My Mom's Basement - EPISODE 52 - 'LOVELY LITTLE LONELY' WITH RIAN DAWSON

Episode Date: March 16, 2020

Robbie is joined by Rian Dawson of All Time Low in the Basement this week - one of his favorite drummers ever - to discuss his band’s new record: ‘Wake Up, Sunshine’ (OUT 4/3), his favorite and least favorite tracks to perform live, their shared love of the Foo Fighters, and more! Plus, Rian breaks down The Maine’s ‘Lovely Little Lonely’ track-by-track with Robbie for an awesome ‘MUST LISTEN’ segment!!!You 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

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. Ryan Dawson from All Time Low, my favorite band ever. So this is an honor. Thanks, man. I don't think I knew that we were your favorite band ever. You didn't know that? Bro, come on. I knew you were a fan.

Like, you're the only band I got tatted on my arm. That's very... that's impressive. Yeah, you're here talking Wake Up Sunshine. You guys got a new album out first album in almost three years you guys are gonna be on gma on the release date just dropped april 3rd are you what's going on through your mind right now nerves i still get nervous especially like at the beginning of a cycle i all my nerves come back we haven't toured in over a year like we haven't really done a proper tour so there's those nerves and then doing something like good morning america where we're so out of our comfort zone like we can play shows all day it's fine but to be on live tv with like a bunch of peppy

it's always different too right like when when you listen to bands on late night shows and oh it's terrifying different vibe and especially a band like us that's especially we're going to probably do some kind of disaster which is very guitar driven yeah that doesn't always translate to a tv speaker you know what i mean like it's a lot especially a live broadcast there's no post mix or anything like that so it is and there's no room for mistakes which is a problem for us yeah we tend to make a lot of mistakes well not really i've seen you guys so one of the members who you no oh jack yeah. No, I'm kidding. He's actually realigned himself and is very solid now. But yeah, it's nerve-wracking, but it's such a cool experience.

And we're one of those bands that our mainstream success has been pretty limited. We do very well and we're very fortunate to have the fan base we have. But as far as things like GMA and these late night shows, it's pretty few and far between. So any chance we get at that, we definitely like to just do whatever we can to make it worth it and to make them want us back. Yeah, it feels like the whole album is kind of that same mentality, right? You guys, this is huge. It feels bigger than a lot of the past albums, to me at least.

The rollout feels big. The fan support is huge. It feels like you guys are also eager. We've talked about it. You guys are eager to have people listen to this. You're absolutely right, too. And obviously you do these. This is our eighth record.

Every time you're going to go and be like, yeah, this one's special. This one's exciting. But something about this record, the process of making it, the rollout, just the fan engagement and reaction, and the press. I mean, everything about it is overwhelmingly positive. So I'm just waiting for that to fall down but so far i mean and you're right that just the starting with the process like the original sessions were done in my studio in nashville alex flew in how long ago february january february of last year wow so yeah you guys have been sitting on tunes that you guys

love yeah man and and disaster was probably the second one we wrote. And it was just this thing where we weren't really thinking about a record. We had no timeline. We had no tour. We had nothing set up. We were like, all right, so it was me, Alex, our producer, Zach Cervini, our co-producer and front of house engineer, Phil Grinnell, just in a room writing. Just whatever. Maybe it's for Alex. Maybe it's for Simple Creatures. Maybe it's for All Time Low. Just writing songs in a comfortable environment. My studio. We were there for about three weeks, ended up with about 20 songs. Wow. It was insane. So for you guys, that has to be a lot, right?

