New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Hertfordshire, UK indie punk favourites THE SUBWAYS are pleased to reveal their heartfelt new single 'Black Wax' which is released on October 4, 2022. Serving as a love-letter to music and the many pleasures and reliefs that it can bring us, the track was recorded with a guitar made from wood which was reclaimed from the bar of much-missed Harlow venue The Square, where The
Subways played their first ever show.
Commenting on the track, front man Billy Lunn says: "Caught mid-wintertime during the pandemic, hibernating in the warmth of the band's studio, I'd indulge in days' worth of spinning my favourite artists' records on my turntable. Following one particularly beautiful session, I felt compelled to express my gratitude for music itself. Not just the inspiration my favourite artists offer me as a songwriter, but all the various aspects music holistically offers us as people: the respite, the sense of belonging and being understood (and thus the validation), but also the mere aesthetic pleasure of the space between our ears being tended to."
"Given that our first ever gig was on the hallowed stage of The
Square in Harlow, which, following over a decade of Tory rule is now resigned to rubble, it felt only right to record my guitar parts with the guitar that had been built from the wood lifted from The Square's bar. This guitar, built by local legend Murray Torkildsen, was lent to me by a very good friend, Adam Smith, who fought so hard to save The
Square in its final days. It's no coincidence that his handle online is
Black Wax. Long live The Square. Long live music."
The band's forthcoming fifth studio album, Uncertain Joys, is set for release on January 13, 2023. The album is available to preorder now from: https://linktr.ee/thesubways .
Uncertain Joys was recorded and produced by front man and producer in his own right Billy Lunn, mixed by the Grammy Award-winning Adrian Bushby (Muse, Foo Fighters,
Everything Everything), and mastered by Katie Tavini (Mykki Blanco, Arlo Parks,
Nadine Shah).
'Black Wax' is the latest single to be taken from the record, following on from the previously-released trio of 'Love Waiting on You', 'You Kill My Cool', and 'Fight', which garnered press support from The Independent, NME, FLOOD Magazine, CLASH, Guitar Magazine, Brooklyn Vegan and more, with international radio support from Steve Lamacq at BBC 6music, John Kennedy at
Radio X, Jasper Leijdens at KINK, and KEXP, amongst others.
Following a busy summer of festival appearances across the UK and Europe, the band's previously announced UK album tour dates have been rescheduled to January/February 2023 and are on sale now (see below for full listings).
Fifth studio album Uncertain Joys is released January 13, 2023 via Alcopop! Records/Bodan Kuma.
'Uncertain Joys' tracklist:
1. You Kill My Cool
2. Love Waiting On You
3. Uncertain Joys
4. Incantation
5. Black Wax
6. Lavender Amelie
7. Fight
8. Influencer Killed The Rock Star
9. Swanky Al
10. The Devil and Me
11. Joli Coeur
12. Futures
Rescheduled Jan/Feb 2023 UK Headline Tour Dates:
Jan 26th - Manchester Gorilla
Jan 27th - Stoke Sugarmill
Jan 28th Sunderland Independent
Jan 29th Glasgow King Tuts
Feb 1st - Cardiff Clwb Ifor Bach
Feb 2nd - London Scala
Feb 3rd - Brighton Chalk
Feb 4th - Cambridge Mash
The
Subways are:
Billy Lunn - guitar and vocals
Charlotte Cooper - bass and vocals
Camille Phillips - drums
Formed in 2002, by now The
Subways should need no introduction. Nearly 20 years into their career the band have had multiple chart-worthy album releases including Young For Eternity (2005), All Or Nothing (2008), Money And Celebrity (2011), and The
Subways (2015), spawning a slew of hit singles including 'Rock & Roll Queen', 'Oh Yeah', 'Girls & Boys' and 'We Don't Need Money To Have A Good Time'.
They have toured with AC/DC, Foo Fighters, and Oasis, appeared on the Late Show with
David Letterman and Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and graced the festival main-stages of Glastonbury, Reading & Leeds, Lollapalooza, Download, Soundwave, Hurricane & Southside, Rock Im Park, Rock Am Ring and many more.
The band have worked with
Nirvana and
Garbage super-producer
Butch Vig, as well as Blur and The Smith's mastermind Stephen Street, and the band have appeared in several major films and videogames including Guy Ritchie's Rock'N'Rolla, American smash-hit TV drama The OC, and Colin McCrae: DiRT 2, Saint's Row 2, Fifa Street 2, Forza Horizon.
The first track to be taken from their recently-completed forthcoming new album, 'Fight' was The Subways' first release without long-time drummer and founding member Josh Morgan, who announced his departure from the band in October 2020, shortly after studio sessions were completed.
Produced by Lunn and mixed by Adrian Bushby (Foo Fighters, Muse, New Order), 'Fight' is a precursor to the sonic texture of the new album, without giving too much away too early. In the advent of COVID, Lunn is producing and mixing bands in his Welwyn Garden City-based recording studio (with social-distancing measures in place) until touring resumes.
'Fight' picked up a triumphant wave of support, with NME, CLASH Magazine, Steve Lamacq at BBC 6music, Gay Times, Broadway World, and more all championing the band's long-awaited return, and demonstrating a renewed appetite for the band's forthcoming fifth studio effort.
The Subways' hit single 'Rock & Roll Queen' also recently appeared in Ladbrokes' European Championship TV advert, partnering with #WeMakeEvents to light up music venues in red and lend support to the live entertainment industry. The advert features hundreds of skilled and experienced drummers performing as a player prepares to take a penalty.
The
Subways revealed the video for forthcoming 2023 album Uncertain Joys' lead single 'You Kill My Cool' earlier this spring, following a premiere with FLOOD Magazine. Alongside the track, the band also released single B-side 'Oi You Boy Bands' which is out now on all good digital service providers—a rallying feminist cry against all things pale, male and stale that features lead vocals from bassist
Charlotte Cooper and new drummer/permanent member
Camille Phillips (The Ramonas).
'You Kill My Cool' and 'Love Waiting On You' are the latest shots of new material from the band following their previous
Black Lives Matter-inspired standalone single 'Fight' in 2021, collaborating with rising stars Nova
Twins and Tokky Horror for exclusive remixes and B-sides.
The band closed out last year on their Young For Eternity Tour dates with ART BRUT, as well as playing a handful of intimate headline gigs, and most recently stormed through the EU in May 2022 for a string of Germany and Netherlands headline dates.
