My Mom's Basement - EPISODE 275 - ALL TIME LOW
Episode Date: April 11, 2023All Time Low joins Robbie to make some Basement Noise about their latest album, 'Tell Me I'm Alive'! They discuss the entire writing/recording process, the connections it has to preview All Time Low w...ork, and more! **************************************** Subscribe to My Mom's Basement on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIeZ96PqdsJYQ7DFLRx6MHw My Mom's Basement Merchandise: https://store.barstoolsports.com/collections/my-moms-basementYou can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/mymomsbasement
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Hey My Mom's Basement listeners, you can find our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
Hello and welcome to My Mom's Basement, presented by Barstool Sports and 3G. I am your host, Robbie Fox, and today I've got a very special bonus episode for everyone.
Before our Mandalorian recap this week, and it's an interview with my favorite band ever, All Time Low. It was awesome getting to sit down with all four of these guys.
First time all four of them have been in the podcast, in the basement, all together at once.
And we went a full hour talking about their new album, Tell Me I'm Alive.
It was awesome. I enjoyed the conversation very much.
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And now let's get into this interview with All Time Low.
All right.
Hello and welcome back to My Mom's Basement. It is Robbie Fox and I this interview with All Time Low. All right, hello, and welcome back to my mom's basement.
It is Robbie Fox, and I am here with All Time Low.
No pun intended, my all-time favorite band.
This is the first time that I've ever gotten to interview you guys all together, and this is big.
Is that true?
Is that true?
That's true. Look at me.
Tatted up.
Let's go.
My first band ever, sixth grade, was called The Party Scene.
Damn.
I love that.
In sixth grade, I had never been to a party before.
I'd never touched a sip of alcohol or drugs, obviously, but we were the party scene.
Hell yeah.
I love that.
How old are you now?
24.
You're 24?
Mm-hmm.
Damn.
It's like we're watching you grow up right before our eyes.
I thought you were 44.
Yeah.
15 all-time low shows later.
Unreal, man.
What a way to start.
I thought you were 45.
Some people do. We're here to talk about Tell Me I'm alive though the new album from all time low the ninth album from all
Time low for the time being you've caught up to blink. Oh
Why is it true? Yeah, still kind of hotly debated whether or not it's eight or nine for us
I think at this point it's decided that it's nine because everybody's some somewhere on the brief sheet that gets sent out
They wrote nine and now everybody says Does nine include the party scene?
I think it does.
Oh, see, I wouldn't include that.
You don't include the party scene?
It's non-canon.
Sorry, man.
Pre-signed all-time low, I consider non-canon.
Yes, fair enough.
That was high school days.
Yeah.
In the Star Wars terms, it's Legends content.
Exactly.
There we go.
We phased it into Legends.
Wow, it didn't take long, did it?
No, it didn't.
It was real quick today.
It was quick quick today.
It was quick today, yeah.
Me and Alex have a group chat where we just talk about Star Wars 24-7.
And Ryan doesn't want to be in it.
Zach would probably enjoy it.
I'm just not invited.
But Ryan has never seen Star Wars. I still have not seen Star Wars.
You famously walked out of a Star Wars after the crawl.
Did you really?
You're still not over that.
Wait, I love famously and also what's the story?
My birthday, no less.
Okay, let me get moving.
Yeah, we rented out a theater for Alex's birthday to see Star Wars 47.
Oh, careful.
I said, you know what?
I'm not – what am I going to start at that one for?
To be fair, it was Rise of Skywalker.
It was the last one.
That's a weird movie to start off on.
It's not like going to a bar
with the friends. Like, yeah, if it was like,
if I didn't drink and I went to a bar, of course I'd hang
or if I didn't eat vegan food.
I'm not going to sit there and chat about
hey, who's this guy again?
In the
11th movie. Maybe you made the experience
better for everyone else. I think I did. Steve and I
both left, by the way.
Well, I'll give him shit for that later.
The new album I love.
I've had it on repeat since it dropped.
It feels to me like almost an evil twin of Wake Up Sunshine.
I like that.
It feels like the darker side of that record really comes out on Tell Me I'm Alive.
Was that intentional?
I think so, yeah.
I mean, it was very much a continuation.
We wrote a lot of the beginnings of that record
off the tail end of Wake Up Sunshine
because obviously Wake Up Sunshine came out full lockdown.
So we didn't have touring on our calendars at the time
because the world was in crisis.
So we went back into the studio and just kept making music.
We started writing for this record
before we had ever played Wake Up Sunshine live.
That's crazy.
Are there any songs on the record currently that you started writing before then?
That made it?
On Tell Me I'm Alive?
Yeah.
The earliest song on the record is on the set of Letting Go, which was written about
like seven or eight months or maybe like a year after Wake Up came out.
Yeah.
The Way You Miss Me.
Oh, yeah.
Early.
Way, way back.
Are You There.
Those were all written within a year of Wake Up coming out.
Yeah.
Are You There definitely sounds very Wake Up Sunshine sunshine and that great like the verses of that
specifically that one's definitely taken a little bit of a life that we didn't expect um for
especially like you know track three on the record we love it but it seems to be that one's talked
about quite a lot in the fan base which is cool it's funny our manager nano is also a close friend
of ours was like the whole time when we were sequencing the record,
he was like, guys, I really think we should close out the record.
Blah, blah, blah.
Record comes out.
People are talking, are you there a lot?
He goes, I was wrong.
He was like, yeah, no, it should be out there.
I love the way you closed the record, though.
Can we start this record over as the lyric for the final song?
Very meta.
It put its hand up.
It was like, this has to be last.
Yeah, definitely. Sometimes you write a song and it just makes sense. It's like, that's the last song. Or that's the final song. It was sick. Very meta. It put its hand up. It was like, this has to be last. Yeah, definitely.
Sometimes you write a song and it just makes sense.
It's like, that's the last song.
Or that's the first song.
With Tommy, I'm Alive,
it was like, we didn't have the album title yet.
We didn't have track one yet.
We wrote that one,
and Jack and I were on the way to a show after we wrote it.
Paul Carney.
And we kind of went like, that feels like track one.
I think we just did the one that defines the record,
kind of sums it all up.
So that's always a good feeling when you kind of you know in the moment that you've
written that one do you guys feel like this is the darkest all-time low album thematically it has to
be I think it has to be it came I mean it was written during a really dark time and it and I
think you know whether it was uh introspective or sort of more um big picture. It was a lot of the lyrics are reflective about, I think, what a lot of people were feeling and going through during some some pretty rough time.
So and then like the adjustment back into the world as things normalize, like which everybody, I think, didn't realize was going to be so rocky.
So, yeah, it was someone online called it emo.
Wake up, sunshine.
I was like, sick.
I love that.
Yeah, it's definitely the other side of the coin I think for sure And what about the album cover itself
You went very simplistic with this one
Where did that inspiration come from?