I don't know about songwriting like that, but that has to be a lot for anybody. It was a ton. And it was 20 good songs. A lot of times you're like, okay, well we got five out of that 20 that we can use. But it was just, we'd come in and, and we'd have a certain vibe that day. We never talked about what the record was going to be. Like I said, it wasn't even a record. We were just writing. That really surprises me to be honest with you. Hearing the singles and all of that, the, the whole rollout of the record, it feels like it all goes together. They all have similar vibes that aren't, I don't want to say the songs sound the same because they don't the songs sound very different but the palette definitely yeah and

it fits with even the the color scheme of the record and yeah the rollout plan and all of that yeah so it surprises me that it wasn't like hey let's sit down and write our eighth record exactly right like even for we had a record don't panic that you know it was on the heels of dirty work and we were like okay we need to re-engage core fan base. We need we need to remind them, oh, we're still here. You know what I mean? Because it was the release of that record and everything just got kind of convoluted. And we were a little bit. I do want to touch on a little bit later because I fucking love Dirty Work. It's a great record. But Don't Panic, we were like focused on that. Like, let's just remind the core fan base who we are. This record, it just happened.

We just all wanted to write the same type of music and so what happened was we left nashville and we were like well this is great but we want to like get the band involved as a whole like all of us at the same time so we were like okay let's look at alex's tour schedule for simple creatures jacks for who hurt you when can we link up so we just rented a house in Palm Springs in June July-ish time and that was incredible so for about

three and a half weeks we would wake up write swim in the pool drink tequila sing whatever it was and then we go out to dinner

come back do some more go to bed wake up for three and a half weeks same house same just the four dudes our producer and Phil

and my our assistant Dan Swank who now tours with us too and for three and a half weeks. Same house, same, just the four dudes, our producer and Phil and my, our assistant Dan Swank who now tours with us too. And it was incredible, man. Again, there was, it was so freeing and so liberating. It was just whatever we want to do.

You guys were writing and recording in that house? Everything. So how, are you setting that stuff up? Like the little corner things where like, how are you recording

in just a random house? You turn it into a recording studio? And you know what mic we used? Which one? This, SM7. Really? this is a 300 mic holy and we did all vocals on it in the middle of this so the house was marble we called the marble mansion it was this big marble house which acoustically is terrible it's just all reverb you can't control any of the echo or anything like that and all the alex would just sit on the couch and record his vocals into an sm7 over demo tracks have you guys done stuff like that before no dude i mean when we do our records like we're usually renting like a really nice studio and using like a thirty thousand

dollars last young renegade with with all of its synth heavy vibes and all of that there's so many layers it's such a layered album and this one we were like do it like that it's the whole experience man it was just that. It was whatever happens. Let's just roll with it. So Alex, it all started when we were in Nashville. He had the same. We had the station and it was just him, his iPad and SM7 mic and a little table for his drink or whatever. And that's where we like the first demo.

We're like, OK, go in the booth, do this. And then by the second demo, he was like, I kind of want to record it right here. It's like to have the back and forth in the control room and so we went to palm springs just continue doing that there was no control room it's just the living room so like half the takes if you listen to the isolated vocal track you'll hear like jack shaking up a cocktail or me jumping in the pool zach working out like it's it's so cool and that whole vibe of the record like you're saying like how it how it kind of it was a complete record just because of the vibe of the whole process it was just loose and fun and relaxing no deadline no record label

being like we need this song by this we have this deadline here we're just like well fuck it let's just see what happens and we all wanted to write the same record and that's that's what we did so of the 20 we did in nashville or so 20 or 30 probably about six of them stayed and then we wrote another maybe six or seven and then we wrote another probably 20 in palm springs and just combined the long albums 15 track album which is awesome for me i'm like fuck yeah this is like it feels like an album with bonus tracks already dude it's insane because we're always a band that's like oh my god why do these bands put out like double records and why are they putting out 17 song records and now we're like we just

don't know use your illusion exactly we just don't know what to cut like we were trying so hard and we just couldn't trim that fat and like usually i have like two or three favorite songs jack has two or three favorite songs and it becomes like a fight well i love this song because of this and this one we were like we all love these 15 songs and then i would have loved to put on another three alex would have loved to put on another three that he connected to him we just couldn't cut any of these what are your favorites from this one do you have any favorites that are out yet singles or yeah so sleeping in is one

of my favorites and I remember being like fuck yeah that's like the all-time low so wrong it's right is one of the most summary absolutely right to me and that's so cool yeah and it just feels like it's without sacrifice I keep saying that like a lot of times you know okay well we wrote this kind of song but like don't worry like it's without sacrifice. I keep saying that. A lot of times, okay, well, we wrote this kind of song, but don't worry. It's not too pop punk or it's not too synthy.

