Release B-Side ‘Vex Machine’ Out Now On All DSPs

Fifth Studio Album ‘Uncertain Joys’ To Be Released January 13, 2023 via Alcopop! Records/Bodan Kuma

2023 UK Headline Dates Announced

Following an appearance on BBC 6music’s Trunk of Punk last week, Hertfordshire, UK indie punk favourites THE SUBWAYS are pleased to reveal the Art-Deco inspired video for their heartfelt new single ‘Black Wax’ which is out now via Alcopop! Records.

The video also comes alongside the newly-released B-side ‘Vex Machine’ which is out now and available to stream on all DSPs.

Watch the “Black Wax” video here: https://youtu.be/oMGNzWjQIWU

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.

Directed and edited by Joe Gist and his team at Blink Vivid, the band were keen to highlight the effect that music has on the body with the video, settling on a live performance which also features the dancing talents of Erin Pollitt, who physicalised her interpretation of the mood established by the song in the moment of playback.

Stream and share here: https://linktr.ee/thesubways

Commenting on the video, front man Billy Lunn says: “I’ve always been in love with Art Deco, and I felt like ‘Black Wax’ would be the perfect song with which to indulge this love, with the song’s constant references to the history of music, and some of our favourite artists and performers of the twentieth century.”

“The song itself is about gratitude for music, particularly the process of setting a record player going and hearing the abundance of sound that follows from such a device. So much joy from such humble origins. Appreciation for the physical format of the vinyl record has increased dramatically these last few years, so it felt natural to include elements like the gramophone.”

“We also wanted to take the opportunity to dress up in costume from the Roaring 20s era. I’m personally not one for dressing up (in fact, I tend to strip off for live gigs), so it was quite thrilling to step back into the past with all the period-appropriate clothes and make-up, especially in the beautiful Art Deco setting of the New Mills Art Theatre in Yorkshire, which the production team did a brilliant job of seeking out and shooting.”

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.

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

More info:

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.

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