\n<\/p>\n
\n\tTwenty years into their career as a band, All Time Low<\/a> hit a crossroads. They had just re-recorded and released a compilation album, revisiting the catalog hits that made them pop-punk pioneers<\/a> in the mid-aughts. As All Time Low tapped into the nostalgia of past milestones, they were forced to contend with their legacy, and more importantly, what next steps to take. Would they walk away or brave a new chapter?\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThat question also came as the band was embroiled in a major legal drama, which involved a defamation suit <\/a>All Time Low filed in response to serious accusations of sexual abuse by fans online against founding guitarist Jack Bakarat. A storm of controversy ensued as the All Time Low fanbase split into two camps: supporters and detractors of the band, both unequivocal in their stances. It all made the band\u2019s next move particularly important.<\/p>\n \n\tLast August, All Time Low played three shows in celebration of their compilation album, which they dubbed the Forever Shows. The Baltimore-bred band performed to 14,000 ecstatic fans at their hometown amphitheater. It was their biggest show to date. Electrified by the crowd of dedicated fans who sang nearly every lyric back to them, All Time Low found the answer to the question hanging over them.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThere\u2019s still a story to be told here and there\u2019s still another chapter for All Time Low,\u201d lead singer and guitarist Alex Gaskarth says over Zoom. \u201cIt really made us fall in love with the band all over again and made us want to go and make this record,\u201d he adds, reflecting on the pivotal 2024 performances.<\/p>\n \n\tA few months after those Forever Shows, All Time Low requested to dismiss their defamation suit without prejudice. \u201cAll Time Low has chosen to handle the matter privately and protect the identities of those behind Doe 2, instead of pursuing further litigation at this time\u2026 The investigation proved what All Time Low knew all along \u2013 the allegations in the posts are completely and utterly false,\u201d the band\u2019s lawyer shared in a statement with Rolling Stone<\/a><\/em> at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n \n\tNow, All Time Low is ready to talk about it all. Rolling Stone<\/em> spoke with Alex Gaskarth about the band\u2019s new chapter with aptly titled 10th LP Everyone\u2019s Talking!<\/em>, how controversies influenced the record, and what the band\u2019s hope is for the future.<\/p>\n \n\tYou played at the Vans Warped Tour<\/a> in D.C. for their 30th anniversary<\/a> and performed with the American University cheer squad and D.C.\u2019s Different Drummers marching band. Why was it important to bring them onstage with you guys?<\/strong> \n\tIt was important to have, particularly that weekend when there was so much else going on in D.C. A lot of folks, especially in the LGBTQ+ community, I think are feeling scared and out of place. It was great to be able to use the Warped Tour environment that has always been known as a diverse and welcoming community to lift them up and to extend a warm hug at a time when it feels like everybody freaking needs a warm hug.<\/p>\n \n\tYou told the crowd, \u201cThis is the place to be tonight in D.C., I\u2019ll tell you that.\u201d Just a few miles away President Trump hosted his birthday military parade<\/a>. Was that a pointed remark?<\/strong> \t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n \n\tYou just announced your new album Everyone\u2019s Talking!<\/em>. When did you guys decide to get back into the studio?<\/strong> \n\tWe started putting together the actual album in the middle of last year. It was done in sections. We\u2019d spend a few weeks here writing songs and step away. One of the things we\u2019ve learned about making albums now is to give the songs some room to breathe and to come back to the ones that we truly love. There\u2019s a song on the album called \u201cButterflies\u201d that we wrote pretty close to the end of the process; I didn\u2019t need to live with that one to know that it was special.\u00a0It\u2019s unlike anything we\u2019ve done in a while. I fluctuate with my writing \u2014 there are songs with concepts that are very easy to follow and then sometimes there are songs where I lean a little more into more off-the-cuff poetry and it\u2019s left open for interpretation. \u201cButterflies\u201d leans a bit that way. It reminds me of the lyricism on Don\u2019t Panic<\/em>, like something from that era kind of spun over into this one. When you look back at all the albums that you\u2019ve made, it\u2019s fun to draw those comparisons and be like, \u201cOh yeah, it\u2019s got a bit of that to it.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWhy did you choose \u201cSuckerpunch\u201d as the lead single?<\/strong> \n\tYou have a world tour kicking off in North America in the fall. With 10 albums to choose from now, how are you going to pick the setlist?<\/strong> \n\tI feel really good about the fact that \u201cSuckerpunch\u201d and \u201cThe Weather\u201d came out first. Sometimes the songs that end up going off live are deeper cuts on the album, but in this case, those two songs are going to translate really well for the live show. One focus of making this record was \u201cwhat\u2019s going to pop off at the shows?\u201d We\u2019re putting our best foot forward there with these first two tracks. I can see a sea of people just bopping.