When New Jersey rockers the Gaslight Anthem announced they were going on the dreaded “indefinite hiatus” last year, it caused a palpable wave of anguish among their famously passionate fanbase.

Thankfully, the news wasn’t all bad though, as it meant the band’s singer/ guitarist Brian Fallon could finally release that solo album (Painkillers) he’d been threatening to make for quite some time.

“Gaslight fans are very passionate and they’re vocal too, but the reaction to the break has been good,” begins Brian. “Nobody’s been negative towards me – probably because it’s not my fault [laughs]. I didn’t decide, ‘Forget this, I’m going solo.’ It was a mutual decision and afterwards all this other stuff came. Initially it was a little bit of a shock when I realised ‘Ok there’s no Gaslight to do anything with right now,’ so I thought that if I wasn’t going to be in that band for this year or whatever, then I didn’t want to be in a band at all.

“You know, there were periods where I thought Gaslight got too big and there were times we all said ‘Dude, this is a little out of control.’” he reflects. “Things had gotten out of our grasp a little and sometimes it felt really odd, like there was some big, giant eyeball on us.”

Produced by Butch Walker, Painkillers retains all those punk, blues and folk influences that Fallon fans know and love, but some may be surprised to learn that there’s a Beatles vibe on there too.

“I’ve known The Beatles my whole life,” says Fallon, “but I just got into them about two or three years ago, so it was a fresh influence. Then I figured out a lot of things I liked about Tom Petty, and even Bob Dylan and Springsteen, came from The Beatles. It was weird, I was drawing all these parallels. Nobody else has picked up on that yet, which is cool of you to notice, but yes, it was very apparent to me that a Beatles vibe was happening. I didn’t think anybody would really recognise it, because the American press only focus on American things and others just don’t care enough to look.

“I’m so proud of this record. I don’t really write ‘happy albums,’ but I did want this record to be a bit uplifting. Even the sad songs. I tried to make it feel comforting.”

Currently on tour, with Irish dates in the works (“There better be, or somebody’s going to get in trouble!” he affirms), Fallon tells us that he’s been a huge admirer of our music scene from a young age.

“Stiff Little Fingers are one of my favourite punk bands of all time. It’s their anger and romance, their defiance and love all at once that gets me. The Pogues and even U2 have that too. Bands from Ireland are just different and their attitude and music is so unique to your country. The bigger Irish bands seem to find a way to stay in touch with where they came from which is really cool too.

“I’ve always wondered what it’d be like to take a week and play places in Ireland that aren’t Dublin or Belfast,” he adds. “They might not be big shows because I’ve never played those towns/cities before, but they’d be fun to do. I guess it’s just a matter of finding the time and the people to book the dates and take the risk.”

Painkillers is released on March 11 via Island Records