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Rewriting History With ALEX ROSAMILIA From THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Alex Rozimilian. I play guitar in the
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: gas Light Anthem.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Beautiful Alex, thanks for joining us this morning, out time, this.
• 0:07
  Speaker 3: Evening your time.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Thanks for having me my pleasure. Bro.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: So the Gaslight Anthem returned to Australia in just a
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: matter of weeks. Bro is part of the Good Things
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  Speaker 2: twenty twenty four festivals. So are you packed and ready
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: to go yet?
• 0:21
  Speaker 4: Uh?
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: I'd like to see yes, But now I'll be doing
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: that last minute.
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  Speaker 2: As for usual, I suppose you do that much traveling,
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: then you probably would leave things for the last minute
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: pretty much.
• 0:34
  Speaker 4: Know. Yeah, sometimes I just leave them in the bag
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  Speaker 4: for the next one. But there was too much time
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: in between this and the last.
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  Speaker 2: And this is going to be your first visit in
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: almost a decade, mate, So what's changed in that time?
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: What's changed for what the band?
• 0:52
  Speaker 4: I mean aside from almost getting married and having kid
• 0:56
  Speaker 4: and sorry family and I say that's probably the biggest change.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: But that's that's a pretty big change to have, you know.
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: It's Yeah, it's crazy to think it's been ten years
• 1:09
  Speaker 4: since we've been over there, but I mean kind of
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: have done anything in ten years up until recently, you know.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: So.
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: It's just nice to get back at it again. I
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: am excited to get back over there to the land
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: down under. I did always have I always have a
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: good time. But when I find myself over there.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Wait, that does you say you're part of Good Things Mine,
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: which is a massive festival starting in Melbourne on December
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: sixth before hitting Sydney.
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: Here's what I'm a consecutive days.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: So how do you prepare mentally and physically for a
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: run of shows all that so far from home?
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: I mean, you know, matter of the song bit, I'm
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: just I'll put like all the gaslight stuff on a
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: playlist and they hit shuffle to do like pop quiz
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  Speaker 4: to kind of like prepare myself.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Before we like leave for tour.
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: Uh.
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  Speaker 4: That's how I prepare like musically outside of like practicing.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Lets give me that my son, and then I have.
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: You know, like I don't know, I guess I do
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: have some and we'll call it like ritualistic things that
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: I you know, like people like like, you know, make
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: sure I see my parents and all that good stuff
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: before I get in a you know, thirty seven hour
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  Speaker 4: flight and then yeah, make sure all my things are
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  Speaker 4: charged before I get on the plane.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: You're gotta be appearing alongside bands like Corn, some forty one,
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Billy corgan Master on Kerry King, Hey small might But
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  Speaker 2: is there anyone on the bill that you haven't played
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  Speaker 2: with before?
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  Speaker 4: Well, I mean, yeah, we never played with Corn before,
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: not that I think there would be a moment for
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: that outside of a festival. Oddly enough, they were one
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  Speaker 4: of the first bands I ever saw alive. So that's
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: pretty like in a pretty like to personally speaking as
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: a you know, it's cool for me to see, like
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: be on a festival with a band that was like
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: the second band I ever saw a lot. They opened
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: for Ozzy Osbourne. Wow, and oh gosh, I don't want
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: to date myself.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: But it.
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: Was the early to mid nineties. We'll say, well, it
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: wasn't even mid to late nineties. It was early to
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: mid nineties. Yeah, And it was like seeing that show,
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: you know, it's it was like part of the catalyst.
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: It was like, this is what I need to do
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  Speaker 4: with my life, you know, an hour an hour on
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  Speaker 4: a festival with one of the bands, which is pretty
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: you know, like I said, it's pretty I.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Think that's pretty cool. Well, it's a bunch of other.
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  Speaker 4: Bands that I like just enjoy watching anyway. And then
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: and to do these Australian festivals where it's like, you know,
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: you're doing the same festival more than one day, as
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: opposed to when you're doing European ones, and it's like
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  Speaker 4: every day is a different festival with a different lineup.
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  Speaker 4: This is like I have a chance to actually be
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  Speaker 4: able to see everybody, which I think is really cool too.
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  Speaker 3: That's a musician my life. Did you ever actually like
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: let that sink hid?
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  Speaker 2: Like what you just said then, Brian, like Horn was
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  Speaker 2: the second band you ever saw live and now playing
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  Speaker 2: with him, like, does that ever like just like smack
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  Speaker 2: you out of nowhere and make you just sort of
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: go like fuck, maybe life's pretty good.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, well, yeah, it's it's kind of like a you know,
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  Speaker 4: it's it is.
