More on: The Subways

The Subways return in 2008 with a new album 'All Or Nothing' this June.

The trio, who emerged in 2005 with their debut 'Young For Eternity', have had a stressful couple of years, in which the band's future was threatened by surgery on frontman Billy Lunn's vocal cords. We sit down with Billy, bassist Charlotte Cooper and drummer Josh Morgan, who tell us the lucky escapes they had with producers before landing their dream man Butch Vig, and their views on today's music scene.

What have been the biggest changes in the band since your debut album?
Billy: I think since we recorded the first album it's been pretty much the same. The dynamic of the band has always been I come up with ideas and take them to these two. Live, we just do our thing, you know? Charlotte and I run across the stage going crazy and Josh just drums his heart out. The biggest change in the band happened when I had my surgery last year. After the surgery, the doctor said I couldn't talk for three weeks, and I couldn't sing for at least three and a half months, and if the surgery went bad I might never speak again, let alone sing. In order to stop going crazy we booked ourselves into a recording studio about a month after the surgery, this time last year. I could say a few words every hour, so we just jammed out for hours on end. When usually in rehearsals I would come up with an idea and pitch it to Charlotte, and then Josh and I would work together. Since the surgery I give them the idea and these guys direct themselves. We're so much more of a functioning unit, split in three, instead of bossy old me telling them what to do! We became more solid individuals.
Charlotte: I think touring changed us as well. When we made the first album we'd been playing a long time, but now we'd been all round the world and we learned how to be a three-piece.
Josh: It's a mixture of things. Another thing is the influence of music. Now we're listening to bands like Mew, when before it would be Nirvana and The Vines. Now we listen to complex bands, like Biffy Clyro, No More Rules. They've given us the confidence to mess around with structures and timings. You can really hear that in songs like 'Girls and Boys', when in reality it doesn't make much sense - it's certainly not a pop structure, but it's still nice to listen to! It's experimental.

Billy, did the worry about your voice affect the songwriting at all?
Billy: It affected my life in a huge way. There was a period when we thought the band were going to fall apart. We all went a bit crazy for a while! [laughs] I think our love of music pulled it all back together! Our devotion to writing the new songs. We had such belief in the songs we had written on tour. In comparison to a lot of bands who'd released their debut record the same time as us, where they toured for about eight months, we continually toured - we toured until I couldn't sing any more. All we wanted to do was get back and make this record the best we possibly could. Because of me not being able to sing or talk, I'm such a yapper as well -
Charlotte: [laughs] He always says this! They can hear you are!
Billy: It's proved to me now that the things I really love doing, being on stage, being able to talk about things, and the thought of not being able to do these things, totally, totally freaked me out. Because of the frustration of going through that particular time and also because we toured so much and started upping the venues. We've got this great sound engineer, and we just found ourselves getting heavier and heavier - we were loud enough to start with anyway! Probably because of the frustrations of not being able to play and rehearse, and record the record we so desperately wanted to get down, when we did start playing it came out as one big... I won't say mess, as I don't think the album's a mess! It's a well structured piece of art, but it's fucking visceral as well.

What do you think Butch Vig brought to your sound?
Billy: We were a lot more assertive on this album. On the first with Ian Broudie, we were very, very young to be making a record and freaked out by it!
Josh: I didn't know what was going on! I thought it would be like gigging locally - it was so strange.
Billy: So we went into this second record so assertive with what wanted to achieve, not only because we'd been playing these songs for so long on tour, and writing these new songs in soundcheck, and we also had a lot of time to prepare for this record. We had a perspective a lot of bands don't get because they're caught in this whirlwind of four to eight months, then a couple of weeks off, and it's time to start on the new record. To me that's a really unhealthy way to make music. We had a great perspective - we came home, friends, family, there was all that again. We were caring for each other while we were still going a little bit crazy. We had so much to talk about, not only what we had seen, but what we were going through. We got the label to give us five grand to get some computer equipment and some mics and we recorded the demos. We sent the demos over to Butch he was great, and said he knew exactly what he wanted to do with it. All we had to do when we went in the studio with Butch is play. He's so meticulous with his sound - he's a world class producer. We did think at one point, why the hell is Butch Vig working with three skinny English kids! What is going on here?
Josh: He was on the same wavelength as us, so he encouraged honesty really. For instance, Billy's very particular of his guitar sound, and Butch brought some ideas out, but before, a lot of producers we met up with came up with really crap ideas.
Billy: It's really weird, as I remember saying years ago, after the first album, because I've always considered the second album to be so important, way more important than the first - maybe it's because of 'Nevermind', the album where Nirvana really spread their wings - and I said, how perfect would it be to have Butch Vig producing it, and Rich Costey mixing it. That's exactly what happened!

