Radiohead’s Philip Selway Shares Mesmerizing Video for “Check for Signs of Life”

With his new record around the corner, Radiohead drummer Philip Selway has shared the visual supplement for his lead single, “Check For Signs Of Life.” Strange Dance will be released on February 24, but in the meantime, fans have this introspective new video to get lost in. Directed by William Williamson, it features a quartet of dancers and choreographers: Siobhan Davies, Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp, Simone Damberg Würtz and Liam Francis. Watch it below:

Selway said the following about his new video: “The video for ‘Check For Signs Of Life comes from an idea I had to develop a dance piece over a series of songs from Strange Dance. I wanted the piece to explore imagined conversations between future and past selves and to be based around this particular quartet of dancers. The piece has been choreographed by Simone Damberg Würtz and Liam Francis. They both perform in the video alongside Siobhan Davies and Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp.”

Williamson added, “Working closely alongside Philip and choreographers Simone and Liam we set out to explore the complex relationship between future and former self through the medium of contemporary dance. Transcending time and moving through varied emotions, we wanted to create a film that will inspire the audience to hang their own narrative on.  As we rehearsed, the intimacy and fragility of the choreography became so clear I decided to shoot it all in a single take. It meant pulling together the dance, camera and lighting, to communicate a sense of unity and power, which stays focused in the moment.”

This cinematic concoction of strings, brass and synthesized is in tune with some of Selway’s recent projects, a lot of which invovles writing scores and soundtracks for films.

“The scale of it was very deliberate for me, from the outset,” he said. “I wanted the soundscape to be broad and tall but somehow get it to wrap around this intimate vocal at the heart of it”.

About the new record, he said: “One of the things I’ve liked about this record is it’s me as a 55-year-old not trying to hide that fact,” says Selway. “It feels kind of unguarded rather than seeing that aging process as something that needs to be hidden.” And there is a buoyancy and warmth to the record; a sense of optimism and hope. “I wanted it to have that space so if you’re listening to it you can lose yourself in it. Almost like a refuge.”

Photo Credit: Owen Ela