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  Speaker 1: It's a it's a very surreal, i'd say experience.
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  Speaker 4: You know, my father told me when I was a kid,
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: I think kind of jokingly that you know, you're getting
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: older when musicians and.
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  Speaker 1: Athletes are younger than you.
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  Speaker 4: And because I ended up a musician, I kind of
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  Speaker 4: lost the chat and I can't really tell that anymore.
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: And so it's like it's like to be considered, you know,
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: like I want to say years, but to end up
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: on to do the thing that like you know, you
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  Speaker 4: watched so many people do be lucky to feel do yourself.
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  Speaker 4: It's something I will never take for granted, you know,
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  Speaker 4: especially coming back from the science.
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  Speaker 2: And you've also got three headlining shows if you're eying
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: forward things with Dice in Brisbane the second, Sydney the third,
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: and Melbourne on the bolts mate, So how are those
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: shows gonna defaut to the foot thing shows?
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  Speaker 1: Well, you know, like.
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  Speaker 4: We're definitely like, well, obviously we'll have more time for
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: the set to kind of like play more songs, you know,
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: and it'll be more of a you know, I don't
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: want to say h dynamic experience per se, but like
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: you know, there'll be more ups and downs whereas the
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: festival come atmosphere, you want to keep the momentum going
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: and it'll be so it'll be it would be more
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  Speaker 4: of like an upbeat type of thing.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: You know. Does that make any sense? Not that anything's
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: been like ironed out.
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  Speaker 4: You know, we usually don't even write our set list
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  Speaker 4: till the day of, so you know that could all
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: get thrown by the wayside when the day actually shows up.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: But usually that's what we end up doing.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: You've played a lot of the shows are baste, But
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  Speaker 2: have you ever had a show where you just weren't
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: feeling it before hitting the stage? And then, if so,
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: how does it turn it around so that you could
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: go out there and put on a good show.
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: So I like to kind of bounce off what I
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: was saying before. It's like something that I don't take
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: for granted. You know, there are days, obviously where you're
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: on the road and things aren't going great, you know,
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: whether it be like what's happening a million miles away
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: at home or or just like you know, you just
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: hit the wall being on the road for as long
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: as you have, but the the second you're going on stage,
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: it's not it's almost not even for you anymore.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Right, you're here the you're there to do.
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: None of to get like too woo woo and philosophical
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: about things, but like, you know, uh, to get in
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: a little bit of a tangent, you know. I see
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: I heard Tom Petty want to say magic is the
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  Speaker 4: last music is the last form of magic left on earth?
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  Speaker 4: And I do kind of stand by that and believe that,
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: and so like to go out there to perform, you
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  Speaker 4: have to make sure you're giving it what it needs
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  Speaker 4: to make the magic happen.
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  Speaker 1: Otherwise it falls short. And I think it's it's very
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: apparent when that when that happens at a show.
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: I you know, the fans see that way easier than
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  Speaker 4: I think some artists. Let on, you know that that
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: makes sense that was that too? All a lot of
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: voice for an answer. Can you add that one into
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  Speaker 4: more of a concise.
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  Speaker 3: At a time across? Beautifully cool?
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: So for the benefit of those of mine, not the
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  Speaker 2: same the guys i'd answered before, mate, like, what can
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  Speaker 2: we expect from your live show?
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: Well, I'd say, uh, you know, it's it's a pretty
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: high energy show. We like to have a good time.
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: It's it's not We're not like a huge production thing.
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  Speaker 4: You know, we don't have like flame throwers and fireworks
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  Speaker 4: and confetti cannons. That could be kind of fun, I guess.
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  Speaker 5: You know, But we we've always kind of like you
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  Speaker 5: know the part the you know, as we've gotten older
• 8:32
  Speaker 5: and kind of branched out, you know, we people think
• 8:34
  Speaker 5: we're like not as punk as we used to be,
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  Speaker 5: and I think where we still really hold.
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  Speaker 4: On to the punk part most is like the way
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  Speaker 4: we are alive, where we're kind of just you know,
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  Speaker 4: we're playing the songs, we're having a good time, where
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  Speaker 4: we're getting you guys excited, but not in like a
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  Speaker 4: pre planned, theatric kind of a way. I mean that
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  Speaker 4: stuff is great. I'm not I'm not saying that stuff
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  Speaker 4: isn't cool, but that's just not like what we do
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  Speaker 4: as a band. You know, our thing is more like,
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  Speaker 4: you know, you came to have a good time, so
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  Speaker 4: let's have a good time.
