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Interview: Jetboy

Posted in Interviews, Music with tags , , , , , , , , , on June 22, 2010 by jnagle4

A lot of things can change in a year.  When I last spoke to Jetboy, they had just reformed and were getting ready to enter the studio.  They have since released an acclaimed EP and played several rock festivals around the country.  I sat down with them again at this year’s M3 RockFest to discuss the new album, viral marketing and flyer wars.  You can check out Jetboy at www.jetboyrocks.com.

Last summer, you guys were writing songs and getting used to being a band again.  You have since released a new EP entitled Off Your Rocker.  Why did you release an EP instead of a full length album?

Mickey Finn: The way the music industry is going now, people want instant gratification.  They don’t necessarily have the attention span to listen to a whole record.  I think you are better off to release singles and keep a constant flow of music coming instead of releasing an album and having a long break.  We’re going to get in the studio within the next couple of months and do another one.

What have you been working on lately?

MF: We have a new song called “Beating the Odds,” which is really cool.  It’s a bit more classic metal than our other stuff.  It’s got some Priest in there.

So instead of the usual swinging bluesy feel, you are going in a different direction?

Fernie Rod: It really depends on the song.  The swing will always be there, but some songs are heavier than others. We just kinda go with the flow.

MF: You gotta wear your influences on your sleeve.  Our influences are classic rock, alternative and punk.

How did you choose the live tracks?

MF: We went with the ones that had the most energy and the most personality.

Do you have any favorite live records?

Jess Reckless: Cheap Trick’s At Budokan.

Jesse Mendez: Mine is Ozzy’s Speak of the Devil.

FR: You can’t beat The Song Remains the Same.  You just can’t go wrong.

Billy Rowe: I’m going to go with Ted Nugent’s Double Live Gonzo.

You guys were all in the same room when you recorded Off Your Rocker. What are the advantages to recording this way?

BR: It’s cheaper and you get the live feel.

JM: You get to interact with the other guys as you are playing.  It’s very organic.

BR: There is sterility in a lot of records now because of our technological advances. It makes it possible for people that aren’t so talented to make a great sounding record.

Do you think the Les Paul adds to the organic sound?

BR: Definitely.  It’s the classic standard rock n’ roll guitar. I play a Gretsch for the exact same reason.  It’s very warm, but also very raw.

The music industry has changed a lot since your last original album, Damned Nation, came out in 1990. How has digital music changed your approach to marketing? Is it easier now that you don’t have to deal with a major label?

MF: It is and it isn’t. Record companies have a lot of money and you get an entire staff of people to promote you and your music.  The downside is that they take a lot of your money. The DIY approach is a lot more work, and the band has to be a lot more involved.  If you do the work you get more of the profit in your pocket.

Back in the day, bands lived and died by MTV and magazines like Metal Edge. Is it easier to go directly to the fans?

MF: Yeah.  Now you have YouTube, which is basically the MTV of today. That and the music download sites are the most powerful tools we have.  More and more bands are getting used to giving away their music for free so that people will go see them on tour.

Are you happy you came out when you did?

MF: Yes. We got to experience the glory years.  We experienced the major labels, the money and the fame.  We had three or four years where it was just glorious.  Bands today will never experience that in the same way. It’s a different world.  On the other side, bands today grew up with computers. They have an edge because they know how to make websites and are technologically proficient.  That’s where the promotion of a band lies now. We have to get people to help us.

Facebook and Twitter are kind of like the new Sunset Strip.  Do you ever miss papering a boulevard with flyers?

MF: Oh yeah.  That was our thing, man.  We were the flyer kings of San Francisco.  We would out-flyer everybody. We’d be on ladders at 3 A.M. trying to get our flyers as high as we possibly could.  We’d photocopy our logo, cut it out and then glue it together so it would fit on a billboard.  When we played LA, we’d come down a few weeks before the show just so we could pass out flyers.  We’d be out all night long.

Who did you engage in flyer wars with?

MF: Poison and Guns n’ Roses.  They were our friends, but we’d cover them and they would cover us.

BR: Sea Hags and Vain too.

Jetboy is known for raucous club shows.  Clubs are very intimate, while arena rock is more impersonal. How do you guys connect with the audience when playing a larger stage?

MF: You just have to work a lot more. When you play a venue like this, you gotta exaggerate everything.  I’ve seen videos of some bands on big stages and it looks like they aren’t rocking out very much.  When you are in a club and the people are close, it looks impressive.  When you are far away, you look like a statue.  You have to go back and forth and try to connect with the crowd.

Does it help to focus on one particular side?