Yeah Andrew our collaborator
He's been working with us on The Last View
And he just kind of presented this very minimalist thing
And I kind of felt like it was
You know short sweet and to the point
But it also felt pretty iconic And of felt like it was you know short sweet and to the point but it also felt pretty
iconic and it felt like it really
grabbed a hold of me when I first saw
it and then I from there I just didn't want to question it
you know what I mean I went like the first time I saw it I went that feels
really memorable
and I don't want to overthink this
and so we just leaned into it I think a lot
of us probably all of us when we
think of like great album artwork are my
mind goes to
take off by blink yeah and just how simple and just memorable it was and we hadn't done one
like that i guess future hearts was kind of just bam right on there but like a lot of our artwork
is kind of busy and it's a lot to look at and you know with this longer record and like this
like he said thematically darker record it was kind of nice just to have bam like a stamp of like okay here it is yeah and what was the dichotomy like
of being in this amazing cabin having the best time with your boys but also writing like the
saddest songs you've ever written we all just kept asking each other if we were okay
and it was fine is that just like all right like you're happy writing sad songs that weird
yeah i mean sometimes it's good to get it out, you know?
I mean, it's like it's reflection and it's sometimes it's a stepping stone through the
process of your own, I don't want to say grieving, but like, you know, if you are in a dark place
going through something, that's always been my avenue.
My outlet has been to write about it.
And I think for me, it's really helpful
to sometimes put it into words and put it into a form
that other people can maybe relate to.
So yeah, I mean, it gets me through it, at least.
The sad songs are written after midnight.
The happy ones are written after.
I was going to say that.
I think one thing, and I've said this about Alex plenty of times,
and I'll say it again in front of him so he knows it's real.
Hello.
But I think one of the reasons this band has had the success it has
is because he can write very personal lyrics
but make them feel like they were written for me
or for you.
You know, they're not like so to the point
that it's like, wait, what?
That didn't happen to me.
Like, I can make them work in my mind
that he's had a different life experience
altogether than me,
but I'm like, oh, man,
he's singing my words right now.
Very Noel Gallagher of you, universal truths.
Thank you, Ryan.
I can't get over the recline of his chair.
Is that an ass-catch-em hat?
Yeah, that is exactly that.
The green screen room at Barstool is things are broken,
things are torn apart.
I was going to point out the fact that we're at Barstool headquarters
at 9.45 in the morning, and we're the only ones here yeah work doesn't start
till noon here um all right let's let's get into the album itself tell me i'm alive as you mentioned
you were on your way to a paul mccartney show yeah and i feel like you could hear a beatles
influence in this it almost sounds like a pop punk pop rock version of a day in the life with the
piano coming in with the change in,
you know, midway. I've also heard you say Paul McCartney and Dave Kroll are your two
songwriting inspirations. Yeah, big time. What do you feel you can take from them
separately when you listen to their music? You know, I think there's an inventiveness
to Paul's writing and just a lack of boxing yourself into one thing that I've always loved.
I mean, the Beatles wrote so much good music.
And I think one of the things that made them so unique was that they were constantly changing
their sound up from record to record.
There's no uniform thing.
And they put a lot of records out in a pretty short amount of time.
And to make that many changes and jumps creatively, I think, is really inspiring.
And it's what made them so influential i think i mean obviously they were lifting from all kinds of
genres and all kinds of music from all over the place but i think the way they smashed it all
together was just really interesting um so i've always taken uh them as a good good example of
like how to continue to make things fresh um and the dave i just think writes phenomenal rock and
roll music from the heart too it's always like you can like feel yeah he's coming from a place he's
he's just a guy that I look at and go like that's the way to make rock music I
mean in every sense of the word and so I've he's just always been someone that
I've really looked up to as a front man as a performer a musician and you know a
good dude in the industry and I'm gonna say a way to carry yourself through
success and he grew up going to Ocean City, Maryland,
so he's just like us.
Hey, Pop Punk is playing Ocean City, Maryland.
I love that.
Let's go.
Crazy.
I'm going to be there.
I'm real nervous about it if we're being honest.
It's going to be sick.
I mean, half our set is gone
because the bands that we play covers of are playing there.
I think you just do it anyway.
Just get out there and play those songs.
If we play the middle right before Jimmy World,
they might be like, what the fuck?
We played this festival with Weezer one time
and MGMT was headlining it.
Weezer played after MGMT
and MGMT didn't play Kids, the big song,
and Weezer came out and opened with it.
Wow.
That was so sick.
I saw the Hella Mega Tour last year.
Fall Out Boy had COVID,
so Weezer came out and did Sugar, I'm Going Down.
There you go.
That was cool.
Weezer's also on the festival and playing, so they must do one of their songs.
But I could totally hear that Beatles influence.
I think that's an awesome way to kick off the record.
Yeah, I was doing kind of a deep dive at the time.
I mean, I grew up with the Beatles playing constantly.
My parents listened to the Beatles all the time,
and so it was very much one of those bands that was like heavily ingrained in me from a young age um you know even when i
got back into learn like listening to the beatles at an older age i was like oh yeah this song oh
yeah this song oh yeah i was just there um and so i went and did like a big catalog dive as we were
making this album so you're watching the documentary yeah i think some of that influence
and those sounds and the way that they would sort of experiment with putting unusual instrumentation
on songs that you wouldn't expect it uh that became a big focus of this record i think you
know that exists on tell me i'm alive a little bit you know um calm down has a section in the
second verse that gets very beatlesy for a second and just like peppering that in was super fun yeah uh Modern Love the next one another one that begins with piano how big is Dan Swank on this
record do you go into this being like I want to make an all-time low record incorporating piano
or is that just he's in the room and he's got a keyboard Swank's bigger than he's ever been
on this record it's 10 feet tall Swank he's so hot right now so hot right now uh he's no Dan for
those who don't know Dan uh started playing with us on stage as our aux musician.
And one of the great things that he brought to the table
was that he is pretty good at piano
and none of us play piano all that well.
And we never thought to do it on stage.
That was just a cough.
I wasn't, sorry.
You're so dissatisfied with that?
Ryan actually does piano.
Ryan took piano lessons like years ago.
That was just bad timing on that. None of us play piano. Ryan's like, Ryan took piano lessons like years ago.
It was just bad timing on that.
None of us played piano.
Ryan was like... We never played piano on stage.
So adding Dan kind of opened up this whole thing for us live.
And then from there, we just said, well, why not start kind of putting that in the music now that we can more freely?
And Modern Love, he actually came to me early morning one now that we can more freely and uh modern love he he actually came
to me early morning uh one day that we were in colorado and um working on the record and he had
this piano line and had like the beginnings of that intro and i was just like that's that's iconic
that's a really memorable moment it reminded me of like early like something corporate or something
or jack's mannequin yeah sick i think what i love is you know with songs it's like if you have a riff that's really signature or something that
you the first three seconds of the song you're like i know that song yeah and he came with that
riff that piano piece and i just went like that that's one of those moments that you start playing
that live and the crowd's like oh it's that one um so yeah he he killed it with that and we we
sort of dove in on that song all day that day
and uh it came together really quickly and it's a fun one live it also has like a little bit of a
a little bit of a vibe of like our older song stella yeah so since we started playing it live
we kind of do like a mashup which has been really fun i saw it on that on the wembley live stream
yeah it's great yeah did you go in the swing direction right away with this one too yep it
was yeah we presented it in that feel.
