JULY/AUGUST 2012 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM Q&A

Alex rosamilia, Alex levine, Brian fallon, Benny Horowitz the gaslight anthem For their latest project, the folk-punk rockers go bigger and bolder

AccolAdes piled up fAst After Did the band’s heightened fame there was one we brought to the studio that Gaslight Anthem’s 2010 album, influence the creative process? we thought was one of the better songs. But American Slang, but the New Jersey band it’s important to stay focused on the task after we recorded it, it just sounded bad—that shut out as much of the hype as possible at hand and not worry about those things. was a big disappointment. A song might be to focus on writing music for their latest, luckily, the way we structured our record tossed, but if there’s a certain part of it that’s Handwritten. “really, you just want to deal means nothing leaves our camp. We’re great, that idea could end up sparking a new make great songs,” says drummer Benny not getting opinions from a million people, song. that happens fairly often. Horowitz. “that’s where it starts.” in pursuit and we don’t have to answer to anyone or of a bigger, fuller sound, the band recruited change anything if we don’t want to. the Why did you select Brendan to produce? producer Brendan o’Brien (pearl Jam, Bruce songs were written in a room with the five even before we signed, his name was being springsteen). one of the results is singer of us, and we threw out a lot of ideas and kicked around. it was an easy decision—his Brian fallon baring more of his soul in the lyrics songs we didn’t think were good. By the body of work speaks for itself. each of us has as compared to the oft-veiled material on the time we were ready to present a song to a probably 10 albums in our record collection group’s two previous albums. Horowitz gives producer, we were pretty stoked about it. he’s worked on. But when it came to the us more Handwritten details. there are some things you can control as choice, it was really personality-based. a band: the songs you write, how they’re it was apparent early on he’s not some What was the goal with Handwritten? recorded, how you sound live and how you big-time music producer ego guy. We ended We wanted to make a record that was present yourself. everything else is kind up talking baseball for 20 minutes. bigger in sound and scope. if there’s any of out of your hands. complaint we had about American Slang, how did Brian’s horrible Crowes solo it’s that it was a little thin at times. this time Was making the final cut difficult? project affect the recording process? we added another full-time guitar, which filled there were ideas and demos that got His working in a solo capacity definitely out the sound. We also made an attempt tossed before we even got to the production helped. With Gaslight, Brian’s used to to strip away the metaphor of what the process. Brendan came up to New Jersey for writing songs collectively, but Horrible lyrics used to be rooted in—seeing stories three days the month before we recorded to crowes was his record, and the process through the eyes of another person. With hear what we had. We had nine completed made him better. i think the lyrics on the new this record, they’re more direct, straight songs ready to present, but that’s out of 20 or record are easily the best we’ve ever had. from Brian’s mouth. 25 we had before we narrowed them down. –Eric R. Danton

‘We don’t have to answer to anyone or change anything if we don’t want to.’

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