INTERVIEWING THE SUBWAYS (By Ben Shafran)

Still promoting their debut album Young For Eternity and touring every corner of the globe, The Subways' lead singer Billy Lunn took time to answer some of our questions about the future of the band and their relationship to Reading Festival. As always, the interview was conducted with the help of our friends at ReadingFestival.org.

You have been touring virtually non-stop for about 3 years. That must be exhausting, how do you cope?

We feed from touring. That’s our life source, it’s the only thing we can’t live without. The day we stop playing is the day that my arms, legs and head are blown off. Even after that I’ll find some way of making noise.

You’ve written some new songs while on the road, can you tell us a little about them and how they differ from your earlier material?

Our new stuff has really been about the apathy that’s going on right now. A lot of people just don’t care and are just listening to songs that are being churned out on the radio. Some guy with a beenie hat singing about having a bad day. Touring a lot, like we do, opens you up to new avenues, new styles, new territories and new ideas and ideals. We’ve really just been developing our sound from the world that’s been happening around us. We like to think of it as making love to our audience through the conduits of music!

How close are you to recording the second album?

Very close. We aren’t going to do the “indie band thing” and wait three years to do our sophomore record. We have a hell of a lot of songs that we’re pretty certain we want to co-produce in the studio because we know what we want.

I have recently discovered some of your very early EPs (like ‘Milk’, ‘Summertime’ and ‘I Lost You To The City’). Would you ever go back and re-record some of those songs?

That so cool! I recorded those songs in my front room when we first started out! Though we would never re-record an old song unless we though it was entirely necessary – we’ve never been “top 40 pop-chart” conscious just because we thought re-releasing an older single might score higher second time around like a lot of other bands, you know who you are! - but we like the idea of taking parts from old songs and reworking them into new songs. That always comes out quite interesting.

What has been the reaction of audiences and the music press overseas to your shows and to Young For Eternity?

Actually more positive than we ever thought. America and Japan have taken quite a liking to us. Billboard in America strangely compared us to the likes of an “ever developing Radiohead” which I thought was quite funny. I don’t know, I really just care about getting the kids down the front to dance and sweat and go crazy. Reminding them that life isn’t about points or scores or ten out of tens, it’s about feeling and thought.

In retrospect, how happy are you with the way Young For Eternity turned out, especially considering the lukewarm reception it got from the British music press?

I think Young For Eternity is what it is, an honest rock record that’s not bound by style or contrivances. A lot of bands flourish with their debut and flounder with their second record because they are bound by style. Magazines and fanzines call one in every ten bands the “sound of the future” or “the band of the decade” and I’d rather not be a part of that to be honest. It’s standard business and I have no care or consideration for that. A fair amount of press is just a list of top 10 tacks or albums or top ten samples, or ring-tones – the fact of the matter is, the bands that we truly adore received the same sort of attention and praise as us, which is not a lot, and they continually toured and cared for their audience because they knew that what they played meant something to them. Isn’t that what it’s all about?

When you were first getting attention around the UK you said you aim to become as critically acclaimed and commercially successful as Oasis and Muse. How do you feel about the progress you have made so far? Are you where you envisioned yourselves to be at this point in your career?

I don’t think we ever stated, in the beginning or since, that we aim to be critically acclaimed or commercially successful. I think what we always aspired to be as musically creative as those bands. Each of Muse’s records is a giant step from the last, something out of the blue and honest and unforgettable. The Oasis records charged the people of this country from the depths of a not-so-Great Britain to a modern way of thinking. At this point in our “career” we’ve always aimed to be playing our music, as loud as fucking possible. And why not?

This is your third time at Reading and Leeds in as many years – what are your overriding memories from the previous two times?

Charlotte and I always used to hang out at the Carling Stage just to watch all the up-and-coming bands, the bands that nobody was interested in but the bands that inspired us to go home from the festival and try new things and challenge our musical abilities. Also, harassing the security guards was a big love our ours. Those guys would get so upset and angry when we threw beer cans at them. They were like our little bitches.

You have jumped from the Carling Stage to the Radio 1 Stage and now the Main Stage. Is the next logical step headlining the festival?

I think any band, this early into their musical career most definitely does not warrant a headline slot at Reading or Leeds Festivals. Those slots are reserved for the classics. That’s why we have so many throw-away bands these days. You heave them to the headline slot and before we know it we forget about them the next year. Get back to me in a couple of years.

How do the British festivals compare to those overseas?

They don’t really differ that much to be honest with you. The Japanese festivals are pretty crazy though. The audiences over there are so passionate and dedicated to having a great time and singing along with every song. West Coast American festivals can get a bit naughty. Reading and Leeds can be rowdy, but I like that. That’s how my festival experience started out. Glastonbury is a very spiritual thing – quite different to the banners of advertisement at Carling Weekends and V Festival and the beer cans being thrown at 50 Cent. Glastonbury is an experience – I suppose that’s quite like the Fuji Rock Festival in Japan.

Do you have festival survival tips?

Baby wipes are a GODSEND!

Lastly, Billy and Charlotte – have you set a date yet?

If we did, we wouldn’t tell you!

Thanks to Billy for taking the time to answer our questions.
The Subways will be tearing up the Main Stage at Reading on the Friday.
The first photo is copyright of Andrew Kendall, the second is copyright of Gregory Nolan.