And we have a rule.
There's a golden rule of you can only do one swing song every two records.
I think that's a good rule.
So it's like if you wake up sunshine, we did a 6-8.
No swing.
Was that Trouble Is?
Trouble Is.
Yeah.
And then the record before that.
Oh, no.
It was Dancing with a Wolf on.
Don't panic.
We had to have one on Future Hearts.
Future Hearts.
Oh, Future Hearts.
Yeah, yeah, Future Hearts.
But yeah, we gave it some time before we wrote another one.
And in my head, my headcanon for this song
is that you're singing about the same Stacey
that Fountains of Wayne sang about.
Absolutely.
All grown up.
Absolutely.
What would your mother say?
That's pretty good, right?
Are you the first person to get that?
Am I really?
It's weird, because you're our friend. I really I think you're the same because you're a friend
I always forget that you're good at your job, too
But you're the first person to say that and it's true unreal that's was really the intention we all said it in the room
We went like crazy. Yeah, that is comes. I'm so glad that's confirmed
Are you there as you mentioned? I love the bass and drums on this one you guys do not know
I didn't do we didn't do shit
But the rhythm section on this one way it comes in the drum sound is so good on that do
you have just a drum sound at this point where you're like every album i know i want my drums
to sound like it's interesting you say that no um the drums sound different on some songs but yeah
it's i mean i think a little bit of his playing style like i remember zach servini producer we've
worked with for this record and a few of our previous ones as soon as we're like line checking like getting sounds and i hit the
snare he says i he always says i can tell it's you playing by the way you hit i don't know if
he's just being nice but um i put a lot of my trust in alex phil gornell and cervini as far
as what drums he used on what song and i just kind of bash him and then what about you for
writing bass parts um i usually do a scratch part,
and then at the end when all the vocals are finally done,
I go in and then I can kind of match everything that goes together
so I don't rub on chords and things like that.
My favorite thing you do is at the end of songs,
you always put a little flavor in there in the last chord.
I try and build.
I was going to say, when do you find the flavor?
Because there's so many Zach Merrick parts
that are a little bit of flavor.
I usually start small and kind of build on that and then just try and see where it goes.
And usually there's some sort of moment or a melody change or something,
or even an ad-lib I can follow that makes it.
I was going to say, on Wake Up, you started following, in the last chorus,
a counter melody of Alex's on bass.
And your bass playing has evolved, too, like more chords, some pick playing, right?
Oh, yeah, definitely. I remember you messaged me. You were like, are you some pick playing, right? Oh, yeah, definitely.
I remember you messaged me.
You were like, are you using a pick on this one?
I was like, no, but yes.
A five string, right?
You've got a five string to calm down on this one?
Yeah.
How do you decide when to use a five string?
I started using those a couple years ago because I was like,
we were missing something on, what was it?
What song was it?
I'm trying to think.
Maybe it was Life to the party or something
like that and i was like we're missing something here and i was like can someone go give me a five
string real fast and like that's how it started evolving from there and so now i kind of use it
in last choruses or if there's like a slower song or just i mean tell me i'm alive has at the
beginning and at the end as well so i always it's like a little treat for me every time like once
we're done a record i don't really go back and listen to it all that much but like it's like a little treat for me every time like once we're done a record I don't really go back and listen to it all that much
but like
it's been a few weeks
since it came out
so the other day
I like popped it on
and just gave it a listen through
and I found myself
like at the end of every song
I'm just like doing
a Zach Merrick
bass line fist bump
there's always like
a cool run
that is just like
it's a little nugget
at the end of every song
are you there
at an amazing one
exactly
that was my favorite part of the
listen through it was the was the bass riffs you're welcome always my favorite part i need
you guys to send me like the pro tools version with the bass stems we got bass send me the
bass and click bass and kick drum bass and kick drum is all i need you sent me what was it on the
last album was it um was it safe was it safe with a hi-hats boosted just the hi-hats boosted? Oh, yeah. Just the hi-hats boosted.
Sleepwalking.
First single off the album.
I saw a video of you guys doing this in the studio
where Jack had his hand on a whammy.
That's not how you really recorded it, is it?
It sure was.
We were just walking around.
I'm not good enough at guitar or pedals to do that in real time.
I can do one or the other.
So do you start sleepwalking with that riff and build the song around it?
Yeah, it was kind of like when we wrote the song,
we wrote the song with Andrew Goldstein,
and it started on keyboard.
It was a synth line.
And when we got to the studio to kind of take it from a demo to a full song,
we were like, you know, I think this would feel better
if it was sort of a,
a very heavily manipulated guitar instead of a synth. And, um,
that way we can recreate it a bit more authentically live. And, um,
also it's just kind of fun to in the studio,
play around with those kinds of sounds that like, you know,
it's one thing to have a preset and be like, Oh, that sounds cool.
But it's another thing to like plug four pedals together and then see what it
sounds like. And, and, see what it sounds like and and
it ends up doing the same thing but it's just cool to be able to say we like
created this yeah we made this but yeah we it was very uh and i helped when i was doing that moment it was very much brother with the extra n64 controller yeah play with this pedal what was
worse though was that i had learned the riff like the way to play the riff so like as it
is and then introducing the whammy pedal because it shifted the note for you i had to relearn the
whole damn riff or are you playing a different note live now well basically like you hold one
note and then the pedal shifts the note yeah so it's like it went from being like a seven or eight
note part to like a three note part playing wise and then jack was doing all that so i was like i
just kept fucking it so when it came to playing it live alex was like i'm just gonna sing i don't
play good idea i chose not to play at all it's actually one of my favorite parts to play live
like i i love that moment of the show yeah it's so fun was there any songs in this album that
were like a true pain in the ass to figure out the sound of letting go was a really tough one
to get the balance right for
the mix yeah it's like i feel like we went back most songs only get to like v5 v6 when the drop
box folder is getting updated i think sound of letting go was v16 the one that got sent out
the high hats a little or the guitar a little no that's all right one totally different than v16
or is it just slight tweaks every time?
The feel of the chorus is all it was really.
The feel of the verse is self-explanatory.
It works and then the chorus would come in
and the original was more rock and really in your face
and it was just too much.
The song went really linear.
It needed that dynamic.
It's actually pretty funny though
because I'm sure if I went back and listened to V1 now after painstakingly obsessing over it to v16 i'm sure
i'd hear v1 and be like oh that's pretty good yeah we should have put that one out and that is the
that is the battle of like making i'm sure you know like recording and making music sometimes
you just go down this stupid obsessive rabbit hole and it's like did we need to do this but hey
we got it to a point and i love it now. So it's all that matters.
It's a great song.
The next one, Calm Down.
I love Calm Down.
And some of the calm downs at the end of the chorus
go up so high.
It reminds me of like a Mike M thing,
kind of like a Gerard Way.
Is that strenuous on your voice?
Was this the hardest song to sing?
It sure is.
I posted a video of Alex doing the bridge, I think,
which is like pretty up there.
And like, you sound like you killed it,
but you definitely had to stand up.
Sometimes it's like he even forgets,
because when we went to rehearse this to play it live,
you get to the last chorus, and he's like,
oh, that's high.
