Hertfordshire, UK indie punk favorites The Subways are pleased to reveal their heartfelt new single ‘Black Wax.’ 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 that was reclaimed from the bar of much-missed Harlow venue The Square, where The Subways played their first ever show.
Commenting on the track, frontman 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.”
He continues: “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, via Alcopop! Records/Bodan Kuma. The album was recorded and produced by frontman and producer in his own right Billy Lunn, mixed by the Grammy Award-winner Adrian Bushby (Muse, Foo Fighters), and mastered by Katie Tavini (Mykki Blanco, Arlo Parks, Nadine Shah).
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 with new dates available below.
January 26th – Gorilla – Manchester, UK
January 27th – Sugarmill – Stoke, UK
January 28th – Independent – Sunderland, UK
January 29th – King Tuts – Glasgow, UK
February 1st – Clwb Ifor Bach – Cardiff, UK
February 2nd – Scala – London, UK
February 3rd – Chalk – Brighton, UK
February 4th – Mash – Cambridge, UK