All Time Low discuss Everyone’s Talking, Good Things, and starting a band at 15 years old

For 20 years everyone has been talking about All Time Low. 

As fifteen year olds they exploded onto the pop punk scene with a contagious spirit and unwavering commitment to the music gods; a combination that has seen them only level up across ten bodies of work. 

GOOD THINGS

WHEN: FRI 5 DEC

WHERE: FLEMINGTON RACECOURSE, MELBOURNE

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Alex Gaskarth, Jack Barakat, Rian Dawson and Zack Merrick, under the All Time Low umbrella, have collected five consecutive Top 10 albums on the Billboard Top 200 in addition to picking up multi-platinum, platinum, and gold certifications. As they enter the release realm with their own imprint, Basement Noise Records, offering (in partnership with Photo Finish Records/Virgin Music Group), they yet again are the topic of chatter.  

Everyone’s Talking! dropped mid North American tour for the lads on Friday 17 October, already garnering huge reception from fans.

“That’s been the most exciting part of this tour; it lined up perfectly with the album coming out and we’ve been sprinkling some new tunes into the live show and that’s gone over great. That’s always the best part of making a record, it’s when we actually get to start playing them onstage to people. The creative process comes full circle and you feel the pay off of the crowd starting to learn the words. The energy has been really good and they fit great in the set so we’re having a blast with it,” explains Gaskarth.

Everyone’s Talking! is seeped in sentiment as the band digests the past two decades of band life. Coming off the back of anniversary shows last year, celebrating 20 years since the outfits inception, this record is a declaration of love and dedication to the band and their younger selves.  

 

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“The album is a love letter to the band and the album is a love letter to starting a band at fifteen years old and suddenly you’re 35 and you’re like “woah, what just happened? We’ve done this for 20 years now and it was all a whirlwind”. We’re writing these songs through the eyes of who we are as people now and affectionately looking at the band and at our legacy and kind of reflecting on that. I think the energy is there of the ethos of All Time Low and where we started,” Gaskarth explains.

“We’ve done a lot of reflecting honestly. Last year we did a bunch of 20 year celebrations of the band and those proved to be invigorating. We felt such a groundswell of love and appreciation for the band from our fanbase and it kind of rekindled our love for the band as well. We’ve done a lot of reflecting because of that about the journey and how much time, and energy, and blood, sweat, and tears we’ve put into the band. It’s our baby and it’s become our lives. It’s everything to us…We feel very lucky. It’s very sick and it’s cool to be continuing that celebration as we go.”

Having the capacity to smell the roses filtered into the album-crafting process of Everyone’s Talking!. With the band fully cemented in their identity, the flexibility opens up for sonic exploration. 

“The beauty of where we are now is that we’re really self-assured about what All Time Low is and what All Time Low’s identity is and what the ethos at the core of All Time Low is – we’re never going to stray too far from that. That being said, creatively we love pushing the boundaries of what we can do as a rock band. I think we’re always trying to genre-bend and blur the lines a little bit to keep our music interesting and keep ourselves invested and feeling creatively satisfied. I think if we kept churning out ‘Dear Maria’ over and over again, we would burn out pretty quick. It’s nice to keep it fresh,” he says.

 

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It also allows for unexpected collaborations to pop up along the way. Everyone’s Talking! features appearances from country staple Ruston Kelly, and a vocal acrobat who too got caught in the music industry current in her early teens, R&B runner JoJo.

“JoJo is the GOAT as far as I’m concerned. She’s one of the best voices in music and I’m so inspired by her and her talent. We’ve been really lucky over the years to work with incredible voices. What I love about having JoJo on that song, when I wrote it, it felt like it had an underpinning of RNB influence to it in the grooves and the way we produced the song. I instantly thought of Jo. It was a shot in the dark.”

One that has paid off. It’s a track that will hopefully step into their setlist for their December Good Things appearances. The band will be returning to the festival, playing Melbourne Flemington Racecourse on Friday 5 December.

Now it’s over to you to start ticking through the Everyone’s Talking! track list ahead of the big event.

Tickets to Good Things Melbourne are limited so get onto it here.