New York might be “The Big Apple,” the Mecca celebrated in song by Billy Joel, Frank Sinatra and countless more anthems. But Brian Fallon, frontman for The Gaslight Anthem, is very proud to be from the “Garden State,” New Jersey.
It is his tremendous hometown pride that at least partly inspired the title of his excellent new solo album, Not Bad For New Jersey.
Hit Parader spoke at length to Fallon about the new album, which features The Killers’ Brandon Flowers and other guests, playing with Bruce Springsteen, his tremendous Tom Waits’ influence, why he loves hair metal and the many luminaries from Jersey.
Hit Parader: What does it take to be not bad in Jersey?
Brian Fallon: Whatever I’m doing, that’s what it takes. My whole life, I think, is what it takes. For real, that’s where this kind of came from. I was thinking about the life that I have and that I’m 46 and I’ve been playing music since I was a kid. That isn’t that bad, but you wouldn’t think New Jersey would be the place to come and bring up all these people that it actually has. And it was mixed with the thought of how many amazing people are from Jersey. Jack Nicholson is from New Jersey, Bruce Willis, Bruce Springsteen and Scarlett Johansson. There are insane people, but it’s always like the little brother to New York. So that’s where [that came from], not bad for New Jersey.
HP: It’s true, it’s always been the butt of the joke. Does that make the hometown pride stronger?
Fallon: Oh, yeah, definitely. Because, especially what you say is true. It is kind of the butt of the joke, especially in the States. When people mean to throw shade at someone about the East Coast, it’s like, “What are you from, New Jersey?” And then you’re, like, “Yeah.” But I think having that kind of struggle…Omaha is the big one that people throw shade for in the Midwest. But then there’s Bright Eyes and Cursive and all these bands that become super proud of something. You either become embarrassed and you try to run away and hide from it or you really double down on it. So, for us, I’ve always loved it.
HP: Did you grow up like that as well?
Fallon: I was from a small town living in New Jersey, especially during high school. I was in this town called Hackettstown, which is incredibly small. But we had this cool punk scene that was coming up in VFW and legion halls and things like that. I was so excited about that, I didn’t really have much of a perspective of the outside world beyond maybe New York City. But New York City was always not that far away. You could get there, it wasn’t impossible to get there. and my mom always tells me now, I didn’t go through a crazy rebellious stage with my parents or anything. My mom was the one who showed me all these cool bands.
HP: What did she show you?
Fallon: I think the big ones my mom probably showed me were Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi first. My mom was really into Blaze of Glory, the soundtrack for Young Guns II. My mom loved that, so she played that all the time for me. I do think that was maybe one of the first rock things that I was like, “Yo, this is cool and I’m down. I like this, this is awesome.” That and Bruce Springsteen. Then I remember, finding Skid Row and being really pumped the dude [Sebastian Bach] from Skid Row was from New Jersey, I was like, “Dude, everybody else sucks, we’re the best state in the world.” But I’m delusional.
HP: I love that though, because Listening to your music later, no one would ever guess that you were a fucking hair metal fan.
Fallon: Oh, totally, I love it. On my Instagram I the other day I played this guitar solo from “I Remember You” that Scotty Hill did and I’m like, “I love that stuff.” That’s kind of where I started and I didn’t really see much difference between the hair metal bands and the New York Dolls and some of the early punk stuff. I would be showing my mom. I’d be like, “You’ve got to listen to this.”
HP: When you go back and hear your music now do you hear that stuff in your music?
Fallon: I do. I hear my like lust for the pop chorus, [and] as much as I would like to tell you it’s from The Replacements and The Ramones, I don’t think it is. I think it’s from Def Leppard, Skid Row and early Springsteen, that Born in the USA ‘84 era. That stuff was incredible. The first time I remember playing with my friend, running up the stairs of his house and literally stopping and turning around. I was looking at the television that his older sister had on, and it was Bruce, “Born in the USA.” I remember my friend wanted to go play at the park that day. And I remember that day being like, “You don’t care about this song? This doesn’t mean anything to you? This isn’t moving you?” And he was like, “No, let’s just go play on the swings.” I was like, “No, dude, the swings suck now. I’m all about this. I’m about music now.” It grabbed me, man.
HP: As a listener, you project your own tastes. For me, the artist that I most noticed in this album is Tom Waits. Are you a fan?
