{"id":16395,"date":"2013-05-02T07:45:17","date_gmt":"2013-05-01T21:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=16395"},"modified":"2013-04-28T14:56:36","modified_gmt":"2013-04-28T04:56:36","slug":"benny-horowitz-of-the-gaslight-anthem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2013\/05\/benny-horowitz-of-the-gaslight-anthem\/","title":{"rendered":"Benny Horowitz of The Gaslight Anthem"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n<\/a>\u201cThe one thing that\u2019s important to us and the audience is that the show is supposed to be a way to put aside whatever is bothering you or whatever you have to deal with for a couple of hours a night and you see the show and you listen to the music and that\u2019s what you focus on and try and shut out anything and just have a positive time and a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Jersey rockers The Gaslight Anthem in only a few years are growing and growing in popularity, case and point with their heartfelt and honest music they delivered one of the best rock albums of 2012 in \u2018Handwritten\u2019. \u00a0This really made the world stand up and take notice, and those that didn\u2019t notice, well, maybe it\u2019s time to see what all the fuss is about.<\/p>\n

Chatting with Benny from The Gaslight Anthem who stopped mid interview and wanted to tell everyone how that he\u2019d pulled off a perfect parallel park in one motion and he was very proud of it, aside from that, we chatted about their amazing last record \u2018Handwritten\u2019, the short film based off the title track and of course their upcoming Australian tour.<\/p>\n

Thanks for your time today, Benny. I have to start by saying that \u2018Handwritten\u2019 was hands down my album of the year last year, were you happy with the reception it received?<\/strong>
\nOh thanks for listening to it. Yeah of course man, it\u2019s one of those things, it\u2019s like a cherry on the cake, and it\u2019s received well. I try to generally personally not let it affect me one way or the other and that\u2019s not to say that that I don\u2019t read them and I don\u2019t have some kind of reaction to them when I do read them, obviously I\u2019d prefer someone to like it than not, but with every record we make it\u2019s an effort to please the people working on it and as long as me and the guys in my band and the people we decide to work with walk out of the studio with something that we care about and something that we believe in then I\u2019d like to say that the reception isn\u2019t as important, especially critically, I mean I\u2019d be pretty bummed if our fans thought we made a shitty record, so it\u2019s a long winded response to that. Yes I\u2019m glad that it got a good response, *laughs* sorry *laughs*<\/p>\n

When you set out to make it, it seems that the sound was directed back more to \u2018The 59th<\/sup> Sound\u2019, was that a conscious decision or did the album simply evolve that way?<\/strong>
\nNo, the only thing that was a conscious decision sonically on \u2018Handwritten\u2019 was to really like body up the guitar tone again, that was an important part of it, because the production on \u2018American Slang\u2019 thinned it out a little and was a bit of a different style that we were going for, so we definitely made an effort to bring back the grit and the guitars. That being said we had a third guitar on every song on \u2018Handwritten\u2019 so I think with that it definitely got thicker sound wise and then we chose a producer who had made some of the great hard rock records of the last twenty \/ twenty five years and I think that\u2019s just the way that guy does it. He mixes things that sound big and there was no apprehension from us having it sounding like that, we wanted it to sound big and nice like that.<\/p>\n

A song like \u2018National Anthem\u2019 that I think is written about me is so almost out of place on the album yet is my favourite song, how did this one come about?<\/strong>
\nThat\u2019s awesome. That one was funny, it was pretty much the only song that was written in Nashville when we went down there, and it was the result of there was a song called \u2018Teenage Rebellion\u2019 that I think Brian had sent to me on an acoustic and released on a B-side and we went down with that song being one of the songs, one of the ones that we were excited about and one of the ones that we thought was going to be something special and it\u2019s one of those tricks to going into the studio and you never really fucking know until it happens. So we laid down that song and Brendan was like \u2018ah you know, why don\u2019t you guys come in and listen it?\u2019 and he didn\u2019t seem too stoked on it and we listened to it and it was missing something, the thing we needed. Because of that, it kind of got scrapped and we needed one more song, and we like to keep our records varied where songs have a change of pace and songs bring you up and down and really try to make an album rather than just a collection of songs, so it called for something where it could be a little slower, maybe a little something different like that. So one night we go back to our house in Nashville and Brian goes up to his room for like an hour and we\u2019re all down eating dinner or doing whatever, he comes down with his acoustic and just starts playing pretty much what was the bulk of \u2018National Anthem\u2019 he didn\u2019t change much and finished it and said \u2018what do you guys think?\u2019 we were like \u2018yeah dude, fucking beautiful\u2019 we all loved it. The next day we got to the studio super early and did that song, so that\u2019s how it came about.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re finally heading back to Australia this May, what can people expect from a Gaslight Anthem show should they come and witness it?<\/strong>
\nI don\u2019t want to set expectations too high *laughs* I always learned through the years that if you set low expectations then you can\u2019t disappoint people, right? I\u2019m just kidding\u2026 really just a straight up rock and roll show, you\u2019re not going to see confetti or fireworks or anything like that, just us and a whole bunch of songs and hopefully a bit of a ruckus good time, you know?\u00a0 That\u2019s the kind of style we like, but the one thing that\u2019s important to us and the audience is that the show is supposed to be a way to put aside whatever is bothering you or whatever you have to deal with for a couple of hours a night and you see the show and you listen to the music and that\u2019s what you focus on and try and shut out anything and just have a positive time and a good time. We feel it the same way like people do, we need that, we need that release and it\u2019s good for people and I\u2019m glad we can do it. I guess that\u2019s what the show will be like.<\/p>\n