MF: Yeah.  You acknowledge the people on the left, on the right and in the back. You go from side to side. Unfortunately there was a fucking Harley on one side of the stage, so I couldn’t make it to the right side.  I could only go to the left.

How has touring changed for you?

MF: It’s tougher because the economy sucks.  It’s a lot harder to book a tour when gas prices are up.  The expenses are up and attendance is down. We’re just happy to get out, play and break even. We just want to get our music out to the people. We’re still paying our dues.

Are you able to turn your onstage personas on and off?

FR: I was just talking about that the other day.  It’s instinctual.  We don’t think about it, we just do it. If you think about it, you are going to mess up.

MF: I’ve always felt like people pay to see a rock show. They wanna see rock stars and attitude.  That’s not something you see walking down the street.   The key is not to carry it with you. If you carry it with you, then you become one of those guys that think they are better than everyone.  I turn it on when I hit the stage.  I become Mickey Finn and I put on that persona. I give people the show they want to see.  That’s what I think is missing today.  Where have all the rock stars gone?

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Interview: Bobby Blotzer of RATT

Posted in Interviews, Music with tags , , , , , , , , , , on May 10, 2010 by jnagle4

Photo Credit: handout

Bobby Blotzer has been keeping time in RATT’s rock n’ roll circus for over 25 years.  The band recently released Infestation, their first studio album in a decade.  The album debuted at #30 on the American charts and #6 in Japan.  Besides playing RATT n’ Roll, Blotzer has also written a book entitled Tales of a Ratt: Things You Shouldn’t Know, detailing his life in the rock n’ roll trenches.  It is available on Amazon and his personal website, bobbyblotzer.com.  RATT is currently touring North America, and you can follow their exploits on www.therattpack.com.  I spoke with Bobby before their show at Ram’s Head Live about the new album, writing a book, and drinking a beer from the rafters.

Infestation is RATT’s first studio album in a decade.  Did you have to shake off some studio rust?

Bobby Blotzer: Not really.  We had a meeting where everyone played the songs they had written and we picked the best of the batch and worked them up.  Then the producer just decided where they needed to go.

Is this a different process from the early days?

BB: It’s similar, but there was a little more collaboration and co-writing back then.

Do you miss sitting in a room and writing songs together?

BB: I love doing that but (guitarist) Warren (DeMartini) doesn’t do that and (lead singer) Stephen (Pearcy) takes the music and writes his melodies and lyrics to it.  It’s pretty much every man for himself to get his best material presented and ready to go.

Infestation is a return to the classic RATT sound. Was that a conscious decision or was it more organic?

BB: It just kinda turned out that way. We knew we wanted to go back and have a more aggressive, gut-level sound and everyone kept that in mind when they were writing. Michael Baskette really nailed it with his production.  It wasn’t anything too contrived.

Carlos Cavazo joined the band last year.  How did he enter the fold?

BB: We were auditioning guitar players because John Corabi went to work for Gibson guitars full time. Carlos came in and Warren was very adamant about having him join. I was a little apprehensive, because I was so used to John Corabi as the rhythm guitarist. The thought of having two lead guitar players felt very weird to me. But I’ve always been friends with Carlos.  He’s a great musician, great human being and great to work with. I’m glad it worked out.

You have a book coming out. What prompted you to write your memoirs?

BB: I have a lot of friends that love to hear me tell stories about my life of touring and my famous friends. I had so many stories that people kept telling me I should write a book. So in January of 2008, I wrote a couple chapters.  I was introduced to a screenwriter named Jim Clayton, who took what I wrote and enhanced it. All the words are mine; he just structured it and put it into context. I don’t think I could have put it together singlehandedly. It was quite an undertaking.

What’s it called?

BB: It’s called Tales of a Ratt: Things You Shouldn’t Know. I threw that in there just to tease people.  It’s a really fun book that doesn’t dwell on the negative.

So it has a lighter tone than some other rock memoirs?

BB: Right. It really focuses on the time of the 80s and what we were doing.  It goes back to when I was a kid, but the meat of the story is my career in RATT. It has ups and downs like everybody’s life does, but it’s mostly about good times.

Let’s go back a little bit. The first RATT flyers classified the band as “Fashion Rock.” When did Fashion Rock morph into RATT n’ Roll?

BB: That’s a good question.  Stephen knew someone that worked at this clothing store on Melrose that sold all these puffy coats and stuff like that, and he got them to loan us some clothes for our first photo session with Neil Zlozower.  If you look at the pictures from the EP, Warren is wearing a long trench coat, Stephen has puffy shoulders and I’m wearing a leather coat and spandex pants. Somebody said that we looked like fashion models, and Stephen said, “Yeah, we’re Fashion Metal!” It started out as a joke and then it got into the press a few times and became a moniker for our music.

