Brian Fallon Of Gaslight Anthem Live On Air
Brain Fallon, live on air… He showed up alone, having driven to the station from his home just about 20 minutes away. I was wondering if he’d do that; drive himself. No entourage needed. No record label person, not a management rep anywhere in sight. A guy who’s been on stage in front of thousands… According to Gotts who walked Brain out afterwards, he drove his wife’s car to the station.
Brian Fallon, of Gaslight Anthem, as it’s turns out is exactly that kind of guy. Fun, friendly, easy to be around and easy to talk to. He carries his own guitar; he drives himself. Because: Why wouldn’t you?!
“Songwriting is the last form of real magic. It’s divine intervention.”
-Brian Fallon, Gaslight Anthem
Brian Fallon of Gaslight Anthem performed on air at WRAT
Just days before driving himself to our station, his label had announced that a new Gaslight Anthem song was coming as part of a new album from the band. The new song was a duet with another New Jersey artist whose name you might recognize: Bruce Springsteen had asked Brian to write a duet for them.
Yes. Bruce asked him. Bruce Springsteen doesn’t record a lot of duets.
Me: “I mean, how many (Springsteen duets) can you count?” Brian began counting and only got to his 4th finger.
Brian told us that he had become friendly with Bruce over the years. Brian went to Bruce for advice (a meeting that reportedly happened at Federici’s Pizza in Freehold, yum!) on how to work the music industry end of putting Gaslight Anthem back together after the band had decided to go on indefinite hiatus. It was around that time that Bruce said, “Hey, you should write a song that we can do together.” Bruce recorded his vocal while in Dublin, Ireland on his vast worldwide tour.
However, I’m gonna be totally honest here: I didn’t even know about the duet when I asked the band’s management if Brian could stop by the WRAT studios during our Morning Show. I asked just a few minutes after I heard the first release from the new album, “History Books” (releasing October 27). The first single, “Positive Charge” immediately caught my ear.
As a guy who’s been through the ringer over the past two years, mostly due to my own actions, the song sounded like it was written about me. And, as it turns out, a lot of people thought the song spoke directly to them too. A friend who lost a mom, another who split with his wife and other’s whose details I won’t bear all found some kind of solace in the lyrics Brian had written.
For me? The fun loving guy I used to know had stepped away from the mirror and I was getting sick and tired of it. I didn’t even know it until I heard the song: but I wanted to “live again, I wanted to love myself a little longer.”
Songs that speak to many people for many different reasons are the most special ever written. Brian is right. The talent is mysterious, the source of the words seem wrapped in universal human experience but impossible to know. Like a fresh water spring that drips emotions as words in glimpses of a moment.
As for me, most mornings start with a reference to, “you gonna love yourself today?” Thanks for reminding me how important that is, Mr. Fallon.
Scroll down for the part of the interview that includes a live performance of “Positive Charge” and the last song on Gaslight Anthem’s 2012 album, “Handwritten”. Performing “National Anthem” on air was a last treat on the morning. So glad I asked.
There’s also the band’s official videos for the two songs from the new album.
Brian Fallon, Gaslight Anthem: Live Performance And Videos