This one is just fucking fun, good. Yeah, it's a cool mix. Exactly. There's cool stuff too in certain songs where I feel like the guitars and the vocals and the melodies are a little more leaning into the pop side and you're leaning more into the punk side, which makes such a cool transition and such a cool blend. Yes. When you go into songs like Sleeping In or even there's a moment in some kind of disaster where some effects go over the drums and gets a little, you know, like Travis Barker-y, like self-titled blinky.

Sure. Is that you making those calls as a producer, as a drummer? This would sound cool? Or your producer? That's a combo. So Servini was our producer and he's, I can't say enough good things about him. How many records has he done with you guys? This is it

Well he worked on Future Hearts with us So he was John Feldman's assistant engineer for a while And I used I love Feldman to death But Servini worked his ass off on our record I mean they called him Night Shift Because he would come in I don't know 6 or 7pm

And we would come in the next day at 10am And he'd still be working Yeah He's a freak But this was the first record he ever produced of ours And he's just got a great ear He'd still be working. Yeah. He's a freak. But this was the first record he ever produced of ours. And he's just got a great ear. And it's the first time we've recorded with someone that's a fan of the band first.

Like he's 25 years old, 26 maybe. Which makes sense. And grew up loving All Time Low. I think his favorite band in the entire world is Motionless and White or something. And he won't do one of their records. He's like, I'll fuck it up. Yeah, exactly right. But it was cool.

I remember the first day he came into Nashville, he was like, well, this is what I think All Time Low should be doing in 2020. And it was, he had the idea for Melancholy Kaleidoscope, which is just fast pop punk go. And so it was a great new perspective of having that fifth member of the band having grown up with All Time Low. And it's just, once again, it's just his vision and our vision just melded together perfectly. Yeah. And you've got a fifth member of the band now, like you've said, for touring

purposes, you've always had a fifth or at least have had one for a long time now. I mean, since a very long time, 2008. And now Dan Swank, he could do keyboards. I've seen the live videos, Getaway Green. He sounds great on backup vocals and all that like the live shows are going to be incredible you guys have always been winning best live band or whatever but this album i'm very excited about because the first quote we had about this album was like it's indicative of the mosh pits we came from yes and that's what that's what it sounds like it's so true man and yeah you're right there are some songs that like we have to rearrange to make work live and it always works like i think our last record last young renegade i think it's 10 times better live than it is on record and i love

that record but something about the us doing it live with that energy like we're a very energetic band everything about it and so we had to rework some songs be like okay well there's not a lot of guitars in this chorus so when we go live let's make sure to push the guitars with this record it's just we're just fucking playing it like we wrote it because it was written with the four of us in a room together like that's that can't be forgotten that that magic it wasn't like 30 analog keyboards and anything like that like we kind of got that out of our system and now we just had two guitars bass drums and that's how it's being played live now it's it's fucking awesome so another thing about dirty work Work. You went from Dirty Work to Don't Panic.

And like you said, it was a big transition, even in Straight to DVD, the documentary. You guys talked about it, where you kind of had something to prove, where you're like, listen, we understand some people didn't love Dirty Work, but Don't Panic is where it's fucking at. And you came through with the first few songs of that record. Next level. So Long Soldier, one of the craziest drum songs there is. I saw Alex talking about how people are saying saying people are trying to paint this almost as

if it's the same scenario all over again with last young renegade and this one yeah i don't think that's the case at all that's not the vibe i get from you guys and well to go back to dirty work too i mean if you listen to that record it's got some fucking like punk songs on it like here's paper moon paper moon um my one of my favorite on it. Here goes on that record. Paper Moon. One of my favorite songs. Do You Want Me Dead? We absolutely wanted to make that record. And we had these like, you know, we wrote, that was seventh record, I think. So throughout the past 15 years, we've had these ideas of like, well, what if we have these synths?

