Handwritten anthems by Gaslight
NEW Jersey four-piece The Gaslight Anthem has officially become rock music's hottest property.
NEW Jersey four-piece The Gaslight Anthem has officially become rock music's hottest property.
In just under six years and four albums, they have gone from underground punk to gracing the covers of dozens of rock magazines and sharing stages with Bruce Springsteen.
Just when things couldn't get any bigger, the band is on the eve of releasing its finest effort yet, album number five and major label debut Handwritten.
Frontman Brian Fallon has previously said every band has its album, its moment.
Handwritten might just be it for The Gaslight Anthem.
"We think it is, maybe," Fallon says pensively.
"Time is really the thing that will tell that because I feel like you don't really get the sense until you can look back on it and see what really happened. Is this the point where something changes for us? I hope so - maybe."
It was 2008's The '59 Sound that proved to be the first defining moment for The Gaslight Anthem.
"We didn't think anyone was going to listen to it - but they did and it changed everything," he laughs.
For Handwritten Fallon and co channel the energy of The '59 Sound but through the education that only age can bring, The Gaslight Anthem have matured even further.
"Yeah I think that was the next step," he says of the new album's maturity.
"We've become comfortable with us being us which is hard to do."
Part of growing up was Fallon taking a break from The Gaslight Anthem and releasing an album from his side project The Horrible Crowes exactly one year ago.
The experimentation and instrumentation from that record were the catalyst for the maturity and growth shown on Handwritten.
"I think I learned how to write songs better doing that," Fallon says of The Horrible Crowes.
"The guys (The Gaslight Anthem) were really interested in the new sounds I tried in Horrible Crowes and they were really open to that. Like the last song on the album National Anthem, which has violins on it - normally any rock band would be afraid of that."
Fallon admits there are elements of the band's punk roots on the new record but is quick to state that punk has become "kind of a dirty word" these days.
"Punk music is a funny thing especially for us," he explains. "It's kind of a dirty word around our camp. When we were growing up punk music didn't have so many rules. Now there's rules - like what's a punk band? I mean Green Day can be a punk band and so can The Arcade Fire - they're not punk bands - that's not how it worked when we were young. For us it's a different thing."
Handwritten, besides its title, has a very nostalgic feel.
Fallon sings of his favourite records that made him cry, there's the classic rock feel on the track Here Comes My Man and of course the first single 45, which talks of playing your favourite record - on record for a change.
"It's not really a nostalgia thing - it's more about pumping the brakes a little on the technology rocket ship that everybody is on.
"I mean, I don't rummage through old vinyl. A lot of the stuff I buy on vinyl is new, like I bought Adele's album - now that's a record."
* HEAR Handwritten (Universal) out tomorrow.
* SEE The Gaslight Anthem on tour later this year.