<\/p>\n \n\tIs there any particular song that a band member fights for? \n\tWhat\u2019s the significance behind the album title Everyone\u2019s Talking!<\/em>?<\/strong> \n\tIt\u2019s definitely intriguing, even compared to some of the band\u2019s other album titles.\u00a0<\/strong> \n\tOver the past few years, the band has been involved in a very public legal battle. How has that impacted the making and release of Everyone\u2019s Talking!<\/em>?<\/strong> \n\tFans in the All Time Low subreddit have theorized <\/a>that the lyrics in \u201cSuckerpunch\u201d seem to reference the public legal battle from the past few years. Was that purposeful? Did you have an audience in mind when you wrote and released \u201cSuckerpunch\u201d?<\/strong> \n\tWhat would you say in response to fans that might be hesitant to listen to the new project in light of the controversies from the past few years?<\/strong> \n\tSo much of what you see online is unfortunately not real and can be so easily made up and manipulated. We were living in the shadow of that for a while. That\u2019s why those 20 year celebration shows last year felt so good to kind of come out the other side of. It was about 14,000 people coming together under one roof to celebrate and have a great time and support one another in the community that we\u2019ve been lucky to build around this band. We left the stage of those shows going, \u201cThis is why we do this.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tDoes this album feel different from other projects after achieving that sense of liberation?<\/strong> \n\tThe album is being released under your new label imprint Basement Noise Records. What was the reason to go that route and release the first independent record since your debut album?<\/strong> \n\tWe wanted to take some of the control back and it felt like the right time to do that. It\u2019s one thing to be an artist and to make this body of work that you pour your blood, sweat and tears into and love so much and then hand it over to this big company and go, \u201cplease do all the right things with this.\u201d We\u2019re fortunate to be in a place where we have more say in the business side of things and the decisions that get made. It\u2019s just a really freeing place to be this deep into a career.<\/p>\n \n\tSome of your peers like Mayday Parade and the Maine have also recently gone back to being independent again after years of being in a band. Has this trend come up in conversation at all?<\/strong>\n
There was a lot behind it. The idea came from us looking at the Warped Tour performance as a celebration. We knew that it was the 30th anniversary and we wanted to do something special and new and unique. We\u2019d never really done a show where we had that many moving parts and other performers as an extension of our show. So it started as this fun challenge for us to try and tackle for such an epic day and a celebration of the Warped Tour. Then as we got into piecing it all together, the D.C.\u2019s Different Drummers came to us and said they\u2019d be down to be a part of it. We loved the idea of having a heavy representation on the stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I can assure you it was. Soupy [Dan Campbell from The Wonder Years] put it slightly differently, but he said, \u201cI\u2019m going to say it with my whole chest.\u201d In hindsight, I probably should have said it with my whole chest, but this is me now retroactively clarifying that it was with my whole chest that I very much mean that <\/em>was the place to be.<\/p>\n\n
We write a lot with Dan Swank, our fifth Beatle, who is also producing the majority of this record. We wrote together on the road where we have a little studio set up on the bus. There were songs being written over the course of the Tell Me I\u2019m Alive <\/em>tour and The Forever Sessions<\/em> tour but we didn\u2019t know if they were going to be a body of work. Around the time that we were starting to play those 20 year celebration shows, it just put us in this mindset of \u201cthere\u2019s something here that we can keep going.\u201d It set the tone. That\u2019s when we started piecing the songs together and made a real intentional effort to get back in the studio and write, write, write.<\/p>\n
When we wrote it, there was a feeling in the room that day. We all said, \u201cThis feels like the first thing that people need to hear.\u201d It felt like a good statement like, \u201cHi, we\u2019re here. We\u2019re back, and we\u2019re ready to go.\u201d It was an exciting way to announce that we\u2019re back in a way that\u2019s hard not to pay attention to. It felt like coming out of the gates swinging with that heavy leaning guitar riff.\u00a0We thought that would translate really well with a live audience too.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s really funny, the biggest argument that we have in the band at this point is about the setlist. Whenever we have to put together a show, it\u2019s tough.\u00a0We always want to make a show that feels well-crafted. I personally always hate the nostalgia band vibe. I love our legacy and our old music, but I see us as a current band making current music. Whenever we put together a set list, I want to show love to the new songs while also fitting in the old.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>Oh yeah. If anyone so much as infers that we take \u201cLost in the Stereo\u201d off a set list, Jack will not be a happy boy. That\u2019s his song. I don\u2019t know that it\u2019s ever left the set list because he fights hard for it. There have been times where we\u2019ve been like, \u201cHey man, what if for this tour we just didn\u2019t play that one and popped a different one in there?\u201d He\u2019s like, \u201cNo, I\u2019ll walk.\u201d<\/p>\n
