SUB*T consists of Jade Alacantara (from Oakland) and Grace Bennett (From Brooklyn). After always being in the pit Jade and Grace spent two years learning their instruments and decided to create SUB*T. Jade, Grace and I discuss what inspires them, their debut single "Boxing Day" and their newest track coming out on Friday!
HOW ARE YOU?
Feeling pretty good these days! Working on new music right now which is exciting for us.
WHEN DID YOU GUYS DECIDE YOU WANTED TO BE IN A BAND TOGETHER?
It was in 2019. Jade came to New York for a couple weeks at the end of May for some East Coast shows. It was over the course of that trip when it really started to become a thing. I think we both have always wanted to make music and it always hit the hardest when we would go to see other people on stage. For some reason, that trip was the final straw.
HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH YOUR BAND NAME?
We were sitting on my couch in New York talking about shows or something and Jade remembered that subterranean termites devoured one of her setlists. Our friend Jenn was there too and joked about that being our band name. We realized Subterranean might be better just for, I don’t know, brevity? The meaning of the word “subterranean” has evolved into something more symbolic for us since then. But we still think Subterranean Termites is an iconic band name.
WHAT WAS IT LIKE WRITING TOGETHER WHEN YOU BOTH WERE AT THE OPPOSITE ENDS OF THE COUNTRY? HOW WOULD YOU SAY THAT EXPERIENCE EFFECTED HOW YOUR SOUND AND LYRICISM TURNED OUT?
Writing when we’re apart is something that has always felt normal and natural. There’s something so forced about sitting across from each other trying to write lyrics about personal things. Sometimes it works, but you usually get the good stuff on a whim. If that makes us unique then I would say that’s something we’re really proud of. I love how it affects our sound. It’s a true partnership. There’s always a way for the other to contribute. Keeping moving independently always sparks creativity in the other.
YOU GUYS RECENTLY RELEASED YOUR DEBUT SINGLE BOXING DAY! WHAT WAS THE CREATIVE/WRITING PROCESS LIKE? WHAT’S THE INSPIRATION BEHIND THE TRACK?
The cool part is that the verses were actually just ramblings from my journal that Grace sang over a riff we were obsessed with. Afterwards, Grace was able to find some connection to what I had written and then came up with the chorus from her perspective. It means something different to each of us. But it can really mean anything to anyone.
WHAT MADE YOU GUYS SPECIALLY CHOOSE BOXING DAY AS YOUR DEBUT SINGLE?
The minute we finished this song we knew it was special. We did it all on our own so it’s pretty DIY - but we also think that makes it really raw and powerful. We jump up and down and dance to it every single time we listen to it. Not only did we know it would be the first song to really represent us in the way we wanted, we needed to get it out as soon as we could.
DID YOU LISTEN TO ANY BANDS OR ARTIST FOR INSPIRATION DURING THE CREATIVE PROCESS? IF SO, WHO?
We listen to music every single day so there’s no doubt that some of it seeps into the songs we write. I remember listening to stuff like Third Eye Blind, Pixies, Liz Phair and Juliana Hatfield a lot around the time we were writing Boxing Day. The way Jade sings some of Boxing Day reminds me of Stephan Jenkins from Third Eye Blind. I think that was a little intentional. We really love that band. And I think we can give Liz some credit for the rambling lyrics.
WHEN CREATING BOXING DAY WHAT CAME FIRST, LYRICS OR MUSIC?
I guess the music did, but at the start it was only that one riff Jade mentioned earlier. I didn’t have specific lyrics in mind when I wrote that riff but I loved it so much I knew it had to become something bigger. So I pored over this Google doc we call the “Sub*T Boot Camp.” A ton of it is writing exercises we come up with for each other, so I chose some of Jade’s journal snippets from that doc for a first verse and we built it from there.
BOTH OF YOU STARTED AS MUSIC FANS, SPECIALLY BEING FEMALE MUSIC FANS! DO YOU BELIEVE THAT SINCE YOU KNOW WHAT IT’S LIKE BEING A FAN THERE WON’T BE THAT DISCONNECTION?
We always talk about our future fans and how we will connect with them - and it comes from a truly genuine place. We want our music, shows, and community to be all the best parts of what we’ve experienced as huge music fans. I think growing up loving music more than anything and spending all of our teenage years and young adult years going to as many live shows as possible, we understand how we need and want live shows to feel. We are also completely aware that the shows we go to are almost always run by women in the crowd (including us) so we wanna run it from the stage. We also have experienced some pretty dumbass people in the pit. We never let that shit fly and we never will. The goal is always to get everyone on the same wavelength and hopefully raging to no end.
