The Subways - Interview - Spring 2008
By: Alex Lee Thomson
A short breather after their hometown performance as part of the Red Stripe Bring It On Back series with Clash magazine, Rockfeedback grabs Hertfordshire trio The Subways for a few post-gigs words on the show, the new album, and the misadventures of the past year.
Vocalists Billy and Charlotte adorn a couch among the madness of the Green Rooms backstage area, Charlotte dwarfed by the arrangement of instruments and cases that fill the room, giving it a hectic thrift store vibe. Billy Lunn is auspiciously as eager as ever, leaning forwards and still panting from the tight performance just moments over. The gig was only the second show this year, the band having played The Sugarmill in Stoke the previous Monday to record the video to their new single 'Girls and Boys'. We admit to not only being among the happy few spectators of that endeavour, but also to grabbing two solid handfuls of Subway butt-cheek on one of Billy's many lunges into the crowd.
"Ah, no worries man", Billy reassures with a cheerful tone, Charlotte recalling why they chose the venue to shoot the comeback video for their new album, "It's always so electric in there, just the vibe of the whole venue is amazing, there's nowhere like it".
The band had spent the past six months on a knife-edge before returning to The Sugarmill, and this; their homecoming gig. The main reason for the delay in their new record was Billy's voice, or lack there of as many months of recovery left the band in unsure waters. We asked Billy how his voice was doing, knowing full well he had just delivered one of the performances of his lifetime.
"It's much, much, much... many times better than it ever was", he secured, with a sense of sincerity, "We went through a really trying time when doctors weren't saying I might never sing again, but might never talk again if the recovery goes bad. So, I couldn't talk for three weeks, Charlotte was looking after me, and when I finally could speak a few select words we went into the rehearsal studio and just totally rocked out musically with no vocals or anything".
"We were so scared..." Billy began, trying to describe the wearisome times which could have ended The Subways at any point, Charlotte continuing, "Yeah, it was pretty... pretty shit. It was a really difficult time. We just tried to make the most of it by, as Billy said, playing instrumentally".
Although there were widespread reports that Billy would be unable to continue, he persevered through his recovery from vocal chord nodules all the while working on new material that would become The Subways next LP, and at last he was ready for the stage again, this return to The Green Room a welcomed arrival. We asked Billy to talk us through the idea of playing a venue like this again.
"Tonight was totally a full-on show but we're quite limited to what we can do because it's such a small size", he compared to the massive arenas that would now usually host their triumphant live experience, progressing, "But that's why it's so good to come back here and get perspective and think, wow, we're so lucky to be playing these big venues."
"I remember standing on that stage, it was quite different to how it is now, but standing there with my acoustic guitar singing songs I'd written in my bedroom. Y'know, all these songs that turned out on the first record, and even some we're using now, started from those acoustic sessions I used to do here", Billy explained as to the importance the venue had to him, with a sense of reminiscent excitement, exclaiming, "I think I probably had my first drink down here as well".
Not that the hometown crowds are necessarily a wholly welcomed experience, "It makes us way more nervous! All my family are here, all of 'em", the band hesitantly expressed, "It's really strange, I come here, I come in for a pint, and it's all "hey Billy, y'alright, how ya doing"... and they'll put a Subways song on the jukebox and I'll get really nervous and run outside. Anywhere else it wouldn't bother me, I'd just keep sipping my beer, but because it's here I get totally freaked out by it because this is like my sanctum".
Realizing that Billy was held together on sheer adrenaline that was at the risk of running on empty at any second, our conversation moved swiftly to the new record. Were there nerves surrounding the new material we asked.
"Oh, yeah. There's a lot of nerves flying around this album" Billy insisted without skipping a beat or trying to mask his anxiety, understandably, being three years since Young For Eternity took over our lives."
The new single 'Girls and Boys' will launch the new record with the appropriate level of passion, although being around for a while, this track will hopefully be the catalyst to a new, much harder sounding, Subways chapter.
"Yeah, there are songs which have been around a bit, like 'California' and 'Girls and Boys'", says Charlotte, "but then there's new tracks like 'Obsession' and 'Always Tomorrow' which people wont really know yet".
On the grounds of new material we applaud the band on their new set highlight, 'Shake Shake', which best pushes, for me, what The Subways are about. Moving. Jumping up and down to music you enjoy should be the function behind any rock song and in that respect, The Subways are new legends, pioneers of an alternative indie pop sound.
"For us, this band is about being live, it's about connection, it's about understanding", Billy once again leaning forward to be sure that every word is articulated right into our voice recorder, "We want to look people in the eye and for them to understand us. That's what every young person wants, isn't it, understanding. Because we're from suburbia, because this town is so tiny, there's no voice I suppose and when we get this opportunity to sing down a microphone it's that opportunity to express yourself. It's really cathartic. And when you have people understanding you and singing the words back at you it's potent, and there's meaning. It's otherworldly".
I got the impression this live aspect is what Billy may have missed the most when he was facing the possibility of ending the Subways, more this than the actual ability to make records. For a band who toured their debut album for so long, playing live is what kept The Subways going both as a band and to their fans, so you can't imagine it ever stopping. "Damn it, we've been falling apart" Billy again offering honesty into how he felt during the bands bleakest moments, having not properly toured since last years Reading and Leeds festivals, a two day stint that drew some of the weekends biggest crowds.
"It's crazy, I remember being in a circle pit for Slipknot a couple of years before and I think it's very fucking rare to have an alternative indie band with a circle pit", Billy gleamed with my disclosure of splitting my lip open during that legendary performance. "Yeah, well at that Stoke gig somebody lost a gold tooth", he affirmed to put things in perspective for us.
As important as the live aspect was I couldn't help but feel as though we'd barely touched on the new record, so we aimed once more... Is it ready? We beamed.
"Finished, totally finished, all the track listing is sorted, and yeah, we're so proud of it", the words from Billy's mouth lighting up our imagination almost instantly. "Because of this time we've had off and because of my vocal issues, and because of being on the road for so long - a lot of bands tour for like eight months and then they go back to writing again - we toured the first record for a minimum of two years, solid, and I think we learned so much, we saw so much, so where a lot of bands have trouble collating tracks we were pulling them out of our sleeve. I had all these lyrical ideas getting put into notebooks, and these pads which were fucking huge, being filled".
His eagerness to respond to the new material was surely a good sign as to the calibre of its importance. This new record wasn't going to be a stopping point to more touring, this was going to be an album that they wanted to make, and so hopefully, one we would want to hear, if for nothing else other than its honesty.
"So much was happening for us to talk about", Billy began, again laying it all down on the table, "like Charlotte and I breaking up, Josh's mental issues and my vocal issues. We were so very close to falling apart".
Both Billy and Charlotte were honest at the bands possibility of ending however their enthusiasm for the new album overpowered any doubts I had as to their ceaseless ability to craft some of the best rock anthems in recent memory. They've overcome troubles that most bands would never get close to experiencing, and have come out it with more passion for their music than ever before. If this new collection of songs fails to live up to its expectations I now have for it, I'd be so very surprised.
"I think that's why the record is just so all or f**king nothing. We were getting on a plane around all this bad news and we just said that we have to put our heads down and make this the best fucking record, and that's why it's going to be called All Or Nothing."
All Or Nothing will be out in June, following new single 'Girls and Boys' and an as yet un-chosen single in May. "Everything we want to say is there, we wore our heart on our sleeve on this album no doubt", Billy said, closing our time together, "we couldn't give a sh*t what people think of it - I'm so proud of this record".
Artists in this article: The Subways