When did it become RATT n’ Roll

BB: I don’t remember who coined the phrase RATT n’ Roll, but we started writing it everywhere.  It was on autographs and shirts.  Maybe it was (former guitarist) Robbin Crosby, maybe it was a fan. I don’t remember.

Bon Jovi and Poison both opened for RATT in the mid-80s. When you guys were starting out, who took you under their wing?

BB: I’m going to answer that question by asking you a question.  Whatever happened to Bon Jovi and Poison?  Did they even survive?

I have no idea.  I think that Bon Jovi guy is a country singer now.

BB: (laughs) OK. He was always good at deception.  All joking aside, it was Ozzy.  We toured with other bands, but nobody took us under their wing like he did. We started out by opening for Billy Squier, and our merchandise was outselling his three to one. Our album was killing his album.  I’m not saying he wasn’t big at the time, but we were already headlining arenas. I remember asking our manager “Why are we opening for him when we are doing it on our own?” He said, “You have to do this because it’s bad business if you don’t. blah blah blah.”  So we go out on the tour and they didn’t give us anything.  We didn’t have any lighting, they had this big round thing in the middle of the stage covered the whole thing. They treated us like shit, so we said, “This changes or we walk.”  We were selling the tickets. When we went on, it was complete bedlam.  Ozzy really stepped up and helped us out.  He had a history of taking out hot young bands that were doing great. We used that template for our next tour, when we took out Bon Jovi.

During the Dancing Undercover tour, a six pack of beer would come down from the rafters and you would drink it with the crowd.  How did you come up with that piece of business?

BB: I was looking for something fun to entertain the audience with, so I was talking with our lighting guy one night and I said “Dude, you should just hand a me a beer from up there.”  So we worked it out.  I would do this thing where I would raise my hands and lower my hands, and get the audience to do it with me. When I finally got them to a climax and put my hands straight up into the air, that was his cue to let the six pack down on a rope.  It would stop just eye level and I would open the beer.  As soon as I opened the beer, the old Tonight Show theme would play (sings) “buh duh dun duh dana bun dan dana.”  I would toast the crowd and guzzle that beer down.

Other than “Round and Round,” what song sums up RATT n’ Roll for you?

BB: Any of the videos we did could be considered pure RATT. The staple songs like “Dance,” “Lay it Down,” or “Way Cool Jr.”  All of those exemplify RATT.

Is the EP ever going to be rereleased on CD?

BB: The problem with EP is that our ex-manager, Marshall Berle, owns half and his ex-partner owns half.  There has been a lot of litigation going back to 1982, when we made it.  Marshall’s ex-partner claims that he gets half of everything, even though he wasn’t involved with Out of the Cellar or anything. He wanted half of what Marshall and the band was getting.  He doesn’t care how much money he’ll make off of it, he’ll never let it happen.  We might rerecord it though.

You once referred to RATT as “Elvis and John Wayne with guitars.” What did you mean by that?

BB: Elvis played guitar and John Wayne was a badass.  I always thought that we were a combination of the two.

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Interview: The Thermals

Posted in Interviews, Music with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 19, 2010 by jnagle4

Photo credit: Alicia J. Rose

The Thermals were formed in 2002 by singer/guitarist Hutch Harris and bassist Kathy Forrester.  They quickly gained a reputation for their lo-fi sound and politically charged lyrics.  The band gained national recognition with their 2006 album, The Body, The Blood, The Machine.  In 2009, the band released Now You Can See, which stripped away the band’s signature distortion and revealed the pop heart beating beneath.  The band also added drummer, Westin Glass, ending a revolving door of drummers.  You can check out their website here: www.thethermals.com. I sat down with the band to discuss their tour of china, being a secret power pop band and the symbolism of the sea.

You recently got back from your tour of China.  How did you get that gig?

Hutch Harris: Our booking agency in New York has a lot of international contacts.  Our label, Kill Rock Stars, sent a lot of bands over there for a festival last year. Maggie (Vale), who runs Kill Rock Stars, speaks Mandarin and has a lot of Chinese connections.  It was really cool.

What part of China struck you the most?

Kathy Foster: The amount of people and pollution.  We played four cities and they were all really crowded. There doesn’t seem to be any laws regulating car emissions or anything.  Also, the most delicious food I may have ever had.

