The Gaslight Anthem wants to be a career band, a band that endures not just for a few years, but for decades. And looking at the artists that have managed to do this—Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and Neil Young, to name just a few—there’s a common thread. Those artists have challenged fans by not continuing to make the same kind of albums.
Gaslight Anthem drummer Benny Horowitz cites Petty in particular as a role model. “He really changed things up at a certain point in his career,” Horowitz says. “And we even thought about U2 going from a record like War to Achtung Baby and how that happened, things like that, bands that have made shifts in their careers like that. And I do think when you have bands who have had these really long careers, usually those are the bands that have evolved and changed and moved around sound wise.”
For Horowitz and his bandmates, the time to start throwing some new wrinkles into its sound came with the newly released fifth album, Get Hurt.
Formed in New Brunswick, N.J., in 2006, The Gaslight Anthem first made a big mark with its second album, the 2008 release The ’59 Sound, an album filled with urgent, no-frills anthems with sturdy melodies, incisive lyrics and plenty of passion. The songwriting (and presumably also the group’s New Jersey background) caused many a writer to praise Gaslight Anthem singer/guitarist Brian Fallon as the heir to Bruce Springsteen’s legacy of working-class rock.
The band solidified that sound with its next two albums, American Slang and Handwritten.
Coming into Get Hurt, Horowitz, Fallon, guitarist/keyboardist Alex Rosamilia and bassist Alex Levine sensed they were ready to explore some new musical directions.
“I thought it was a lot riskier to kind of make the same kind of records we did with the same formula than it was to mix it up,” Horowitz said. “We don’t want to be that band that attempts to write the same record over and over again just to appease whatever, like critics or fans or anything like that.”
From the beginning, it’s clear on Get Hurt that this is a different Gaslight Anthem. The opening track, “Stay Vicious,” introduces itself with booming drum beats and guitar riffs that are loud enough to fit a metal song. More musical twists follow in short order. “Rollin’ and Tumblin’,” with its fat signature riffs and slamming beats, is another song that adds some brashness to the band’s sound. “1,000 Years” has a more textured, poppier sound that finds Fallon testing a rarely used upper range of his vocals.
Helping the band take its journey into the unknown was producer Mike Crossey. He’s known for his work with the Arctic Monkeys, Jake Bugg and The 1975, acts that aren’t exactly in the same stylistic wheelhouse as the Gaslight Anthem. But Crossey’s adventurous spirit helped set the right atmosphere for musical experimentation.
“We were definitely open to everything this time,” Horowitz said. “That was one of the cool things about working with a guy like Mike. Nothing’s off the table. If you have an idea and think it might sound cool or he has an idea he thinks might sound cool, you’ve got to try it, at least try it and hear it and see how it sounds. That was pretty cool. It was definitely a very open studio environment with him.”
Crossey also brought a different perspective on instrumental textures, sound and sonic quality, something he and the band put to considerable use in making “Get Hurt.” But the studio feel of the album shouldn’t prevent The Gaslight Anthem from bringing those songs to stage as they undertake a tour in support of Get Hurt.
“We’re going to be playing a lot of songs off of Get Hurt, because it’s the new record and it’s fresh and fun for us and it’s the record we’re touring on,” Horowitz said. “But then we’ll always try to mix in a bunch of songs from each record and try to keep it varied.”
The Gaslight Anthem headline the Pabst Theater on Thursday, March 12 at 8 p.m. with openers Northcote and The Scandals.
