The Subways returned to Hamburg for the zillionth time, this time on the back of their latest album Uncertain Joys, and for me, it was with quite much excitement I met up with the band that I’ve followed since I was young. Back in the days when I jumped around my room at my parents’ house, listening to The Subways, I would never have thought that I’d be telling this band to do a photo session in a shower one day. But now it happened!

Here’s the chat with The Subways – Billy, Charlotte, and Camille – right before their gig at a sold-out Molotow in Hamburg.

Twenty years down the road

When I did the research ahead of today, I found out that The Subways turned twenty recently – congratulations! Twenty years in the scene; did you ever think you’d be around for such a long time?
Billy: I can’t say that I ever anticipated us being in a band and making music for this long. But then I think, “I maybe didn’t think that far ahead” (laugh). I never ever thought that far ahead. I’ve always assumed that we would be making music in some form or the other, whether it’s just down the pub with our friends or out on tour playing to audiences across Europe. It’s all occurring to us quite a lot at the moment now that we’re reaching these anniversaries.

I mean today is the 18th birthday of our first single, “Oh Yeah”. “Oh Yeah”, if it were a person, could now drink in the UK. Legally! I mean, it’s probably been drinking for a few years by now with its friends. At least it can go to the pub now.

Charlotte: Get served! (laugh)

Billy: And get served, yeah! Providing it has a provisional driver’s license.

I never ever dreamed that I could be doing this job so long. That we’ve been doing it for so long is kind of a bonus I suppose.

Time slips by! What’s the difference between being a rock star today and twenty years ago?
Charlotte: I guess everybody goes for a big change between their late teens and their late thirties. We just didn’t care about that, like “We all go on tour forever, just have a good time and it’s all about partying”, and I guess now it’s maybe a bit more chilled down.

So, we still like going on stage. The stage is where the craziness happens still, but it’s more like yoga (laugh) and water off stage. A bit more self-care and stuff.

Charlotte: Yeah, I’d just break if we’d carry on at full pelt.

Billy: I mean, things hurt a lot more now and they hurt for longer, it just takes longer for the body to recover. As you get older you just got to be a bit more measured about stuff like Charlotte said. Saving up and preserving all our energy for the performance, which for us is everything about being in this band.

It really is all about being on stage and seeing the crowd go crazy, and just feeling the music vibrate through your body. If we get to enjoy to the fullest extent our performances on stage, then we’ll do whatever we need to do around that. Which obviously means much less party now (laughs).

I also read about you, Billy that The Subways used to be a place for you to hide, a safe place. Where do you hide now?
Billy: I still go to The Subways and find it really peaceful. My family is always like ”Be careful down there, there are some strange people hanging out there”, and I’m like “I’m one of these strange people” (laughs).

But also, I really like sublime natural, pastoral landscapes, so anywhere with like a vista. If it’s by the sea or on farmland, rolling hills, or lots of animals, it’s my place. I take great solace in the company of animals. You know, the human race is so focused on just the human race and it kind of shows in how it has been treating the environment and animals and the way we mass produce and treat animals in this process. I’m very much “Treat any animal like an angel, like an innocent”. We saw a couple of dogs today, we saw a pussycat, and I saw a pigeon. So we’re always saying hello to the animals in an animal voice.

Camille, you’re the new drummer. Has it been easy to find your place in the band?
Camille: In all honesty, yes it has! That sounds egotistical or something, I don’t mean it like that. It’s been easy in the sense that my welcome was beautiful, the best loveliest welcome I ever had in a band. And I really get on with the band!

I was already a fan of their music and their style. I think we have a lot of the same musical taste as well, and writing is hopefully – fingers crossed – going to be a breeze as well when we start writing some new material together. I just get along really well with Billy and Charlotte as people and musically. So yes, it’s been wonderful!

From ‘Uncertain Joys’ to Sesame Street

Formed in 2002, The Subways has passed the twenty-year mark as a band, and their animated and honest style of indie rock has built them a substantial fanbase over the years. Returning with a new line-up following the departure of drummer and founding member Josh Morgan, The Subways released Uncertain Joys in January, their first album in eight years.

An eight-year gap between albums can be a huge risk for any band, but if you leave behind a legacy where fans trust your progress and know that anything you put out is nothing short of the highest quality, then most will be willing to wait.

We dug into the Uncertain Joys album and talked about favorite songs, and then ended up in a discussion about the favorite character in Sesame Street and if Star Wars would triumph over Star Trek.

Your new record Uncertain Joys is a bit calmer, but “The Devil and Me” still kicks ass. How did that song come about?
Billy: It was originally a B-side for a song on our third album. I’ve always loved it but it never quite made the cut. For this record, because we were in charge as in terms of like choosing songs and how we were going to approach it, we were like “Yeah, let’s rework ‘The Devil and Me’ and let’s make it kick“ because the demo version is great, but the recording isn’t. We just thought “Let’s really focus on a great recording of ‘The Devil and Me’”.

