The Sound of the Underground
There's no putting the brakes on The Subways as they take on the world with a potent debut album and passionate live performances. We grab founder and frontman Billy Lunn for an exclusive interview just before the pace really picks up.
Currently on tour with their infectious fusion of bluesy rock riffs, exhilarating punk attitude and powerful melodies, The Subways are hurtling full steam ahead towards rock ‘n' roll greatness. When we talk to the astute and talented Billy Lunn, the punk/pop-addled trio are just gearing up for a three-month gigging frenzy around Australia, the US and the UK. They toured most of last year too, promoting their gutsy debut album, Young For Eternity. But they're far from fazed by the prospect of more days on the road.
“We love playing live, it's what we wake up in the morning for,” says Billy. “I'm looking forward to pulling up into new towns and rocking out!”
This gifted young musician can't help but be excited by a US tour that'll take the band through locations that feature heavily in history's music hall of fame.
“Loads of the music that I've loved over the years has originated there,” he says “From motown in Detroit, to folk in Nashville, to punk rock in New York and R&B in California. It's going to be great to see the places that inspired the music that meant so much to me growing up.”
Billy, and his younger brother Josh (The Subways' thunderous drummer), were exposed to many of these musical influences through a parental music collection that included Smokey Robinson, AC/DC, T. Rex and The Ramones. Later, they embraced the best of punk and rock in the shape of bands such as Oasis, Prodigy, Green Day, and the biggest inspiration of all, Nirvana.
“I remember seeing pictures of Kurt Cobain crowd-surfing and then diving into the drum kit, which apparently dislocated his shoulder,” Billy recalls. “I knew I'd found a hero after seeing his antics in the papers.”
A taste of nirvana
It's beautiful to hear the echoes of Kurt and co. across much of The Subways' music (listen to the booming opening of Young For Eternity and the grinding guitar and Incesticide-friendly harmonies of Another Sense, for example). But The Subways have manipulated their influences and made their own sound, kicking out a unique blend of songs that include everything from bluesy melodies, addictive riffs and acoustic tenderness to thrashing guitar, pogo-friendly jams and infectious vocals that play neatly between Lunn's drum-tight rock articulations and bass player Charlotte Cooper's more feminine undulations.
Charlotte was the key to the ignition that really got The Subways' engines revving. Billy fell head over fret for her when they were still schoolmates. Classically taught to play piano and flute, Charlotte learned to play bass in order to join the two brothers and form The Subways. They were soon gigging in half-empty pubs around London, before getting their big break in 2004 when they won the Glastonbury Festival Unsigned Performers Competition. Michael Eavis loved them and they were invited to play in front of an audience of 10,000 at that year's festival.
Sowing the seeds
Then the train really started rolling. The band toured constantly in the year and a half that followed, building an enthusiastic fan base and a reputation as one the best live acts around. In between, they recorded their cracking debut album with producer Ian ‘Lightning Seeds' Broudie – an enriching creative process for all of them that captured the band's musical diversity and passion, and Billy's maturity as a songwriter and musician.
“We wanted the album to have a certain flow about it, and to portray a journey,” says Billy. “The decision to have I Want To Hear What You Have Got To Say starting off the album was finalised as soon as I'd sung the lyrics for the first time. It's like waking up in the morning and thinking, ‘another day is here and I'm still alive…' while you're opening the curtains to face whatever makes the day.”
Although they had fans with expectations that had been built on the road and through their internet presence, the band were keen to deliver a range of accomplished songs that couldn't all just be neatly pegged as punk or rock, but would rather create some surprises along the way.
We wanted to make each song have its own character, its own colour – and that's emphasised by the way we arranged the album,” says Billy.
“We knew that people thought of us as a rock group, so we loved the idea of the acoustic guitar being the first thing people heard from The Subways' debut album. That's the kind of people we are.”
This journey of discovery for the listener reflects Billy Lunn's own quest to dig deep into his soul and find pieces of himself through the songwriting process.
“I want to be true and genuine to myself, and I think of writing and creating as establishing these hidden sides that we sometimes keep tucked away because of tradition or everyday standards,” he says. “Quite often I uncover things that I'm not necessarily proud of, but I take it or leave it.
It's all part of the colour of life. When you finally understand your flaws, you can strive to become a better person, or accept it and shrug it off.”
Top of the vox
This thoughtful introspection adds depth to The Subways' music and promises greater things to come. And the suspicion that the band has barely scratched the surface of its capabilities is given even greater impetus by the energy and intelligence Billy exhibits when talking about his music. It's heartfelt and captivating. For example, ask him how his VOX gear contributed to the album and there's distinct delight and excitement in his answer.
