be rubbish. His own record was made during the pandemic with a producer, after a career that has also taken in flying, law, elected politics and composing for the screen.

Being signed in 1991, Selway says, brought an immediate panic that he now had to be a proper drummer and a proper musician, and it felt like an uphill struggle. He put everything into the drumming and let the songwriting go. It came back gradually as something he did in downtime, to remind himself he had a musical voice outside the band, and only became an album once enough material had quietly piled up.