We included it because we love rock, we love blues music, and it has its origin in the blues theme, which is like the devil. It kind of conjures the whole crossroads thing, and it ended up sounding really great. Now we just have to get it ready for performance (laughs). We’ve had a few people asking for it to be played live, but it’s not quite fitting to the set just yet. But it will be.

“The Devil and Me” is one of my favorite songs on the album, but what’s your favorite?
Billy: I really love the title track “Uncertain Joys” and I personally think it’s the best song I’ve ever made. Obviously people are going to disagree but I’m really, really proud of it and I just love playing it live.

Charlotte: I might go for “Influencer Killed The Rock Star”. I think it’s because I’m really enjoying playing it live at the moment. But it’s quite hard to pick a favorite song, so I pick my favorite one to play live.

Camille: That’s also my favorite one to play live.

Billy: Two-one, I face opposition (laughs).

Camille: But I think my favorite to listen to because of the lyrical content and musical content is probably “Incantation”. I love the meaning behind it. I’ll let you explain it if you like to [gesturing towards Billy]. I really love that song, it’s great! We should play that live at some point.

Billy: We need to play that live! “Incantation” is me fully coming to terms with my bisexuality. I ended up paying homage to the young me, who never really knew what it was all about and why I was getting these feelings. But I decided to write a song about my first-ever crush on a guy.

That’s really sweet, it’s like you embracing this young guy and, I don’t know, give him a hands up?
Billy: Yeah, exactly! Just to go, ”You’re okay, it’s not wrong, it’s fine”.

I clearly remember seeing you guys live for the first time and you showed your “Strawberry Blonde” tattoo but didn’t play it live later. But you seem to do it at times. Is it because it’s hard to play live?
Charlotte: I guess because it’s more of a chill-out number, it’s not always one we put on the setlist. However, it is always the one that people from the crowd shout out for – although not on the setlist – and we play it because someone asks for it. So we do sometimes rehearse it, just in case (laughs), like “Oh yeah, we can do that one”.

Billy: In Manchester recently, the same thing happened. “Strawberry Blonde!”. And I was like, “Okay”, and we quickly played it.

Charlotte: It’s always the one that people ask for.

There’s also another gang celebrating a round birthday this year, at least in Germany – it’s 50 years of Sesame Street! Do you have a favorite character from it?
Billy: I suppose everyone likened our ex-drummer Josh to Elmo.

Charlotte: Elmo! I think everyone also likened him to the Animal because that’s the drummer we need!

Billy: The Subways need an Animal drummer (laughs). And he didn’t talk, did he? That’s a Muppet or one from Sesame Street?

Camille: We’re talking about Sesame Street here? That was The Muppets, Animal.

Charlotte: Oh sorry! But it’s the same puppet guy, Jim Henson! So that’s why we got confused!

Billy: I think it’s amazing that Jim Henson’s son has taken over and is doing very well, the legacy continues. What’s also clear is that I need to differentiate between The Muppets and Sesame Street (laugh).

Another pop culture feature; Star Wars or Star Trek?
Billy: Ooh, don’t make me choose! Can I pick one of each? So, can I pick Deep Space Nine from Star Trek and The Empire Strikes Back from Star Wars? And then I’d like those two to exist on a higher plane of both their franchises. I can’t choose between either, I’m sorry. That’s not happening.

Camille: Charlotte’s face was right now just saying me neither.

Charlotte: Please don’t ask me!

Billy: No answer!

Camille: Star Wars! I never really got into Star Trek. I probably should give it a go because I do really like sci-fi. It’s just one of those that just pass by. That and Doctor Who, I never really gotten into that either.

Billy: Well, the great thing for me about Star Trek is that its origin lies in a pro-immigration, pro-diversity mindset. There are all these alien races and they look different and they act different, but they are kind of the same. They all want love and they all want peace, and they all love their family.

When you get racist Star Trek fans, it just baffles me. You know, at the moment in England they are very anti-immigration and anti-multiculturalism, and then they turn out to be Star Trek fans. It’s like “Are you watching the same show as me?”. Even way back in the 50s and 60s it was just so open-minded and so boundary-breaking. I think visually, Star Wars was always way better than Star Trek. Again, I’m compartmentalizing the two. I just cannot choose.

*****

For the last question, I took the inspiration from your second record, All Or Nothing, and “Always Tomorrow”: “It’s always fine to hold onto, your sorrow, there’s always time to make it up, tomorrow”. But what can’t wait until tomorrow?
Billy: Arsenal winning the premier league title (laugh)!

Camille: Me having a second dinner! I’m so hungry all the time (laugh).

Charlotte: The glass of wine after the show.

Billy: How satisfying!

Camille: That’s a really good answer!

*****

The interview is a collaboration between Messed!Up Magazine and Renés Redekiste.

Journalist: René Biernath
Photographer: Julia Schwendner
Photo gallery

*****

The Subways pages

*****

Messed!Up recommends