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Interviews: Exclusive The Subways Q+A: Billy Lunn

The Subways frontman Billy Lunn talks exclusively to Rock Sound about the band's nearly completed third album and his desire to get back on the road.

Since The Subways wrapped up touring commitments in the Summer of 2010 they have been hard at work writing their third album and in the next few weeks the band will enter the studio with producer Stephen Street to record the last six songs needed for the release.

With a Summertime unveiling looking increasingly likely Rock Sound thought it would be a good time to pick up the blower and get on the Billy Lunn hotline. Read below for the conversation with the singer/guitarist and keep an eye on the band's PledgeMusic page for updates and whiffs of new music.

Talk us through what the new record sounds like; it’s been quiet from The Subways for a while now?
“Yeah we have a habit of going quiet. We like to take our time, not rush anything and get twelve songs that we are happy with and mean a lot to us. Since we finished touring last Summer we’ve been writing and we’re currently in the process of putting the final songs on the record down with Stephen. Overall the songs sound punky and poppy, but definitely not pop-punk, we’ve been listening to a lot of Future Of The Left, Biffy Clyro and Queens Of The Stone Age alongside Kylie Minogue, Lady Gaga and Britney Spears. We’re marrying our love for pop and rock and hoping everyone likes it.”

Did you demo the album out in a studio?
“No, before we started demoing ‘All Or Nothing’ we asked Warner's for five grand so we could get a computer, Pro-Tools and some speakers and demo everything ourselves, we now work that way.”

Any friends or guests collaborating or appearing on any new songs?
“Just us, it’s weird because we know a lot of bands that do that, we think it’s awesome and to be honest we’re kinda jealous when we see people guesting on other records but we just don't do it. I don’t know if it’s because we are too shy to ask anyone or whether we are too exclusive to invite anyone else in and share our music. Josh and I are brothers, Charlotte and I went out for eight years and got engaged, broke up yet remain really close so I don’t think it would feel right if we had anyone else involved, anyone else would always be a stranger. We want to do things our way and have no one intruding. Maybe next record we’ll change, but maybe not!”



It’s still surprising that the band survived when you and Charlotte broke up. What did you guys get right when it went wrong for you both personally?
“Ever since we started the band we have not seen ourselves as people we’ve seen each other as part of the band, that’s how we define ourselves and so whatever happened to us personally was automatically part of the art. Charlotte and I knew we’d have to talk about our relationship; obviously there were a lot of mixed feelings going on around the time of our second album when we had broken up. We had been together for so long, in love for so long, but we both knew we had made the right decision. We got on with it and got out there because we knew we were so lucky to be playing guitars for a living, we let nothing get in the way of the music, as difficult as it was at the time.”

What are you talking about on the new album? What are the songs about for you?
“The first album was about whatever mattered to us as young people, ‘All Or Nothing’ was a slight concept record about perseverance and trying to stay positive and this record is us looking around at society then talking about what we love and what we hate about life, popular culture and whatever else. We’ve got a song called ‘We Don’t Need Money To Have A Good Time’ and another called ‘Pop Death’, I find our attitude towards celebrity quite macabre and pornographic so I wrote a song about how we are obsessed with personal destruction and collapse.”

What’s the new track that pulls furthest away from the back catalogue?
“We have a song that sounds a lot like The Maccabees on this album, I came in to practice with a riff in my head and we ended up coming out with a really indie sounding track. We have a song called ‘Rumour’ which has a drop C tuning and is really sludgy, I imagine that will throw people for a second.”



What have you noticed change in music during the year you have been off tour?
“There has been a lot of auto-tuned electro music with female musicians. At first I was in love with the idea but now it’s getting annoying and I love that rock music and bands are getting back out there and getting noticed instead of that stuff. To be honest I’ve been watching the news more than listening to other people’s music though, and that makes the idea of getting back out on tour all the more quenching and exciting.”

When do we see you live again?
“I think we are playing some smaller shows in Summer and touring in Autumn with the big festivals hopefully happening next year. We want people to hear the album and know the words before we start touring again, we love seeing people singing along.”

What do you miss about touring?
“The sheer drug of being onstage. I don’t drink on tour at all as I don’t need it, I go onstage and get the biggest fucking high that anybody could ever give me. It’s incredible to hear people singing words you wrote in your front room, it’s mad and I hope I never get used to it. I want to die in front of our crowd, it would be a perfect death!”

Like Tommy Cooper?
“Yeah, why not. If I can climb on top of a speaker stack and something magnificently destructive happens like a lighting rig collapsing and chopping me in half then I’d be happy with that. Amazing.”

Andrew Kelham