here's a link http://www.absolutepunk.net/showthread.php?p=55611482
"I recently had the chance to sit down with The Gaslight Anthem's drummer Benny Horowitz when the band was touring across Canada.
This tour has been going on for awhile now. What has been the most memorable experience you’ve had so far?
It might have been karaoke with The Loved Ones the other day. That was fun.
What songs did you do?
Oh, I didn’t sing. I was in a pretty low key mood that night, we were just kind of watching the college kids sing. One group of guys came up and did Backstreet Boys and their friend Ricardo took on the solo so Ricardo got a lot of love from us. But this tour has been a highlight all around, just because all of the bands have been so good. It’s just a good show I’d want to go see every night and we’re old friends with The Loved Ones and everybody’s cool. We’re really enjoying it, it’s like our last tour on this record. It’s exactly what we’ve wanted.
So it’s true that you are doing a new record after this?
We’re definitely doing a new record after this.
From what I’ve read in previous interviews, it would be more of a harder rock album?
I don’t know. We haven’t written it yet and we don’t really plan it out so much that I can even say it. But I can definitely say some of the cut back stuff and maybe some of the soul stuff on The ’59 Sound that we went for then, maybe isn’t as much of a feeling for us right now. I know that there’s going to be a couple of real good straight forward rockers on that record but I don’t know exactly how many. We’ll see. We’ll see how that process goes. Maybe we’ll get to Jersey. We haven’t written a record at home for a long time. So maybe we’ll get to Jersey and take whatever feeling we get from home and translate it. We’re going back in the winter, winters usually in New Jersey are pretty fucking dreary. It should be an interesting state of mind. So we’ll see, maybe we’ll make a fucking goth metal record, who knows? We’re going to come out in April with fishnets all over and white makeup, you know? What do you call that? Goth? We’re going to go goth. I’d say that’s it, I’ve already seen Brian and Alex playing with leather and really high boots. Stuff like that. Seriously though, I don’t know.
The ’59 Sound has been a breakthrough record and has opened up many doors. What did you accomplish that you never thought was possible?
I guess at some point in my early 20’s, I definitely considered that as hard as I was going to go for it, I’d probably never get to be in a band that would be a band and not do anything else. This last year, the fact that the band has become my life as far as work and home and everything, you know? It encapsulates everything because it takes so much time. So I don’t know, I think that’s the thing that I thought would never happen, but it actually happened. I don’t have a normal job anymore, I just play music and it’s pretty cool.
So do you feel a lot of pressure right now? Are you overly worried with how your new record will be received?
No. I don’t. I can definitely see where that might come from but we’re making a really conscious effort to go into it the same way we’ve always gone into it, you know? Once we get into a room and it’s the four of us, we want to keep everything else out. If we start writing music based on what other people have said, or even stupider, potentially will say, then you’re going to fall short personally. So I think the way we’re looking at it is that as long as we’re walking out of the studio proud with what we did, then that is what the goal is you know? That is the intention. Whatever happens after is going to be out of our control regardless. We can’t tell people what to say or think so we’ve just got to make something that we’re really proud of.
Bruce Springsteen comes up lots whenever the band is mentioned since The ’59 Sound came out. Do you ever get tired of all the comparisons?
Yeah. Yes, definitely. I mean, it’s just like, ‘Cool.’ And I don’t know, I just don’t see it all that much. I see comparisons with lots of other bands more than that. I think people pine on it just because it’s easy, you know? Lazy journalism I guess.
Moving back to touring, would you ever play Warped Tour again? In your Alternative Press cover article, it doesn't seem like it went too well.
Yeah. I wouldn’t say we had problems though. It’s not an easy tour to do if you’re in a van, but we only did eight days of it and honestly, it was fine. All the other bands were cool and Kevin was super cool so we definitely have nothing against Warped tour. We had already done two months of festival type things and it’s rough. At some point, maybe we’ll try it again.
What was Lollapalooza like then?
That was fun. Chicago is always a cool place to begin with. I was really happy about it because I remember one of my first concert experiences as a kid was Lollapalooza in 1993. I went with my best friend and his older brother and I had the best time in the world. I was 12 and I saw Rage Against the Machine, Tool, Alice in Chains, Dinosaur Jr., Primus, so I have great memories of being there as a kid. Getting to play it that many years later, like what, 15 years later, is kind of cool. It’s also in the middle of Chicago in a park and you can see the entire city around you so it’s really cool. And not to mention, a couple of friends were in town and we went to a pirate museum the day before we played. They took a pirate ship out of water and all of the original pirate treasure, silverware and everything that they wore, it was still on the ship. So the museum tells the story of that ship from its start to its finish, it was originally a normal ship taken over by pirates.