I think it\u2019s the dichotomy between gossip and celebration. There was this sentiment in the air off the tail of these Forever shows. There was a buzz about All Time Low again. There\u2019s the people that have been supportive of us through over 20 years, and then there\u2019s people that have found out about our band in more recent times with Wake Up Sunshine<\/em> and Tell Me I\u2019m Aliv<\/em>e. It felt like for the first time in a long time the entire fandom was really buzzing over the story of All Time Low and what we\u2019ve done over the course of our time as a band. We kept saying \u201ceveryone\u2019s talking.\u201d It was a phrase that kept getting thrown around, and then the more we honed in on the album, the more we were like, \u201cThat\u2019s such a buzz-worthy title. Let\u2019s line it up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hell yeah, I\u2019ll take that. We were going for it.<\/p>\n
Obviously it\u2019s been a dark cloud over our last few years. It was a really difficult thing to navigate and deal with. All of it has been talked about, covered, said, so there\u2019s not much more to say there, but it affected the writing process and the creative process in that what more was there to say when there was just this horrible thing that we were going through and navigating? It didn\u2019t make it easy to want to write about anything. Coming out the other side of it and getting to share our side of the experience, it feels good. It feels liberating, and it\u2019s nice to know that the truth is out there and that we can now proceed without this dark cloud hanging over us. It\u2019s a sigh of relief, honestly, and a breath of fresh air. We\u2019re so excited for the future.<\/p>\n
Oh yeah. There\u2019s definitely a hint of that in the song. We live in a world these days where so much can be heavily influenced by faceless voices and opinions on the internet and on social media. The song was in response to some of that in the sense of there are people that resoundingly just seem to want to take you down and seem to get their kicks in the comments section being negative. This song is accepting that and being okay with being the punching bag. It\u2019s like, \u201cI\u2019m going to put myself out there and I\u2019m going to take this risk at living my dream. I know that\u2019s going to come with some licks along the way. I\u2019m down to take a couple punches, let\u2019s go.\u201d That felt liberating. This song was a way to acknowledge we\u2019re here to get past those things and continue to try to thrive. I just hope it feels hopeful. There\u2019s a tinge of hope to everything on this record that is exciting.<\/p>\n
I understand it in a way because it\u2019s never easy to see these things in the media and know how to feel about them. The main thing that I\u2019ll say is that we stand behind what we said. We established that in the best way we could in a court of law. We established what we set out to say all along, which is that All Time Low has always been a safe space and it\u2019s always been a place of cultivating support for people, support for one another, and bringing people together in a celebratory way. As far back as I can remember, that\u2019s been the message of our shows. The people that do come to our shows really feel that, and that\u2019s what they\u2019ve told us all along.<\/p>\n
Yes, I would say so. We\u2019re invigorated, we\u2019re inspired. We feel lucky to be able to do this, to be granted the platform and the privilege to take a stage every night. We\u2019ve always felt that way, but it\u2019s much easier to acknowledge it when you\u2019ve been through something as difficult as that. It really puts you in perspective of going like, \u201cman, we\u2019re lucky to do what we do.\u201d It\u2019s nice that people come and support us doing what we love doing.<\/p>\n
We were with Fueled by Ramen for the last couple records and it was an amazing label to be a part of. Then, as is the nature of the business, the parent company of Fueled By Ramen went through a massive shakeup. By the time the cards landed, we were mid-record cycle for Tell Me I\u2019m Alive<\/em>, and the label just wasn\u2019t the label that we signed with anymore. We\u2019ve been around the sun enough times at this point as a band to know there\u2019s a tendency for things to change without you realizing and suddenly it\u2019s like you\u2019re not part of the machine that you signed up to be a part of. We had finished up with the [last] record and we were winding down the cycle and we saw all these people that we loved working with moving on from their jobs. We realized it was probably time for us to move on too.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re seeing it more and more now where artists are starting to approach the business with a little more awareness. We came up at the same time as bands like Mayday Parade and the Maine, and we were all just kids chasing a dream. It sounds corny, but that\u2019s what it was. We weren\u2019t put together in board meetings. We were kids that played VFW halls and just wanted to make loud music and then dove into the business. We were naive. All Time Low signed a deal that we were fortunate wasn\u2019t a terrible deal, but had we been presented with a terrible one, we probably would\u2019ve signed it. We were just stoked to be at the table and there\u2019s a million stories of bands that did<\/em> sign the bad deals.<\/p>\n