What were the crap ideas you had to put up with?
Billy: Basically, when we had these demos, we came up with a list of producers we really wanted to meet. We met with these producers -
Josh: Don't name them!
Billy: Some of them were really lovely, but their ideas were shit! We were so upset and angry!
Josh: We had the perfect idea of what the songs were about, and Butch understood.
Billy: One guy in particular wanted to put a bridge in one of our songs, like a b verse, in 'Kalifornia'. It's got a heavy, heavy verse - it's not discordant, but there are some chords in there that don't fit the key of the song, and it shifts to these summery chords where everything's laid out, and it's a very nice progression. Yeah, and he wanted to bridge it. We're like, no!
Josh: We weren't supposed to argue! We were meant to keep quiet and walk off, but I couldn't contain myself!
Billy: Like, don't say that about my songs! Don't you dare think you're going to do that to my songs! [laughs] After we went through this list we toyed with the idea of me producing it - thank god we didn't! We called him up and he had just finished Against Me and was looking for a new project. We thought let's go to New York, as it's only six hours away, and get some free food. So we went, sat down, and after five minutes, we were like, you have to make this album!

What do you think your fans are going to make of the new material?
Billy: They'll be surprised. We were reading NME and looking at the what's on the stereo bit, and it said The Subways' album sampler - it said it's actually really good. Really heavy, like Queens Of The Stone Age. The cheeky buggers! The core fan base won't be surprised.
Charlotte: Some of the songs, like 'Girls and Boys and 'Kalifornia' we've been playing live for two years.
Billy: And also because of the sound we've been using live. The people who come to our shows are aware that when we play live we're ten times louder than on the debut record.
Josh: 'Strawberry Blonde' is going to shock people. All of it will!

What do you think of the music scene you've come back to?
Billy: Shit. I think music in Britain is in a really shit place right now. It goes through phases. We've had some great bands, but the Oasis and Blur times have passed.
Josh: We got Arctic Monkeys now, which is a good thing. And Biffy Clyro.
Billy: They've got balls, they've got brains - they're emotive. They give it their all. [exasperated] It sucks, it sucks. I don't want it to suck, I want it to be brilliant.
Charlotte: I think it's just the end of an era, you know? There's been a type of music for a while.
Billy: The main issue is The Libertines. They flipped things on their heads. What they did was half and half - they were the best thing to happen in British music for a long time, and they were also the worst thing that could've happened. Bands thought it was okay just to spit out a bunch of chords, and murmur some half legible lyrics.
Josh: Don't pick on bands! [laughs] Basically, I just want to give some bands a fucking distortion pedal, and say look, here is a dynamic. Here's quiet, here's loud - manipulate the two! Not the same all the way through the fucking song! Where's the chorus come in? The song's finished! Where's the climax? Where's the fucking orgasm? [laughs]
Billy: I'm sorry, this has been building up for so long, as I haven't been able to talk!
Josh: I'm his little follower - when Billy does something, I think, oh I can be naughty as well! It's like on stage when we improvise with a solo, he'll give me a little grin!

Why the decision to put out a free download of 'Girls and Boys' as the first single?
Billy: It's something for the people that are already there.
Charlotte: It's kind of a bridge between the two albums. That song has been known for two years, and it hasn't changed in its structure - we've just made it sound wicked. It's something our fans already know.
Billy: Because they've been waiting for so long, I mean, this won't get played on the radio or anything. It's for those who come to our shows and know the song. It's just a bit of fun!
Charlotte: Because we've been away for so long, it's also a way of saying we are here, and it can get to as many people as possible.
Josh: I'm proud to say that when we've been introducing the song live, we say "this is going to be our next single" and people expect some happy, poppy song. [demonstrates aggressive guitar riff] Every time it brings a smile to my face!

'Girls and Boys' is out as a free download from 25th March, from the band's website below.

Becky Reed

The Subways Official Site