Fight by The Subways

Hertfordshire, UK perennial indie punk favourites THE SUBWAYS are delighted to announce that they have signed to Alcopop! Records and proud to present the official video for their new single ‘Fight’ which is out now on DSPs and released 30th April 2021 on vinyl.

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 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 colour, 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 marginalised 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 racisms presence is unacceptable. And I realised 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 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.

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 mobilise on some of the most pressing political issues of our time.

Tracklist

1.	The Subways - Fight	2:42

Videos

Lyrics

Fight

Verse 1:
Sending all my love to the terra firma team;
Empty in the pocket, still we’re taking to the streets.
Do you have the time, members, are you so inclined,
Or does the situation never weigh upon your mind?
Is it happiness you want, where do we begin?
Apathy and comfort, sinking lemonade and gin?
There’s no mystery to where we suddenly find ourselves;
White men are getting rich off PoC in cells.

Chorus 1:
If we want a future, then we must do what’s right;
If we want to live, then we have to learn to fight.
[beat] Are you ready, are you willing, are you sure?
Are you steady as you stamp your feet upon the floor?
If we want a future, we must all come together;
If we want to live, we must all do much better.
[beat] Are you ready, are you willing, are you sure?
Are you steady as you stamp your feet upon the floor?

Verse 2:
And. Now. We. All. Fall. Down.
Everybody’s mesmerised by Eton-Oxford clowns.
Newspapers mirror all the cheapest of desires,
As parliament front benches are all consumed by fire.
[beat] Can we stand it, will we ever be believed?
[beat] Can we lift each other up for all to see?
Hope and Love are so much more than all of us combined;
So kick the can, and raise your hands, and use your precious minds!

Chorus 2:
If we want a future, then we must do what’s right;
If we want to live, then we have to learn to fight.
[beat] Are you ready, are you willing, are you sure?
Are you steady as you stamp your feet upon the floor?
If we want a future, we must all come together;
If we want to live, we must all do much better.
[beat] Are you ready, are you willing, are you sure?
Are you steady as you stamp your feet upon the floor?

Verse 3:
Your reverence for genocide, for slavers, and for power
Is prologue in the story in which we tear down your towers.
If poor hands built empires while you cracked the whip,
Don’t cry, now, when they decide they’ll turn them into fists,
And raise them in the air so every nation’s leader sees,
The multitude will raise the heat to a billion degrees.
[beat] I guess until that crucial time will come around,
You’ll hear our voices singing, with our multiculturesound.

Chorus 3:
If we want a future, then we must do what’s right;
If we want to live, then we have to learn to fight.
[beat] Are you ready, are you willing, are you sure?
Are you steady as you stamp your feet upon the floor?
If we want a future, we must all come together;
If we want to live, we must all do much better.
[beat] Are you ready, are you willing, are you sure?
Are you steady as you stamp your feet upon the floor?

Outro:
And, now, we all stand up;
Join me, and take a knee;
Say each and every name;
All those who could not breathe.

Credits

released April 30, 2020

License