By mid Dec 12 we had recorded so many songs we didnt know how to release them! What order? Which ones would go on the album..etc?' We have spent a lot of time listening to other people's recommendations and suggestions. Out of all the new songs we've had recorded and accumulated by 2012 'Carnage' came back to many conversations. How did we write this song? Well it's a long story. First Rob back in Sept sent me about 6 or 7 riffs he really liked in an email. I opened them and as usual I would listen to everything and then give him a call and we'd talk about it over the phone (much quicker than when in rehearsal with 4 people all talking in same time). One riff in particular caught my attention but I was only convinced of the potential of a portion of the riff , not the whole riff as Rob had it at the time. I value a lot ideas from Rob because contrary to mine Rob's creative output is often very quickly seductive, appealing. Mine can be often disappointing for being too experimental, too extreme. For Carnage we started with this opening riff (the first 3 seconds) and I came up with the progression, the arrangements and the chorus. The last section with the drums rolls were a much more collective effort. Once Rob and I agreed on the main riffs, we traveled to Chichester and worked with Jim at MidiMadness studio. I love working with Jim cause he's fun, friendly, open-minded, relaxed. Rock music isn't his main thing (he's much more into Dance) and to work on new song with SUBSET for him is as much a discovery as it is for us exploring our new materials. So here we were in Chichester jamming on that last section and trying mad drums stuff and Jay came up with that insane off-beat rhythm on these long pulls in D. Jim and I were so surprised we thought it would never work. But then we played it to Zool and it didnt shock him at all. I think we are all very proud of the end result on the instrumentation cause we all forced our way through it, pushing obstacles aside and emerged. I took the final ideas and traveled to Pujaut in south of France and sat down for about 2 days, just thinking about what kind of vocals I wanted on this song. I have had many different techniques for writing lyrics and vocal lines in the past. Words sometimes come first before music, sometimes it's the opposite. For Carnage first I jammed over the instrumental track on my own. Like sitting on a mattress on the floor and making weird noises. Then I heard melodies in my head. Then voices. Pretty weird. I knew I wanted to talk about what happened in the UK in summer 2011, the despair and anger of poor young people who turned to their corner shops and stole bottled water and chocolate bars. Thousands of them stormed areas I knew, my house-share was 2 bus stops away. The wasted/lost off-line generation listening to hip-hop and rock that has been lasting since the early 90s. Zool and I did a lot of work on the vocals. I stayed under semi-constant pressure for 48hrs working on nailing the vocals right. Once we had the final master of the song we sent it to Rob Jay and Arran and shared the draft with our very trusted group of friends and close fans. The response has been overwhelming. People started to talk about 'a new SUBSET'. It's difficult to be convinced straigth away that the baby you've worked on for almost 4 yrs has grown up and reached a new age.
lyrics
Shy and disgusted the youths rise and scream out loud ‘AHOOOO’
Jump off the walls, the girls are mad and drunk in the cold
Cannonballs flying and crushing the cops all around
Poisoned signatures on the Abolition of Apathy
Of Apathy
Relax, relax, it’s alright
All out carnage
Relax, relax, relax!
All out carnage
The debacle of the faith causes carnage
Relax, relax,
I’m used to seeing you faking
Carnage
Imaginary multiple gun assault launched by rifled cavalry amid the debacle of faith
We believe in sharing, caring, compassion and protection and actively engage with the local community
Imaginary multiple gun assault launched by rifled cavalry amid the debacle of faith
We believe in you!
credits
from LOVERDOSE,
track released January 15, 2013
Jason Garrett, Romain Daste, Robert Robertson, Arran Tropper Hartley, Guilherme Condeixa, Benoit Pouzol
Five piece loud rock band touring UK based in London.
"Definitely worth catching live" -
Andrew Collins, BBC Radio (6 Music)
"Subset certainly cannot be considered pretentious. They play and party as exactly who they are and thank God for that as the music scene is a better place for it."
- Neil Richardson,...more
Fuzzy Austin trio follow up their first album in 20 years, released in Spring 2015, with a stomping new EP of noisy rock & roll. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 26, 2016