So you do interesting things on your days off?
Sometimes. We’re going to be in Minneapolis tomorrow and I think some people are going to see Gallows and AFI. I think I’m going to go to the Twins game though. I heard the Twins are in town and I’ve never been to the Metrodome so I think I’m going to see that and then hang out with everyone after. But last night here in Winnipeg, we went to see the Bouncing Souls, Off With Their Heads, Youth Brigade and Saint Alvia. That was cool, I went to that last night and hung out for awhile. It was good to see everyone there. But a lot of the time if we’re in a place where nothing is going on, we’ll just go see a movie. A lot of the time we just chill and read too, just use it as a real day off. We’re pretty low key.
Is there any band on SideOneDummy that makes you particularly happy to be a part of the label?
I guess Fake Problems because I love Fake Problems. They’re like our boys from way back, our first proper tour that we ever did. They’re good friends of ours too, but it’s hard to say. It’s like picking a favourite M and M or something like that.
Where does Chris Wollard appear on The '59 Sound?
He’s in “Meet Me By The River’s Edge” in the low harmonies in the verses and the chorus. Yeah, it’s pretty soft but if you listen, you can definitely hear it. Chris Wollard’s voice is definitely in there.
A long while back Suburban Home/Vinyl Collective mentioned you guys would be a part of their Under the Influence split 7” series, with American Steel. Is that still going to happen?
Yeah, I think so. I mean, we’re still tight with Suburban Home, we still talk to them. We just haven’t had much of an opportunity to get anything done but I could see that as a possibility for the future. I’m not sure what American Steel is up to right now but I’d still love to do it with those guys. Maybe when we record the next record, we can work on songs for that too.
Is Maria one person or is she based on a number of women?
I can’t answer too deep into those questions but I can definitely say that it’s not one person.
How much has Counting Crows influenced the band?
Again, not one I can elaborate on, but I know Brian is a big Counting Crows fan.
Does anyone in the band study music theory?
No, not at all. I’d say that the only one who even potentially may have is Alex Rosamilia but not on guitar, I think on piano. I’m certain all of us are self taught on our instruments. Anything that you hear in our music that’s weird or anything like that, it’s probably not on purpose. At least if it is, we don’t know what the fuck we’re doing. We’re just doing it because we think it sounds good.
If you could spend an evening with any person, who would it be and why?
Wow... Really hard... because I don’t know whether to fuck around or give a real answer. I’ve said before that I’d like to spend a day with like Method Man.
You’ve probably already met a lot of the people you look up to, bands at least.
I have actually, a bunch of them. Mike Ness. He’s scary. Because it’s Mike Ness, you know? It was pretty crazy. Like the way I came up in music, I didn’t really know about Bruce Springsteen until I was like 25. Mike Ness I’ve known about since I was like 12. But that doesn’t really answer the question... I guess a person from history I’m most interested in is my namesake Benjamin Franklin. I just read like an 800 page biography on that guy. It seems like he would have been a really interesting guy to hang out with, get drunk with and tell stories and shit with. I bet he used to smoke pot. I think he did so I’ll go with that. Benjamin Franklin. I think I even played him in a first grade play.
What do you call the two Alex’s in the band to tell them apart?
Oh man, you know what? If I told you Alex Levine’s nickname in an interview he’d get pissed because he doesn’t want me to call him that anymore. It’s like his name that everybody who knows him personally knows him by. But, he doesn’t want me calling him that anymore and I started it so I’m not allowed to say but maybe when you post this interview, somebody can unearth it. I can’t be responsible for it, he’d get mad at me and his girlfriend would too. (Laughs) Some people call them 46 because of 4 strings on a bass and 6 on a guitar. And sometimes you can tell just by the tones in people’s voice, they approach them differently.
Lastly, on the side you have another band called Spiro Agnew with Alex Rosamilia.
Yeah, it’s a band Alex and I have had for a long time, probably five years. Before the Gaslight Anthem we had it, and it stems from a different band we were in called The Killing Gift, who essentially kicked out our singer and got a different bass player. It sort of turned into this stoner metal kind of thing. Yeah, we still do it and when we’re home in New Jersey we’ll practice songs and play once in awhile. Its good fun, Alex and I really enjoy that kind of music.
Do you plan on releasing any material in the future?
Yeah, maybe, we have a few songs. We had a demo and a couple of other songs that we did. I think we’re going to rerecord everything this winter and try to put it all together. Probably on some LP."
Subject: Absolute Punk interview with Benny.. 
Wed Oct 14, 2009 6:54 pm