HH: Yeah, the food was amazing. People were telling us that it was going to be really different from the Chinese food in the US, but it wasn’t that different.  They had some weird stuff that we don’t have here, but I had some kung-pow chicken and it tasted like the kung-pow chicken here.  We went to this hot pot restaurant where you boil a huge pot of water and spices and vegetables at the table.

KF: Yeah, you order tons of stuff and then you cook it in a huge wok.  It was amazing. We also went to this really good Szechwan restaurant a couple times.

Westin Glass: We ate a lot of street food too.

KF: I felt like Anthony Bourdain the whole time (laughs).

HH: Me too!  When I saw all the street food carts, I said, “This is the Anthony Bourdain moment I’ve been waiting for.”

What were the Chinese fans like compared to American fans?

HH: Exactly the same! (laughs) In Beijing and Shanghai, most of the fans were American.

KF: Yeah, the crowds were mostly Americans and Europeans who were over there to teach.

HH; Yeah, but the last two cities we played had a mostly Chinese audience.  They seemed to really like us, but they didn’t exactly rock out.

KF: They were a little more reserved. At the two shows that had a lot of foreigners, I felt like the Chinese people were a little more rowdy.  Maybe it was because the Americans were rowdy and got them going.

Asian culture in general is very reserved.  Was that the biggest difference?

KF: Yeah, there was a weird combination of things going on.  China likes to present itself as a very modern society, but a lot of it feels very third world.  It’s kind of dirty, and people spit and smoke everywhere.

Were there any censorship issues?

HH: No, but you can’t look at our website over there.  You can get MySpace, but you can’t get Facebook or YouTube.  A lot of people will find that stuff on proxy servers, and then the government will take it down the next day. But the government doesn’t seem to have much control over the average person on the street.  There are so many people that it’s impossible for the government to control them all.  It’s mind-boggling.

What was your favorite show on the tour?

KF: I liked Shanghai the best, because it was the rowdiest.

WG: Yeah, we played with a band called Hedgehog in Shanghai.  They sound like Nirvana meets New Order.  They are so rad.

KF: Yeah, and a lot of people seemed to know them too.

HH: Yeah, they were really cool.  Lots of chorus pedals on the guitar.  Nirvana and New Order meet at the chorus pedal.

Let’s switch gears a bit. Now You Can See came out a year ago. It has a much poppier sound than your other records. Was that a conscious choice, or a natural evolution of your sound?

KF: I think it was pretty natural.  I think all our records have a very natural progression. With every record, we try to write more dynamic songs. We’re trying to get away from just writing fast power chord songs and getting into more varied tempos.  It was both conscious and natural.

Do you think the poppier sound made the messages in your music more accessible?

HH: If you go to the shows, the songs from The Body, The Blood, The Machine get people the most psyched.  I don’t really know what people think of Now We Can See, but I know that The Body, The Blood is usually their favorite record.

The first time I heard Now We Can See, I thought it sounded like an angrier version of The Raspberries.

HH: Totally. Like Kathy was saying, we don’t sit down and actually say, “This is the kind of record we’re going to make.” We just start writing and then look back at what we’ve made and decide what it is.  I used power pop to describe the record in the press release, but it definitely wasn’t our intention to make a power pop record.  We just listened to what we were doing and were like, “We made a power pop record.”  It makes sense because the first two Weezer records have always been a big influence. We try to make each record a little different from the last one, but never a complete reinvention.

You still sounded like yourselves, but there was less distortion.

KF: Exactly.  It’s the same kind of songwriting, but with a cleaner recording.

The sea is a recurring motif on Now We Can See.  What does that image evoke for you?

HH: It started on The Body, The Blood and the Machine with “Back to the Sea.” There is a little strain in both of those records about de-evolution, with humans becoming fish again.  That’s kind of an arrogant human point of view. On “When I Died,” the narrator finds out that it can’t happen. A lot of stuff we write is about the arrogance of humans, because humans are wrong a lot.  We kept using the sea because Kathy and I went to a house on the Oregon coast and wrote a lot of the lyrics for Now We Can See there.  The ocean kinda snuck in.  The ocean is a really good tool for writing lyrics I think because it is so vast and unconquerable.

Both Now We Can See and The Body, The Blood and The Machine have political overtones, but you never actually call out the issues.  Is it easier to write using abstract metaphors?

HH: It’s not easier, but it’s a way of making sure that the records aren’t dated.  If you listen to the punk bands from the first half of the ‘80s, they talk about Reagan all the time.  That was cool then, but it’s lost its usefulness because it’s stuck in that time.   We try to make records that could describe any point in time instead of letting it get stuck in whatever year we wrote it.

