Bush's label earMUSIC claim that the band have had to spend a lot of time on the road touring new album Sea Of Memories, and, as a result Corey has not seen many hotel rooms. Thankfully we get to speak to him, finally, during some downtime and the one time session player with The Calling has a frog in his throat and an elephant in the room. Being on tour ''can drive you crazy'' says the charismatic axeman, but we all have a good time on the bus, hanging out and doing whatnot.'' The whatnot in question may explain Corey's rougher vocal edge, though he explains ''I do a lot of the backing vocals and we've had a lot of shows in a row, so you know, I'm just feelin' the pain a little bit.''

There is the unspoken trend that tours tend to blur, Corey (pictured far left), though, enjoys the promotion slog; ''every show is standing up to the last one, you know what I mean. Each show has it's own little something, little quirks, that I am really enjoying,'' coming to Europe seems to have resonated too, he continues, ''It's really fun going from city to city, especially in Europe – to places we don't play an awful lot, and seeing the different crowds and the different reactions. We had a lot of fun in Vienna, and I had a lot of fun in Luxembourg cause I had a bunch of close friends, who live in Germany, come to see us.''

Corey's musical past, not the Julie Andrews kind, was of a session musician for hire. When a band needed someone to come in and get the bass part licked, Corey was their man. He had a stint with The Calling for a while, but was never really a full member – a good thing in my mind – it was through a session contract that Corey first met one Gavin Rossdale. ''A few years back, when Gavin was working on The Wanderlust, his solo record, I was hired for studio work. We became good friends and when he deiced to get Bush back together, he needed to fill the bass spot and, well, he called me up.''

During the recording of Sea Of Memories, there was no real mandate to follow but the process was not a furious blast of creativity. Songs were written and scrapped in the year that it took from idea to release, and though Britz suggests that no songs were dropped forever, there were 30 in contention for release. The final track-listing was settled on a group of twelve that 'flowed' the best.

Corey explains the writing process as being ''probably like most music projects, I would guess. Gavin writes fabulous songs, and when he brings them to us, we each try to add to them, to his vision, in our own way and help create the synergy of, what you would call the 'sound', you know?'' The general consensus during recording the album was to maintain the Bush sound as it had been known for many years. Corey suggests that this decision came from the fact that the previous records had sold well, were successful and had an audience, but ''we wanted to take it in a slightly different direction so that the fans had something new to sink their teeth into.''

As well as penning some of the biggest hits in the early 90s alt-rock scene, Everything Zen, Machinehead, Swallowed, Rossdale is also a bit of dab-hand on the tennis courts. Would Corey give him a good game? ''No, I would not put myself through that embarrassment. I am not good a tennis player. I like to feel good about myself and that would not help.''

The reception from fans has been ''fabulous'', he says, ''and I think it helps that I have always been a fan of the band myself. When I came onboard my goal was not to change anything, to just do it justice. I was always a fan of Dave's (Parsons) bass-playing and Nigel's (Pulsford) guitar playing. It was a great opportunity for me to be a part of it. It translated well with fans, at least those that I have spoken to.'' Britz was a fan back in the days of Bush's debut Sixteen Stone and he describes attending those shows as ''some of my favourites of the mid-90s, and now 15 years later to be playing in that band is an absolutely awesome experience.''

Corey says that the hardest thing when first joining Bush was not that their riffs gave him any trouble but that he had to ''maintain the feel. There is something unique abut the music. Getting the notes down proper was no problem, but it took me a while to wrap my around the groove.'' But he's not adverse to dropping a few of the older tracks in soundcheck, ''we play Land Of The Living, which we played for the first time on the tour. I like Alien, there's such a beautiful bassline to play on that.''

Corey fell in love with Everything Zen while sitting in a car with his cousin, they immediately went and bought the record because ''we had never heard a sound like that before, and that song resonates with me a lot.'' Other tracks that tickle Corey's gizzard include Heart Of The Matter and recent single Sound Of Winter, as the transition from studio recording to live track is what he best enjoys from being in a band. It may also be because Heart Of The Matter is, in his own words, ''a bit of a finger twister.''

Oddly for a multi-million selling band, Bush are more popular in the USA than they are in their homeland. The media in the UK were quick to pass off Bush as Nirvana-copyists and Rossdale was an easy target as his tousled locks and chiseled cheekbones marked him out from a dour crowd who preferred their rockstars to be a little more rough around the edges. Corey can't explain why that happened, ''I really wish I had an answer for that question as it was one thing that I cannot wrap my head around. For some reason when Bush's sound hit the US we all just love it. I can only vouch for being on that side of the pond. When it hit there everyone was crazy for it. Bush does have a solid following in England, but for some reason it translated to the States very well.''

Having an enigmatic leader such as Gavin Rossdale has its blessings but also comes with its fair share of problems. The focus inevitably shifts to the frontman in interview and he will always garner column inches with his marriage to Gwen Stefani, or starring in films, and there is a danger that, faced with that type of media maelstrom that the other band members become just that, other members. ''It can be tough, but it's more of a great problem to have as opposed to you know...'' no one taking about you ''..yes. Having somone like Gavin who is that electric and impresses on that many people, it can only help the band get to expose themselves to as wide an audience as possible.''

All the other band members have a wiki link but Corey's is conspicuous by its absence.The bassist laughs this off, ''I don't know, the only thing I use the internet for is e-mail and watching movies. I'm a little bit in the dark about technololgy.'' Corey is a huge Star Trek fan, perhaps the reason he remains off the the Wikipedia radar, ''All I seem to do is watch old episodes of Star Treks. We've been on the road for six months so I've made it through the original series, Voyager and Deep Space 9. It's safe to say that I'm a Trekkie.''

And what of their tour mates Evaline (pronounced EVA-LINE), who we interviewed last week? ''(laughs) They're a group of nice guys and touring with them has been great. Sometimes you can get personality rubs and egos an get in the way, but everything with these guys is just great. It's been a joy to tour with them. It is nice to have nice people that you get along with.'' Dom of Evaline complained, jokingly, that the main band have a stonking big rig of a tour bus while the support act sit in a van. This is “not” claims Britz, the fault of Bush. ''Sometimes you just get that short end of the stick... for budgetary reasons, you know, we've all been there and I share their pain. The fact that there's six of them could have some baring on it (laughs).''

Britz has a bizarre pre-show ritual, he falls asleep 30 minutes before stage time, his bandmates wake him up just before they take stage.

He sometimes feels he is asleep when he is awake and vice-versa. But when you're playing for a band you once loved as a teen, you can forgive him that.

Sleep, proper, will have to wait for now, as it seems that Bush's resurgent popularity isn't going to end any time soon.

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(images and video copyright earMUSIC)