Even Swank is like, I cannot hit that.
Literally translating it.
Yeah, you forget, because in the studio,
you're just so locked in.
Especially demoing it, you only have to sing it
a couple times and nail it. And a lot of the time like those demo vocals do make it
over to the finals and i just like tweak parts that don't feel right but like yeah we got on
stage to do this one live and i like by yeah by the end of it we i think we did one run through
and i was like oh what have we done what did i why did i sign up for this but uh yeah no it's it's
great though because it kind of it's nice when we write music that still challenges us, I think, as performers to have to get a little bit better.
Because, like, I have to now train my voice up a little bit and get the muscle memory to hit that every night live.
And, you know, I think ultimately that, like, is going to make me hopefully a better performer or I'll just lose my voice every night.
We'll see.
It was a late ad.
Calm down, Muzz, to that last song. Yeah. The. We'll see. It was a late ad. Calm down.
Muzz to the last song.
Yeah.
The last one really was the Hail Mary at the end.
We,
we always kind of like throw one more out there.
Like right when we feel like the record's done,
we,
we sort of like pitch one more.
Yeah.
And,
uh,
yeah,
that,
that was the one that kind of came out and,
um,
like most songs already mixed at that point.
Yeah.
Wow.
I love the background vocals and the verses as well.
That there's a song later on
I'll say this about as well,
reminds me of something
off American Idiot
or Black Parade,
the kind of high harmonies.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I really like that.
Thank you.
Yeah, it was,
I think we were going
for something, again,
like in that Beatles-y,
Beach Boys kind of vibe,
but yeah,
it's funny how it has
the parallels from like
some older music like that
and then, you know,
the Mike Hems
and the Green Days and stuff. Yeah. You could definitely, this album i feel like is the epitome of like all of your
influences coming together hell yeah i love that yeah what about for you talking about like
strenuous songs on your voice screams at the end of songs something like glitter and crimson or the
end of drugs and candy what was the one you remember in the studio being like fuck i don't
know how we're gonna do this it's tough i have to like i feel like there has there's usually in the
studio there's like a day there's like a scream day yeah where I haven't
quite nailed it and then I know I'm gonna blow my voice out that day so we I kind of specifically
go back through a bunch of songs and just nail those because I know I'm not gonna have a voice
for three days after so I have to like finish all the vocals first and then we can go back and get
like that kind of performance stuff but to be honest like there's some people who
can scream like
every show and be totally fine
there's a right way to do it and I'm not
doing it right
yeah I don't know I gotta
practice there's a good one out of
into the fast part or out of the normal part
of tell me I'm alive that's kind of
like buried with some instrumentation but that's
a good little scream.
I love a good Alex Gaskov scream.
Yeah.
You break a couple of those out in an album,
it's always great.
English Blood, American Heartache.
I love this song.
The song, the lyric about making a sunshine,
writing a record to make the sunshine.
Is there any other lyrical connections
to previous all-time low work on this album?
Yeah, I want to say for sure.
There's a few,
but I can't think of them off the top of my head.
There's a song coming out at some point
that we'll be releasing that has a great throwback line.
You heard it here first.
What a mystery.
What a mystery.
What?
Ten years from now.
I'm trying to think of what it is.
I don't know, truly.
That's a great one.
I think, is it the second Guardians movie?
James Gunn says there's still an Easter egg that people haven't found.
Really?
This could be an all-time low version.
Really?
He's just saying that.
People are just up all night looking for it in the movie.
Dissecting every frame.
He's just seeing the streaming numbers of the movie.
Because there's one guy in his basement like, what the fuck is it?
What is it?
James Gunn's like, yes, royalties.
Going back to English, that's another one that took a little while to get the verses right lyrically and melodically.
The chorus kind of fell into itself pretty easily, but verses for that one, I remember you had to go back and do it a few times.
Yeah, I rewrote it a few times.
I like the verse, there's a clever line, why is my nose bleeding?
I don't know why.
I like that flip there.
Oh, the little, like the wordplay?
Yeah.
I like a good wordplay.
I like a good wordplay I like a good
wordplay too and then Ryan classic Travis Barker bridge on the snare let's go I love that and that
this album has so many awesome break into the last chorus you know what this is like we're becoming
known as the bridge band like even like a lot of our fans are saying it now like that we just like
the bridges are the strongest
part of the song i don't know if that's a good thing because typically your chorus is meant to
be the best part of the song but like if you if songwriters out there if you need a bridge
we're your guys it's kind of interesting though because i find that music a lot of a lot of new
music newer bands are kind of doing away with the bridge they're doing half verse twos chorus two
into chorus three.
Or maybe like a pre and another pre.
Yeah.
So the fact that we still can write a bridge that works
and keeps people's attention, I think, is pretty important.
Because otherwise, they might just be skipping after chorus two
to the next song.
You know what's crazy?
Blink doesn't really write bridges.
Musical bridge.
Yeah.
They're the kings of musical bridge.
Don't Panic was our musical bridge record.
Oh, yeah.
Backseat.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, a lot of them.
A lot of them on that one.
That's one of my favorites.
That record came out, I was a freshman in high school,
and I would put my iPod in my pocket, run the headphones up my sleeve.
I used to do that, too, man.
I love it.
Mine was a Discman, though.
So if you move too much, you'll just skip.
Eating a hot dog out of your sleeve.
You need that 60-second skip.
The Irving Plaza show I remember being
a huge
no it was Webster Hall
being a huge
live stream event
oh yeah
that was right
three countries
in like three days
or something
yeah that was pretty sweet
that was the first place
I ever played a gig
at Battle of the Bands
that was the studio
at Webster Hall
pretty intimidating
I like that
it was that
and then it was
the Stone Pony
for the Bamboozle
break contest
a little different for us
it must be weird like living here and and being those at your first venues.
We're doing St. John's, Phoenix.
Ours were churches, church halls.
My Uncle Gary got us a gig at the VFW in Hartford.
Did you ever get kicked out of a church?
Because you were doing the Blink style onstage band.
We played a show.
It was in Nashville.
Still there.
And no one told us that it was a show it was in nashville still there and uh no one told us
that it was a christian venue going in and i said a lot of swear words on stage that day and we were
asked i think they cut our set short we were yeah we were banned it was rocket town yeah rocket town
sorry um so our manager sorry god our manager nano he was our manager, put on a local show in a local VFW hall in northern Virginia.
And he comes up to us.
He's like, hey, guys, I'm Nano.
Nice to meet you.
Just make sure you don't incite like crowd surfing.
We're like, totally.
Like first song we open coffee shop like everyone open the shit up.
And immediately the venue gets shut down forever.
Nano lost.
Yeah, Nano.
That's our introduction to our first management.
We still almost got the Stone Pony shut down
because they used to do foam parties,
and some idiot loaded the foam cannon the wrong way,
and they shot foam into someone's eye.
A ball of foam went in,
and they sued the Stone Pony and everything.
Oh, my God.
Yeah, so we almost shut down an iconic music venue.
Again, different than shutting down Nano's shitty venue.
It's a good venue, man.
It's a good venue.
He's never let us let it down.