“The VOX gear I had, in all honesty, helped set the tone of the album,” he enthuses. “We set out to create a diverse bunch of songs that reflected everyday life and the different moods and modes we go through. And the best way to do that was to write content through emotion, not with style – and with the sorts of tones I got off the amps in the studio, it was an easy task for us to grasp.”
“Let's face it, these amps are classics and I think what we really wanted was controlled chaos – a sense of feeling, emotion, passion, but also a sense of intelligence. There were points in some songs, like the climax of Lines Of Light, where Ian wanted to compress the guitars more, but I wanted them to be free. I'm glad I did, because the peaks that we managed to get from that song totally reflected all the notions of why I wrote it.”
He points out that the same gear also encourages this musical liberation on stage – and offers a song from the album, Oh Yeah, as one such example.
“The versatility that I get from my VOX amps on stage really turned that song into a tango of two different personalities,” he says, “On the one hand we had that thick, vibrant sound that makes up the verse and chorus, and on the other we have the distinctive, self-assured clarity of the bridge before the explosion.”
It's clear that Billy's intuition and the band's dedication to their craft helped to make Young For Eternity a sweet combination of youthful angst and energy and musical accomplishment. And the strength of their B-sides is surely a sign of even better things to come. In fact, they've already put down some tracks for that difficult second album, which means it may actually come easy to The Subways. Billy is even considering producing this himself.
Mixin' in the kitchen
“I set up a 16-track mixer in my kitchen during our resting period and we got round to recording the parts we had for the songs we've been writing on the road,” says Billy. “We managed to get four finished and mixed before we had to hop on a plane to do some more shows, but what we're coming out with at the moment is really exciting for us. There are more intricacies to the new songs, but they seem more stark and straightforward, which is something we still can't get our heads around.”
At the moment, much of the action is happening on the stage where they really love to be. So, just why do they love it so much?
“On stage I finally feel like I'm being understood, like I have a voice and people finally want to listen to me,” says Billy candidly. “There's no end to my appreciation on that one.”
But key to their success as a live act is an understanding that appreciation is a two-way track. That, and the whole band tapping into the original emotions that drove them to write in the first place.
“We love our audience and we want to work for them. They go crazy for us, so it's only right that we join in – they're our people, our clan,” he says. “We want to justify every word we sing with the energy and passion of the time when we first wrote the song. When we're on stage, we're reliving those emotions and feelings with every chord and hit of the drum.”
Now that the lights have turned green and The Subways are on the fast track to somewhere, they can look forward to the stages growing bigger and their audiences expanding. But big or small, it's the live thing that matters.
“I love the idea of adapting our playing for those massive stages with loads of people, from the intimacy and atmosphere of 200 people in a tiny bar room,” concludes Billy. “There's nothing quite like having 10,000 people clapping along, but then there's nothing quite like someone who's hot, dirty, squashed and sweaty screaming your lyrics back in your face.”
No matter what stage they're on and no matter how big it is, you can rest assured that VOX will be right there with them, rocking out to The Subways' vibe and basking in the same bright lights.
SOUL MATES
Billy Lunn tells us why VOX really turns him on…
We hear you have a collection of VOX amps. How did you get into VOX?
I love my VOX amps. The first VOX amp I got was a 1960's AC50 with separate head and cab. I had a Crate 30 watt combo back then and really liked the clean channel. I wanted to concentrate solely on one particular channel and have that perfected, running effects and equalisers from a pedal board so that I had full control at my feet. I went into the local music store in Hertford, and just looked around. I remember being pulled in by the character of the lone AC50 because with that cloth pattern at the front it stood out by miles. I asked if I could test it out and the tonal capacity blew me away.
I really felt like I'd found my soulmate.
What are you using at the moment?
I still have that old AC50 with a 2x12 cab. I play it at every show, alongside two AC30CC heads and a separate 2x12 cab. And then I have an AC30 6TB combo, which I use for jamming.
How have you set it up?
I split the signal at my pedal board and run the same effects into two separate amps, the AC50 and the AC30CC, which my tech (Ken Wood) and I have set into two completely contrasting tones. The 50 has a lot more head-room than the 30, so we made that brighter, and put the AC30CC just on the brink of distortion. This makes the lower tones sound really classic and wise, while at the same time making you scared of losing your hearing.
What does it do for your sound?
