Interview with The Gaslight Anthem - Podcast 72

This is Brian from the Gaslight Anthem and you're listening to Sound Scene Revolution.

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First show of the new year. True story, true story. This show was supposed to actually air right before the holiday break as we went into the Christmas holiday season, but we had to cancel on a count of the writer's strike. The writers for this show left and without my amazing writing material, we didn't have anything really to work with, so we hired scabs. And so they're actually what's writing this show. So expect a lot of like Monica Lewinsky type Jay Leno humor, because real fucking comedians don't write for us anymore. I don't even know what to say. I'm so scared.

This interview is really old. It's with Brian from Gaslight Anthem. Really awesome guy, really awesome band. They have a new EP coming out on Sabat at the end of January, if you're interested. It's a, I believe it's a 2-7 inch EP called The Sonora and the Queen, or The Queen and the Sonora, some shit like that. But they're really good. You're going to want to listen to them, because in like fucking a year and a half, everyone's going to remember how good they were, because they'll be cool and no one will want to listen to them. They'll be like, they're too big now. I'm back when they played a bar in Pacifica with fucking four people, and I'll call you a fucking liar, because I was one of those four people, and I didn't see you there.

You fucking lying hack. So enjoy the interview. This is Brian. Only Brian. No prize, no contest, no shit. Enjoy it. This is a song from the album I haven't selected yet. I'll give it to y'all at a later date. Enjoy.

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Jeff's. Jeff's Deli. Jeff's, that's the deli Andrew Jackson Jihad told us about. They say it's apparently a very interesting deli. It's an interesting deli, yeah. They just, they won't give you coffee. Interesting. I don't know if that's interesting or just bad. Yeah, it might just be bad. We are hanging out with Brian from Gaslight Anthem. Hello. Hi. Thank you for taking the time. Sorry for you. I feel bad. Why do you feel bad? I don't know. I always feel like everything we do puts people out. I don't think that people should feel that way. I think if people make you feel that way, that you probably shouldn't give them the time. I hang out with a lot of assholes. Yeah. So that's what Nairman does. They have, I think that it's not, it's, it's actually, you know, grateful for us to do it, you know, or we should, we feel grateful to do it.

Don't, because no one will, no one's going to hear. But, uh, so, um, first of all, no. They're closed and they won't give you coffee. They just denied me coffee. Dumped it out right in front of my face. How was that? Sweet. That's how that was. Did that make you feel good? Yeah. I felt awesome about that. You're like, all right. Yeah. You couldn't, you couldn't just dump it into a cup. No, you couldn't. All right. I'll take stale coffee. Yeah. Anyhow, so, um, you guys are here at the festival. Is this, you've been on tour for a while, haven't you? Yeah, we've been on tour since July. Oh my God. So all over the world. Yeah. Where have you guys been now? Uh, we've been all over the U S two or three times, two times, two, two full rounds in the U S.

And then, uh, we went to Germany for a while and went to Holland and then came back and then we, we're just did this tour with the draft and dead to me. Oh my God. And now we're at the fest and we're tired. Is this kind of the cap off or are you guys still going after this? Uh, we're going to go for another three shows with the flatliners home and then, uh, and then we're taking a break for a while and then we just have like some little things. We have like a week in new England by ourselves and with the, uh, the forever endeavor. And we're going to do February with the loved ones on the East coast. Oh wow. So yeah, that'll be rad. It's going to be pretty cool. Nice. I mean, it's gotta be nice to take a little bit of time down after, uh, yeah, two tours, the U S the whole world thing. Have you ever done that much touring before? Is this not straight? No, like, no, it, it, it's been so long without a break that it was like, cause we, we went home for, six days one time right before Germany. Yeah. And then, uh, and then right after that we did four days right before the draft tour. So I mean, we've, we've had 10 days off and in 120 it'll be when we're done. Ouch. Yeah. Oh, but it's, it's cool. It's better than working somewhere else. You know what I mean?

That's true. If you love what you do, it's not too bad. It works out. Plus it gets you to the fest, which is true. And this was rad. Yeah. So this is your first time. Have you ever been in the fest before? No, no, it's our first time. Yeah. Oh, it's not a bad way to start off for the first time. Get a place sold out show. People jumping on the stage. Awesome. God had a good time. That was really cool. You're sure. Now show is insane. I didn't expect that at all. It was like, it literally was like a Jersey show. Whoa. These kids like us and we don't know anybody. Awesome. It's a pretty cool. Yeah. Dude. My voice is cracking. I'm like, I'm like a 14 year old. That's right. It's a pretty cool scene out here. Like I've never seen anything like this. I've never experienced like never coming from Bay Area. Everyone stands arms crossed. So it's a little different. Yeah.