You were in Australia two years ago as part of the Soundwave festival\u00a0what do you remember from that last trip that you can share with us?<\/strong>
\nSoundwave is like the most pimped tour I\u2019ve ever done in my life, easily. Just from flying everywhere and on your flight is like fuckin\u2019 Rob Zombie and Zac De La Rocha and people like that you\u2019re walking by in first class to where you\u2019re going. The accommodations are really nice, the tours really nice, everything about it man. It\u2019s really like a vacation with planes peppered in, they do such a good job of keeping people comfortable, and my memory of that tour is a whole lot of sun and really just walking around and seeing a million bands and hanging out with a tonne of people. I had such a great feeling I took away from that tour, it was a good one. The same as the first Australian tour too, maybe it\u2019s just Australia, it\u2019s a nice place, it really is, we dig it. Besides the flight, it\u2019s perfect.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Tell us about the \u2018Every Word Handwritten\u2019 short film and the idea behind that.<\/strong>
\nYeah sure, me and Kevin Slack wrote this together, it started out as just an idea for a video and then it started flushing out we thought while shooting for the video we shot enough footage for a short film. The video came out and then we started working on the film and added some extra elements, It\u2019s been a long time coming, it\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve ever tried anything like this, I co-wrote and produced with Kevin and actually Alex Rosamilia from Gaslight ended up scoring it, we went through a few different people with music and Alex is really talented and I wanted to give it a try and see what he could come up with and he ended up killing it and doing a really great score. I think it\u2019ll be available on iTunes, so it\u2019s really exciting, I\u2019ve never done anything like this, I\u2019m just a really huge movie\/ film fan and it\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve ever really gotten behind it like that and I truly enjoyed it. I have no idea if it\u2019s good or not, but I truly enjoyed the process and I hope to do it more.<\/p>\n

The vinyl medium seems to have made its way back around again and with \u201845\u2019 being the lead single from Handwritten, what was the first \u201945\u2019 you ever bought?\u00a0<\/strong>
\nYeah of course I have shit tonnes of them, actually my first 45 was, I bought two on the same day, it was at a show at Middlesex County College in New Jersey and you know at the old hardcore shows, people would set up boxes and vendors and would just sell records. I bought a split 7\u201d which was a band called \u2018Weston\u2019 who was a pop punk band from Pennsylvania and a band called \u2018Sticks and Stones\u2019, who were a punk band from central Jersey. I bought their split 7\u201d, and that was my first one. Also at the same time I bought a double 7\u201d by a local band called \u2018One Nature\u2019 and they were from the town that all the guys from my high school went to and they were kind of local legends.<\/p>\n

New Jersey musicians have always held that blue collar worker optimism to their music. Is it fair to say this is something you have tried to get across in some of your songs as well?<\/strong>
\nI mean I guess it would be fair to say from the outside, that\u2019s how people perceive it and I think that\u2019s cool. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any outward effort to show that somebody is blue collar or something like that, I mean it\u2019s not supposed to be worn and some badge of honour or anything, but I feel like we just write songs and Brian writes songs about things we see and the places we\u2019re from and when you write kind of autobiographical music like that, and you write it honestly, the people you are and the people you see and the people you\u2019re around are going to come through in it you know? I feel like that\u2019s where it really came from rather than our effort to convey it. Actually in a lot of ways I think the media actually wrote the narrative more so than we did, maybe by the way we look or the way we talk or the way we acted, they just assumed that we\u2019re from New Jersey that we\u2019re working class or something even though New Jersey has four of the ten richest counties in America *laughs*and everyone thinks we\u2019re all boot and nail type guys, so there\u2019s not an outward effort to convey it, I think it\u2019s just conveyed by the people we are and the songs we write.<\/p>\n

What does the remainder of 2013 have in store for the band?<\/strong>
\nTouring, we just had a bout a two and half month break in New Jersey and then we\u2019re pretty much book to tour to October \/ November, so that is 2013.<\/p>\n

Well we look forward to seeing you here and looking forward to May.<\/strong>
\nThanks I appreciate the interview; you have a good rest of the day.<\/p>\n

Essential Information<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n

From:<\/strong> New Jersey, USA<\/p>\n

Band members: <\/strong>\u00a0Brian Fallon \u2013 Vocals \/ Guitar, Ben Horowitz \u2013 Drums, Alex Levine \u2013 Bass, Alex Rosamilia – Guitar<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong> http:\/\/www.thegaslightanthem.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Latest release:<\/strong> Handwritten (out now) – Check out our review of ‘Handwritten’ HERE<\/a><\/p>\n

Catch The Gaslight Anthem with special guest Dave Hause at the following dates:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Friday 10 May – Brisbane, The Tivoli \u2013 18+ \u2013 SOLD OUT!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sunday 12 May – Sydney, Enmore Theatre \u2013 Lic A\/A<\/strong>
\nwww.ticketek.com.au<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Tuesday 14 May – Melbourne, The Palace \u2013 18+ <\/strong>
\nwww.oztix.com.au<\/a><\/span> And www.ticketek.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n

Wednesday 15 May – Melbourne, The Palace \u2013 18+ \u2013 SOLD OUT!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Friday 17 May – Adelaide, Hq \u2013 18+<\/strong>
\nwww.oztix.com.au<\/a> and www.venuetix.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n

Sunday 19 May – Perth, Metro City \u2013 18+<\/strong>
\nwww.oztix.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n

Presented by Soundwave Touring
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