When I was still in the Yardbirds, our producer, Mickie Most, would always try to get us to record all these horrible songs. During one session, we recorded 'Ten Little Indians,' an extremely silly song that featured a truly awful brass arrangement.
Of course, I go into the studio with all the words written down.
Music and musical instruments were proximal to my life from very early on - I took piano lessons for a brief time, but then my dad had a guitar and when he was not playing it, I would pick it up and mess with it. He jokes that I used to complain that it hurt my fingers.
Singing into a microphone and learning to play an instrument - learning to do your craft - that's the most important thing! It's not about what goes on in a computer!
The Gaslight Anthem is very streamlined. We don't usually use organs and strings and things like that.
I always wrote everything - I wrote all the lyrics, I wrote all the melodies, everything; it's just somebody else sung it. And to me, the singer is nothing else than a different... like a bass player or a keyboard player - they're not more important than any other musician.
My nails are my rhythm section when I'm writing a song all alone. Some day, I may cut an album, just me and my nails.
Because of my Portuguese heritage, I have an interest in all of the instrumentation that comes from Portugal and Brazil as well.
Nearly all the synth work on Heathen is mine and some of the piano.
Music has always been part of my family's life. My brother, sister, and I all have the same ability to pick up an instrument and play.
That's really important in a producer - a producer that can step up and play a keyboard, play a bass, play a guitar, and help you with things instead of just saying, 'I think this could be better.'
Writing the songs and producing the songs and arranging them and recording them is your canvas and your palette and your brush.
When there is a voice in a piece of music, we tend to focus on the voice. That is probably something from when we were babies and we depended on hearing our mother's voice.
You look at the instrumentation, and you can't really argue that we set out with commercial aspirations. Banjos and things like that are not part of some formula for global success. But it felt right, and I think there's some value to purity of intention.