Everybody's way into it. I mean, there's a lot of, it's a good vibe here. Like we were just saying that we, we haven't seen any fights. No one's fought anybody and no one's got, I haven't seen anybody screaming at each other. No, it's super friendly vibe, you know, cause you always kind of at any tour, like you go to warp tour and you definitely see some fists being thrown. You know what I mean? So that's, well, if I paid $20 to pay $4 for a bottle of water and stand outside in the hot sun all day, it's pretty hot. I'd be kind of a dick too, but see, well, yeah, I mean, I guess you get, but this is cool. Like the way they have it spread out with all the venues and everything and you can just get in and it's cool. It's nice. I like it. No, I didn't want to cut you off there. No, I was done. Oh yeah. Well, now you are. Now I'm done. So your guys album singer swim, it came out. God, how long ago? May 29th. So not like six months, almost. Yeah. Almost six months. Yeah. Yeah.

The response has been pretty overwhelming. Yeah. Like, is that, I mean, how has that been for you to go from, I mean, you guys had like pretty much nothing out before then. And now, like, I mean, there was, you know, 200 something kids at that show singing all the songs that it was that something you would have ever expected. Like not in that period of time. We, we thought like when we were done with it, we, we all thought that we had a good record. We thought we made a good record, but that's just to ourselves. You know, we didn't know if people are going to like it or not, but I think the response has just been like amazing to us and we, we can't, I mean, we don't understand it. It's like, well, that's, that's cool, you know, but there's no, I'm just grateful. I think it's awesome that people are, are enjoying it. So it's good for us. That's cool, man. We hope they continue to enjoy it. Well, I think so. It seems like everyone's been digging on it. Now you guys have a EP. Yeah. It's coming out next year, early next year. Yeah. It's supposed to come out January 29th on Sabbath productions. So that's going to be four songs, double seven inch CD and download. So it'll be all formats. Nice. Nice.

That'd be super cool. And by download, you mean the legal kind. Yeah. By the legal kind. It may be on the illegal ones. It probably will be. It's, it always ends up there, but stuff like that doesn't really affect us. You know what I mean? Like I know that it probably does affect a lot of bigger bands, but even to a degree, it doesn't affect, you know, most good, decent sized bands, like even bands that are like, you know, not enormously huge, but definitely bigger than us. Yeah. But cause what it does is it, it brings people to your, uh, to your shows. And like, that's how, you know, people find out about you. And I think that like in this, uh, in this kind of environment where nobody really knows what's going on with the music industry. And we've talked to quite a few of the major labels and they don't know what to do and they don't, and no one knows what to do. That's gotta be awkward. It's awkward. And they, you know, they've all got these kind of, kind of plans, but I don't know. Uh, it's tough because what are you going to do when you, you, you know, you sell corn and then people don't buy corn anymore, you know, or whatever. And then, uh, I think that the people in the independent world are actually better off right now because what they're doing is they're like, well, you know, we never sold 4 million records anyway. So we already know how to get records to independent stores and that's where kids buy our records and we know how to stock our bands on tour and that's what they do. And you know, it's funny because like certain people you talk to, like a lot of people from major labels and they're not all like this, but some people are like, you know, we all, we're trying to figure out a new way to move units and dah, dah, dah.

And you could just see the detachment from it's only really is only at the end of the day about selling at a certain amount of records, which yeah. Okay. It's a business. And I, I see that like you need to sell records because that's what business you're in. Fine. But you know, Hey man, there's a, there's more to this, you know, there's people involved. So I don't know. I mean, some, some of them are really out there, but some of them are, some of them are actually asking, they asked us, they were like, what do you think we should do? You know? And they're not, they're not all these like inhuman machines that we've met. I mean, I don't know. No, but there's definitely some who just see it as pushing the product and it's not necessarily that maybe something's wrong with what you're selling or how you're going about it. It's just, how can we get more CDs sold? How can you get more people to buy it? And it's like, there's a number of ways to look at it. And they just seem to look at it as, you know, the numbers game. They don't see what's going on out there.

They just look at the spreadsheets at the end of the day. And that's, that's what you're referring to. Yeah. That's what you should ask. Like, Hey, you're going to download our records. So what do we do? You know, what's fair? I mean, I think that radio head thing is pretty crazy right now, you know, just saying, pay for it what you want. Yeah. Well, I think, I think for bands like that, it's a great way to take the lead because they have this established fan base that they can go out and they can do something different like that. Yeah. I mean, I think that in a way I understand it because, you know, if you're, if you're downloading records, like, I mean, there's costs, you know, and there's people that, you know, they're producers and there's, there's engineers and the studio cost and there's cost to the band. But I mean, at the end of the day, I mean, I don't really know, you know, I just have my opinion about it. And I mean, I buy records personally, but I buy them by choice because my friends are all in bands and they're all, they're all touring. And I know how it is for them to be touring all the time. So I buy their records.

