“You never get away from that thing in your hometown that it has over you. You don’t outgrow where you come from.”
― Brian Fallon
“Every time I look at the Eiffel Tower, it completely blows my mind.”
― Brian Fallon
“I like building houses, working as a carpenter, painting. You work with your hands to the best of your ability, and at the end of the day, you go home with some satisfaction: ‘I built that!’”
― Brian Fallon
“I went to the Louvre in Paris, and I saw all the paintings and the Mona Lisa. You don’t really see something like that every day. I was looking at it, and everything else in the room just shut out. Like, Leonardo Da Vinci painted this thing – this is unreal that he touched that. It had this crazy effect on me.”
― Brian Fallon
“Shoes are everything. You can tell more about a man from his shoes than his handshake, because they tell where you’re going.”
― Brian Fallon
“You pay your bills and you take care of your family, or you’re not a man.”
― Brian Fallon
“I spend my money on cars. That’s why I have a Challenger. It’s a muscle car, like a Mustang. It’s big and rumbly.”
― Brian Fallon
“It’s amazing to me: when people start their career, you write about maybe a couple of topics, and you find that as you grow older, a lot of those topics never resolve, because I think your job as a writer is to pose questions as you see them. I don’t know if we’re supposed to give answers to people, because I don’t know if we have any.”
― Brian Fallon
“People don’t remember that during the Fifties and Sixties there was a Cold War, and kids were getting under their desks during school because they thought they were going to get bombed. So it wasn’t really that ideal at all.”
― Brian Fallon
“Everyone always says, ‘We don’t want to be pigeonholed.’ But sometimes, your pigeonhole is a great place to be.”
― Brian Fallon
“It’s a beautiful thing, to start over.”
― Brian Fallon
“Why blow money on a tour bus when you could get your mom a nice dress?”
― Brian Fallon
“I’ve never read ‘The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe,’ but his later works are about whether God is real.”
― Brian Fallon
“When you set out to carry on a tradition as deep rooted as folk music is, you’ve got to have your story together. You’ve got to study and have a foundation. Jeffrey Foucault has that foundation, and you can hear it in his voice, and feel it in his music. He’s got an understanding that you don’t hear that often.”
― Brian Fallon
“You get a realisation at some point in your career that whatever it is you do, you can no longer continue to do it. You just realise you can’t put out the same records forever.”
― Brian Fallon
“On the road, we watch ‘The Mighty Boosh.’ We have so many copies, we have them in different country codes.”
― Brian Fallon
“My friend Danny Clinch, who’s a photographer, gave me a big, signed, numbered print of a photo he took of Eddie Vedder in Seattle. It’s hung in my writing room where I have posters of writers that inspire me. They’re all pointing at me. Tom Waits is like, ‘Don’t sell out!’”
― Brian Fallon
“For me, there’s no point in being an artist and putting yourself out there if you’re not going to really put yourself out there.”
― Brian Fallon
“I had a five-year plan to get to 500-seat venues and tour by ourselves and fill a room everywhere we go. I figured we could make a living off that. As long as you buy nothing stupid, you’ll be OK.”
― Brian Fallon
“Fans look up to us, and that’s creepy.”
― Brian Fallon
“The Gaslight Anthem is very streamlined. We don’t usually use organs and strings and things like that.”
― Brian Fallon
“I never got a chance to do Tom Waits or PJ Harvey kind of stuff in the Gaslight Anthem.”
― Brian Fallon
“We didn’t invent this – this rock n’ roll thing.”
― Brian Fallon
“Major labels have always been around our band since the beginning, and we just waited. We knew we had to do some things, and we needed to grow as a band before we made that step. We needed to do it our way and not do it how it works for other people.”
― Brian Fallon
“You can learn a lot if you become a student of what’s happening to you.”
― Brian Fallon
“There can be a wrong time – it’s happened to countless bands where they release their first record on a major label and never learned what they maybe should have learned on an indie.”
― Brian Fallon
“Songs are like anything else – they dictate to you which ones go together and which ones don’t.”
― Brian Fallon
“Going out and trying new stuff on an audience is a scary thing.”
― Brian Fallon
“Gaslight has a specific way of playing and recording that’s sort of become the way now.”
― Brian Fallon
“There’s no way I’m going to write for other people.”
― Brian Fallon
“I don’t mean it egotistically, but I’ve been given the chance to be in front of people and sing, and I feel that it’s part of my job and my duty – especially where I’m from – to speak the language of the people I’m around and speak for them.”
― Brian Fallon
“With ‘Get Hurt,’ we wanted to see where else we could go with the band. We thought it was time to change things up a bit. The song itself is similar to the feeling of a wreck you see coming, but long past the point you can avoid it.”
― Brian Fallon
“One day, I was just fingering around on the keys of a Fender Rhodes piano, and I came up with this little riff, and all of a sudden, it morphed into a song. It had never been touched by a guitar, which was very weird for us. ‘Under the Ground’ is the first song I have ever written that had nothing to do with the guitar.”
