There is no band that had a tighter sound in the 80's like The Subhumans. They woke some of us out of our shell to fight the real enemy. One of the men behind the myths such as Subhumans and Citizen Fish, Dick Lucas, was awesome enough to give us a chance to ask some questions!
Which is your favorite album cover from Subhumans?
It should be The Day the Country Died, cos well it just looks amazing, such fine-line
penmanship! But it’s actually Worlds Apart, cos I drew the picture on the front, waaay back
when I was 17: at the time someone said ‘that would make a good album cover’, and turns
out he was right!
Is painting your comfort zone? Does it fill the void when you aren't playing shows?
There isn’t much of a void, actually, what with answering emails and sorting out future shows
and- sleeping- I have to force time out to get to paint now and then, to get away from
everything and see what happens with brushes and paint…thinks: I’d have more free time if I
didn’t take chunks of it staring at blank canvases, waiting for The Idea to pop up…
3. When playing with Citizen Fish have you ever played a Subhumans song?
No. CF have never had the exact same lineup as the Subs.
Did you ever think your music would be held to this high of a standard and basically help
create political punk?
These concepts are hindsight-driven, I think: I have no idea how high this standard is, but
considering at least half of the songs we play live are up to 40 years old, I imagine we
unwittingly set the standard quite a while back! And while we did add to the number of
politically vociferous bands, we were [and are] only one of a load of similarly motivated bands.
So, yes we did ‘help create political punk’, but never stopped to consider that was what we
were doing, like some sort of achievement, because we were neither first nor last to be doing
it!
As we age, have children, and so on, we change and buckle down. Do you feel like you
still have the same energy as always?
Generally, no. I’m less stressed, more able to get things done without panicking or yelling. I
drink and socialise less [a lot of friends that had kids weren’t out every weekend]. However,
once on stage, those energies are all still there, and the lack of local socialising is made up
for by interactions at shows.
You are known in the scene to be very polite and an awesome person. Do you ever find it
difficult to get right off stage and interact with fans?
Well that’s nice to hear!
Before I get to talk with anyone after the gig, I need to get changed into non-sweaty clothes,
and get a drink in my hand. A lot of interactions are based on selfies, and little else, which is
fine…it has to be fine, cos even though an inner voice is saying ‘this is ridiculous’ - punk
should be free of the demarcations between band and crowd that generate this demand for
souvenirs - another louder voice takes me back to when I once refused to sign an autograph
[on the basis that it upheld the heirarchical nature of the Music Biz], and the young lad who
wanted it started crying. OUCH. So I swallow my theories and go with the flow. And its not all
so sound-bite-size, of course, there are a lot of really good chats to be had, sometimes on theback of a photo just taken, like it was a way to ‘break the ice’, and basically the sight of people looking happy? Can’t beat it!
What was the motivating factor to reunite Subhumans in 1998?
At first, it was - I dunno what! It was with Phil and Trotsky, who were prodding me and Bruce
into the idea of doing a one-off gig, after a few practices, so we had a practice and it was like
riding a bike! We hardly needed to practice the songs, they were still hard-wired despite the
decade break. We’d missed it more than we knew.
Do you motivate yourself in song writing to think about politics, or does it just come out that way?
Politics, especially in the last 6 years, has been so permeating in the daily consciousness of
anyone who checks the news, that choosing to think about it is no longer a choice! It’s hard
now to keep song content varied, when the primal subject in the thought train is how screwed we all are from every angle. I like to keep a sense of positivity, despite all the soul-destroying bullshit, so to balance out the frustration and anger I concentrate on the ideas/people who are actively helping out, working together, creating better ways to exist, so to rise above the constant noise of confused desperation. [A fair portion of that noise is here in my head, I’m sure, I mean there are plenty of people thinking they won’t be affected by the decline- so, take a tip from Doctor Dick, when the inner monologue starts shouting, get offscreen and outside and go see other people!]
Who designed your album covers?
The Day the Country Died was Nick Lant [he also did 3 of the EP covers], a pennical genius
whose talent went PING when he wrote a letter asking for -something, I forget- and doodled a punk’s head at the end of the letter, so I sent him the lyrics to Religious Wars, and asked if he could do a cover for that EP, and- he did!
Time Flies, that was my genius effort- logo, photo, title…that’ll do!
Cradle to the Grave was our mate Kev, who wanted to encapsulate our home turf, ie the
countryside, and did an early dawn morning photoshoot of some cows grazing…Bruce added the hand carrying the baby. A music journo described it as the worst cover of all time.
Worlds Apart, as mentioned up there, was a pic I did at school, of a body falling through a
now-broken glass frame, held by 2 hands over an aerial view of skyscrapers. But you knew
that. It represents humanity’s frail control over the results of its love of ‘progress’ at the
expense of nature.
EP-LP is not so much a design as doing the bleedin’ obvious, stick the EP covers together,
sorted!
Split Vision…we were split up at that point and weren’t seeing as much of each other.
[Trotsky had cut his hair off!] We had literally No Idea what to do for the cover, so we had Kev
take photos of us as we hung out in a field, wondering what we should be doing instead. I
grabbed an empty large wooden frame and crouched behind it, any idea was worth
exploring…it’s a dull cover.
Internal Riot was a drawing by Simon Gane based on a photo of me screaming
Crisis Point - Phil did all the work on that cover
Did you always feel like you cared about the music as much as the message? With such
an intricate sound did you feel you fit in with the rest of punk rock in the 80s?
Yes! The music is equally if not more vital than the lyrics, which without music would just be
poetry and more read than heard. Having a message is the best use of the space to sing in,
but none of the songs would be so without the music.
Your phrase ‘fitting in with the rest of punk rock’ rings alarm bells! Before punk bands could
easily be branded as sounding like x y or z, most punk bands - all of them! - had their own
style. Wire, Damned, Clash, Toy Dolls, Crass, Discharge…it was all punk, and aside that
label they were all unique. When the fans of these bands formed their own bands, the urge to imitate was either mitigated with extra ideas, or - wasn’t. Luckily for us, Bruce had a whole
heap of ideas. And some were very intricate, which I guess made us stand out: but standing
out, rather than fitting in, is what keeps punk fresh and dynamic. Onwards :o)
Comments