The Gaslight Anthem frontman and lyricist Brian Fallon took advantage of his group’s downtime and hit the studio last fall to record his debut solo collection. Painkillers doesn’t release until March 11, but EW is excited to premiere “Nobody Wins,” a highlight of the 12-track set.

As the song proves, Fallon is still fueled by heartache and ready to return his signature rasp to the Heartland grit of early Anthem albums. “I don’t think I could’ve written this song in my twenties or teens,” he tells EW. “When I finished the words to this song I felt a great sense of relief and peace about how the lyrics communicated the subject in a direct way. It’s not complex, but it’s a hard thing, acceptance is. This song is for the joyous failures of life that shape who we become.”

Fallon and his New Jersey punk outfit announced an indefinite hiatus last summer. “We’re all going to do other projects and stay active in some way or another, both in and out of music,” Gaslight Anthem wrote on Facebook, “but we’d like to step away from the band until we decide what we’d like to do next.”

The group first broke out back in 2007 with their debut Sink or Swim and released four more albums, their most recent, Get Hurt, in 2014. “We’d like to recharge and take a step back until we have something we feel excited about rather than going right back to making a record just for the sake of making the next record,” the post continued. “We all feel this is the best decision we can make and it feels like the right one for us.”

Fallon, for his part, has been busy with more than just his solo debut. The singer is also one half of rock duo the Horrible Crowes, and a member of the Americana group Molly and the Zombies, which also features Jack White bassist Catherine Popper (who is also handling the four string on Painkillers) and Scissor Sisters drummer Randy Schrager.