{"id":7445,"date":"2012-09-24T01:07:01","date_gmt":"2012-09-24T08:07:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=7445"},"modified":"2012-09-24T01:07:34","modified_gmt":"2012-09-24T08:07:34","slug":"the-gaslight-anthem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2012\/09\/the-gaslight-anthem\/","title":{"rendered":"THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Alex

Alex Rosamilia, Alex Levine, Brian Fallon, Benny Horowitz<\/p><\/div>\n

THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM<\/h1>\n

For their latest project, the folk-punk rockers go bigger and bolder \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n


\n<\/strong>Accolades piled up fast after\u00a0Gaslight Anthem\u2019s 2010 album,\u00a0American Slang<\/em>, but the New Jersey band shut out as much of the hype as possible to focus on writing music for their latest, Handwritten<\/em>. \u201cReally, you just want to make great songs,\u201d says drummer Benny Horowitz. \u201cThat\u2019s where it starts.\u201d In pursuit of a bigger, fuller sound, the band recruited producer Brendan O\u2019Brien (Pearl Jam, Bruce Springsteen). One of the results is singer Brian Fallon baring more of his soul in the lyrics as compared to the oft-veiled material on the group\u2019s two previous albums. Horowitz gives\u00a0us more Handwritten<\/em>details. <\/p>\n

What was the goal with Handwritten<\/em>?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

We wanted to make a record that was bigger in sound and scope. If there\u2019s any complaint we had about American Slang<\/em>, it\u2019s that it was a little thin at times. This time we added another full-time guitar, which filled out the sound. We also made an attempt to strip away the metaphor of what the lyrics used to be rooted in\u2014seeing stories through the eyes of another person. With this record, they\u2019re more direct, straight\u00a0from Brian\u2019s mouth.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Did the band\u2019s heightened fame\u00a0<\/strong>influence the creative process?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to stay focused on the task at hand and not worry about those things. Luckily, the way we structured our record deal means nothing leaves our camp. We\u2019re not getting opinions from a million people, and we don\u2019t have to answer to anyone or change anything if we don\u2019t want to. The songs were written in a room with the five of us, and we threw out a lot of ideas and songs we didn\u2019t think were good. By the time we were ready to present a song to a producer, we were pretty stoked about it. There are some things you can control as a band: the songs you write, how they\u2019re recorded, how you sound live and how you present yourself. Everything else is kind\u00a0of out of your hands.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Was making the final cut difficult?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There were ideas and demos that got tossed before we even got to the production process. Brendan came up to New Jersey for three days the month before we recorded to hear what we had. We had nine completed songs ready to present, but that\u2019s out of 20 or 25 we had before we narrowed them down. There was one we brought to the studio that we thought was one of the better songs. But after we recorded it, it just sounded bad\u2014that was a big disappointment. A song might be tossed, but if there\u2019s a certain part of it that\u2019s great, that idea could end up sparking a new song. That happens fairly often.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Why did you select Brendan to produce?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even before we signed, his name was being kicked around. It was an easy decision\u2014his body of work speaks for itself. Each of us has probably 10 albums in our record collection he\u2019s worked on. But when it came to the choice, it was really personality-based. It was apparent early on he\u2019s not some\u00a0big-time music producer ego guy. We ended up talking baseball for 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How did Brian\u2019s Horrible Crowes solo project affect the recording process?<\/strong><\/p>\n

His working in a solo capacity definitely helped. With Gaslight, Brian\u2019s used to writing songs collectively, but Horrible Crowes was his record, and the process made him better. I think the lyrics on the new record are easily the best we\u2019ve ever had.<\/p>\n

\u2013Eric R. Danton<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM For their latest project, the folk-punk rockers go bigger and bolder \u00a0 Accolades piled up fast after\u00a0Gaslight Anthem\u2019s 2010 album,\u00a0American Slang, but the New Jersey band shut out as much of the hype as possible to focus on writing music for their latest, Handwritten. \u201cReally, you just want to make great songs,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[4906,4905,4902,4908,4904,4907,969,4903,4538,1876,970,4545],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7445"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7445"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7448,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7445\/revisions\/7448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}