Subplots are feeling a bit antsy. They’re about to play their biggest hometown headliner of 2008 in Whelan’s – the launch of their new EP We Carved Our Names In Glass – and they’ve spent the past hour and a half trying to sort out the dreaded ‘technical problem’ issue that’s plagued their soundcheck.
Yet although there’s a nervous energy about the Dublin trio, it’s clear that they’re as ready as they’ve ever been to seduce the Irish music-loving public. They should be too; having played in bands (some “too awful to talk about”) since they were 12 or 13, they appear to have finally found their feet.
Subplots’ roots lie in alt-rock merchants envelope., who were formed in 2005 by singer Phil Boughton and bassist Daryl Chaney, childhood friends who’ve played together since 2001. When their original drummer departed after the release of their impressive State & Nature EP in 2006, they decided to enlist the talents of Mick Orange from fellow cableattack!! associates The Star Department, and the band known as Subplots was consequently born last year.
“The envelope. thing was the foundation for what we are now,” Boughton proffers. “We’re kind of coming into our own sound a lot more. When Mick joined, everything changed in regard to writing – we kicked and mutated the old songs into new shape. It feels like a really different band – don’t know whether it sounds like that to anyone else, but it feels different.”
The name change wasn’t solely generated by their new line-up and consequent change of tack, though – Danish band Envelopes had a hand in their decision.
“We foolishly thought the full stop at the end of envelope. would protect us,” the singer laughs, “but they sent a strongly-worded email to us saying ‘Change your name!’. It was all a happy coincidence, though, because the change happened around the time that Mick joined.”
The fruits of the trio’s recent recording sessions bore their debut single, ‘Alarm’, earlier this year, as well as their aforementioned exquisite new EP (the stunning artwork of which the multi-talented Chaney is responsible for). With their debut album “80% completed” and set for a spring 2009 release, I wager that it must be a relief to be finally releasing something.
“Yeah, it is,” Boughton admits. “But if I’m being completely honest, personally speaking, I don’t think I would have been ready to do an album up until when we started recording.”
They’re also full of praise for wunderkind producer Ciarán Bradshaw, who they describe as the “Yoda of the band.”
“I couldn’t really envisage working with anyone else, because he just really ‘gets’ us,” he nods. “It’s an unspoken thing. We never have to explain how we want a song to sound, we just give him free reign – he completely understands where we’re coming from.”
Despite their accomplished sound, the trio are adamant that they haven’t had any interest from other labels, and are happy to continue and release the album on their own cableattack!! label. With an average age of 24, and Boughton just finishing college, I ask them how hard it is to stay afloat as an independent Irish band in the current climate.
“I’m not gonna lie – it’s tough. We all still have full-time jobs,” says Orange. “It’s not something we really talk about, though. We don’t stress about it – getting the album finished is all I care about at the moment.”
Before that, though, there’s a split 7-inch with fellow Dublin-based band Halves due in the autumn – but suggesting that this collaboration may be the unsigned post-rock single of the year doesn’t go down too well.
“I don’t think we’re post-rock at all, I really hate that,” Orange bristles . “I do like some post-rock bands, but I think we’re doing something completely different. How would we describe ourselves? I dunno, that’s a really hard question. We’re more into hooks, melodies and odd rhythms, and that’s very far removed from what most post-rock bands do. I don’t think we fit into any particular scene, and neither do any of the bands that I love, so I’m really happy about that.”
“We probably could have been accused of the post-rock thing in the envelope. days,” Boughton concedes. “But that’s probably what’s changed most in the last year and a half – we’ve really veered away from that. That genre has a danger of sounding formulaic, and we’re always trying to surprise ourselves more than anything else. We’re always trying to get somewhere, and we’re not quite sure where we want to get. But it’s the finding out that’s the fun!”
Subplots’s We Carved Our Names In Glass EP is out on cableattack!!