by Tom Clarke
There is currently a real buzz about The Subways. Tipped for a great year, they are already snowballing their way around the country, impressing audiences left right and centre. We arrived at the APU academy at around 5:45PM, to the sound of their tour manager telling us that 'you've got 10 minutes, lads'. Luckily, the band themselves were nowhere near as organised and were happy to sit and chat to us, they even gave us a couple of beers from their rider.
Rooha: So, this is the 23rd date of an impressively long tour, any interesting stories from it so far? Any great gigs you've played?
Billy: I think the most interesting think is, like, the shock. Most people have been nicely surprised when we've done the slower stuff, and fitted them in to our more 'punk' songs. That's been really nice. You know, getting wasted and doing it for art. We're in a position to do so. When you're off tour it does put things in a different perspective.
Charlotte: We've had some really great crowds, too, some fantastic crowds.
Rooha: Would you say this is one of the best tours you've done?
Charlotte: It's only our second headline tour, but yeah, I'd say so.
Billy: We've done spurts of dates with some relatively big bands. It's the second headline tour, like Charlotte said, it's building up nice and slowly which is really comforting. I'm so glad it hasn't lapsed at all, and at the same time we haven't over exploded, that would be a bit disconcerting. I feel like we're earning our place by doing it this way. Paying our dues, if you like.
Rooha: So what do you say to critics who write you off as just another garage band?
Charlotte: I think you've just got to wait and listen to the album. There's only really one song that we chose to release, '1AM', and that might not even go on the album.
Billy: It's like everything, you know, if you look at some of the best bands, they've defined their sound over a number of albums or a number of singles, and it's almost kind of lazy pigeon-holing someone after their first single. We started off on the tour playing eight songs in a set, we're doing fifteen now, and as each date had come on we've become more confident with the new songs, with the acoustic and more epic stuff. I suppose that comes from playing such a big thing straight off as we did with Glastonbury. It's case of going back and starting again with the toilet venues, and working towards an album. I just look forward to the album coming out and people being shocked.
Rooha: You're called The Subways, do you guys actually eat Subway?
Billy: Now and again, yeah.
Charlotte: But I'm allergic to bread! So I'm a bit limited in my choices, I can get a salad from there.
Rooha: Hmm, well I think we all know that's not a real sub. That's like getting a cold sub full of fish or something...
Billy: I really used to hate it, but yeah, it's really nice.
(The band seem impressed, shocked, saddened and disgusted all at once when we tell them about the Subway challenge editorial)
Rooha: OK, so imagine that it's a year from now, where do you see The Subways?
Charlotte: Probably working on the second album and touring a lot. We've already written the songs for the second album, so it's just going to be a case of recording it.
Billy: Yeah, just playing our hearts out, earning our bread.
Rooha: Or salad in Charlotte's case?
(Laughter)
Charlotte: We like recording, and we like gigging. I think it's a good thing that we get to do both.
Billy: We binge, don't we? When we're playing live we're like, "for God's sake, I don't want to go back in to the studio ever again!" And then when you're in the studio you think, "fuck it! I don't want to play live ever again!" When you're forced to do both, it makes everything a lot easier.
Rooha: Is Welwyn Garden City as boring as it sounds?
Billy: Yeah, which is why people WGS either become parents, drug addicts or form a band. I just felt compelled to make music to get out of there. Me and Josh (Billy's brother, and the band's drummer) have been moving around for all of our lives, and we stayed in Austrailia for a while so we'd like to move out there I suppose. But making music just felt right, I never really fit in with the social fabric. Making music for a living, whilst maintaining a shit job! It's cool.
Rooha: We read somewhere that you had your laptop stolen, and it had the only copy of your album on it?
Charlotte: Yeah, this is Josh's replacement (points to impressvely large laptop sitting on the table in the van). It's a pain in the arse, but fortunately we managed to get it back.
Rooha: How does it feel when you've been gigging and touring for what must seem like forever, only to appear as 'a new band' in the eyes of the media and the public?
Billy: That's a good feeling. As long as we're a new band this year, and then next year we're just simply a band.
Charlotte: The difference between the last tour and this tour is that we've kind of moved up a venue in every town, and that's what we hope to do, build it up to as far as we can get.
Billy: What we don't want is to be the band, or the sound, of 2005. We don't want to be a flash in the pan. Every year has a 'best new band', and I just want to be another band next to everyone else and build a real sense of community. We have people crossing the country just to get a chance to see us play live. Six hour train journey from one side of the country to another just for us, it's incredible.
Rooha: Sounds expensive!
Charlotte: And they're only students, too!
Rooha: So it sounds as thought you're striving to become a one album band, then?
Charlotte: Absolutely, we don't want the first album to be blown out of all proportion so that the next album could never follow it.
Billy: Because the next one is better, actually...
(Billy rumages around his bag, are we about to get a rare copy of the aforementioned second album? Do we have an exclusive on our hands? No. Billy finally pulls out two notebooks.)
...It's all written in these books. The third album is at home (laughs)!
Rooha: So when is the greatest hits coming out?
Billy: Before the second and third (laughs). We're concentrating on developing our sound, so our second album could almost be a thread to the next album. But, you know, that next album itself fluctuates and develops.
Rooha: Hmm, it's all sounding a bit prog-rock for its own good!
Billy: Aargh no! Oh my God (laughs)! No, it's not Pink Floyds or Mars Volta, it just develops. We're not totally and utterly complicated, but we don't need to be to say what we want to say. There will obviously come a time when we use electronic beats and pedals. It's our willingness to flip moods, from chilled to totally energising ourselves on stage to chilling in the van with you guys. It's the most human thing we can do.
Rooha: OK, and finally if you could only have three words to define your band, what would they be?
Charlotte: That's really hard!
Rooha: Well that was three words right there!
Charlotte: (laughs) yeah, 'it's really hard!'
Billy: 'Pure human music? (muses) That sounds like an album name!
Rooha: It sounds like one of those horrible compilation albums parents buy!
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