I don't, I don't download them. You know, that can make the difference between gas money and food for the next trip. It's true. Yeah. Oh, we have to stand up. Hold on. Not only did we get dissed on the coffee, we got dissed on the coffee and we got dissed on the seats. We got our seats taken away from us. Oh man. But Hey, you know what? They got nothing else to take from us. Yeah. And they're like, we're going to take those mics now. Sorry. The tree that you're leaning against by this tree. That's our tree. That's Jeff Steli's tree. Absolutely. But, uh, uh, all right. So we're going to take a quick break in the interview there. If you, if I didn't mention this, if I haven't already, this interview was done at the fest, which takes place annually in Gainesville, Florida, and is probably the most awesomest event this side of fucking pagan virgin sacrifices. It's amazingly phenomenal. And I'm really excited. I had the opportunity to go and hang out with Brian and drink lots of ridiculous amounts of alcohol. And, uh, other than, you know, my general stupidity, I didn't do anything really embarrassing. So there was a big, uh, but I did embarrass myself in front of Jeff from bomb the music industry by being generally awkward, but I guess that's the norm. So Gaslight Anthem got some music from them. Enjoy this. And then we're going to jump back into the interview and we're going to wrap that up. It's a good time. You'll want to hear it ready.

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that's like, I think the kids need to be responsible in the fact that like, you know, you can't, especially with like the more independent bands, like you can't, you can download their records. But I mean, then if you're going to download their record, go to the show, buy a t-shirt, buy two t-shirts, you know, tell your friends about it, you know, and don't give 400 copies out, you know? Yeah. I mean, I don't know. I personally don't care. Cause at our level, I'm like, whatever, man, you want our music. I'm just glad you're taking it. Yeah. I'm glad you're getting our music and that you want it, you know? So I'm glad it's on your iPod. I could care less how you got it, you know? But I don't know if everyone else feels that way. Yeah. Well, everyone's got different opinions. It's a very polarizing issue. Yeah. It's, it's a weird situation to be in, you know? But I think that the vinyl is cool too. I think that, you know, everybody's into vinyl, man, you know? Vinyl is actually starting to move units more than like people. It's up, someone said it was like about 300%.

Really? Yeah. Cause vinyl rules, man. Technology is cyclical. Pagers are coming back. They are. Pagers are going to come back? All right. That's my next. I hope they get those big cell phones back. From like Miami Vice. Yeah. Zach Morris. God, dude. This guy, Sound Guy Nairman here, has a plan to make like a large cell phone that can actually like Bluetooth, is it? Yeah. To like your small cell phone so you can have the small one in your pocket and you can just have the big one. That would be awesome. Someone's going to buy it. Just for aesthetic purposes. Now you got to copyright that because you know someone will do that. Someone will do that. In fact, Brian's going to do it next week, so. I don't have enough time. So you're, you're safe. Oh, I mean between eight months solid on the road. Yeah. A home life and all of that. Yeah. I'll, I won't get around to it. So your idea is safe with me. Laziness prevails. Oh yeah. That's, that's what I'm going to use to describe it. Yeah. I'm going to be like, uh, fuck those guys. Yeah. Those guys. Sit around, do nothing all day. Lazy. So your first time at the fest, who are you excited to see? Who's the band you're most interested in? Um, who's the band I'm most excited to see? Let's see. Or who have you seen that you're most excited to see? I was pretty psyched to see American steel. I, cause I had seen them about five or six years ago and that was the last time. And that was like right around the time that they broke up. Yeah. So that was awesome to see them and they were really, really good. They were actually better than they were the last time that I saw them. Um, I was excited to see Sundowner. I saw them this morning. I want to see the Falcon. Um, uh, there's a lot of small brown bike. I think it's super cool. Uh, I wanted to see a veil, but, uh, fake problems were playing at the same time and fake problems are our friends. So it took the precedence, but I'm going to go see a veil when I go home. So they're playing New York like the day after we get home. So I'm just going to go. So it's all right. I feel like I didn't, you know, I didn't miss out on anything. Nah. Well, that's, you got to make those decisions sometimes. You're never going to see everybody at the fast. Nope. Never going to see everybody. But that's rad though. Yeah. Oh, and I saw Austin Lucas, which made my whole fast. That's who I was the most excited to see. I have not seen Austin Lucas. Awesome. Yeah. So good. Yeah. Where were they? Where? Is it one dude? Uh, yeah. One dude, he had a band with him. I don't remember what the band was called though, but, uh, he, he's, he played at second street bakery and I saw him yesterday and I ended up walking about three miles to see him. Yeah. Oh my God.