What if we have this darker feel? And then we're like, okay, well, we'll just save it for another song on the record or anything. And so we were just kind of brimming with these ideas. And the creative process sort of just took us to that level. And the producer we were working with really nurtured that. And so we love Renegade. So do I. Absolutely love it.

I think it's some of the best writing Alex has ever done lyrically. Agreed. Melodically, it's insane. And like I said, playing those songs live, there's something truly special about it. It's kind of, it creates a moment in the set that we didn't have before. A moment to like- Life of the party live is the next level.

That's exactly what I was thinking of. Exactly right. The whole outro, everything about that, yeah. Yeah, and so we didn't really have that like soaring kind of synthy rock. And so we all wanted it. And so we made it and we're very proud of it. But that touring process,

like we toured on it for a very long time. We were all just kind of like out of breath by the end of 2018-ish. And we were like, fuck, man. Like we just need to chill. Like we've been touring since 2006. Yeah. Average probably eight months a year. It's a lot.

Yeah. Same four members. You guys have never swapped anyone out. It's just the same four dudes touring. And exactly right. And going through life just like anyone else like having personal problems having relationships and start whatever and we were just like tired really just like i said gassed so that's how this that last year

kind of happened we were just like well let's just fucking take a break alex had some crazy shit he wanted to do with simple creatures and like and he gets to be in a band with mark hoppus i remember he called me, man. I was outside of this Mexican place in Nashville. He was like, hey man, can I call you? And I was like, ooh, this is not good. Are you going to quit? You're like, am I out of all time?

Yeah, what did I do? And he's like, hey, how you doing? I was like, Alex, what's going on here? Like, let's skip all this. We've known each other for 15 years. What's happening? He was like, Mark wants to start a band with me. And I was like, yeah? And you want me to be the drummer? And he's like, wants to start a band with me and I was like yeah

and you want me to be the drummer and he's like is that okay that Mark wants to start a band I was like what the fuck

do you mean yeah quit I mean by all means quit All Time Low and he just he was such a sweetheart about it and like

you know laid out look I just we have these weird ideas that don't fit in Blink they don't fit in All Time Low but I want to get him out there and he was like it will never interfere with all-time low it will never interfere with blink we just want to take this year and do it and we were like

fuck you and he sent me some songs and they're he's so right like and i'm not sure that wake up sunshine would have happened without simple creatures because those ideas that once again are just like pouring out of alex would have had to find their way creatively into all time i was thinking that like almost simple creatures might have given a route for this album to be more of the Back to Your Roots All Time Low. Yeah, he got it out of us. I mean, I'm a creative person, but compared to Alex, not at all. So I can't imagine what it's like to have those ideas in your head and not have a channel to release them. Totally. So Simple Creatures was perfect. And like I said, when we sat down in February, just laser focus on all of us wanting the same thing.

Yeah. Yeah. All right. So I got a few more like little just fanboy questions before we get into another album that we're going to talk about on this podcast. Talk about fanboy. That album for me. So all time low songs live. Which ones are the biggest bears to play that if you, you know, threw these in succession on a set list, you'd be like, oh, fuck, are we serious? As in, do I have to play that or that's a hard one to play? That's like a hard one to play. That's you're playing it fast. You're playing it. Yeah.

A lot of times we'll save. What we'll do is like we'll come out hard and then we'll do like, you know, mid tempo songs and then we'll we'll end hard fast. So if we do a song like Heroes at the end of the set or Soldier at the end of the set that's one that like you're right I look at the set throughout the whole show and I'm like okay okay cruise control cruise control oh fuck yeah and I got to save it for that and I hit hard and I got to like kind of I got to save some energy for the heavy hitters. The So Wrong It's Right anniversary shows like

