Interview: The Gaslight Anthem

In the span of six albums, the Gaslight Anthem have established themselves as a bridge between the Jersey shore punk of the Bouncing Souls and the heartland narratives of the Garden State’s favorite son, Bruce Springsteen. 

But what makes this storyline all the more interesting is the fact that the foursome -- singer/rhythm guitarist Brian Fallon, lead guitarist Alex Rosamilia, bassist Alex Levine and drummer Benny Horowitz -- are coming off a nearly decade-long hiatus that ended when the quartet chose March 25, 2022 to announce on Instagram that they were reuniting after initially deciding to hang it up in 2015. 

And while the time away was briefly interrupted in 2018 when Gaslight Anthem reconvened for a short tour to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the band’s sophomore release “The ’59 Sound,” the 2023 album of new material, “History Books,” codified the idea of the group being back and in form, according to Rosamilia.

“We had something to say again,” he said. “The point was always that we weren’t going to make music for the sake of making music to keep the machine moving. For one reason or another, we felt like that purpose was back. Brian called me up to say he wanted to get his band back together and that he missed doing that kind of a thing. That, I assume, was also the inspiration for wanting to write the songs as well.”

The desire to cut new material found Gaslight Anthem tapping Peter Katis (The National; Death Cab for Cutie) as producer. And while recording started in October 2022 with driving banger “Positive Change,” the Jersey foursome didn’t get into the full swing of spending Sunday to Friday nights at Katis’ Tarquin Studios in Bridgeport, CT, where the band laid down tracks down, until January 2023. After such a long layoff, there was definitely a period of the band members getting reacquainted in a recording space.

“We wanted to work on the album sort of sounding urgent, and to do that you kind of spend less time in the sketch phase and more time in the finalizing kind of stuff,” Rosamilia explained. “You don’t jam, too, and it’s more about figuring out the part as it comes (and that) helps create that sense of urgency. In the beginning it was like riding a bike. First we had to get on and it was wobbly, but by the time we finished the record, we were dancing on tabletops.”

The sessions ended with 10 Fallon-penned cuts ranging from the anthemic “Little Fires” and the ethereal “Empires” to the epic title cut featuring a cameo by Springsteen, whose relationship with the band has turned into a mutual admiration society. And while Gaslight Anthem was finding its way back in this space, it didn’t take long for Rosamilia to feel those creative synapses reconnect.

“By the time we got to the end of the record, I felt like we had just started getting going,” he said. “I also think that a lot of the songs on the new record are some of my favorite Gaslight songs of all time. I love ‘I Live in the Room Above Her’ and along with ‘Michigan, 1975,’ I think (those are) some of the best things we’ve ever done. I also love ‘The Weatherman.’ These songs all felt like they were part of the collection as soon as we were recording them. None of them felt new to me in the very least.”

Now starting a run opening for Counting Crows, Gaslight Anthem are once again wholeheartedly embracing their live music element with the additional inspiration of having new material to share. With six albums from which to draw, Rosamilia and company are eager to pick back up with a fanbase that was kept guessing about the future of Gaslight Anthem. 

“With our live show, we try to keep it different, you know?” he said. “We never were into the type of thing where we had rehearsed bits in between songs. We came from the Fugazi school of what is the set now? We are professionals. We have to do our set lists ahead of time. We do a different one every day just to keep it fresh.”

And while the aforementioned hiatus threw a scare into a fan base used to these Jersey boys being a constant presence both on the stage and in the studio, Rosamilia is quick to assuage any concerns that Gaslight Anthem is only temporarily dipping back in.

“We’re definitely back,” he said. “And not to be like this is our one new record and we’re going to sit on it for a while. We’re already talking about working on the next thing.”