Broom at the top

You could say Joe Brush has rediscovered his muse.

“It’s not just the best song I’ve ever written,” he says with a wide grin and cavernous laugh. ”It’s the best song I’ve ever heard.”
The former frontman of co.uk and Vapour Lounge has always been a font of enthusiasm, good-humour and can-do optimism, but this confidence is of a very different order: even though today is easily the brightest of the year so far, Joe’s mood threatens to outshine it.
See what a good break does for the spirits.
If you’re thinking it’s been a while since the last reported sightings of Mr Brush, then please don’t blame it on the boogie. It was very much the sunshine’s fault. Following the break-up of the promising Vapour Lounge (“They were all in other bands and it told. It never really felt like a proper band to me.”), he decided to up sticks for Spain, spending two years outside Malaga, “doing the whole sun, sea and youknowwhat thing”. Bastardo.
“The time away was amazing, really rejuvenating,” he reveals. “I wrote loads and loads of songs and learnt a new language. I’m not 100% fluent, but I’ll not starve either. My car stereo couldn’t pick up any of the music stations – it only seemed to tune into news or football shows – so, I was almost forced to sit back and spend time not listening to music. I wouldn’t say that I regained my inspiration – that’s always there, but it did gradually make me hungrier to get out there again.”
Once back in Northern Ireland, a re-energised Joe hooked up with Marty Gilbraith and old school mate, Stevie Porter and, keen to make hay while the sun still shone, formed Su Casa. The chemistry, it seemed, kicked in instantly.
According to Joe, Porter’s Johnny-come-lately enthusiasm (“Stevie did things properly. He went off to Music College and learnt the technical side. He’s spent years behind the scenes and this is his big opportunity to be in a band”) is a major factor in explaining the palpable sense of urgency surrounding the band.
“He’s become a maniac,” Joe laughs. “He’s obsessed. He bought a 1972 Fender Precision the other week. I went up to his house and his widescreen TV had gone. “Where’s your telly?” “Oh, I had to sell it to pay for the guitar. It’s alright I have a portable in the bedroom.” It’s mad. I’ve always been the person kicking backsides to practice. He rings me up now – where the fuck are you? He’s really pushing the boat with this one. It’s great.”
As usual, Joe is more than happy to shoulder the front-of-stage burden. Don’t, though, mistake his natural ebullience for pushy ego-mania. Sharing, for the first time, writing duties with the other members of the group, he’s keen to stress Su Casa’s team ethos.
“It always starts with the drummer,” he says. “They’re the crux of a band. If a band sounds wrong, nine times out of ten you can trace it back to the drummer. It doesn’t matter what the guitarist or singer is like, you need that strong basis and Marty is great. Really great.”
So you’ve built it from the back, then?
“Aye,” he smiles. “ Like Barcelona have Ronaldinho, but if the defence wasn’t up to it, they’d be sunk. I actually saw him play when I was in Spain. I went to the Nou Camp and spent the whole time just watching him. He was amazing. When we were signed to BMG, they brought us to Wembley to watch Chelsea and Man Utd in the Charity Shield, I was bored shitless. This was totally different. The stadium was breath-taking, the crowd, the players – it was amazing. It was like watching U2.”
As for the chances of Su Casa filling a house that big – Joe’s been around the block often enough now not to go making any outlandish promises. However, he’s also seen how tricky Fate can be when dishing out its cards.
“I’ve been getting these royalty cheques out of the blue recently,” he says. “When I was in co.dot we gave a track, ‘Freakazoid’, to Liam Howlett to remix. We never heard back from him and I assumed nothing had come of it, but it’s turned up as the theme tune to a show in the states called ‘America’s Most Talented’. Fuck knows what it’s like – but it just shows you, doesn’t it. You never know,” he laughs. “You never know.”