This Is How We Do, coming in with that and I'm being like whoa that's a fuck and they're coming out strong that was one that was great because that was the fastest song on the set so after I finished that and you got right out of the way I was like alright we're good

yeah true but honestly like you get in such a flow and you find your lane live and there are some shows that you never do and there are some shows

that I just feel like I'm just horrible not horrible but I'm just not in the groove you know what I mean and I have to like work for every hit

and I have to like think about every hit and then there's a click live or no oh yeah every single song um and there are some shows most of the shows nowadays especially like when we're into the touring cycle where it's just from the moment we go i'm just soaring i love it i love everything about it i'm not even thinking about drumming it's just happening yeah um and those are the ones that like if there is a fast song at the end of the set then i don't really care because it's just like i'm just stoked to be able to be up there again you know what are your favorite songs to play live not lost in stereo really we love the song and

the crowd reaction is insane i know that might be like one of my favorites sure but we've played it 200 times a year for the past 10 years yeah but no it is a great song and it's just one of those kind of autopilot songs we're like okay crowd do your thing we're gonna do our thing i mean i'm hard pressed not to say sleeping in honestly at this point and that's not just because it's new it definitely helps like disaster has been great to play too but sleeping in do you write songs with the live mentality almost a lot of the time yes especially drumming wise um and just that energy that it brings. There's so many different routes that a song like Sleeping In could take

because you've got that kind of halftime-y, groovy verse feel, and then the chorus kind of just punches you in the face. And that wasn't the original idea, really. I think the original idea was a halftime chorus, too. And then I think we were just programming the drums at the house, and I was like, what if we try this? And it just, bam. So that song is just so fun live, and it very like the crowd hits it right away and the bridge is one of my favorite

parts like the weird little hi-hat stuff and the snare roll um so that one's been great but as far as like classic all-time low songs weightless always gets me man yeah it always always gets me i know how much yeah and it means so much to fans and it means so much to this band like that was such a moment in our career was putting out weightless and you guys have been opening up with that has been very cool by the way yeah like even on the the nothing personal shows obviously you're opening up with it yeah it's the record but even the non-shows where you're doing the slower intro and then the crowd explodes for the first course so i can tell you a little behind the scenes story about that.

We were doing Reading and Leeds, 2000, I don't fucking know. 13? Yeah. Do you know what I'm talking about? We did a Dammit cover on that show. So our tracks rig broke. So we had a set list,

and we've always played the backing tracks. Usually you get tambourines, synth, some gang vocal shit. And that was, our whole rig went down which means i didn't have click track we're playing in front of i don't know 50 000 people on the main stage at reading and leads and we had to go into waitlist and i was like well what the fuck do we

do because waitlist starts with yeah you know that electric drum beat and i was like okay well i could mind you we're having this conversation independently in our own heads because we can't talk to each other on stage because there's 50 000000 people so so this shit broke before you went up on stage while you broke song two okay yeah i think yeah song two and i was between alex and i we have this very surreal sync that he and i just lock in live and we both he he would just i just did this i like did an emotion of like take it and he did the you know that opening chord and managed me and the crowd just fucking ate it up. And then as we're getting into that first chorus time, you know, getting older, we're

swelling up and I'm like, I hope he takes this because, you know, there's no click to count us in. Normally it goes one, two, three, four. He just needs to hit maybe it's. And he said maybe it's and we're like, all right, we're going. You're a massive Foo Fighters fan. I'm a massive Foo Fighters fan. I've got the Foo Fighters tattoo.

I know you do. I actually have the Dave Grohl feather tattoo. Wow. So I want to know, like, I've never heard you talk about Foo Fighters. What are your favorite Foo Fighters records? What are your favorite Foo Fighters songs? My favorite, fuck, Foo Fighters are so damn good.

Who was it? Mark Hoppus was like, I forget how it came up. I think he saw my tattoo or something and said to Alex, does Ryan have a Foo Fighters tattoo? And Alex was like, yeah. He's like, Jesus. And Alex was like, what? Mark was like, I don't know. Foo Fighters are so good, but it's like your favorite salsa being mild.