Do you think it challenges the fans to figure out what you are trying to say?

KF: No, I don’t think we’re conscious of that when we’re writing.  It’s just more fun to write it from a character’s point of view.

HH: We’re always trying to please ourselves. When I’m writing, I just wanna make sure that I like the lyrics and that these guys like the lyrics. It ends there. If anyone else likes it, that’s fine but it’s never tailored for the listener.  You hope people like it, but I think it’s more honest to make stuff we like and make it good.

The Body, The Blood, The Machine was released during the Bush administration.  Four years have passed, and we have a new administration, but the paranoia about the religious right is still there.  Do you think it’s gotten worse with all the tea parties and everything?

HH: The tea party thing is huge in the media, but when you look at how many people are actually in it, it’s very small.  My paranoia has gone down a lot.  Sarah Palin is still scary in the sense that you hope that she doesn’t incite some nut to do something.  That’s kind of scary.

WG: Yeah, but if some crazy person is going to do some shit like that, they are going to find a reason to do it regardless. If it’s not a tea party, then it’s a dog telling them to kill someone.

Ozzy made me do it.

HH: (laughs) Exactly!

What does the new album sound like?

HH: The instrumentation is much simpler.  There are no overdubs, just guitar, bass and drums with one track of singing.  Kathy and Westin both sing on it.  The album is called Personal Life and it’s about the negative side of being in a relationship.

So it’s a new direction?

HH: Definitely.  I tried to keep politics out of Now We Can See, but there were still two or three songs.  It’s still about politics, but it’s more the politics of everyday life.  It’s the power and control of running a country vs. the power and control you have over a relationship.  How many times does power change hands in a relationship? One person is always trying harder to be won over or vice versa.

You have to have a balance.  The Clash did that all the time.

HH: Totally. You can’t be all political.

What’s your songwriting process like?

HH: It’s changed a lot.  On the new record, Kathy wrote a lot of the riffs on bass.  So Kathy would write the bass, Westin would write the drums and I would play a guitar riff over it and sing. There were a few songs that I wrote myself and brought to the band, but a lot it was written with the three of us in the same room.  It was really cool because we hadn’t done that in a really long time.

WG: It happened really fast. We wrote most of the record within a span of three weeks.  It was so fast that we couldn’t remember what we had done.  We would write a song and then the next day write a different song and try to remember the song we wrote the day before.  It was hard to keep up with, but really exciting.

Has it always been that fast?

HH: Fuckin’ A was the only other record that was written by a full band. I wrote the first record myself and then Kathy and I wrote the last two.  When it was just Kathy and I, it was fun but we didn’t know what the song was until it was actually finished. The great thing about this record is that there are no overdubs.  The songs sound exactly how we play them in our practice space.  There are a few little studio tricks here and there, but it was a really raw, old fashioned way of doing a record, where the band just plays the songs in the studio.

Westin, you just joined the band.  Did recording the album this way establish chemistry between you, Kathy and Hutch?

WG: Definitely. I never get sick of these guys.  The more time we spend together, the more fun I have.

HH: The three of us got a really good chemistry really fast.  For the last record, we went to Europe five times, we did the US for two months and we did all these other trips.  There were only a couple days we didn’t see each other for a year and a half.  It was strange, but in the best way.

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Interview: Chuck Billy of Testament

Posted in Interviews, Music with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 15, 2010 by jnagle4

Photo credit: Last.fm

Testament formed in 1985 in Berkeley California and quickly became one of the most influential bands of the emerging Bay Area thrash scene.  The rapidfire guitar riffing of Alex Skolnick and Eric Peterson was held together by Chuck Billy’s powerful vocals.  The band released Formation of Damnation in 2008 to favorable reviews and went on tour with Heaven and Hell.  Testament is currently touring with Megadeth on their Rust in Peace tour. They will be playing their debut album, The Legacy, in its entirety.  They will be joining Megadeth again this summer, joined by fellow thrash titans, Slayer. You can check them out here: www.testamentlegions.com.

I sat down with Chuck to discuss the recent renaissance of thrash, playing albums in their entirety, and the Bay Area thrash scene.

How’s the tour going so far?

Chuck Billy: It’s going really well. Everybody’s getting along really well and there have been no problems.

Is there more pressure as an opening act than as a headliner?

CB: Not at all.  You have an early night.  You get in and out of there.  There is virtually no pressure.

Testament’s material is pretty demanding vocally.  How do you keep your voice in shape?

CB: I try not to do things that I can’t do. As you tour, your voice gets stronger and stronger.  It’s like working out.  The first day is really hard, but 30 days later you are feeling better.

