Yes they also come from New Jersey and yes they write blue collar rock songs for the down-trodden and yes he's a fan, but The Gaslight Anthem are officially fed up of talking about Bruce Springsteen!
Having achieved minor mainstream acceptance on the back of their 2nd album 'The 59 Sound' (partly thanks to the endorsement of a certain New Jersey heavyweight) The Gaslight Anthem released their 3rd record 'American Slang' this summer to beaming critical praise and played a set of sold out shows across the country. Their success this year could be down to how well the bands sunny, optimistic blue-collar rock & roll ties to the uncharacteristically wonderful weather we've been having but it's more likely because of the tunes. It's an album which finds the band finally finding their 'sound' and should see them enter the premier leagues by years end. I caught up with lead guitarist Alex Rosamilia on the cusp of a triumphant UK tour on a sunny day in Birmingham to discuss their new found success.
Subba-Cultcha: Hi Alex how are you? Alex Rosamilia: "Not bad how are you?"
SC: I'm not too bad, are you in sunny Birmingham now or are you on route? AR "Yeah we're at the venue now, and it actually is pretty sunny today. We just got here today from Germany and it was raining constantly over there so this is nice!"
SC: Ok well first off the bat congrats on American Slang, it's a real step up for you guys I think. It's deceptively eclectic too, on the other records your influences were more obvious and pronounced but you seem to have really 'found your sound' with this one. AR: "Yeah that was the idea really, we wanted to come into our own. Instead of asking "what would they do" we were more "what should I do" if that makes any sense. So we were definitely conscious of that when writing and recording the album, we made a conscious effort to transcend our influences and take off the training wheels."
SC: Good move mate, sometimes if you try too hard to replicate the moves of your idols you just end up of a lesser version of them. AR: "Exactly I mean you have to know how much of it to put into the music without it sounding obvious. I'm a massive Cure fan and I've put it all over every record we've done but only when it fit. It's hard to do that though, especially when your just starting out. like I said I love the Cure but we're a punk rock band so... (laughs) y'know?"
SC: I dunno mate you can pigeonhole yourselves as a 'punk rock' band but there are elements of everything in there really, especially with the new record and I think that's one reason why your starting to make in roads into the mainstream. With 'Diamond Church Choir' for example, every time I hear it I can't help thinking of West Side Story. AR "Ah because of the finger snaps (laughs) but yeah that stems from influences too, I mean for my part that song was very much influenced by Joe Jackson which is a little cheesy but I love it and I think it really comes across on that song."
SC: Cheese isn't always bad though mate AR: "Oh no definitely not, your talking to a guy who has a Phil Collins tattoo! (laughs)."
SC: Wow.... what of his face or...? AR: "No of course not it's a lyric, i do however have Bruce Campbell's face tattooed on me but people always seem to think it's David Hasslehoff or... Bono (laughs)."
SC: You worked with the same producer as you did for 59 sound, is this just purely for comfort reason or do you just think he gets the best out of you? I mean I'm certainly not nocking it, Radiohead have done their last 5 albums with the same producer so obviously once you find 'your guy' so to speak it's sometimes best to just stick with what you know. AR: "Yeah, I mean I know it sounds pretty cliché but Ted's definitely like the 5th member of the band and he's just as much an influence on the songs as any of us. I think he's important because he has an objective opinion as opposed to the rest of us who are incredibly biased and tend to get a little too attached to the things we write even when they might be crap. Nobody thinks they write crap but everybody writes crap (laughs)."
SC: I totally agree, you are talking to the most self-deprecating song writer on the planet after-all. AR: "Ditto (laughs)"
SC: Well overall I think it's a really sunny, optimistic album, I was playing it in the car on the way home from work with the windows down in the sun and it was just perfect. Lyrically too it's definitely (if you'll pardon the analogy) more 'Born To Run' than 'Nebraska'. AR: "Y'know really when we were recording it we thought it was going to be much more downtrodden. We were recording in the winter in the cold with about 6 or 7 inches of snow outside and I just remember walking to the studio everyday in abject misery so the fact that it came out sounding as upbeat as it did is pretty cool really. I mean it's definitely lyrically optimistic, about moving forward and not letting what's happened in your past get to you, not worrying about your mistakes and concerning yourself with right now so it is definitely optimistic message wise but musically i think we all thought it sounded pretty (makes unintelligible groaning sound) beaten."
SC: Well I think there are 2 tracks that definitely sound more... melancholy. 'Queen Of Lower Chelsea' and 'We Did It When We Were Young' are both pretty miserable sounding songs but I think you pulled it off and infused both of them with enough of your specific brand of joie de vivre. In fact atmospherically 'WDIWWWY' almost sound like something off (Cure album) 'Disintegration'. AR: "Thank You! I think that's the best compliment you could ever give me, in fact that's the best thing anyones ever told me cause that's been my favourite album of all time since I was like 16. I'm gonna send you a bouquet of flowers (laughs). Or maybe just buy you a beer."
SC: Yeah I'll definitely hold you to that! And speaking of influences it must have been odd to think when you recording it though that 'The Boss' would definitely be buying a copy? Well I say buying, I doubt he has to buy his records. AR: "I'm not giving him a copy he'll have to buy it like everyone else... or download it (laughs). Honestly though the thought never crossed my mind. Personally I don't know much about him because I myself was never a really big fan, I mean not that I don't like it I was just never as into it as Brian. I mean when we've played with him it's not like we hang out afterwards and shoot the shit (laughs), he just shows up, does his thing then rides off into the sunset. He's not really ever been a concern to be honest, it's not like we're constantly striving to "please the boss". I mean it's great if he likes it but I'm not gonna cry if he doesn't like the new record."
