Thursday, July 29, 2010

Interview with Alex Levine, Bassist for the Gaslight Anthem

Interview with Alex Levine, Bassist for the Gaslight Anthem
This was an interview I got to do with Alex Levine, Bassist for the Gaslight Anthem before his stop in Denver. Wish the article would have run.

Me : How did the European Tour go?

Alex: It went great. We sold out every show, which is unbelievable. We played all of the academy ones which I guess are pretty much the biggest venues you can play, without I guess jumping to the big arenas and what not. We played to a sold out crowd every night and they were insane. Every night was just unbelievable, it was blowing our minds every single day. To date it was our best tour so far.

Me: Where there any surprises when you were on the road over there? You said it blew your mind.

Alex: You know just the reception that our new record has been getting and just the way people are reacting to it. Actually just so excited to see us once again, it has been about a year since we have been over there. People were just losing their minds, it was awesome.

Me: I know you guys have played Denver a number of times, what do you think of Denver? Do you notice any intricacies about playing here?

Alex: Denver…that is why I wanted to do this interview. Denver is one of my personal favorite cities in the world. I have really close friends, one of my best friends moved over there. It is just one of my favorite cities to walk around and just hang out in, go to bars there and play. People are unbelievable there. Since day one, we have had almost like a cultish following from the beginning over there, where all of the sudden people started popping up in Denver. We would play in front of 200 people in Denver and then we play in front of 10 people in Salt Lake City. That is kind of how it went. Denver from the beginning was a great place for us.

Me: Before you go on the stage are there any superstitions or rituals that you go through before you get ready to play?

Alex: Yeah there are a couple, there is one thing my drummer Benny (Horowitz) and me always say, “you can never get too warm” meaning like stretching and all of that. You get really tense before so we try stretching a lot, we take a lot of pisses that’s for sure, you know have a couple of drinks, um do a couple of push ups, you know just normal things to get loose. We do a fist pound and get ready to go.

Me: Nice. I assume things mellow out once you have been out there on the stage a little bit?

Alex: Yeah, I mean but that’s the thing. The beauty of it is that everyday once 8:30 kicks around, you get the same feeling in your stomach, the same butterflies in your stomach. I feel like that will never go away and if it does go away then I am going to pack up my bags and go home because there is really no reason for doing this then.

Me: With American Slang being out, how does it feel to have 3 albums out there?

Alex: Unbelievable because from the point of view of being a kid 10-15 years ago going into record stores and seeing certain bands, seeing some of my from favorite bands having inserts, whoever you know, the Clash. You have 4 or 5 records in there a b-side in there and now to think that we are one of those bands that has a slot in every single record store around the country or even around the world now, it’s awesome. I never thought it would get to that point.

Me: If you had to pick one song off American Slang that is your favorite song to play which one would you choose?

Alex: To play, Queen of Lower Chelsea, by far. That was a fun song for me to record. I got to really explore my personal influences on that track and that was a track that has kind of always been worked out in my head. The way that song came out, I am really proud of it.

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