Phil Selway tells Rhythm how he learnt to front a band

Phil Selway has told Rhythm what it was like to step out from behind the drums. The interview, published on MusicRadar on 7 July, was done last winter at Zildjian's UK offices, while Radiohead were still keeping The King of Limbs secret.

He began writing songs at 14 or 15, when he started drumming, and stopped once Radiohead began, because Thom Yorke wrote so much. Ideas came back seven or eight years ago. When he decided to make a record he was approaching 40, and the songs felt too personal for the band.

Most of Familial was recorded in a fortnight at Radiohead's studio outside Oxford, with Ian Davenport producing. The players were Lisa Germano, Sebastian Steinberg and Wilco's Glenn Kotche and Pat Sansone, whom he met on the 7 Worlds Collide project in 2008. Selway could hear a drum part for only one song, “A Simple Life”, and thought the record might have no drums at all until he watched Kotche at work on “Ties That Bind Us”. Kotche blew into the shells as he played, so that the heads rose.

You'll see him sat there playing a kit with a tube coming out of his mouth.

Phil Selway¹

Letting people name their price for In Rainbows was a bit of fun, he says, never meant as a model for the business.

We were accused of devaluing music but we were putting the question back on the people who wanted to listen - what value do you place on it?

Phil Selway¹

His first show of his own songs was with Germano in Turin at Easter 2010. Out front he had to learn the pedals, the tuning, how to keep his guitar plugged in and what to say between songs.

It felt a very uncomfortable place to be. It's been a very steep learning curve this year.

Phil Selway¹

At Bestival someone in the crowd called him a twat and shouted for “Idioteque”. Which I didn't. It's been a lot easier since the album has been out. It's not a Radiohead show.¹