Radiohead’s Philip Selway says band has ‘collective desire’ to make new music

Radiohead drummer Philip Selway has issued a promising update on the band’s future, explaining that there is a “collective desire” for the group to make new music.

It comes after Selway said earlier this month that the group was set for an imminent meeting where they would discuss their next steps.

Frontman Thom Yorke and guitarist Jonny Greenwood are currently occupied with their side project The Smile, but fans have noted that 2023 marks the 20th anniversary of their sixth full-length record Hail To The Thief.

The Oxford band’s ninth and most recent studio album, A Moon Shaped Pool, was released back in 2016. Thom Yorke and co. last performed live together in the summer of 2018, per Setlist.FM.

Speaking to NME in a new interview, Selway explained that the group have now held that aforementioned meeting, which confirmed there is a fresh desire to record together once again.

“We have got together and we’re talking about future plans, but in the immediate future we’ve all got other projects which we’d all like to see through properly,” Selway told NME.

“There’s a collective desire to make music in some form or other amongst the five of us. We all really value that musical relationship, and that’s been there for 38 years. It remains really important to us.”

Asked about a potential new direction for the group, Selway replied: “We wouldn’t know anything on that score until we’re all in a room together, and it probably doesn’t have any firm direction until we’re quite a way into it.

“The short answer to that is: ‘to be confirmed’. It’s just about finding that scenario when a group of musicians are all of a mind and firing on all cylinders. That is my dream scenario – to be in that spot. That’s my only aspiration.”

Last summer, guitarist Ed O’Brien spoke about when the band could return. “There’s no Radiohead at the moment,” he told The Line-Up Podcast (via NME). “It might happen, but the other thing is… it might not. And does that matter?

“There’s a truth to what we do. So we’re not going to be one of those bands that gets together for the big payday.”

Radiohead released KID A MNESIA – a triple album project celebrating their Kid A [2000] and Amnesiac [2001] LPs – back in 2021, as well as an extra disc of rarities and B-sides titled Kid Amnesiae.

Meanwhile, Selway is due to release a new solo album called Strange Dance next month.