As teenagers Charlotte Cooper and her Subways bandmates got their start playing Nirvana covers around their English neighbourhood. Now they’re part of the Soundwave Festival touring Australia. Today I chatted to this uber-cool bass player about her guitar heroes, working with legendary producer Butch Vig, and her love for Oz.
You’re out here to play Soundwave. How have the local crowds been so far?
It’s been really amazing so far. We’re just so, so happy to be in Australia. We all love the country so much and it’s so great to get the chance to play here. This is only our second time touring here. We’ve obviously been here separately, but this is only our second time playing here – we were here in 2006 for The Big Day Out – so we’re just glad to play here.
So what keeps you coming back to Australia?
Well we’ve all got family here and we’ve been coming over since we were kids, so I think we’re always going to have that connection to the country. And I absolutely love being here. I’m not really sure what it is about it, but I think it’s the only other place in the world I could live other than the UK.
Have you been able to see much your family or play tourist while you’ve been here?
I did, I got to stay with my aunt for night, which was good. Now we’ve got a couple of days off in Melbourne so we’ve all got different ideas of what we want to do and see.
What are you planning to get up to?
Well my first thing is shopping. That’s my days planned.
Have you been able to watch any of the other acts on the tour?
We’ve watched quite a few actually. And in Melbourne too, I don’t think we’ve got a flight too early so we’re going to stand around and watch some of the headliners too like Nine Inch Nails, Billy Talent, and Alice in Chains. I really want to see Lacuna Coil as well because she’s the only other girl on the whole festival.
You’re regulars on the festival circuit. What do you love about playing these big travelling shows?
I think that in terms of the audience, for us, it’s a great way to get new fans. And the whole thing with festivals is about having a good time, kind of escaping and forgetting about their lives for a day and having a good time. And that’s what our live show is all about, that’s the atmosphere we try to create every night. So being in a festival, that’s what we’re all about anyway so it’s excellent to do that. We get to go to a place like Australia where we’ve never really been before to perform. As well as for us it’s a chance to see bands. We’re very fortunate that we get to see huge bands because we don’t always get to do that.
I hear that both Oasis and Foo Fighters are really big fans of yours. What’s it like when such massive bands sit up and take notice of what you’re doing?
It’s amazing, especially since both bands picked us to support them as well. I can’t tell you what an amazing feeling that is, when someone like Liam Gallagher tells Billy [Lunn] and I that he really likes “Oh Yeah.” We didn’t really know how to take that, when someone we’ve idolised since we were young kids likes our song.
So what did you learn from being on the road with them?
I think really with the Foo Fighter, they’re just showmen, all of them. Particularly Dave Grohl, but Taylor Hawkins is an amazing drummer, he’s a showman as well as a drummer. And putting a show together, everyone has an amazing time at a Foo Fighters gig. You leave feeling quite euphoric I think. So we try and take a little bit of that away I think. That’s the kind of atmosphere we want to create at our shows as well.
There are so many great female bass guitarists like Suzi Quatro and Juliana Hatfield. Are there any that you particularly look up to?
D’Arcy who used to be in Smashing Pumpkins, Melissa Auf der Maur who used to be in Hole – I was a massive Hole fan. Obviously there’s been various different female musicians who’ve been in that band, and they’re all musicians that I look up to. PJ Harvey as well – I know she’s a guitarist rather than a bass player, but in the way that her stage presence is. Shirley Manson, amazing frontwoman. There’s lots of people.
After your first album Billy had to have surgery to remove polyps on his vocal chords and the band’s future was in doubt. What was that period like for you?
It was a very scary time for us, very uncertain time. I think that was the thing that we all found quite difficult. We’d been on this whirlwind of a tour after releasing Young For Eternity, two and a half years of touring the world, having an amazing time, and that came to quite an abrupt stop. There was nothing booked in the diary, we didn’t know how long it would take Billy to recover, and that’s what we found really hard. I think that’s why now we’re so grateful to be doing this.
You recorded your latest album All or Nothing with Butch Vig, who produced all those classic Nirvana records. Now I believe you got your start playing Nirvana covers, so did you get a bit star-struck meeting him?
Oh definitely, the first time we met him I was definitely quite nervous. I was definitely a bit nervous before going into the studio as well, a bit scared. He’s had an amazing career and worked with all of these amazing musicians, you sort of doubt yourself a bit I guess. But we had so much fun, and he’s such a lovely, lovely guy, such a disarming character. He made us feel so comfortable. I never had so much fun being in the studio. It was amazing.
And finally, do you have a message for your Australian fans?
I just want to thank everybody for coming to the shows. If you people didn’t come we wouldn’t be able to come out here. It’s quite amazing. We’re on quite early at Soundwave, and a lot of people have made the effort to come down early and see us, which is amazing. I really, really, really hope we’ll be back soon. We’re definitely trying to get another tour organized, maybe later this year or early next year.
Image used with permission from Warner Music Australia
Living legend 