Megadeth is playing all of Rust in Peace, and you guys are playing The Legacy from front to back, correct?

CB: Yes.

The Legacy came out almost 25 years ago. Has playing the album changed for you since then?

CB: There’s a big difference. We tune the guitars lower to make it more natural for my voice. That’s the biggest change in terms of sound. I think it makes the songs sound even better.

What about lyrically?

CB: Not at all.  When we were rehearsing for the tour, it felt like old times.

Do worry about losing spontaneity by playing the album in its entirety?

CB: Not really. We played the album in Europe and it went well.  We played it in Japan and it went over well. When it came to touring around here, we knew it was something that we probably weren’t ever going to do again.  It’s a one-time shot, so we’re going to go for it. I think the fans are more appreciative because they haven’t heard a lot of these songs live in 20 years. It’s good for us and good for long time Testament fans.

A lot of bands are doing that now.

CB: Yeah.  If you are in a band that has been around a long time, it can’t hurt to do something like this.

Megadeth and Exodus are two other stalwarts of the Bay Area thrash scene. There has been a resurgence of thrash in the last couple of years. Why do you think that is?

CB: Because it’s good? (laughs) I don’t know.  It’s not just thrash, I think metal is hitting around the world.  It’s getting popular and having more success and there are younger fans learning about it. It’s a growing process again. There are a lot of great bands around the world that play this kind of music. In the old days there was just a handful, but now there are great bands everywhere.

Was the Bay Area competitive or more unified?

CB: It was competitive, but friendly. In the early days I was more obsessed with friendly competition, but now we just go up there and do what we do.

Fast tempos and complicated rhythms are the core of thrash metal.  Does the speed make it harder to sing?

CB: Actually it’s easier. I’m more comfortable singing to that time signature.  If we start with a slow opening riff, I want to do the opposite of what the music is doing.

When you are writing a song, how do you figure out where your voice fits?

CB: I just jump in and figure it out. That’s the way we’ve always done it.

What’s your songwriting process like? Do you start with a riff?

CB: Yeah.  Then (guitarist) Eric (Peterson) and I figure out what riff goes with the verse and what riff goes with the chorus.   We piece it together from there.

So it’s not a meticulous process?

CB: Nope. We just go with the riff and jump in. You gotta go with what feels natural.

How’s the writing for the next album going?

CB: Slowly but surely. We’d like to get it out by the end of this year, but if not we can wait until next year. We want it to be right.

What sound are you going for?

CB: It a cross between The Gathering and the new record, Formation of Damnation. It’s a combination of both styles.

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Interview: Brian Fallon of The Gaslight Anthem

Posted in Interviews, Music with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 26, 2009 by jnagle4

brian dan griffiths

Photo credit: Dan Griffiths

The 9:30 Club was packed.  1300 kids were crammed into every corner.  The house light went down and The Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go” blared through the PA.  A huge backdrop slowly rose to the rafters as The Gaslight Anthem came onstage.  Dressed in a white t-shirt and black pants,  Brian Fallon grinned as he strapped on his Les Paul guitar.  The  band respectfully waited for Joe Strummer to finish the chorus before launching into “High Lonesome.”   The Gaslight Anthem are now legitimate.

I sat down with Brian after the show to discuss the importance of the 9:30, meeting Bruce Springsteen and finding his character.

Last time we talked you were playing the Recher Theatre, and now you’ve sold out the 9:30 Club.  How does it feel?

Brian Fallon: It’s awesome.  Everyone’s been really good to us. It seems like whatever we were drawing in May has doubled and tripled in some areas. It’s really validating.  At the same time, we have a lot to lose now.  I’m feeling the pressure writing the new record.

Do you think it’s the promotion or constant touring?

BF: I think it’s a mixture of both, plus word of mouth.  I think God likes our band, because we’re doing so well.  Someone is definitely looking out for us.

What does playing the 9:30 Club mean to you?

BF: This is the spot where only the most legitimate bands get to play.  DC is the hardest place to play because they don’t care.  It’s like a mini-England.  They are like, “OK, why should you play here? Prove it!”  Even the smallest clubs are like that. We were never able to get a show here, even in the smallest clubs.

Not even The Black Cat?

BF: No way dude!  We could never get a show there.   The Loved Ones got us a show there, and we were in the small room.  That was only a year and a half ago.  They would not touch us. Then all of the sudden they tell us, “You guys are playing the 9:30 Club.”  Then a few weeks later they tell us, “Oh by the way, it’s sold out.”  If you can play DC, you can play anywhere. This was a real triumph for us.

