The finer details of life

The Subways talk about their careers from wild kids to family people ahead of their Dubai performance tomorrow.

The third album by The Subways is not going according to plan. The British alternative rock group, who are set to play in Dubai tomorrow, have just thrown away 23 songs and are starting again from scratch. But the frontman Billy Lunn, 25, is still optimistic: "I just thought the stuff we were coming up with wasn't that great," he says plainly. "But we like to work on new material while touring, that's why we are playing Dubai while we're in the writing process and doing festivals in Europe this summer."

Best known for their energetic single Rock & Roll Queen (partly because it was the soundtrack to a Rimmel advertisement featuring Kate Moss), The Subways claim to be equally fond of the vintage pop act Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, as the alternative rock giants Nirvana. Mixing summery harmonies with fierce punk energy, the breadth of their influences certainly shows in their music. During the course of their career, the group appear to have been equally blessed and cursed.

One of British rock music's biggest success stories in 2004, the band were picked from hundreds of entries by the Glastonbury Festival boss Michael Eavis to play the event's prestigious unsigned band slot. Another UK music heavyweight also gave them a leg-up at the begging of their career; the late broadcaster John Peel, who was the first to play their debut single on the radio. "All of a sudden we jumped from playing in front of 150 people to 10,000," says Lunn. "To have such support was incredible."

Their first album, Young for Eternity, was hugely popular among teenage music fans and the group began drawing large crowds at music festivals around Europe. But when the time came to record the follow-up (2008's emo-influenced All or Nothing) a number of obstacles befell the three-piece. Lunn was left unable to sing, or even speak, for weeks after surgery to remove nodules from his throat - an affliction that threatened to derail the band's future entirely. The singer also split from his fiancée during the recording sessions; the woman in question was the band's striking bass player, Charlotte Cooper. Furthermore, the drummer Josh Morgan (who is Lunn's brother, despite the different surnames) was diagnosed with the behavioural disorder Asperger's syndrome.

"Those things were difficult aspects of the band's history, but what we came out with was a generally optimistic and poppy record, and that's the kind of people we are," says Lunn. After scrapping two albums' worth of material, the singer hopes the next record will be a more collaborative affair, with Cooper and Morgan helping out with the writing. "Until now I've been the sole songwriter. I basically wrote all of the first and second record by myself and now it's got to the point where I need help," he says. "At the moment, when I turn-up to rehearsals and ask the other members if they've thought of any drum patters or riffs or lyrics, they usually just stare at me blankly."

But the singer is hopeful that the band's forthcoming live dates will offer a chance to recapture their spark. In the two years before rising to fame, the group played raucous live shows in London clubs up to three nights a week. During this time the band were at their most prolific, recording new demos every month and laying the template for what would become their most successful album. "A lot of artists just focus on the live performance aspect while on tour, but we like to work on new material during that time," says Lunn. "The folk singer Amy Macdonald was surprised when we told her that we write a lot of stuff on tour, but when we play an amazing show, we can't help picking-up an acoustic guitar and reflecting on everything. That's really how we do things and that's when we are at our happiest."

The singer also claims that performing has been therapeutic for his brother Josh, whose Asperger's can make social interaction difficult: "When he plays drums, that's him articulating himself properly." With Cooper set to marry in the coming weeks and Morgan already a father, Lunn believes the next album is likely to be the most mature release to date. "We used to write about blatant things like obsession and love, but now its more about the finer details of life," he says. But despite the warning signs, the singer denies the group are about to write their pipe-and-slippers album.

"Well the other two might have settled down, but I still like to create arguments, be a silly boy and make mistakes," he claims. The Subways will play Alpha at Le Meridien Dubai tomorrow.