Having attended various marches during the band’s hiatus of 2016-2019, it was the Black Lives Matter marches in the summer of 2020 that inspired The Subways guitarist Billy Lunn to go home and write Fight in just a few fiery hours. Attending with a friend who had never marched or protested before, and who suddenly found the language to express her experience as a Black woman, Lunn saw first-hand the importance of allyship during these moments.
Commenting on the single, Lunn says: “Fight is a letter in two parts: a gesture of solidarity with the Black community and communities of color, as they face their daily oppression at the hands of systemic racism; and it’s a wake-up call to the white community that such oppressions do in fact exist, and that we must acknowledge these oppressions and fight alongside marginalized communities as allies.”
The explicit nature of the song comes not only as a result of Lunn witnessing a vast number of allegedly socially-minded bands remaining silent during the protests, but because he believes the moment demands it. “Though the Black Lives Matter movement has been around since 2013, George Floyd’s murder was a catalyst, and I felt that it required something beyond poetics and abstract references in song,” he continues. “That it took George Floyd’s murder being filmed and distributed online for society-at-large to finally, viscerally comprehend systemic racism’s presence is unacceptable. And I realized my own complicity in this ignorance. I therefore felt it crucial that the band’s first offering from the new album be a necessary use of our privileged platform.”
The first track to be taken from their recently-completed forthcoming new album, Fight is the band’s first release without longtime drummer and founding member Josh Morgan, who announced his departure from the band in October 2020, shortly after studio sessions were completed. Watch the lyric video for Fight via YouTube below.
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.
The single will be available on 7” vinyl with a variety of bundle options and comes with an exclusive political activism zine created by the band with advice for fans on how they can engage, inform, and mobilize on some of the most pressing political issues of our time.
The b-side of the 7” features an exclusive interview by Lunn and bassist Charlotte Cooper with UK rock duo Nova Twins, covering the Black Lives Matter movement, representation in music, and more. “Allyship is important, and a big part of that is stepping back and passing over the microphone to marginalized communities, so they can speak their truths,” Lunn explains.
Following on from the band’s discussion with Nova Twins on the single’s b-side, The Subways will be holding several Instagram Live discussions from the day of the single’s release with members of the Black community in the arts, journalism, and politics.
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.
Fight is out now via Bodan Kuma in North America and Alcopop! Records in the UK. Pre-order the vinyl here: https://shor.by/SubwaysFight.
Further details of the forthcoming new album will be revealed over the coming months.
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, graced the festival main-stages of Glastonbury, Reading & Leeds, Lollapalooza, Download, Soundwave, Hurricane & Southside, Rock Im Park, Rock Am Ring and many more, 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.
Always evolving and innovating with each new stage of their career, this latest iteration of the band is no different.
COVID-permitting, The Subways will be touring the UK in Sep/Oct 2021 on the second leg of their rescheduled ‘Young For Eternity’ anniversary dates with support from label-mates ART BRUT.
The Subways rescheduled 2021 dates w/ ART BRUT
23rd Sept – Norwich // The Waterfront
24th Sept – Birmingham // O2 Institute
25th Sept – London // O2 Forum Kentish
30th Sept – Nottingham // Rock City
01st Oct – Bristol // O2 Academy
02nd Oct – Portsmouth // Wedgewood Rooms
03rd Oct – Portsmouth // Wedgewood Rooms
Tickets on sale now: https://www.thesubways.net/gigs
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