What was it like playing “The ’59 Sound” with Bruce Springsteen in England?

BF: That was insane.  It was absolutely unreal.  I knew at that moment that I was doing something of some value.  It wasn’t just me that thought it was valuable anymore.  I was like, “OK, this means something to people.  This is a delicate thing now.”  It became about more than four guys in a band.  I was like “OK, what’s going on here? Is this really gonna happen?”  Because even at this stage, we have to stay on tour otherwise we wouldn’t be able to pay our bills.  I would probably be making more if I was still a carpenter.  But there’s that chance that we might really do it.  Now I’m thinking, “What if I could afford a really nice car? What would I do? What kind of person would I be? Would I change?” I don’t know, and that’s weird.  You can almost smell it.  Is this really going to happen to us?  Are we going to be like Pearl Jam and have a long, long career?  Are we going to be around in ten years?  That’s insane.

Jersey bands tend to have long careers. Springsteen and Bon Jovi still fill arenas.

BF: It’s weird though, because those guys treat me like I’m the next one.  That’s what really freaks me out.  Bruce’s crew treats me like I’m Bruce at that age.  It’s really something else.  People really think that we can do it.  I’m really excited to see what happens in the next year.

What was it like meeting Springsteen for the first time?

BF: He came in gracefully and had a bunch of stories. He told me all about when he started.  He hung out.

Was it his idea to play “The ’59 Sound?”

BF: It was his.  We didn’t know he was coming.   He just said, “I want to play ‘The ’59 Sound’ with you.  I just looked at him and said, “OK.”  After we did it the first time, he asked me if I wanted to sing with him during their set.  I was just like, “Yeah!”  We did “No Surrender.”  The second day, he came out and did “The ’59 Sound” with us, and I did “No Surrender” again.  It was unreal.  I was in front of a hundred thousand people. It’s so weird, because you look and you see nothing but dots.  I looked around and was like, “I can’t believe this is happening.”

Did you have to adapt your performance for such a big crowd?

BF: Nope. I just went for it.

How did the crowd respond?

BF: We won them over. When we first started playing, they were very skeptical.  Their arms were folded and hands were on their chin like “Who is this kid?” Then they started clapping and smiling, and laughing.  By the end, they were going ballistic.  You can’t win Britain over with hype.  I respect them for that.

Now that you are playing bigger venues, is it easier for you to turn on the swagger?

BF: Yeah. I actually watched Bruce do that. He taught me that the person that you give to the people doesn’t have to be the person you give to your friends and family. It’s OK to have that.  It’s a protection thing.

Mystique is an important thing to have.  Not many bands have it anymore.

BF: Exactly.  I don’t think the kids necessarily want to know my everyday secrets.  They want you to seem more mysterious and special than you really are, even if you’re not.  It’s about being larger than life.  I get up during the day, and my hair is messy and I’m wearing the same ratty clothes.  When it gets close to showtime, I start combing my hair and then I put my boots on.  When I put the boots on, I become the guy.  I’m the guy wearing the boots to work.  It’s the little things like that.  The one thing I haven’t done is change my clothes.  Whatever I wear that day is what I wear onstage.  Then when you put the guitar on, you become a different person.

The Clash blare over the PA and the metamorphosis is complete.

BF: Right.  But I don’t turn on the character when I’m outside and someone comes up to me.  If a kid comes up to me, they get the real person.  That’s the difference.  That’s what Joe Strummer was doing.   At the same time, I’ve also learned not to let people ask too much of me.  At a certain point you just say, “Hey man, good to meet you, but I gotta go.”   I’ve learned to just say no.  In that instant, they get it and they say, “I went too far.”

There has to be a few boundaries.

BF: Yup.  It’s a way of protecting myself. You put so much into this character and being honest with people and telling stories that they can relate to and hopefully be able to help them in their real life that it’s exhausting.   I put so much into this character that when I get up in the morning, I usually don’t have a lot to give.  I’m tired and emotionally spent.

Does having a routine help?

BF: Oh yeah.  I’ve figured out that if you eat and brush your teeth at the same time every day, you start to feel like more of a normal person. Once you figure out how to separate what you do when you are normal and what you do when you are performing, it gets easier. In real life, I’m not the life of the party.  I’m usually the guy in the corner trying to eat as quietly as I can.  That’s who I really am. The character is the person I wish I was in high school.  That’s not who I am, that’s who I was when I went home and played guitar in the mirror.  It’s the same thing.  At the end of the day, everyone just wants to be Mike Ness or Bruce Springsteen or Angus Young or Sebastian Bach. Everyone’s trying to be their hero.