It gives me the opportunity to be really colourful with all of our songs. On certain songs we mostly focus on either one amp or the other, so on our more punkier numbers we'll have both switched on or have the AC30CC peaking just a little bit more, whereas on the songs where I feel the need to pull back a bit and be more reflective, we go for the clarity of the AC50.
“We love playing live, it's what we wake up in the morning for,” says Billy. “I'm looking forward to pulling up into new towns and rocking out!”
This gifted young musician can't help but be excited by a US tour that'll take the band through locations that feature heavily in history's music hall of fame.
“Loads of the music that I've loved over the years has originated there,” he says “From motown in Detroit, to folk in Nashville, to punk rock in New York and R&B in California. It's going to be great to see the places that inspired the music that meant so much to me growing up.”
Billy, and his younger brother Josh (The Subways' thunderous drummer), were exposed to many of these musical influences through a parental music collection that included Smokey Robinson, AC/DC, T. Rex and The Ramones. Later, they embraced the best of punk and rock in the shape of bands such as Oasis, Prodigy, Green Day, and the biggest inspiration of all, Nirvana.
“I remember seeing pictures of Kurt Cobain crowd-surfing and then diving into the drum kit, which apparently dislocated his shoulder,” Billy recalls. “I knew I'd found a hero after seeing his antics in the papers.”
A taste of nirvana
It's beautiful to hear the echoes of Kurt and co. across much of The Subways' music (listen to the booming opening of Young For Eternity and the grinding guitar and Incesticide-friendly harmonies of Another Sense, for example). But The Subways have manipulated their influences and made their own sound, kicking out a unique blend of songs that include everything from bluesy melodies, addictive riffs and acoustic tenderness to thrashing guitar, pogo-friendly jams and infectious vocals that play neatly between Lunn's drum-tight rock articulations and bass player Charlotte Cooper's more feminine undulations.
Charlotte was the key to the ignition that really got The Subways' engines revving. Billy fell head over fret for her when they were still schoolmates. Classically taught to play piano and flute, Charlotte learned to play bass in order to join the two brothers and form The Subways. They were soon gigging in half-empty pubs around London, before getting their big break in 2004 when they won the Glastonbury Festival Unsigned Performers Competition. Michael Eavis loved them and they were invited to play in front of an audience of 10,000 at that year's festival.
Sowing the seeds
Then the train really started rolling. The band toured constantly in the year and a half that followed, building an enthusiastic fan base and a reputation as one the best live acts around. In between, they recorded their cracking debut album with producer Ian ‘Lightning Seeds' Broudie – an enriching creative process for all of them that captured the band's musical diversity and passion, and Billy's maturity as a songwriter and musician.
“We wanted the album to have a certain flow about it, and to portray a journey,” says Billy. “The decision to have I Want To Hear What You Have Got To Say starting off the album was finalised as soon as I'd sung the lyrics for the first time. It's like waking up in the morning and thinking, ‘another day is here and I'm still alive…' while you're opening the curtains to face whatever makes the day.”
Although they had fans with expectations that had been built on the road and through their internet presence, the band were keen to deliver a range of accomplished songs that couldn't all just be neatly pegged as punk or rock, but would rather create some surprises along the way.
We wanted to make each song have its own character, its own colour – and that's emphasised by the way we arranged the album,” says Billy.
“We knew that people thought of us as a rock group, so we loved the idea of the acoustic guitar being the first thing people heard from The Subways' debut album. That's the kind of people we are.”
This journey of discovery for the listener reflects Billy Lunn's own quest to dig deep into his soul and find pieces of himself through the songwriting process.
“I want to be true and genuine to myself, and I think of writing and creating as establishing these hidden sides that we sometimes keep tucked away because of tradition or everyday standards,” he says. “Quite often I uncover things that I'm not necessarily proud of, but I take it or leave it.
It's all part of the colour of life. When you finally understand your flaws, you can strive to become a better person, or accept it and shrug it off.”
Top of the vox
This thoughtful introspection adds depth to The Subways' music and promises greater things to come. And the suspicion that the band has barely scratched the surface of its capabilities is given even greater impetus by the energy and intelligence Billy exhibits when talking about his music. It's heartfelt and captivating. For example, ask him how his VOX gear contributed to the album and there's distinct delight and excitement in his answer.
“The VOX gear I had, in all honesty, helped set the tone of the album,” he enthuses. “We set out to create a diverse bunch of songs that reflected everyday life and the different moods and modes we go through. And the best way to do that was to write content through emotion, not with style – and with the sorts of tones I got off the amps in the studio, it was an easy task for us to grasp.”