Back to the album, The Sound of Letting Go.
Another one where I love the production.
You said it took a while to get right.
You have production credits on every song in this album, right?
I'm a very selfish person.
Is that the first all-time low album where you've done that or no?
I don't think so.
I think it was either Last Young renegade or wake up sunshine but it was
actually like zach our producer um kind of advocating for me like just basically at some
point during one of the record processes he was like do you do you credit yourself as a producer
on this stuff because you i like admittedly go in a little too hard on everything a control freak
um and he was like you should you like, you should be getting producer credit.
Yeah, I was going to say, whether or not he was credited,
it's not like that.
So it's not a change.
Zach knighted me.
Gotcha.
Zach, our producer, gave me the permission, basically,
which was very kind.
Gotcha.
So specifically with this song,
what's the production influence that you're looking for?
I was thinking of like, with that sort of stabby piano that's kind of synthy off the top
like i i was envisioning a little bit of like elton john a little bit of queen um but then just
combining that with something modern and something um 1975 guitars on it like kind of like we call
them like the little jingly guitars jingle jangle jangles. I get Weezer chorus feel. Oh, yeah.
Like a lot of space in between the hits and everything.
I could hear that.
There's not a lot of feel-good songs on the record.
And so that one was a really important one to me to get right because it's a moment of like levity and saying, you know,
literally saying fuck it and letting it go.
It was an important arc, I think, for the character in the record.
There's a little bit of a loose story through the whole thing. thing and um you know i think that's a bit of a turning point for like what the what
the character is going through and um yeah it was important just because so many of the songs on the
album are heavy and introspective and dealing with a lot of darker themes and so it was good to get
one in there that was like here's your moment of like you're okay you're good in all of this you're
still good i know you view some of the all-time low albums as like connective tissue like connected thread last young renegade is a
weird fever dream and then you wake up from it with wake up sunshine is this one in that canon
do you look at it with those or do you view it as its own thing um this one feels a little bit
more standalone but um yeah i mean there's there's definitely connective threads i mean there's
references to past records like we talked about
with English Blood, you know, referencing Wake Up Sunshine.
And yeah, I think this one, though, feels like the most kind of self-contained story
for a little since probably since last year on Renegade.
Yeah.
So Wake Up Sunshine was just kind of a body of work.
You know, it was just songs.
But this one definitely has like a through line, I think.
This one has my favorite lyric on the album as well.
Really?
The lyric about your mom.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
She said it gets better someday because she's doing okay.
That's an awesome lyric.
My mom was going through some rough stuff at the time,
and she was taking it like an absolute champion.
And I was going through some things of my own,
and I was like, look, if my mom's getting through
what she's getting through right now,
I need to suck it up and do a little better for myself.
So it was an inspiring one.
Awesome line.
New Religion.
I absolutely love New Religion.
It feels like one of the most ambitious,
one of the bravest out there songs on the album.
It's got Teddy Swims featured on it.
First off, how did that come about?
He's not the first person I would think of to be featured on an all-time list.
Literally, we were playing Bonnaroo,
and our dressing rooms were right next to each other. had never met before we were fans of his um and he came up to alex or
all of us and was like you guys are a huge part of why i sing holy shit you are one of my favorite
bands and we were like oh my gosh and you know we did some shots and the rest is this yeah and then
he went on stage and it was just unbelievable we had never seen him live yeah his voice is great
yeah so good and we were like we literally just said we're like man we should do some stuff together he's like hell
yeah and then that was it is this the first all-time low song with like religious themes
it has to be it has to be that we i was getting so many once again i'm just rocket town to this
i'm sorry for letting you down it is easter monday yeah and on easter monday no less um
yeah it has to be and like this was the song, I think, because it's not really about religion.
No.
Let's be honest.
A little euphemism there.
It's a little bit of a euphemism.
It's the first time where I've looked in my DMs and had the angry religious people come in for me.
I figured you probably would.
Yeah.
I love that.
So, again. I've been a fan for so long. How could you? It's not that deep. I figured you probably would. Yeah. I love that. So, again.
I've been a fan for so long.
How could you?
It's not that deep.
I'm sorry.
Hey, in a true Beatles way,
you're like,
all time low is bigger than Jesus.
Another,
not to toot our own horns here,
but this bridge.
Awesome bridge.
And it hits the final chorus so hard.
This is my personal
all time low fan request to you guys.
I want you guys to jam the fuck out of this live like you did for the party oh yeah like when you go hard into that
this is the song that did that for me on this album hell yeah holy shit i just want that to
go on another 30 seconds without going hard i'm glad you said that because i've heard some people
say man that song's so poppy i'm like it has a breakdown like it has an actual breakdown i think
that was kind of a conscious thing though like we knew that song is is super poppy and um you know i was i was directly looking at like the
weekend and 1975 and like prince when we wrote that song like that was kind of the target zone
for it and like all time low doing that and uh but you know to balance it out it was kind of like
we should throw in like a heavy moment here yeah and a heavy moment here. It's heavy in a way that it fits the song, I think,
but it is fun to sneak a breakdown into something like that.
It doesn't take you out of it, but it definitely gives you a new vibe.
We have many breakdowns, to be honest.
Weightless has one, but we don't do it very much.
I used to play Weightless in my band,
and I used to turn my bass so high that the song would end
and everyone in the band would be like you're
fucking kidding me right yeah um the way you miss me such a melancholy bittersweet feel from the
jump you guys are so good at doing that at this point how do you achieve that sound just from
the music before lyrics even come in i think that's a great question i mean i think it's just about making a sound bed
that doesn't fight with the tone of the song like the theme of the song i think with with
somber melancholy tracks i think that the main goal is to not battle like it's usually like a
bit more um you're making a sound bed for the the sentiment to live in live on and i think if if you
always have these other elements kind of trying to come to the forefront and like you might do in
more of a rock song where it's like this is the guitar's moment this is the drums moment
um you know i think i think with a song like that you're just you're looking to make like sort of a
an even playing field for the for the song to kind of like let the lyric every breath you
take baby yeah i was gonna say it is kind of like discipline because for a song that kind of lets
you float along like that it's very easy to want to jump out and like you know pick a moment here
or like step on a vocal or whatever and just yeah i had to keep telling ryan to stop trying to do
the drum so i brought my double kick out for that chill out man we're doing the one headlight no
symbols man yeah no symbols but it's true and like it is difficult because especially a band like us Double kick out for that. I was like, chill out, man. We're doing the one headlight. No cymbals, man. Yeah. No cymbals.
But it's true.
And like,
it is difficult because especially a band like us,
generally each song
has some sort of like crescendo
into chorus three.
You know what I mean?
You want chorus three
to be kind of like this moment.
And as a drummer,
usually that means like,
you know,
I'm moving to crash
or I'm just really being dynamic
with this song.
I know doing it for so long
that the discipline is,
okay,
we're going to open the hi-hat just an eighth of an inch.
So instead of it's and that's it.
And that's all you need.
Nobody notices it.
But as the song and as a listener, you don't get bored either.
Like little subtle changes like that make a big difference in this kind of song.
And even just like for you guys with a song, like you said, where it's not a rock song, where you don't have those moments, is it almost like a puzzle?