You got some tattoos today.  Isn’t it a risk getting tattoos on tour?

BF: (laughs) Probably. You just gotta keep it really clean. My friend knew the guy and gave me a good recommendation and I checked all the equipment before we got started.

What did you get?

BF: (rolls up pant leg) I got an old fashioned shaving razor with some blood on it. It symbolizes the old saying, “Cut ‘em off at the knees.”  It means to be smarter than your enemies.    As our band has grown, I’ve met the snakes of the snakes. Everyone tells you that they can do something for you. I’ve been educating myself about how the music business goes, and I’ve watched the rise and fall of other bands.  Behind the Music is the best thing ever, because it tells you what not to do.

When did you start getting tattoos?

BF: I got my first one when I was 16.  I got a couple when I was 17. Then when I was 18, I went for it.  When I was 12 years old, I was sitting in my friend’s apartment watching 120 Minutes and the video for Social Distortion’s “Story of My Life” came on. I saw Mike Ness and I was like, “Oh my god, that’s my life. I’m getting a hundred tattoos, I’m going to play guitar and I am going to be in a punk rock n’ roll band.”  That was the end of it, and now he’s a friend of mine. It’s surreal.  I got to sing “Story of My Life” with him the other night.   He just came up and asked me and I was like, “OH MY GOD! Mike Ness wants me to sing with him.”  He’s so cool man.  Everything he does is cool.  The guy you see onstage is the guy you see in real life.

Just turned up to 11.

BF: Yup. Exactly.

The tour is finishing up soon, correct?

BF: Yup. We have six or seven dates left.

How long have you been on the road?

BF: We’ve had two week breaks here and there, but it’s been about three and a half years.  We’re taking six months off and making a new record.  The new record will be a harder, less ‘50s influenced version of The ’59 Sound.  We’re writing in the same style, but it’s more bluesy and faster. The ’59 Sound is pretty fast, but it’s quiet.  We’ve turned it all up.  The slapback echo on the vocals is gone.  It’s a meaner record.  We’re not a meaner band, but we’re worldly.  We’ve taken a lot of kicks since the last record.

The ’59 Sound came out a year ago, but the songs were written before that.

BF: Yeah. We wrote the songs almost two years ago.  I can’t write about the same stuff anymore. I want to write about what I know now, because I’m a different person.

During your set, I noticed that the songs seem heavier and you guys are improvising more.  How have the songs evolved in three years?

BF: They’ve gotten more experimental. They are a little harder than before, but I think that’s because we’re a rougher band now.   Even though we’ve done well, we’re still in the same position. Everyone is always telling us that we’ve made it, but we have not made it.

There was an almost religious furor tonight.  Every kid was with you.

BF: Yup.  I can’t explain it.

Well, there is a moment in “Great Expectations” where you sing, “We were always waiting, always waiting…”

BF: “For something to happen!”  It’s almost like a revival.   It’s really cool.

It feels like the kids are trying to get something out.

BF: They are. I want to ask important questions like, “What are you going to do with your life?” That’s the big thing.  Your life is something you have.  What are you going to do with it?  I like to make people think about big questions.

The big questions are scary.

BF: They are. I try to create a big forum where I don’t give out all the answers, but let them figure it out for themselves. I don’t have all the right answers.  I have one or two of them, but I certainly don’t have all of them.  If I meet a kid one on one, then I’ll tell him what I think, but generally I just try to stir the pot.  I try to remind people that every day is special and you never know what is going to happen.

You want music to mean something.

BF: Yeah, because it meant something to me.

Is the new record going to be released on SideOneDummy?

BF: Yup.

So the rumors that you had signed to a major label were false.

BF: Yes.  People expect us to sign with a major label because that’s what everyone else in our position has done.  There are only a handful of bands that haven’t taken a major label contract.  We’re not doing it to stay punk; we’re doing it because we don’t want to lose everything we’ve built.  If we sign with a major label, there is chance we might get rich, but chances are we won’t have a top ten record. So we’d probably get dropped. You can make big money today and lose everything or you can wait ten years and probably make the same amount of money. I’d rather wait.  I’ll have my career, my integrity, the rights to my songs, everything.  Instant fame would make me crazy.  I get weird now.  If I came out here right after the show as all the kids were leaving and anyone could talk to me, I’d lose it.  This place holds like 1300 people.  What if it was 25,000 in an arena?  I’d lose it.   I could never be Billie Joe Armstrong.

So I can’t option The ’59 Sound as a musical?

BF: (laughs) No way man! That is not happening.  Unless you want to star in it.

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