It's a damp August evening in New York, and outside a midtown bar and grill Brand New singer Jesse Lacey is propped up on crutches. "I was trying to be Pete Townshend," he says, describing the excessive rocking out that led to a torn patella tendon. Brand New spent nearly 300 days of the past year on tour, and in spite of Lacey's knee trouble, the work has paid off for the emo band: Its second indie album, Deja Entendu, has sold 95,000 copies since June, and the single "The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows" shares radio airtime with Audioslave and Dave Matthews. They are touring with Dashboard Confessional and have just signed with DreamWorks -- a deal that sources estimate at more than $1 million.

Brand New formed four years ago, in the Long Island, New York, suburb of Levittown, where the boys -- Lacey, guitarist Vin Accardi, drummer Brian Lane and bassist Garrett Tierney -- still live with their parents. They credit their success to their relentless road schedule, but anyone can get in a van for 300 days. Deja Entendu is an emo masterpiece if ever there was one, applying the intensity of post-hardcore and oddly sexy grooves to sophisticated and impassioned songwriting.

Like all the bands in their scene, Brand New prefer not to be called emo, as melodic, heart-on-sleeve punk has come to be known. "This is the music where we talk about how we've been wronged and got our hearts broken and nobody understands," says Lacey, running off his litany of complaints about mainstream punk-pop bands such as Good Charlotte. "Some of that's true, but I've hurt people just as often as I've been hurt. I'm trying to be honest about the kind of person I am underneath it all." That's evident in such songs as "The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot," an apology to a girl Lacey dumped for no reason. "If it makes you less sad, we'll start talking again," he sings. "And you can tell me how vile I already know that I am."

The lyrics, Lacey says, were inspired by the fits of anxiety and depression he suffered while finishing the album on a tight deadline. "I'd sit up watching Blind Date on TV with a notebook in front of me," the singer says. "I'd be thinking, 'What do I have to say to anyone? The only thing I'm feeling right now is panic.' The first things that came to my head were the most stripped-down and emotionally honest."

Though Brand New would prefer to follow in Radiohead's footsteps than Good Charlotte's, they're not chasing art for art's sake. "Top Forty and TRL and being on the cover of Seventeen magazine -- none of that stuff will last," Lacey acknowledges. "But if an opportunity arrives, you just grab it. I'd love for millions of people to hear our music."

(September 10, 2003)