IS THERE A FORMULA YOU FOLLOW WHEN CREATING MUSIC AND WRITING LYRICS?
Honestly there’s no single formula or process we follow. Sometimes it starts with a verse idea. Sometimes it starts with a chorus idea. I think we generally follow basic song structures, but we don’t purposefully put pressure on ourselves to follow any formulas when writing songs. I put so much pressure on myself when it comes to everything else in life. I try to avoid that in our music.
WHEN WRITING LYRICS, ARE YOU MOSTLY INSPIRED BY PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS, OR LIFE IN GENERAL?
I think two things have a symbiotic relationship, so it always ends up being a little bit of both. Thinking about the songs we’ve written, whether they’re about personal relationships or our life in general, I think we try to put in specific details about a person or a place to make them not so generic. Some of our songs also really have to do with our relationship with ourselves, which can be the hardest thing to write about.
LISTENING TO THE LYRICS TO BOXING DAY YOU CAN TELL IT’S ALL ABOUT LETTING THE TRAUMA GO, TO SING A SONG ABOUT SOMETHING LIKE THAT DO YOU FEEL THAT THERE HAS TO BE A SENSE OF VULNERABILITY THAT GOES ALONG WITH IT?
100%. The song is about past experiences and memories and people. Mostly negative things that eventually turned into heavy baggage that we finally decided we don’t fucking need anymore. This song was that declaration. Maybe those people heard the song. I'm almost positive they did. That feels pretty good.
WHEN FIGURING OUT WHAT SOUND YOU GUYS WANTED TO START PLAYING AND AN IDEA OF WHAT SONGS YOU WANTED TO CREATE, WAS THERE A CERTAIN AUDIENCE IN MIND YOU WANTED TO REACH?
We started making music for ourselves. I think that’s how anything genuine begins. Honestly… we were sick of hearing men in suits moan into a microphone. We thought about what we love and the bands we’ve always loved and what we thought was missing from the music we’re always going to see live. We wanted to bring that to life.
YOUR NEXT SINGLE TOO SOON TOO LONG COMES OUT ON JUNE 18TH! DID THE WRITING AND CREATIVE PROCESS DIFFER FROM WHEN YOU GUYS WERE PUTTING TOGETHER BOXING DAY?
Yeah it did a little bit. I guess the first thing is that the lyrics came first for the song and then we figured out the music. It’s also about a completely different set of emotions and experiences so I think that affected the sound. It isn’t based on any cathartic feelings like Boxing Day, or any desire to get rid of things. It is more about all the good things you want to get back. So there is a sense of joyfulness that we feel comes through in Too Soon Too Long.
TOO SOON TOO LONG HAS A DIFFERENT VIBE FROM BOXING DAY, WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION BEHIND IT?
It’s all about the little things you love and miss about your friends, like how they smell or getting the chance to borrow their clothes. Or the little things that can change when you haven’t seen them in a while, like a new haircut or a new tattoo. More specifically, it’s about those friends that live far away from you. We met a lot of our best friends on the internet years and years ago, so we’ve never lived too close to each other - or we haven’t until recently. So those are feelings we’ve been familiar with for years and feel for each other all the time. The song came about after a trip to California in November 2019. Jade and I, with three of our best friends, spent a week going to a string of shows. We wish we could live together like that forever and I wanted to memorialize it in a song.
WHICH BANDS OR ARTISTS INSPIRE YOU THE MOST?
Let’s just list them off, shall we? Veruca Salt, Liz Phair, Belly, Hayley Williams, Lady Gaga, Letters to Cleo, Little Mix, that dog., Plumtree, The Breeders, Hinds, Juliana Hatfield, X-Ray Spex, Sonic Youth, Hole, Bully. And so many more. I think the common denominator is literally just: be a woman in a rock band or else be a pop icon. Or both.
IF YOU COULD TOUR WITH ANY BAND OR ARTIST WHO WOULD IT BE?
Ugh, so many. No Doubt in their heyday would’ve been a riot.
WE’RE ALL ABOUT FINDING NEW MUSIC, WHO SHOULD WE BE LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
It feels so weird to be asking this question. We were asked this in another interview and it’s like, who needs our publicity! But yeah, there are definitely newer acts we listen to and love. We said them the first time but we love Anorak Patch. Those are some kooky British children. Coach Party and Momma are both awesome. So is this French band called Slurp. And definitely Native Sun, a killer band from New York.
Words by Melody
Keep up with SUB*T
Listen to "Boxing Day" here
"Too Soon Too Long" is out 6/18!
