The Gaslight Anthem

All things considered, Levine’s pretty affable about the interruption. It raises an interesting question, though. The Gaslight Anthem’s frontman Brian Fallon is famous, or maybe infamous, for not boozing and getting high – he even goes to church. Given that we’ve just pulled Levine out of a gambling den, is he on the opposite end of the partying spectrum? The answer is no: in fact, the whole band has cleaned up its act. “I got sober in recent history,” Levine says. “I’ve cooled down a lot – I’ve got a family now. In fact, the whole of Gaslight Anthem have kicked drugs and alcohol to the back seat.”

Same as The Boss, The Gaslight Anthem were borne out of New Jersey. Keeping in tight with the locals, Bruce Springsteen’s actually joined them onstage a few times. Levine describes the first cameo as the biggest ‘holy fuck’ moment in his career. “It was like being blasted out of a fucking rocket ship,” Levine hoots. “Seriously, he was suddenly there and it was like, ‘How the fuck did this happen?’ That one is going to be hard to top.”

Even though Fallon’s voice is not dissimilar to Springsteen’s, traditionally his band has sat more on the punk side of the fence. With that in mind, it makes sense that The Clash occupies a special place in The Gaslight Anthem’s heart. Even now Levine holds Joe Strummer aloft as his number one singer-songwriter and veritably perks up with the mention of his name.

“My father was into The Clash,” he recalls fondly. “He actually got to see The Clash and The Who at the Chase Stadium in New York back in the ’80s. I just pretty immediately fell in love with everything about them – their style, their songs, their vibe, what they conveyed. Man, they are the greatest rock band ever. They’re always going to be an influence on us – it’s always going to be there, because they were a huge part of the reason that we wanted to play music in the first place.”

Thinking about the band’s beginnings, Fallon has been heard to say that a sense of frightened urgency kick-started the outfit, and Levine doesn’t disagree. “We all had very humble beginnings,” he recalls. “None of us had a real way out, other than for doing this. We all fell on the same page – this was what we really wanted to do and we really wanted to make it. We weren’t necessarily the most talented, but we were certainly driven – it’s an important part of success.”

Going back to The Clash, one of the things that Levine admires about Strummer was his ability to evolve. Guided by this ethos, there’s been a musical change in tack with Get Hurt, The Gaslight Anthem’s fifth studio album. It’s still very recognisably Gaslight, but it’s different to prior releases – it’s more straight-down-the-line rock’n’roll, with barely a whiff of punk, and even goes a bit country on ‘Red Violins’. This shouldn’t be a surprise – Fallon has said that unless you invented a unique sound, like the Ramones, you’ve gotta change at some point. “Well, that was a wise call,” laughs Levine. “I wish I’d said it – because you do have to adapt. It’s tough if you’re just regurgitating the same stuff and it’s not rewarding creatively.”

Part of what helped the band mix it up on Get Hurt was working with producer Mike Crossey – he was sought out specifically on the basis that the chances of him disagreeing with the group were high. “I wouldn’t say that we’ve worked with yes men before,” Levine says. “We definitely wanted to work with someone this time who had a different style from us, though. We’d never really explored before what it would be like to record with someone who wasn’t focused on the singer-songwriter aspect – Mike’s more focused on the sound and how it’s recorded and we wanted to have some fun with that.”

It’s an encouraging fact that there was some fun to be had, because it wasn’t the happiest of times for the band when it went into recording – particularly given Fallon had just divorced his wife of ten years. “I think that every artistic experience is cathartic,” Levine says. “It’s always an escape from everyday life. Making music has absolutely always been my release and escape.”

As unlikely as it’d be, if the whole thing ever goes to shit for Levine, at least he’s got a job to fall back on: he’s a barber. “Yeah, I started out by cutting my own hair when I was a teenager, because I didn’t like how anyone else was cutting it,” he laughs. “I’ll cut people’s hair now when we’re on tour. I was thinking about setting up a barbershop too, but I haven’t had time to get around to that yet. I have set up my own clothing label, though, which is kind of barbershop-inspired. It has that essence and vibe of how men used to dress.”

Get unlimited access to the coverage that shapes our culture.

Subscribe to Rolling Stone magazine

Subscribe to Rolling Stone magazine