Heartland storytelling seems to come easy for Gaslight Anthem frontman Brian Fallon, but he couldn’t do it without the guitar. “The guitar is a magical thing,” Fallon tells Guitar World. “Even more so after I found my own style.”
That style is apparent on classic Gaslight songs like Great Expectations and American Slang, and his latest solo singles, Not Bad for New Jersey and Better Before, which come from his upcoming solo record, Not Bad for New Jersey.
Once again, it all boils down to six-strings. “I really love this,” Fallon says. “A lot of players don’t want to try and find their own thing, but it’s really important. I just put my fingers where they feel good, and that works. Sometimes people are afraid of that, but there’s no reason to be.”
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The rest of 2026 sees Fallon focusing on his solo work with his band The Painkillers, but 2027 will be for The Gaslight Anthem. “It works because those guys in Gaslight like to chill and recharge for a year after we tour and do promo. That’s when I said, ‘Okay, I’m gonna do my other thing over here,’’’ Fallon says.
“I just love music so much that I can’t sit still. I need to do it all the time. I’ll do my solo shows, and during that time, I’m writing for Gaslight, so I’m always flip-flopping. I wouldn’t recommend it, and I don’t know why it works, but it does. [laughs]”
During a break from the action, Fallon dialed in with GW to talk gear, his love for and approach to rhythm guitar, why Keith Richard is the GOAT, and more.
Do you write mostly on guitar?
I almost always write on guitar. I’ve written a few songs on piano, but it rarely happens. It’s always guitar, and never acoustic. I like electric guitar – especially a [Fender] Telecaster. I can just sit in the back of a van, play that thing, and if you stick your chin up to it, you can hear it. It’s usually either my black Tele or an old ’62 Fender Jaguar that’s been re-fanned.
What about the Tele and Jag inspires you?
I can do everything with the Tele. It goes everywhere with me. It’s become part of me and is a really trusted tool. And in a completely different way, the Jaguar is old and mysterious… it’s a little beat up, and I wonder who owned it, where it’s been… someone really played the crap out of it. [laughs]
Do you prefer worn-in guitars as opposed to new ones?
I do wonder where [they’ve] been before me and what spooky stories are in [them]. I think the old ones do that. The new ones have another kind of thing, too. When you get a certain guitar, it will make you play differently from others. It’s about how the instrument grabs you.
But the old ones have this other element… if it’s too nice, I don’t like it. [laughs] The vintage ones that hang on the wall, those are not for me. I feel like they repel me, because I have a couple of really nice guitars, like a 1945 Martin, and it sounded good, but it was like sunlight to a vampire.
Is that because you couldn’t really lay into it?
Yeah, I knew that it was delicate. Like, it had a little case bite hold in it, and you could just tell that it was like, ‘If you treat me the wrong way, I’m gonna fall apart.’ [laughs] I don’t like that feeling… I can’t be trusted with nice things. That’s the truth!
As you’re working on your new solo music, what amps and pedals help shape your tone?
Most of the time it’s the same. Anytime I try and change it, like patching in a Quad Cortex, I get it sounding good, and then it goes back to the nice things thing… I’m just one of those people who needs to have this one thing, and it does that thing, and I know what it does, and that’s it.
I usually use an [MXR] Phase 90, a wah pedal, and for this stuff, I wanted more of a chorus sound, like The Police, so I have [producer] Butch [Walker] help with that. I can say to him, “Dude, do something like Mark Knopfler,” and it might as well be like Mark Knopfler is sitting there.
There is nothing like the sounds you can make on guitar – especially a Telecaster
How do you view the progression of your playing?
I can only do what I can do, and that’s it. I can’t try to keep up with everybody – and I don’t have to. I do one thing, and I think I do that thing better than almost anyone, you know, the rhythm thing. I’m like the guy in the back who plays rhythm. I’m like Izzy Stradlin.
What’s the key to solid rhythm guitar?
Not getting in the way of the song – but also not being boring. Rhythm guitar is an incredibly difficult skill, and the people who are best at it, like Keith Richards… it’s not just sitting there and strumming a chord. You’re not just playing parts – you’re catching an upstroke, you’re adding a triad-based thing, so it’s all of that. I don’t think I’m a master yet, but I’m getting to be Bruce Lee-level on rhythm guitar. [laughs]
A common thread within your solo work and with The Gaslight Anthem is storytelling. How does the guitar lend itself to that?
Man, it’s really important. It’s bizarre because if I sit at a piano and play the same chords, it’s not the same as on guitar. There is nothing like the sounds you can make on guitar – especially a Telecaster. That sound really speaks to me. Like, the overtones in a chord, there can be only a little bit of information; your brain fills in the other instruments, and it becomes a symphony.
What advice would you have for young players struggling to find their sound, considering that the information overload out there today causes players to become discouraged by their so-called limitations?
I struggled with that for a long time. So many players out there are just so advanced from what I think I’m capable of doing. But going back to Keith Richards, while he didn’t have much to do with this record, his essence of guitar playing lives in my [style].
I’ve always viewed him as… I can’t do all that other stuff, but I can do that. I feel that rhythm deep in me. Keith did that with all the attitude in the world, and it was awesome, and it was totally cool. So, you can do your own thing. You don’t have to be a shredder.
And even if someone can shred, can they write a song?
Totally. Some people underestimate what a great guitar player is. There’s multiple facets to it. There’s the traditional shredder, but then there’s Julian Lage or John Frusciante from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Take Snow, for example; that lick isn’t hard to play…, but it’s super hard to get up to speed for five minutes.
I don’t think a lot of people could do it cleanly. I really try to excel at that kind of thing. Instead of solos, I want to learn licks. It’s about the relationship between the two. That kind of playing is overlooked.
We have a lot of Ron Wood’s and Mick Taylors’, but we need more Keith Richards’s and Marley’s. But you know what I think is one of the most fundamental licks?
Instead of solos, I want to learn licks. It’s about the relationship between the two. That kind of playing is overlooked
What’s that?
Your Favorite Mistake by Sheryl Crow. It’s crazy. It’s slamming. That opening lick is so dope. It’s Wendy Melvoin, and it’s perfectly played. That there is the goal. If you’re a guitar player out there, go listen to her – that is the way you should play guitar. But only half of you… the other half needs to be shredders, because every Izzy needs a Slash. [laughs]
Where does your solo work sit compared to your work with the Gaslight Anthem?
With the Gaslight Anthem, we know what people want from us. We’re all explorers… those guys really love to search and see what we come up with. I’m a huge fan of that. But at the same time, there’s this other thing where I want to steer the whole thing.
It would be a disservice to the guys in Gaslight to instruct them on what I want a song to be. But I always send those guys my solo records before anyone else hears it. I was like, “You guys check this out and see what I’ve got,” and they send me their stuff, too. So, we’re in a good spot now because we’ve been best friends for like 20 years.
What’s next for you in the near and far?
Next, we will probably write the next Gaslight Anthem album, and then probably work on that next year. And on guitar, I’ve been doing this weird thing where I’ve been learning the solo from Skid Row’s I Remember You. [laughs] I’m like really [New] Jersey, and I wanted to learn some of those little dive bomb licks. Let’s just say it’s funny what you can do with a Jaguar and that floating trem. [laughs]
