You might remember The Subways from their explosive Big Day Out 2006 performance, when temperature gauges inside their tent nearly burst with pressure as a thousand fans braved the summer heat and synchronised their screams to create one hell of a memorable show. Emergency officers and chivalrous onlookers helped to catch waifs as they passed out in front of the stage (presumably as a result of the weather and not drummer Josh Morgan’s decision to appear shirtless). The heat was intense, and the crowd even more so. After such a massive welcome to the country, it’s surprising The Subways stayed quiet in England for the next two years, basking in the success of their debut album, Young For Eternity. The band will soon return to Australia on the strength of their follow-up album, All Or Nothing, and vocalist Billy Lunn is ready to make a noise. Rockers often lament the touring life, comparing lodges to shoeboxes, but Billy seems content with staying in a hotel room: considering he used to clean them. He has been awake for barely an hour when our interview begins, and despite getting only a few hours of sleep, he shakes off any bleariness and starts talking about the day ahead. “We’re doing a radio session in Manchester this afternoon and they’ve asked us to do an acoustic cover, so we’ve decided to do Kylie’s new song, In My Arms,” he laughs. “The first time I heard it, I was like, ‘Oh my god, this is incredible,’ and since then I’ve been trying to work out how to play it.” Billy admits to feeling nervous before live recordings, saying he looks like a goose, but since the radio session will be pre-recorded, he has nothing to worry about.

Although Billy swears he’s not a morning person (“It’s like waking Dracula”), he is taking on every question with the effusiveness of a game show host, this time responding to how the band’s name came about. “We have a lot of underpasses in our town,” he says, “And I used to chill out in one where I could see all the cars, and it was a great place to listen to music or come up with lyrical ideas. It was kind of like solitary: just a good place to sit and think.” Billy says he remembers seeing the Subway sign and thinking it would suit a backdrop or an album cover. “We wanted a band name that allowed us to do whatever we felt like,” he continues, “Because we felt we were going to evolve and we didn’t want our name to limit us or get in the way of our music.”

Not quite as seedy as loitering around train stations makes him seem, Billy is full of charm. Punctuating his sentences with chuckles, he goes on to describe The Subways’ evolution thus far. “There was a big step between the two albums,” he explains. “The new album is more articulate and a lot more observational. We wanted to make a great sounding rock record, and we wanted to make these songs that mean the world to us.”

THE SUBWAYS’ follow-up album, ALL OR NOTHING, is out now through Warner. Stay tuned for more details about their September tour (Billy promises to lock in a Brisbane show).

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