“Let's face it, these amps are classics and I think what we really wanted was controlled chaos – a sense of feeling, emotion, passion, but also a sense of intelligence. There were points in some songs, like the climax of Lines Of Light, where Ian wanted to compress the guitars more, but I wanted them to be free. I'm glad I did, because the peaks that we managed to get from that song totally reflected all the notions of why I wrote it.”
He points out that the same gear also encourages this musical liberation on stage – and offers a song from the album, Oh Yeah, as one such example.
“The versatility that I get from my VOX amps on stage really turned that song into a tango of two different personalities,” he says, “On the one hand we had that thick, vibrant sound that makes up the verse and chorus, and on the other we have the distinctive, self-assured clarity of the bridge before the explosion.”
It's clear that Billy's intuition and the band's dedication to their craft helped to make Young For Eternity a sweet combination of youthful angst and energy and musical accomplishment. And the strength of their B-sides is surely a sign of even better things to come. In fact, they've already put down some tracks for that difficult second album, which means it may actually come easy to The Subways. Billy is even considering producing this himself.
Mixin' in the kitchen
“I set up a 16-track mixer in my kitchen during our resting period and we got round to recording the parts we had for the songs we've been writing on the road,” says Billy. “We managed to get four finished and mixed before we had to hop on a plane to do some more shows, but what we're coming out with at the moment is really exciting for us. There are more intricacies to the new songs, but they seem more stark and straightforward, which is something we still can't get our heads around.”
At the moment, much of the action is happening on the stage where they really love to be. So, just why do they love it so much?
“On stage I finally feel like I'm being understood, like I have a voice and people finally want to listen to me,” says Billy candidly. “There's no end to my appreciation on that one.”
But key to their success as a live act is an understanding that appreciation is a two-way track. That, and the whole band tapping into the original emotions that drove them to write in the first place.
“We love our audience and we want to work for them. They go crazy for us, so it's only right that we join in – they're our people, our clan,” he says. “We want to justify every word we sing with the energy and passion of the time when we first wrote the song. When we're on stage, we're reliving those emotions and feelings with every chord and hit of the drum.”
Now that the lights have turned green and The Subways are on the fast track to somewhere, they can look forward to the stages growing bigger and their audiences expanding. But big or small, it's the live thing that matters.
“I love the idea of adapting our playing for those massive stages with loads of people, from the intimacy and atmosphere of 200 people in a tiny bar room,” concludes Billy. “There's nothing quite like having 10,000 people clapping along, but then there's nothing quite like someone who's hot, dirty, squashed and sweaty screaming your lyrics back in your face.”
No matter what stage they're on and no matter how big it is, you can rest assured that VOX will be right there with them, rocking out to The Subways' vibe and basking in the same bright lights.
SOUL MATES
Billy Lunn tells us why VOX really turns him on…
We hear you have a collection of VOX amps. How did you get into VOX?
I love my VOX amps. The first VOX amp I got was a 1960's AC50 with separate head and cab. I had a Crate 30 watt combo back then and really liked the clean channel. I wanted to concentrate solely on one particular channel and have that perfected, running effects and equalisers from a pedal board so that I had full control at my feet. I went into the local music store in Hertford, and just looked around. I remember being pulled in by the character of the lone AC50 because with that cloth pattern at the front it stood out by miles. I asked if I could test it out and the tonal capacity blew me away.
I really felt like I'd found my soulmate.
What are you using at the moment?
I still have that old AC50 with a 2x12 cab. I play it at every show, alongside two AC30CC heads and a separate 2x12 cab. And then I have an AC30 6TB combo, which I use for jamming.
How have you set it up?
I split the signal at my pedal board and run the same effects into two separate amps, the AC50 and the AC30CC, which my tech (Ken Wood) and I have set into two completely contrasting tones. The 50 has a lot more head-room than the 30, so we made that brighter, and put the AC30CC just on the brink of distortion. This makes the lower tones sound really classic and wise, while at the same time making you scared of losing your hearing.
What does it do for your sound?
It gives me the opportunity to be really colourful with all of our songs. On certain songs we mostly focus on either one amp or the other, so on our more punkier numbers we'll have both switched on or have the AC30CC peaking just a little bit more, whereas on the songs where I feel the need to pull back a bit and be more reflective, we go for the clarity of the AC50.
For more info on The Subways please check out thier website: www.thesubways.net