― Brian Fallon
“I’ll probably continue to write about heartbreak forever. That stuff doesn’t go away as you get older.”
― Brian Fallon
“You’re always trying to make each record more autobiographical than the last one.”
― Brian Fallon
“I can’t really see myself writing about politics because I’m not really into it, and one of the worst things you can do is write about things you’re not into.”
― Brian Fallon
“There’s never going to be a new Beatles because we don’t consume things in that way anymore.”
― Brian Fallon
“When Tupac came out, my writing changed for sure. I learned from it. It was a cultural thing.”
― Brian Fallon
“At the end of the day, you can’t reinvent yourself past a point, because you are you, and there are things that are inherently you that are always going to be there.”
― Brian Fallon
“I think Green Day’s ‘American Idiot’ is probably the best comeback or mid-career record that any band has done.”
― Brian Fallon
“I don’t have a ‘Born to Run’ in me.”
― Brian Fallon
“I’m one of those people who, even if I’m invited somewhere, I still kinda feel like I’m not supposed to be there.”
― Brian Fallon
“I’m on the phone with this guy, and he says to me, ‘People compare you to Bruce Springsteen. I don’t think you’ve written a song as good as ‘Dancing in the Dark’ or ‘I’m on Fire.” And all I could think was, ‘Me neither!’”
― Brian Fallon
“You can’t shape it. You can’t change it. Your life is what it is.”
― Brian Fallon
“I’m not really into the numbers game of, like, what position our record is. But you find out at the end, you know? You’re like ‘Oh, all right! That’s good!’ We had a Number Three record. That’s crazy! What’s that about? That’s exciting to me! I think that’s good.”
― Brian Fallon
“We want to be big… we want to be a big band, but we don’t want to be your best friends.”
― Brian Fallon
“I’ve always said it’s easier for bands to make a hard stance – like, we don’t do commercials or whatever, blah blah blah – when you’ve sold billions of records. It’s super-easy to be righteous when you’re rich.”
― Brian Fallon
“When you’re a musician, a lot of time people help you out; they take pity on you. Family members will kind of come around and are like, ‘Listen, I bought you a bunch of groceries because I know that you’re a screwup.’”
― Brian Fallon
“I don’t want to be the mayor of New Jersey.”
― Brian Fallon
“I don’t really hate a lot of songs, but I think Weezer has put out some songs I really hate because they’ve also put out a lot of songs I really like.”
― Brian Fallon
“Sometimes I get the bug to live in London for a year, or something like that, and maybe I will. But New Jersey’s home.”
― Brian Fallon
“Springsteen is a hero to a lot of people in New Jersey. He’s a role model – because he’s a local guy who got out.”
― Brian Fallon
“I grew up in the next town over from Asbury Park and five streets from E Street. My mother fed me ‘Born To Run’ with my Cheerios.”
― Brian Fallon
“Everybody told us we would never make it. Even friends would say to me, ‘Okay this band thing is cool, but seriously, what are you really going to do?’ I can’t think of anyone who believed in us, and that was fuel for the fire, because the more anybody said I wouldn’t do it, the more I was like, ‘No, I’m going to do it.’”
― Brian Fallon
“I’m a pretty private person.”
― Brian Fallon
“The first time I heard ‘White Man in Hammersmith Palais,’ I loved the vulnerability in the music and the lyrics.”
― Brian Fallon
“I do find that I tend to write about big questions. Why are we here? What are we doing? How do we relate to each other?”
― Brian Fallon
“I must’ve been about 7 or 8 when I realized I wanted to perform in some way.”
― Brian Fallon
“I sure wish I’d written ‘One’ by U2.”
― Brian Fallon
“I don’t envy anybody else’s career because I feel they’ve earned where they’re at and worked hard. I wouldn’t mind Jack White’s gig, though. He does it all!”
― Brian Fallon
“Everyone should see ‘A Nightmare Before Christmas,’ hear ‘London Calling,’ and read ‘Great Expectations.’”
― Brian Fallon
“When you finish a record, I look at it like a photograph. It’s already taken. You got it the way you wanted it to be. You edit it, make sure the light and contrast are right, then you just put it away, and that’s your photograph. Then you don’t really think about it anymore.”
― Brian Fallon
“A lot of people get writer’s block, and I think you just have to show up for work, sit down, and be like, ‘I’m here.’ You have to stay confident and positive that you’re going to write something.”
― Brian Fallon
“When you label something a singer-songwriter record, you cover many genres.”
― Brian Fallon
“If you’re just making a record to pay the bills, that’s not a great idea because chances are it might not come out that good.”
― Brian Fallon
“When ‘American Slang’ came out, everyone was like, ‘This is the next big band in the world, and this is blah blah blah Bruce Springsteen Junior and blah blah blah,’ and I was just like, ‘I don’t know what that means. I don’t know. We’ll see.’”
― Brian Fallon
“Too many bands record an album and feel, ‘Well, this is okay,’ but after a time, they grow to not like it.”
