Gaslight Anthem talks to Billboard

Gaslight Anthem were interviewed by industry journal Billboard this week. In the article, frontman Brian Fallon talks about the band's surprise at the band's high debut on the Billboard charts with the release of American Slang:

With this album we're like, 'Well, this is what we want to do,' but we didn't know if it's what other people wanted. We figured we'd probably get beaten up and kicked down the street by people going, 'This isn't like the last record [2008's 'The '59 Sound']. This isn't that good.' That's what they normally do, y'know? So we were just waiting for the repercussions. I have absolutely no idea. I don't know what anyone wants out of us. [I just followed our] secret box of influences -- Pearl Jam, Tom Petty and Neil Young [who] just kind of went at the world full on and did things their own way. A lot of times people hated them for it, and they took a ton of backlash, but I think you can find a lot of good guidance there -- just kind of barrel through it, and you'll be OK.

Brian also mentions the Springsteen comparisons which have followed the band since their 2007 debut, Sink or Swim:

There's so much else that we look at for our sound and influences that you don't want to be notched in with one guy. There's a lot of things he does that I admire. We come from a lot of the same places but a lot of different places, too. But at the same time, that's a good thing to be compared to. I think it's one of those things we're gonna have to wear until it wears out. He's a cool guy; I don't really know him, but what I know of him, he's cool. that was what we all took from it -- 'Wow, you can be that famous and still be kind of cool and normal.'

Check out the interview here.