Brother Josh, aka Josh Bass, is building on the success of his first two singles, ‘Crawl Back’ and ‘Waves’, with a new single ‘Build It Back’ to be released on September 14 and his debut 5-track EP of the same name on October 21, 2022.
‘Build It Back’ the single has a vocal that swaggers and swings on top of chunky full-blooded guitars and drums, and a definite whiff of classy pop. The eagerly-awaited Build It Back EP will include all three singles, plus ‘Turn the Page’ and ‘Cut A Switch’ to concoct a generous slab of frontline Irish pop-rock.
All five tracks poured from Dubliner Josh’s songwriting pen in an intense creative period during the last lockdown. As Josh himself explains, “The absence of live music and face-to-face interaction with other writers during the lockdowns created a logjam of emotions that is now pouring out in exciting new recordings. In truth, I’ve never been this excited about my music, and I know that other musicians feel the same about theirs. Although the competition out there among bands is very healthy and very competitive, all the feedback we’re getting from music fans about the state of Irish music right now is to be celebrated.”
His debut single ‘Crawl Back’ showcased Josh’s dramatic vocal style and his expressive way with lyrics but the on-line response surprised him. “We had terrific feedback in Ireland but we were amazed to see that 80% of streams of ‘Crawl Back’ were actually from overseas, including the USA and Britain.”
Modern technology enabled Josh to work on the basic structures of his songs via the Garage Band app and then build on that in the studio with Josh himself on guitar and vocals, plus his cousin Daire Bass on guitar and backing vocals, the inventive Bulgarian producer Yanko Genov and drummer Alan Connon.
With his tongue only slightly in his cheek, Josh reckons the band is well on its way to fulfilling the prophecy of music guru Louis Walsh who spotted them on RTE’s programme Sessions From Oblivion and said, “I reckon that if Brother Josh makes the right moves he has the creative potential to do really well.”
So it’s no surprise that Damien Dempsey then offered Brother Josh a support slot on his recent nationwide tour. Nor that Alan Corr on www.rte.ie described ‘Crawl Back’ as “a vaudevillian waltz of doom” or that Jackie Hayden of Hot Press said, ‘Crawl Back’ is where post-lockdown passion meets high-intensity drama. We need more if it.”
All five tracks on Build It Back will be available on Spotify and all key global platforms from October 21.