― Brian Fallon
“You just have to know your story from the beginning. You have to know what you’re going for and be honest with people about that. Don’t sit there and say you’re gonna be a DIY punk band for your whole life and then move on to arenas; you can’t do that because then people don’t trust you anymore.”
― Brian Fallon
“I would love to learn how to paint motorcycles and stuff like that. I really, really am fascinated by that.”
― Brian Fallon
“I can’t sit still for long and need creative outlets and think you should try different things. I mean, if you’re a musician all of your life, you gotta try different things. I really believe you can have it all.”
― Brian Fallon
“That’s how I would describe myself, persistent.”
― Brian Fallon
“I just like a good song, it doesn’t matter. I mean, I am into girl groups and stuff like that. I listen to anything.”
― Brian Fallon
“We come from that school where we don’t believe we’re different from you, and it’s insulting to me on some kind of weird level that musicians are put on a pedestal.”
― Brian Fallon
“I did the coffee house thing – we have coffee houses where people play, or we used to – and when I was 14, I started there. Just played all the time. Every weekend I had a show, or every Thursday. Open-mic nights, the whole thing.”
― Brian Fallon
“The Clash will always be from London, and we will always be from New Jersey. But New Jersey doesn’t create us.”
― Brian Fallon
“I don’t go to rock bars. Why would I go to rock bars? I can do that every night; it’s boring.”
― Brian Fallon
“Where I live, every band ever comes through, and you can see anything you want, pretty much.”
― Brian Fallon
“I don’t like it when people spout about the popular opinion just to make it louder.”
― Brian Fallon
“I think some people don’t even know what they’re talking about, and they just start talking with an opinion, not even asking questions.”
― Brian Fallon
“Tom Waits is someone who has really struck me, ever since I was a kid. He’s really a big deal for me.”
― Brian Fallon
“It’s always Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and Tom Waits for me – the big three.”
― Brian Fallon
“I think I lose myself in interviews sometimes.”
― Brian Fallon
“If you asked me to make a Gaslight Anthem album on my own, I would say, ‘No way, that’s crazy.’ I would never have been able to do that.”
― Brian Fallon
“We built something very special with Gaslight, and we don’t want to mess with that sound too much. But I’ve always wanted to do a record where I can put strings or organs or pianos or whatever on it.”
― Brian Fallon
“It’s all about knowing your audience. When I buy a record by a band and it sounds completely different, I’m just like, ‘Why didn’t you change your band name?’”
― Brian Fallon
“When you’re older, you realize a little bit more hard truths. You are who you are. And the people that like you, they like you for being you.”
― Brian Fallon
“I like movies and radios and Bruce Springsteen and New Jersey. That’s what I like, and if people don’t like that, well, literally you can go on iTunes, and there’s hundreds of other bands you can listen to.”
― Brian Fallon
“I learn tons of John Frusciante’s licks from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I’m never going to play like the Chili Peppers, but I might use that if I’ve got a dub beat or reggae thing mixed with a soul thing.”
― Brian Fallon
“I don’t want to be a lead player. I don’t want to shred and play fast licks. I just want to be the best rhythm section ever.”
― Brian Fallon
“When I first started fingerpicking, the first thing I learned was ‘Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright’ from Bob Dylan.”
― Brian Fallon
“I was never a fan of open tunings, because some people will do that and fumble around. But that’s not my jam.”
― Brian Fallon
“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized the element that sounds like The Gaslight Anthem that’s mine is always going to be me. The other three-fourths of it is going to be the other guys. I can’t stop doing what I do naturally, whether I’m in The Gaslight Anthem or my own thing.”
― Brian Fallon
“I’ve spent my life playing music.”
― Brian Fallon
“The piano is where everything starts and ends. Everything is based off of it. If you understand that, you wind up understanding a lot more in all other instruments. For me, it had always been something important to try and learn.”
― Brian Fallon
“There are two things that matter when you’re making music. First, that you’re doing what you love, even if it’s crazy and other people tell you it’s crazy. The second thing is the only people you really need to worry about are the people who love your music, not the people who speak badly about it.”
― Brian Fallon
“I’d like to say I don’t care, but I do. ‘Cause when you put out a record, you try to do it for yourself first, and you want your audience to accept it, but you also want the press to accept it, too, because it validates what you do.”
― Brian Fallon
“I’m from New Jersey, the Shore, and Asbury Park and all that goes with that. I wouldn’t want to mess around with that. I like New Jersey. There are nice people here.”
― Brian Fallon
“When you write a lot of songs, sometimes you don’t have a place for them, and you need an outlet for them.”
― Brian Fallon
“You can’t staple me to the Brooklyn hipster. I don’t buy skinny jeans and $50 T-shirts. I wear the same clothes I’ve always worn, from Target.”
― Brian Fallon
“Gaslight Anthem’s thing is its power. It’s just like boom and explosions and loud, and play with everything you got.”
― Brian Fallon
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