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Providing the beats behind Radiohead, Phil Selway has enjoyed a level of acclaim few bands ever dream of. Emerging as the brightest and most daring of the alternative rock bands of '90s Britain, Radiohead pushed musical boundaries even as they shook up the music industry with the pay-what-you-want release of In Rainbows.

"I think that was something we did at the time because we felt it was an exciting way to release a record," says Phil looking back.

"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 Selway

"People were saying, 'Is this the business model for music now?' We'd never intended that. It was just a bit of fun. 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?"

As someone used to filling stadiums with epic rock songs, Phil aimed for the opposite end of the musical spectrum for his solo debut, Familial. It's an intensely personal album of quiet introspection, full of haunting melodies.

Rhythm met up with the multi-talented Mr Selway last winter at Zildjian's UK headquarters just as Radiohead were working on newest album The King Of Limbs, which was still totally hush-hush.

Why did you decide to make your own album?

"When I first started drumming, when I was 14 or 15, I started writing songs. I wrote for a couple of years but when we started Radiohead it became very apparent quite quickly that I just wanted to concentrate on the drumming.

Radiohead circa 1996 © Dennis Kleiman/Retna Ltd./Corbis

"In Thom [Yorke] you've got somebody who is a very prolific songwriter and that seemed to be the material that really suited what we were doing as the five of us. Songwriting went on a backburner for me for a good 15 years. Seven or eight years ago musical ideas started coming through and they gathered momentum and got to this critical mass about three or four years ago.

"I thought, 'I've actually got a collection of songs here.' They weren't finished, the lyrical content was scant and I didn't know if I could sing at that point. They felt like they had a very distinct character and very much my personality in them so it didn't feel like appropriate material for Radiohead.

"I suppose at that point I made the decision to make a record. I was approaching 40 as well, so you're going through the list of things you haven't done yet. That was quite high on there, actually. So it seemed quite a natural thing.

"Though I've been with Radiohead for a couple of decades and a big part of that songwriting/arranging process, actually being at that point where you're the voice at the centre of it, there was a lot to learn. I felt like a late starter, having to learn certain things from the ground up but it was very exciting."

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