Fallon: Huge fan. I got Tom Waits’ guitar player on this, Marc Ribot. I can remember the day that I got into Tom Waits. I was 17 years old. I had just discovered The Afghan Whigs and I was really excited about that. The first album that I had by them was Gentleman. Graham [Hind] gave me Nighthawks at the Diner and I think Small Change. I heard that and I’d never heard anything like it. I remember running out to play it for my friends. I went to the store and bought anything by Tom Waits I could find. I bought Rain Dogs, which ended up being my favorite record of maybe all time. I played Rain Dogs for my friend James, who was a big punk guy with me. He was like, “This is insane. I hate this music.” I was like, “Oh, dude, this is a huge problem for us now. Because I love this.” Tom Waits is, I think, maybe my favorite musician ever.
HP: Were there a lot of things on this record that surprised you?
Fallon: Oh, tons because I think I’m at the first place in my life where I just let go of everything when I was writing this record. And I just was like, “Whatever it’s going to be, that’s what it’s going to be. And I’ll decide later.” And it’s funny that you mentioned Tom Waits, because in the beginning, I really of writing this record, I said to my wife, “I really just want to write a Tom Waits or Nick Cave kind of record. I really want to do that.” Then I started making these demos and I showed them to her. And I was like, “What do you think of this?” And I think we were both thinking the same thing; it just sounds like you’re doing a Tom Waits impression. She’s like, “You’ve got to get more Brian Fallon in there.” When she said it at first, I was like, “What are you talking about?” Then I thought about it for a second, cause my wife is really good about music and knowing where it’s coming from. She’s got a cool kind of x-ray vision with that. And once I sat with it for a second, I said, “Is there truth in what she’s saying?” I felt like there was because I could hear that I was just doing an impression. And then I said, “Okay, how do I let that influence breathe through me but at the same time make choices that I like and not what I think Tom Waits would like or Nick Cave would like?” Once I did that it sort of unraveled and all the songs came out, and I was like, “Whoa, okay cool.”
HP: As a Tom Waits fanatic, it was more the themes of the record that had the Tom feel to me. For example, “Pearls” had a little bit of a “Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis” feel.
Fallon: That’s the thing — it’s either a sore winner or a beautiful loser That’s what we’re shooting for. It speaks to me.
HP: So, which are you?
Fallon: I think I’m a little bit of both. It depends on the time. When I was up there with Springsteen, I was a sore winner. But then when I’m losing, I think I’m a beautiful loser like Paul Westerberg.
HP: Do you know the Tom Waits song, “Take It With Me”?
Fallon: I was 19 when that record came out. I was deeply into the punk scene at that time. But when I heard that, I was like, “This is where I really want to go, this kind of songwriting. And I know that I have a lot of growth before I get there. So, whatever it is that it’s going to take me to get to a place where I can write a song like ‘Take It With Me,’ I knew that I had work to do.” That’s continued for my whole life. I still don’t think I’m equipped to write a song like that. But to be fair, he was 50 when he had that song. So, I’m not there yet.
HP: For you though, are there moments where you feel like as an artist, you’ve gotten closer to where you want to go? On this record, for example, I really loved “Love Till the End of the World,” which does have the “Take It With Me” vibe.
Fallon: Yeah, that was a good day when I wrote that with Brandon Flowers. I remember really connecting that day. We had been becoming friends for the last couple of years before we got together to do that. I remember sitting in his truck talking about the bridge and the lyrics of the song. And I remember feeling like I was with a real friend, a person who understood and was coming from the same place I was coming from in songwriting and who really cared about that kind of thing. That was a special moment for us, I think, because we both realized, “Oh, you’re like me.” That was a cool thing.
The similarities were writing the songs and not caring so much where they fit in stylistically or whether they were going to be successful as much, but really caring about, “Does it matter at all to those I love? I think yes. And will it matter to other people who love other people that we’ve never met? Will that matter?” I think the thing that we both felt at that time, because for as successful as that guy is, he’s strangely like a no bs kind of guy. He really doesn’t subscribe to himself being a rock star, which I think is really cool. He’s still a humble guy who just loves and wants to get deep into the music. He so badly wants to write the perfect song, just like I do, which is funny because some people would say he already has with “Mr. Brightside” or whatever.
HP: I also love “On Bad Terms,” the one with Laurie McKenna as well.
Fallon: Well, Laurie is one of the best songwriters in the world. And we have another guy that we work with, too. We have a little trio; me, Laurie and Donovan Woods. We write songs together for fun all the time. And that’s the goal, just to touch that surface. You just want to get as close as you can to whatever’s real, not real like the desk in front of me is made of wood and I can touch it. Real in like the mysterious, the song that’s there, but you can’t see it. That thing.
