by Adelie Salagnac
photos courtesy of Earshot Media
Take a step back and reflect on the past few years. A lot has probably happened in your life. Over the past eight years, I moved to the other side of the world, I traded my Motorola flip-phone for an iPhone, I stopped watching TV and started binge-watching shows on Netflix, Shazam ended my ever-lasting misery of never knowing who was singing “that cool song I heard at the bar”, and I somehow attended way, way too many shows. However, no matter how hard you try, you won’t be able to remember a Subways show happening anywhere near you in the US, and that’s because it simply hasn’t happened in eight years. Thankfully, the England-based band is going to take care of that. Come by MilkBoy next Wednesday to check “see The Subways live” out of your bucket list – and mine.
Charlotte Cooper, bass player, shares her excitement: “We’re so excited to be coming back,” she says. “It always feels like a huge adventure to us when we think of coming to play in the USA and Canada again. We loved the tours we played there in the past and it is great to visit some of the coolest cities in the world.”
With the tour about to start, Cooper has a hard time containing herself. After having worked so hard to make this tour happen (and putting a lot of attention and effort into packing, according to their Facebook page), and with their PledgeMusic campaign to fund it finally close to hitting 100%, there is nothing left to do than restlessly waiting for the first show. “We’ve worked hard to make this tour happen and it feels like it has been a very long time coming, so to actually play the first show is going to be incredible,” Cooper says. “There’s something awesome about a small, sweaty, intense rock show – it feels so exciting. It’s thrilling to play in front of our own crowd who know every word to every song.”
A new and exciting adventure to look forward to – and soon-to-be amazing memories for the band to cherish. Eager to see the world, and to meet new people, Cooper mentioned that for her, their biggest achievement is the amount of countries, towns, cities and festivals they’ve played.
Taking a second to think about all the parts of the world they got to explore, I couldn’t help but feel slightly jealous (and just to be clear, by slightly jealous, I definitely mean extremely jealous) “I have a big map in my house with the places we’ve been to marked on it,” says Cooper, “and I look at it and feel a huge sense of pride, but I also feel so lucky and grateful that music has brought me so much and taken me to so many different places.”
Hitting the roads of the United States and of Canada for almost a month, the Subways are making a stop in Philadelphia on April 13th. This is your chance to get a glimpse of the band’s legendary discography and to sing along to the ageless “Rock & Roll Queen”, as well as listening to the their latest tunes. With their self-titled album and the release of an exclusive 12’’ LP to promote, the members of the Subways are excited to play new material. Self-producing the record for the first time, the band, without a doubt, saves a very special spot for the new material – both in their heart and in the setlist.
“Billy [Lunn, guitar & vocals] has always had an interest in production and had previously produced our demos as well as working with some local bands,” says Cooper when asked about self-releasing the album. “We were given the huge opportunity to work with three incredible producers for our first three albums: Ian Broudie, Butch Vig and Stephen Street. Billy observed how they worked, was present for much of the mixing process and learned all he could. For our fourth album it felt like the right time to take on the recording process without any outside influence. Personally, I loved this way of recording. Without the pressure of studio time constraints, I could spend as long as I wanted working on my individual parts. For Billy it was of course a very challenging process, but also a very rewarding one, and we’re so proud of what we created.”
A new album that feels like the beginning of a new chapter for the English trio: “I think it just made us realize that we can do a lot ourselves. With the help from our manager, Ben who has been with us since the start, we were able to release the album in the way we wanted. (…) Playing live has always been a huge aspect of what we do and it has been great to go to so many places and have a few great festival seasons along side this release.”
Tickets and info at http://www.milkboyphilly.com/event/1070177-subways-philadelphia/