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  Speaker 2: Say someone sending along the good things, mate, and they
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: haven't really heard much of the guests, I'd answer before
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: give us three of his songs that they can listen
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  Speaker 2: to to get an idea of what you expect.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: Sure, let's see. Let's go.
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  Speaker 4: Let's give you the newest one, which is like the
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: Billie Eilis cover we've been doing Ocean Eyes. I think,
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: even though it's not our song, I think it's a pretty.
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: It's a pretty it's pretty stands pretty true to like
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  Speaker 4: what we sound like. It's like as far as the
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: energy and stuff, but I think it holds onto that
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  Speaker 4: pretty well. I would say for a classic, but without
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: being too obvious, you know everyone would obviously I think,
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: go to either like one of the numbers forty five
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: or fifty nine sounds, but uh, you know, I think
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: Miles Davis, I think kind of shows more of what
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: the band is as a band from that era. And
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: then uh, you know, let's think we'll do as a
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: third one show you how like I'd say, delicate, we
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: can be We'll do another newer one with with Michigan
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  Speaker 4: nineteen seventy five.
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  Speaker 3: Beautiful.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: How is that? That's a good three?
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: So the new songs in there? Bro Then your most
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: recent album was actually History Books, which came out last year.
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: So how was that ever saved?
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: Did it?
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: Did it go across the way you hope?
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: I think, m I don't. I would say in a
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: way yes, and in a way not exactly.
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: You know, we we tempted to do this one on
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: our own, and that ended up with a couple like
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: instead of like being on a label, we did like
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: a deal through thirty Tigers, which you know was awesome
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: and it gave us a lot of freedom, But there
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: was a couple other things that I don't think we
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: were prepared for when you don't have as many people
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: pushing your products as it were, when it comes out
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: as you usually do. But I think all hiccups. I
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: think we managed to get over in a timely fashion.
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: And yeah, I love the record. I think it's great.
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: But you know, at this point, it's been almost you know,
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: it's been over a year now, and I don't like
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: sitting on stuff for two longs. I know we're already
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: itching to get onto the next thing.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: That was the band's first album together in almost ten years,
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: after spanning in two thousand fifteen by So it was
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: a chemistry incahaesian they straight.
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: Away or did you have to work at getting it back?
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: I would say that it was.
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  Speaker 4: It was the chemistry was there, but we had a
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: Uh it was there, but we had to like look
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: for it like weed word, Sure if it was there.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: But it was but like without us knowing it was there.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: Does that make sense.
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: About passion?
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: Uh?
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: You know, like you know, we we were all I
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: think a bit apprehensive first, like is this going to
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: even work?
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: Like or we can be able to pull us off?
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: And then the second we started playing together, it was like, oh, yeah,
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: of course it's gonna work.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: Why We're even gonna doubt that, you.
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: Know, before we get onto the next bit made.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: I just double check and make sure are you can
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: you see the visuals on your.
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: Phone or are you just on aldo over at the moment?
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: No, I could see You've got quite the background going
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: on there.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that background is just about exchange made because I've
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: started a new segment called photo Bomb, where basically I
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: try social media before I chat with you and pick
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: out a couple of photos that I want to know
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: more about.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: So the first one, God, all right, let's time about it.
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: I got this one. What is Yeah, we're putting you
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: in the water for a photo shot.
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: Uh So these were like the pictures we took when
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: we got we decided to announce us coming back. There's
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: one of like where it was like the after bride
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: told joke and it's like the picture has me laughing
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: pretty hard in it that we ended up using as
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: like the photo from this session. I guess this would
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: be like a behind the scenes This is actually Benny's backyard.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: Alrighty, it doesn't look like he's enjoying being in the
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: water too much.
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: Well, yeah, I mean it's a little wet, to say
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: the least, but we had it was a good time.
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: I'm too bad. We had we had our we had
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: wellies on. It wasn't like we weren't getting that one.
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: Didn't want to go out to back too far deep,
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: you know.
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: No, you got all the guys and stuff over there Avenue.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: No, not a well.
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: Uh my dad's in Florida and they've got they got
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: some there, but not in New Jersey.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: All right, all right, Alex all, thanks for your time today, mate,
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: has been a pleasure to speaking with you.
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: The Gaslight Anthem in Australia or Good
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: Things Festival with sideshows a few days beforehand, so check
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: out your socials and grab yourself a ticket, otherwise we'll
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: see you are Good Things