The map. They're like, not to scale. And you're like, all right, but it's like way far, dude. Way not to scale. Yeah. No. So, so yeah. Next time if people go to second street and drive or take a bike. Yep. For sure. So, but you guys are also, you're like staying like a couple miles out too, aren't you? Yeah. We got this, like this nice hotel with, uh, with bugs and stuff in it. Yeah. We saw a bug last night, like a weird bug. One of those, uh, what do they call those, uh, they have a name for, we call them cockroaches, but you know, they call them something nice here. Like some fancy. Yeah. They're like, Oh, what are they called, man? That's a, your friendly neighbor. It's like something like, you know, I don't know, like water bugs or whatever. It's something like not cockroach. Not as horrific. Yeah. But it is a cockroach. So ultimately, yeah, ultimately it is a cockroach, but you guys have a mini fridge, don't you? Uh, I don't know. Yes, but it's probably got, there's probably water bugs in it. It's probably gross. Yeah. It's yeah. They exist off your food, but we don't have any money to put anything in the mini fridge. So it's like that, that makes it a little more difficult.

Yeah. But you do what you gotta do. You do do what you gotta do. So we are going to wrap up because I think there's some kids there who want to talk to you. I don't know. Do you know those guys? I do not know those guys. Oh, I totally took too long. See? Well, I'll go call him. But he had a shirt on. I know. That's so crazy. I've never seen like gasoline. Is that weird when you see a kid with your shirt on? You're like, Oh, no, no, no, no, no, there are shirts, but they're just, we didn't, I've never seen kids wearing our shirts before. And it's, it's kind of cool to see that. Cause yeah, probably most of the time when you go about, you're going to a town for a tour and kids, you don't want to be the dude who wears the shirt of the band you're going to see. No, I heard that you don't want to be that dude. But that's really fucking hard to do here. Well, one time I ran out of shirts on the draft tour and I took one of our shirts and flipped it inside out and wore it. So I guess I was that dude. I didn't do. But I was undercover. Yeah. You're like, no one knows. And then like, there's just burning shame. Yeah, totally. By the way, if you guys wonder who we are, Gaslight Anthem. Gaslight Anthem. Check it out. Check it out.

It's backwards. Look at it in the mirror. When you get these photos developed, all the negatives. Yeah. It'll be forward. That's like that. That's marketing. All right. Well, before I get any worse on this, I'm going to let you guys go. Okay. But thank you for taking the time. You got anything? I mean, websites, any plans coming up, anything you want to, we're going to have new websites. We got the record coming out in January and we just going to be touring all of next year, probably eight months out of the year. So again, we'll see. Yeah. Round two. Look forward to number two. I guess. Yeah. Come, you know, this bring a friend. Come to first next year. You'll probably be here and we'll be here. We're going to try and get Springsteen to play. God. I don't think that's going to happen.

You can do it. I know. I can do it. I'm from Jersey. It's all right. Just be like, come on. I'll convince him. I'll be like, dude, look, what do you got to do? Is there a reunion you guys have meetings at or something? You got nothing to do. Come on. Yeah. All right, man. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. So that's the end of our interview with Brian from Gaslight Anthem. It went well. It was a little short. Brian was bummed because he was trying to get coffee from some coffee shop and they didn't fucking let him. And then they threw out a big pot of coffee because they're douches. But that's the way they roll in Gainesville. Not only are they like, we don't care what you want. They're like, oh, you want this? Fuck you. Gainesville is a hard town, man. Don't let the soft fact that it's a college town and the nice people from No Idea Records are based out of there. Gainesville will fuck you up and desecrate your corpse in front of your loved ones. That's how it gets down. So that wraps up the interview. I hope you enjoyed it.

No contest this week. We, I think we probably have a fuck ton of contests that we have yet to wrap up. So we'll do that next week. When next week we should have, this is my fist on, um, side note about that. We're recording this in sound guy, Nairman's car outside of Gilman waiting to interview. This is my fist, uh, because Annie neglected to tell us she gave us a guest list spot and I didn't want to pay $7 to get in cause I'm really cheap, but apparently we're in. And, uh, after this, we're going to go, uh, check out the end of their set. So thanks for tuning in, tune in next week, drop us a line, soundscenerevolutionatgmail.com. Check out Gaslight Anthem. They have a MySpace. They have an actual website going live. I want to say this week. And then they have the EP coming out on Sabbat Productions at the end of January. You're going to want to listen, uh, enjoy. And, uh, hopefully next week we'll have a ton of rad shit to give away. All right. Bye.

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