Like is it almost more fun figuring out those parts yeah i think so yeah
it's definitely like a puzzle it's in the beginning it's just like all right cool i'm just gonna be
riding this for a little while and then i'll find it when it's there but yeah it's all about doing
like we're i feel like our band has always been about doing what's best for that song not just
making it let's all-time lo-fi this like let's like do whatever is best for that and if it works
on the record, cool.
And if it doesn't, scrapped.
That's another big Beatles thing, I feel like,
where you mentioned before the evolution of the sound.
Every all-time low record has a different sound.
For sure.
Where it's like you could totally tell them apart
by the first 10 seconds of a song.
I think it's really tricky coming from the world that we came from
and being sort of cast as a pop-punk band.
We never really set out to be a
pop punk band or to really be any type of band like obviously that was our inspiration when we
first started but i think one of the things that's been great about our journey and i think why we've
been able to stick around as long as we have is that it's really never been about okay we got to
make a pop punk record this song has to conform to these specific rules
in order to be this thing.
Like we've just sort of let it guide itself.
And I think, you know,
sometimes that pisses the fans off
and sometimes it pisses the critics off.
And it's, you know, it's one of those things.
But I think the constant challenging
of what we're going to do next
is a really important thing
in like bringing people along for the ride with us.
And I think it's helped us grow as a band because, you know, we've never, I don't think
ever pigeon ourselves, pigeonholed ourselves into, uh, you know, doing one thing too much.
Cause I think doing the same thing for 20 years, they were the ones that are playing this music
and we're going to live with it for the rest of our lives. Like whether or not we play it for the
rest of our lives, we still made it. So like, if we're not happy with it we're like oh man that was the record we didn't want to make i
can't like that's horrible so yeah i also feel like that makes the music age well though like
with all the bands i love if they make an album that sounds just like their last album i feel
like i love it in the moment and that i don't find myself going back to it for sure when someone has
a complete body of work where i could go all right i want to pop the all-time low song all right now
i want to pop punk now i want to rock like you have that entire work where I could go, all right, I want a poppy all-time low song. All right, now I want a pop punk. Now I want to rock.
You have that entire spectrum
where you could have that in just your music.
We're like a musical buffet.
A buffet of music from all-time low, yes.
The golden corral of...
Put that on the next record.
Of all places.
Robbie Fox in Barstool Sports says...
The golden corral of music.
The golden corral of pop punk.
And it might piss the fans off sometimes, but it's also like, all right, if you have a poppy song on one album, I looked back at, you had a quote after Nothing Personal, Jack, where you're like, yeah, the fans told us we went too poppy for that one.
Dude.
Yeah.
For Nothing Personal.
I like telling this story.
When Weightless came out, the top comments were like, oh, they're using a digital track.
It's like, oh, they're using a digital beat.
The beginning.
Because of the drum loop.
And now it's one of our biggest songs.
Oh, they sold out.
That was a big thing.
Yeah.
And I was like, it's interesting.
And I feel that way about certain records as well.
Do you feel that when you're like,
these people are saying, go back to nothing personal.
And you're like, in nothing personal,
you were saying, go back to So Wrong, It's Right.
Yeah.
You just kind of get used to it.
There is a, yes. People come around to it think i think the best part about it is like we've been very
fortunate genuinely to like even when those moments have happened of people being like i
don't know this is a bit different for me like typically after some time people come around like
we put out last young renegade and the first single we put out from that record was dirty
laundry and a lot of people went what is this like
this doesn't sound like anything all time low has ever done before and now when we play live like it
goes off it's kind of a staple of our show now and it's like it's rare that we play a show and
don't play that song and it's one of the bigger moments of the set so it's like it's nice when
people kind of evolve with us and go oh i get it yeah it takes some time another one where you hide
like a heavy part in that one yeah dirty laundry is way heavier than the beginning yeah for sure it's a great one i blogged that the
day it came out by the way music video you're welcome for the views love that my favorite song
in the album now i'd be fine if i never saw you again this is the one that i keep going back to
and making the american idiot black paid yeah yeah i feel like this could easily slot into one
of those i love the uh guitar riff that opens with it and then goes behind the leads me back to
you.
Yep.
It is such a good melancholy, almost famous last words.
It evokes those feelings out of me.
Oh, hell yeah.
Right on.
Yeah.
It was another one of those, that riff particularly is like, it's very memorable.
It stands out and it's like uh again sort of like modern love
it's like this is once people know these songs well like that's going to be such a great live
moment because it's it's in it's very distinguishable from the rest and um i always
kind of look for that in you know what are going to be great record defining songs where is this
along the process of writing and recording the record uh fine it's pretty early yeah that was probably like uh so we wrote pma and once in a lifetime
like three or four months after wake up and we went back in the studio around january so like
seven months later and that's when we did like fine yeah and lost along the way are you there
did you think about adding pma to this one or no? We had talked about it. I mean, it definitely that PMA once in a lifetime, those songs came.
I mean, I wrote The Way You Miss Me like the day after writing Once in a Lifetime.
So those I mean, those songs like kind of existed in the same space.
And but, you know, it we weren't ready to put a record out when we put those songs out.
And then they lived on their own for so long that it just kind of felt like a bit of a cop out to tag them onto a record
like I know plenty of artists do it and it's we considered it for sure
but like it just kind of felt like you know they did their thing they were
weirdly enough like became really important songs PMA is an
opener like PMA and Rhythm are very important songs and it's like we were talking about that on our
last run like we were opening with that song and kind of laughing about the fact that like the the show
opener and a song that's become a pretty defining song for us recently uh isn't on an album and i
think like i don't know it's just kind of a cool thing and i mean it's a 15 song record right so
if we're putting two more on it that either makes it it 17, which is a lot, or we have to then cut two of the 15.
You know what I mean?
So it's like, and that 15 is whittled down from, I think on drums, on drum day, I did 24 songs.
Oh my God.
And then plus a one or two that I've done since or before that.
So that 15 songs is from a batch of almost 30.
Do you guys have trouble narrowing it down and cutting them?
Yeah.
I mean, this one especially, because this, to be to be to be honest like this record was kind of written as
a double record like we were ready to consider putting out a 21 22 song album don't tell me that
i wish you did well i want all the music yeah we were all stressed about making 15 and morgan
wallen puts out 36 it's the best selling record of all time 36 is too much wild so. So good. It's wild. There's so much music.
But yeah,
I think,
I mean,
genuinely,
Jack said it earlier,
but I think there's going to be a point at which we put out the rest of the music
for this record.
There is more
that kind of rounds the whole thing out.
So yeah,
this was a tough one
to whittle it down
to what's the first thing
that everyone's going to hear
versus the big picture of it.
But I look forward to that moment.
I'm really excited for the kind of story to
complete itself it's also it was a purposeful hold back so it's not like we
have six extra songs that are like yeah they weren't quite as yeah they just
they're just ready for another time and they're very good are they like do they
fit a different theme or do they go into this theme if that's I think I mean
they're very much part of this album. It was written together.
We were ready to put out a 21-song album.
And then we kind of decided to put it out in two phases.