SC: Yeah I think people might have picked up on the Springsteen thing a little too much. Do you get it as much in the states as you do over here? AR "Yeah I think it's just most journalists don't really... think, it's almost like they just see we're from New Jersey and from a 'blue collar' background and make that automatic assumption and yeah Brian has borrowed a thing or two from the Boss and they seem to get on together but that's the first thing that shows up on google when you put us in there so it's just lazy journalism I think."
SC: Look on the bright side mate at least nobodies comparing you to Bon Jovi AR: "(laughs), no this is true. But yeah it's a theory I've been working on that people pick up on it because 'story' wise it's almost the most note-worthy thing we have because we don't do anything weird or have drug problems or anything quite so exotic so that's the only thing they can use to get people that aren't really familiar with us to pay attention and be almost like "Ok, I can relate to them now without having to hear them." And how much more do you want me to say?"
SC: Yeah I can imagine it gets a little irritating, but to be fair it has brought you in alot of fans. AR: "Oh yeah I'm certainly not complaining about it at-all I'm just sick of talking about it and people make more out of it than they should. I mean if you want to talk about us and the only way you can talk about us is by comparing us to Springsteen then go for it I'll take all the publicity I can get."
SC: Exactly, ride it all the way to the bank. Just reading up on it there seems to be a real nurturing scene in that area in general though, I mean New Jersey's probably one of the only places I know with it's own sub-genre. In Birmingham where your playing tonight... well it's a fucking wasteland unless your a middle of the road metal band or a 'dance' DJ. the Island bar across from where your playing tonight is ok, my band plays there alot, but generally it's a pretty grim place musically. is there sort of a comrarderie between bands where you guys come from? AR: "Yeah well the whole area's kind of got mixed up together, I mean like the central area of New Jersey where we're from and New Brunswick where all the college bands play. Cause where we are New York cities half an hour in one direction and New Brunswick's half an hour in the other direction so we were right in the middle of it. I think it's because there are some huge universities in that area and when kids turn 18 and graduate high school they see it as some kind of independent, punk-rock Mecca almost. It's got to the point where kids who want to be in bands will choose to go to a college in new Brunswick just because they know they'll meet other kids there to start bands with. And every year there's a constant influx of new kids so it's almost like a cycle and it's got to the stage where being a band from that area is almost a status symbol. 'Thursday' for example are a 'New Brunswick band' but none of them actually come from New Brunswick and we're a 'New Brunswick band' and Benny's the only one of us who's ever actually lived there."
SC: There are cities like that all over the world though mate, just look over here at Liverpool in the 60's or Manchester in the 80's. AR: "Yeah that's true, and those kind of cities generally breed a really cool scene where bands will help each other out and take each other on tour. I mean it's a competition and the sheer amount of bands obviously makes the competition that much harder but I think that's much better because if your in a town that only has 4 bands you could probably get a gig no matter how shit you are but when there's like 20 bands only the best ones will get the gigs, so you have to be better, play better and write better song, it's a healthy competition."
SC: Yeah there's definitely that problem over here, there are literally thousands of unsigned bands and most of them are god awful but places will give them a gig as long as they can bring 50 mates along with them. AR: "Yeah but then you just have to bring more friends and you could have 17 or 18 bands who could bring that many people so you need to stand out to get the show."
SC: Yeah and as you get better you start attracting more people not because they know you but because they actually like you and want to listen to you which is alot more organic really. What's your songwriting process been like generally as a band for this record, I know Brian's said it was different than for the others. AR: "Not really we've always pretty much written everything together really, Brian will show up with a lyric or a chord progression and we'll work out what kind of vibe it has and work around it together and adapt it until it sounds natural, once we know where it's going it usually all just falls into place."
SC: That kind of dynamics really rare to be honest mate, to gel that easily. AR: "Yeah tell me about it, every band I've been in before this was always so much harder. I think with most bands people find it very hard to think alike so you just end up in these listless jams where nobody looks at each other and nobody says anything but with Gaslight it's always just been easy, it all just falls into place, really I've just been lucky as crap (laughs) cause it's not the kind of thing that happens too often."
SC: You strike me as a band who have tried to keep in touch with the nurturing ideals of punk-rock, I can't imagine you (to use an antiquated term) 'selling out' any time soon. AR: "Why thank you, and it's good that people can see that. We've never really done anything we didn't want to do just to sell ourselves and we try to think through every decision and make sure it represents what we stand for and those decisions are everything from what label we decided to go with to what we choose to put our name on. I think that's a very, as you say 'punk thing' to do what you want to do for what you want to do it for, it's really easy to loose your ethics in this business if someone offers you like $200,000 to splash an energy drinks label all over your equipment, most of those drinks taste like crap anyway."
SC: Well at the end of the day it's all about the music and as long as you don't start like, duetting with Lady Gaga or having your songs covered on glee anything I think you'll be alright. although i think 59 sound on glee would be fucking awesome. AR: "Well I wouldn't know anything about that (laughs) but no we wouldn't, we actually turned down Rock Band and that could have really netted us a big pay day. Speaking of which I have to shoot for sound-check now man."
SC: No worries mate, was a pleasure talking to you, good luck and I'll hold you to that beer! AR: "Sure thing man take care."
I never did get that beer but thanks the Alex and Sarah Maynard at division promo for setting up the interview!
'American Slang' is out now, The Gaslight Anthem play the Reading and Leeds festivals on the 27th and 28th of August before returning to the UK in November for more headline shows
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