By Matt Mueller Culture Editor Published Mar 07, 2015 at 1:06 PM

Benny Horowitz, the drummer for the New Jersey-based punk rock band The Gaslight Anthem, is on the hunt for Bucks head coach – and former Brooklyn Nets head coach prior to his controversial offseason move – Jason Kidd.

"I’m gonna slap him around a little bit," Horowitz joked. "Motherf**ker. I’m pretty mad at him. I mean, good for you guys; the Bucks haven’t looked this good in years. I don’t have a problem with the Bucks; I got a problem with Jason Kidd."

Hunting down Kidd and inflicting Nets-related revenge is not, however, why Horowitz and the rest of The Gaslight Anthem are headed to Milwaukee this upcoming week. The punk rockers actually have a show Thursday, March 12 at The Pabst Theater, touring in support of their latest album "Get Hurt," released last August. OnMilwaukee.com talked with Horowitz about that risky new album, as well as the state of rock, looking back on almost 10 years in the industry and looking ahead. 

OnMilwaukee.com: For your last album, "Get Hurt," you guys often said that one of the major inspirations for that record was "No Code" by Pearl Jam. Where did that inspiration come from, and when did you realize that was what you were going for?

Benny Horowitz: I think Brian (Fallon, lead vocalist) was really seeing a lot from that record as far as musically and lyrically. That was inspiring him because he was listening to it a lot at that time.

I think on a bigger scale, this is our fifth record, and we’re getting close to 10 years as a band. You start to look around at the bands who have had a lot of long-term success, people who have been bands for a really long time, and the model that they keep to do that. Pearl Jam is an example of a band that has been relevant and good for 20 years and many many records. It’s a good thing to look at the way they managed their career and the arc they took it and maybe take some cues from that as well.

OMC: Was there any tension of mixing up your sound and wondering how fans and the like would take it while putting together the record?

BH: There was a conscious thought about that, but I certainly wouldn’t say tension. It’s definitely in our heads when we’re going into it, that we want to try some new things, but we don’t want to step out so far that it would alienate people who had already really liked the band. Or step so far away from ourselves that we’re not ourselves anymore. That’s a conscious thought going into it, but it’s definitely not a tension, like, "Oh my god, what are people going to think?" That doesn’t really come into play as much.

OMC: What was the recording process like for "Get Hurt"? Was it different from the last four albums?

BH: It was pretty similar in the way it was tracked. We tried a little bit more – especially with drums and bass – to get the original raw track. We really tried to get some really nice live tracks and not comp things together as much and make it a little more active sounding just by keeping it a little more natural like that.

We worked with Mike Crossey, and we were playing around with a lot of ideas. He’s a really experimental guy and really interested in making really cool sounds and stuff like that. We did a lot of things on this record just with funky little soundscapes. There are parts on the record that sound almost digital, and it’s actually five really great guitar parts through different amps, pedals and rooms all comped together, making this really cool sound. He was pretty cool with that, and we were excited doing it.

OMC: How does it feel looking back on 10 years of being in the music industry?

BH: Honestly, it’s kind of hard to get a whole grasp on what’s really happened, you know? We’ve been busy this whole time; we’ve been doing records and touring and taking little, short breaks at home, but usually writing. It’s been a pretty constant Gaslight process the whole time, and I think I’m not going to fully understand the scope until I walk away from this one day when I’m old or something.

All I can say is that some people say that things move too fast and where did the time go and stuff like that. When I think about what was going on in 2006 and who I was and where I was at and what the band was doing, it feels like a really long nine years, you know what I mean? It doesn’t feel like yesterday. It feels like a lot of f*cking sh*t has happened, and that’s good. I’m happy about that. I know we filled them up; we filled up these nine years.

But it’s all been such a ride and a learning process, always constantly challenging yourself with music and the road. It’s like we’re still a part of it, so it’s hard to see.

OMC: What, for you, is the next big challenge for Gaslight Anthem?

BH: I think, for bands at our level, I think every album is a challenge to stay relevant. We have this awesome big fan base who always comes to see us and buy our records. And like it or not, you owe a little something to those people. It’s not pressure, but that’s where the challenge comes in because you’re trying to do this right and trying to make it worth it every time.

And once you’re doing something for a long time, it becomes not just an art; it becomes discipline too. I think those are the challenges we’re going to face moving ahead. 

OMC: What do you feel about the state of rock music right now?

BH: I think it’s fine. I think people never give proper space to the movement that things like music do. You don’t have to do anything but enjoy and understand the history of music to know what’s happening at any point. I think we did just hit a funky arc, especially with pop music, where sh*t got pretty f*cking bad for a while. But that’s happened in every decade I’ve been alive, and reading books and hearing stories, it was happening every decade before that. I feel like it’ll be alright.

Every time I see a group of bands where I’m like, "Jesus, what are kids doing these days?", I see a band that I’m like, "F*ck yeah, that band’s great." Bands like those still exist and still do their own thing and work hard.

I try not to become that self-righteous old man that thinks everything young people are doing is sh*t. I try to chalk some of it up to the fact that I’m nostalgic for the things I’m nostalgic for, and even if I don’t get what they’re into, they’re getting something out of it. Their reaction to that music is the same reaction to the music that seemed legitimate to me when I was 13 years old.

I loved Skid Row more than anything for like a year of my life when I was a kid. Do you think underground rock ‘n’ roll guys at that point were like, "Yeah, Skid Row’s a legitimate band." No, they were like, "Oh, that band is trash pop rock garbage." And here I am, a 12-year-old kid with a mullet in his bedroom singing along to Skid Row with all of his heart and air-drumming and sh*t. If people are still doing that to music – even if I don’t understand it – I’m happy that that still exists. 

Matt Mueller Culture Editor

As much as it is a gigantic cliché to say that one has always had a passion for film, Matt Mueller has always had a passion for film. Whether it was bringing in the latest movie reviews for his first grade show-and-tell or writing film reviews for the St. Norbert College Times as a high school student, Matt is way too obsessed with movies for his own good.

When he's not writing about the latest blockbuster or talking much too glowingly about "Piranha 3D," Matt can probably be found watching literally any sport (minus cricket) or working at - get this - a local movie theater. Or watching a movie. Yeah, he's probably watching a movie.