And that second phase hasn't been made.
It's official now.
Boom.
Breaking news on My Mom's Basement.
There you go.
So yeah, there is more.
Kill Your Vibe.
Nostalgic sound to me right away.
It takes you back.
I texted you.
I said, your drumming in the choruses
reminds me of what Taylor Hawkins would have played.
That's awesome.
Great Taylor.
You're going to make Ryan cry.
The toms in that and everything feels very Taylor-influenced.
That was a very nice text again.
Thank you.
And another one where this sounds like a very mature,
nothing personal.
I know some bands roll their eyes when we say mature music.
Sure.
It makes it sound like it's boring, but it's not.
I love that.
This song was a really important one for me.
I mean, it's like this song kind of,
we got in the studio and it sort of just spilled out.
Like the whole song was written in probably less than an hour.
And it's become a song for me that I find to be really,
I really love it because I think it's a,
it's a very real look at love in this day and age.
And there's,
that's a theme that plays on the record quite a few times,
but like this idea that you sort of have,
it's that constant struggle of like,
is the way I am hurting the person I'm with and that self-imposed guilt.
And then like the realization that sort of both parties in the relationship are
feeling that way and going like,
I'm sorry that I drag you down.
And it's like,
it's actually the other person that's lifting them up and sort of this full,
this full circle moment of them both realizing that like they're better
together and it's working because of the other one.
And it was just kind of a cool image.
And I thought it was a really nice theme after dealing with a lot of
heartbreak on the record. It was a it was a cool
It was another good one in the same way that like Santa letting go does a thing
This one kind of did a thing of like it's the glue that starts to bind it back together
So yeah, and it's got a great bridge
That's so great very like Jimmy feeling at the beginning there of the bridge.
Yeah.
Did you spell it like nice to know you on purpose?
I think I jokingly wrote it like that when we did the demo,
and then it just stuck.
It just stuck around.
I didn't know if that was a little connection there.
Because they're both upbeat, you know.
Oh, yeah, that's a good point.
Okay.
Go with that, yep.
Yes.
Yes.
The other side, another great stomping chorus on this one and
another song that feels like a triumph like by the end of this record the narrator character that
we're listening to dealing with feels like he's getting one up on whoever he's dealing with one
of my favorite things about the song is i don't think we've ever had a song that sounds like it
like it's kind of got like a 80s like kind of dry feeling in the
verse and then the chorus is kind of an early 2000s like pop power but like i was thinking
power pop yeah like we had kelly clarkson song or something yeah we hadn't like in the studio
there that power pop thing really came to the to the foreground and i was like nobody's really
in this like you know as we were writing this record that the quote-unquote resurgence of
pop punk was really happening and like you know mgk and kenny hoopla and willow and like what
what they were doing with pop punk and sort of changing it revolutionizing it reinventing it
was pretty cool excuse me i'm dying here we are i'm back're good. Don't rustle the bag. It's fine.
You can't hear it.
Yeah, so it was like what I had noticed was no one had done that early 2000s power pop thing again yet.
Yeah.
And I was like, we should kind of see what happens if we try that.
Yeah, it was fun. And I like that.
And you kind of like in the chorus, you like kind of wailed.
And I was like, you haven't really done that in a long time.
I feel like you just fucking go and go.
It's so good.
Versus definitely make me feel The Weeknd.
We did that cover.
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
I think it was right around that.
Maybe it was right after that where I was like, oh, this feels very kind of like that feeling of like those 80s synths and just like the pulse.
So when you guys did that cover, a lot of this record was already written, right?
Good amount of it.
So did you do the cover because you're like we were in
the weekend mood from the record a little bit i think it was like it sort of that inspiration
went both ways and i think part of it was like almost discovery it was like a discovery project
from a production standpoint of like okay well if we take a song like this and all-time lo-fi it
maybe that'll give us some insight on how to make like how to develop the sounds for our own reverse
engineer yeah so i think that's kind of yeah it was a little bit of that in practice just trying That'll give us some insight on how to make, like how to develop the sounds for our own music. Like a reverse engineer. Yeah.
So I think that's kind of,
yeah,
it was a little bit of that in practice,
just trying to figure it out.
Alex probably for about 10 years has been saying like,
we need to get a good cover under our belts.
Like when we play a festival,
we play Bonnaroo,
when we play these festivals that maybe everyone doesn't know us,
we can bring them in literally for 10 years.
And we were up in Canada with Avril and on the way to rehearsal,
he was like,
I think we should do a cover of this weekend song.
And we were like, what?
And we had one day of rehearsal for like a few hours
and we just knocked it out that day.
Yeah, I mean, it was tricky.
We were going to do arenas with Avril
and obviously Avril is like,
she runs a massive amount of different genres.
But at the end of the day, she's a pop star.
And I was like, we i was i was like we're
going into this as like a a band that hasn't played with avril before hasn't really dabbled
in her world all that much and i was like there's going to be like 20 000 people every night
ready for like her massive hits and then like all time low has to go out there and grab these people
and i was like there's a good chance that they're not going to know a lot of our songs so you know
like and sure enough like the crowds were amazing first of all,
and did know surprisingly more than,
than I thought they would.
But like,
it was a cool way to just sort of like grab that pop audience.
And,
and something about it,
like it,
it feels a little less like pressure when you're playing someone else's song.
Oh yeah.
It's very like,
we just kind of like forget that we're on stage and we're back in the basement, just like learning a blink cover or whatever.
Like it's just we can just relax. Not that we're not relaxed on stage, but it's just we just go out of ourselves when playing that song.
It's fun. It's very fun. And then you did all the small things cover with Avril.
Yeah. That was fun. And we, you know, it was it was on the heels of the festival when we were young.
Thank you.
The first day got canceled, which was a bummer.
And we were like, we had flown in to just kind of hang out.
And Avril texted me and was like, we got to do something to save the day
because everybody's day was ruined yesterday.
And, you know, obviously we're doing it this year.
Blink's doing it this year.
So we kind of decided it was a good little tribute for the next year.
And, yeah, it was fun.
It was awesome.
And you played a show on bass
for Avril during that tour, right?
I did, yeah.
I had to learn 17 songs in three days.
What was that like?
Just a lot of sitting in front of my computer
going, what the heck is going on here?
That's a lot of songs to learn.
Do you learn by ear?
Do you look up tabs?
I just learn by ear.
Lame.
I look up tabs.
He spent a lot of time
in my mom's basement as well i dm zach and like can you
i have tabs for me i showed up with three pages of notes and like the musical director was like
that's all you have and i was like yeah i was like i got everything else and it was basically
like starts on a and ends here like that's all my notes were i was like yeah it's a cool experience
watching that because we were obviously on the tour but it's very rare I mean I don't know if it's ever happened that I've watched
one of these guys do a whole set I mean obviously with their other bands but like just filling in
yeah like Alex you said you sing on like warped didn't you play story of the year yeah really
it's a cool thing to watch yeah there was yeah Phil Phil had to had to go for a few days left
the tour and um so they had some friends filling in like i think
i only learned like three songs like ever they just rotated out a few different guitarists but
it was very fun the first day we started our band we were at a story of the year show yeah so that's
like a really cool moment actually what was it what are they called oh they're just big blue
monkey but they're just to change the name the story of the year yeah but no i always love that
like when you when you filled in in the past,
like drumming for a band or anything,
it's a really unique opportunity.
