Underground in LA

TWO years after their rip-roaring debut album, 10 months since their last tour and with a medical scare that left their entire future in doubt behind them, The Subways are back.

The band have jetted to Los Angeles to start work on their as yet untitled second album with legendary producer Butch Vig - whose credits include Nirvana’s seminal Nevermind, The Smashing Pumpkins and Sonic Youth - at the controls.

Lead singer and main songwriter Billy Lunn, who lives in Thaxted with fiancée and bass player Charlotte Cooper, caught up with the Observer before catching his flight to LAX.

After such a long hiatus, prompted mainly by a vocal condition that left Billy out of action for months, it would be understandable if the band, whose line-up is completed by his drumming brother Josh Morgan, were worried whether they could recapture the magic of debut punk-pop odyssey Young For Eternity. Not a bit of it.

"Because we’ve had a lot of time to work on the new material and really develop it, we’re quite confident about going into the studio," Billy said.

He is just relieved to be up and running again – his return to full throat-shredding health was marked by an uproarious show at Harlow Square on March 23 – and revealed how hairy the situation had got.

"There was a period when I thought that maybe the recovery might not go as we were all hoping for after the surgery and that I’d probably never sing again.

"It was quite a difficult time, but it made it all the more interesting once we picked up our instruments and began playing and writing again afterwards."

www.herts-essex-news.co.uk/lifestyle/leisure/2007/06/07/underground%20in%20la.lpf