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By Imran Ghori On Track Early last year, after two-and-half years of touring on The Subways well-received debut, lead singer and guitarist Billy Lunn faced the prospect of never singing again when he underwent vocal cord surgery Instead of moping around and waiting to see how he would recover, Lunn decided to reconvene the band — also made up of bassist Charlotte Cooper and drummer Josh Morgan (also his brother) — in a rehearsal studio for six-hour jam sessions where they would bang out the songs, albeit without vocals. It’s an example of the upbeat perspective that the young British trio choose to take, whether it’s confronting turmoil in their lives or taking their infectious punk-fueled Britpop sound on the road. It also proved helpful for when he did get that clean bill of health, allowing them to have honed their chops before going into the studio to make their new album, All Or Nothing. “After the surgery, that time in the studio really felt for me like a rebirth,” Lunn says. “It felt like me coming out of my cocoon and having a voice finally after the doctor telling me I might never sing and then suddenly I’m screaming my lungs out on these new songs that meant the world to me.” The band had been itching to get back into the studio, having stockpiled several songs written on the road. While 2006’s Young For Eternity represented the work of teenagers writing in their bedrooms, dreaming of rock stardom, the Subways were eager to experiment and take what they learned playing festivals around the world with their next effort. Finding a producer to help guide them didn’t come easy at first. At their manager’s urging they put together a list of potential producers and met with some of them but none of their ideas appealed to the band, Lunn says. Famed producer Butch Vig (Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Garbage) was never on that list because they didn’t think he’d be interested. But after exhausting their list, Lunn says they decided to give it a try and contact him. Vig — who the band met before when he came to one of their shows at the Troubadour on their first U.S. tour — responded enthusiastically to their demos and the Subways were soon setting up shop in L.A. to record. Lunn calls the experience of working with Vig “incredible.” He described the producer as meticulous yet able to create an environment where the band could just learn to trust its own instincts and “let the music happen.” “He totally got what we wanted to do with this record,” Lunn says. The new album still features the catchy pop-punk anthems of their debut but has a broad enough palette to show off Lunn’s more sensitive side in tracks like “Strawberry Blonde.” During that whole process, Lunn and Cooper were dealing with another big change. A longtime couple, they broke up just prior to beginning work on the album. Lunn says they realized they couldn’t let that get in the way of their music and had to work together. And although the bulk of the songs were written prior to their break-up, their personal lives couldn’t help but be reflected in their music, on songs like “Strawberry Blonde” and “Obsession.” “Charlotte and I just sat down in chairs facing each other and wrote this song,” Lunn says of the latter track with a laugh. “That’s how honest we are. We feel compelled to be honest. We feel compelled to sing about what matters to us at that particular time. There’s no way of getting around it.” While such intra-band dynamics can cause some groups to break up, Lunn views the Subways’ recent travails with that same indefatigable spirit as he did his surgery. “I’m on the road with these two fantastic people who I hold really close to my heart,” he says. “There’s no awkwardness at all. It’s purely celebration for us. We’re on an adventure and we’re not going to let anything stand in the way of that.” On the web: thesubways.net |
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Copyright © 2002 Mean Street Magazine, LLC |
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