No one's ever asked me.
We're talking about how Alex has done it,
Zach's done it, Ryan's done it,
and I'm just like...
I even filled in for you, Jack.
Yeah, Zach even filled in for me once.
Jack went out on stage for Tom Morello
and worked his whammy pedal.
I asked Ryan to fill in for Pup Punk
because Frankie can't do the festival.
But I wish I could.
Yeah.
Unfortunately.
Sorry.
I also play in a band.
Yeah.
That would have been unreal.
That would have been unreal.
Yeah.
It's nice, though.
I love like watching you guys play.
Like when you're when you're doing it for another artist, like I'll literally stand
in the crowd.
Yeah.
Go like, oh, he's really good.
Yeah, it's fun.
Like a proud parent.
Yeah.
It's like you don't realize it when you're like when you're so used to playing with the same guys for your entire career it's like it just hits different
when you go and actually watch them do it separate from your own thing it's very cool yeah i go like
oh wow he's good the final song in the record lost along the way so being that this was maybe
pushed to not be the final song by nano was this written were you thinking this will be the last
song when you write that opening line?
When we wrote it, it definitely was, we had discussed it.
Yeah, it felt, it very much felt like it was kind of like
Tell Me I'm Alive, just feeling like the opening track.
Like this definitely felt like it was the one to wind down the record with,
at least in its current form.
And most importantly, we just wanted Nano to be wrong.
Yeah, of course.
So we got over on your manager.
And I like that the drums come in right away on this one.
When I first listened to it,
I almost pictured it to be like a glitter and crimson vibe
where like the last chorus goes in.
But the whole song is kind of that same,
goes along the same vibe.
This one, I mean, in the best way possible,
it's one of my favorite records is Lovely Little Lonely.
And this feels like it would fit in that kind of universe for me.
So I did kind of channel a little bit of Pat's simplicity and like his discipline on this song as well as a very good drummer good very nice and is there any kind of ground control connection
here space talk yeah there there actually was i was i kind of at one point or another thought
about calling it like ground control part two or something like that just to mess with people but
yes there is definitely a there's a connection there i like a good sequel when a band
puts out one part two baby yeah and part three coming apparently a trilogy you know what i think
what makes you good at this what is that you kind of look at music through the eyes of someone that's
obsessed with like the marvel universe or whatever like you know you can you like to connect i'm a
nerd about it.
Yeah.
But, but,
but in a good,
in a cool way,
it's like a different look.
Ryan always finds a way to bully our interview.
No,
he does.
He texted me yesterday.
He said,
are you excited to meet the drummer all time?
No,
I'm intimidated.
I said,
I'm intimidated.
Uh,
but no,
it's a cool thing.
Like you look at it from a different viewpoint of like,
it's not just music.
It's like Canon.
And you think of it like that.
It's really cool.
Where do you like, where does this leave the narrator then if we're talking
about canon do you view this as like a super optimistic ending to the album do you view it
as he's still lost um i mean in the context of this song it was it's sort of about a person
reflecting back on their life at the end of their life it's kind of like the the record is the life
and times of this person and the journey that they went on.
After hitting a wall, they said,
well, fuck it, I'm going to run through the wall.
And then they made all these mistakes
and all these crazy choices just to feel something.
And in there, they found some glimmers of hope
and some love and some life.
And this song kind of summarizes all that.
They kind of look back.
They're reflecting as they sort of drift off
and basically say...
You pass away peacefully.
Basically coming to terms and being like,
it's okay.
It's all okay.
Again, though,
not to keep going back to this album,
but it's one of my favorites of all time.
That's like,
what's her name on American Idiot for me?
Where that evokes the same
looking back at the entire record emotion.
And I love that.
It feels like a complete work again, like Wake Up Sunshine did.
For sure.
Well, that's what we grew up.
We grew up listening to bands that had full bodies of work.
We didn't grow up in the era of singles.
I hate the single era.
Yeah.
And sometimes I've opened my mind to it with PMA and Once in a Lifetime,
and it actually worked out pretty well.
And like Birthday and songs like that.
Yeah.
It's fun every now and then because you don't have to be beholden to a body of work but yeah
but i still but we still want to continue doing what we do and what we grew up listening to and
that's making records yeah do you have a favorite lyric on the album question for everybody i'm
really putting everyone else on the spot for them to remember i like uh uh made a record just to
make the sunshine i was gonna say yeah to say. I love that song.
It hits hard.
I'd say the chorus of Other Side.
There's a lot of great lines in there.
Go ahead and recite the whole thing.
Go.
Oh, boy.
Remember when we did that MTV thing years ago
where it was Alex and Zach and me and Ryan
and we had to say our lyrics from memory.
Like wait, listen, dear Maria.
It wasn't like deep cut. Me and Ryan had to wait list and it memory. So me and Ryan had to wait. Like wait, listen, dear Maria. It is astonishing.
Me and Ryan had to wait list and it was-
Maybe it's not my year.
Wait.
It's astonishing how bad-
We couldn't even get through verse one.
I did that on The Dozen.
We have a trivia show here at Barstool
with teams and everything
and I used All Time Low as my niche
and it was finish the lyrics
to the first verse of Break Your Little Heart.
Oh yeah, I remember that.
I remember seeing that.
Instantly, yeah.
Was that the one you did at...
So that wasn't the...
We did a Terminal 5 live dozen show.
That wasn't that one.
But I can't come to the Red Rocks show
because the dozen tournament is happening that same day,
and I think I'm going to use All Time Low as my niche,
just as a little tribute.
That's fair.
My final question, and I ask this to all musicians.
I might have asked this to you and you on the podcast before,
but as a full band, I'd like your answer.
Noel Gallagher,
one of my favorites of Oasis,
says that he summed up
everything he ever wanted to say in his life
with Rock and Roll Star,
Cigarettes and Alcohol,
and Live Forever.
Wow.
Everything after that,
he says he's just repeating himself.
Interesting.
If you could pick three all-time low songs
that sum up everything you've ever wanted to say,
which three would you land on?
Amazing.
That's an incredible question.
Waitlist would have to be in there.
Wow.
Maybe therapy?
That's a good one.
Maybe.
Would you put like guts on there?
I know you're a big guts guy.
Yeah, I think guts would have to go in for sure.
Yeah, weightless, guts, and I'm going to go with Tell Me I'm Alive.
Oh, nice. That's a great question. I like that. Thank you. All right, guys. yeah weightless guts and I'm gonna go with tell me I'm alive oh nice yeah yeah
great question I like that thank you all right guys that was tell me I'm alive go
stream the album now go listen to the album go see all time low if you're not
competing in the dozen go see them at red may I suggest you get yourself a
chair that reclines like this when you listen to the most relaxed maybe we
should run this back but let me and Zach get up here and see how we –
Try this chair.
See how it changes.
We'll swap it, yeah.
All right.
Thanks, guys.
Thank you so much, man.
Thank you, brother.