That's such a good comment. I mean, that's pretty good. It was so funny. As a guy who – Foo Fighters might be like top five for me. Oh, dude. But I get it. It was so funny. As a guy who, Foo Fighters might be like top five for me. Oh, dude. So that's a pretty fucking good description. It's just your typical rock festival. Yeah.

I started listening to Foo Fighters with There's Nothing Left to Lose. All right. Which is Learn to Fly, Generator, Breakout. Stacked Actors. Stacked Actors, man. Fuck yeah. And that was the record for me. I was listening to that and I was listening to Enema, The State.

It was pretty much the two reasons i played drums and i at the time thought okay foo fighters is a lot easier drumming because enema is just so fast and so quick and so flashy and then as i get older i realized oh taylor hawkins dave grohl are just masters at tact at like tactful rock drumming and um so that record of course made it for me um and then from there i mean everlong will be the one song that i i will listen to every single time it's on i talk about like one of the greatest drum tracks ever have you heard the isolated track oh my god his ghost notes insane endurance on the hi-hat oh my god and there's no beat like nowadays we use you guys probably don't but we use what's called we don't know we use what's called. We don't. We use what's called Beat Detectives. So like if I'm like swaying from the click just a little bit, you can nudge it and it locks it in perfectly.

We fucking should use that. Why don't we? Yeah, you guys should. We're not good at that. We'll have a chat. But so anyway, those isolated tracks are so insane and his feel is so good. But when the all-time low tours, we don't really sound check. Like we sound check for the first week and then it's all pretty much set.

I love sound checking and I I love annoying the crew. So we started what's called the Crew Fighters, where it was me, two guitar techs, tour manager, assistant tour manager, and we covered Foo Fighters. And when I say covered, it wasn't like, oh, let's get drunk. We fucking did it well. Are there videos out here? There's videos.

We opened for an all-time low show once because the opening band couldn't make it. So we had like an eight-song set. I built backing tracks along with Dave's harmonies that I got from like Rock Band. You know, all the tracks that you need, click, everything. And we had like, okay, you know, Bridge Burning is going to go right into Rope. Then we're going to do Everlong. And it was like – You need to send me some of these.

Yeah, I'll have to send you some. I was really proud of it. That's like a must-watch for me. I would finish Soundcheck at like 2 p.m and just be drenched alex like what they'd be like waking up in the bus like what the fuck did you just do getting ready to go off for your show sore yeah for sure man um i took it more seriously than all time low for that year all right so we're going to talk about this album we've been doing album breakdowns on this show and kind of just going track by track through them.

I'll pull it up on Spotify and pass you the computer where you could if you want to play anything from it, you can stop it and play it. Tell me about this album you picked. Why did you pick it? Right. So this is the main Lovely Little Lonely. And the main has been a band, I think, pretty much as long as we have. And they have had, you know, kind of a tumultuous career where they put out a huge record called Can't Stop, Won't Stop.

And then they followed it up with a few other records and it just, they never really connected again for quite a long time. And I think they were in a, you know, they were writing incredible music, but it just for some reason wasn't connecting with the fan base. And so they were kind of at a low point

and, you know, they didn't know, and I'm kind of just, they're buddies of mine, so I'm were kind of at a low point and you know they didn't know and i'm kind of just they're buddies of mine so i'm just kind of saying this second hand but eventually they put out a record called american candy and then then lovely little lonely and lonely to me is one of the best lovely little lonely is one of the best records ever and i'll say that like happily i said it was a top five for you without a doubt. Yes, dude. And the amount of times I've listened to this record and just front, I'm a big shuffle guy. This one front to back just hits me so hard. I even said to Steve

who's here, I said, oh, we're doing this album concept thing. And he immediately was like, oh, he's doing Lovely. I was like, yes. Immediately. I mean, the second I wrote up. So I had never heard this before you told me about it. Yeah, you're one of those guys that are like, I haven't listened to the main since Can't Stop, which me and Dan Swank, when someone says that, we just look at each other with such disdain.

It's not that I haven't because I sent Can't Stop to Frankie, who's the drummer of Pop Punk. I sent that to him maybe a month ago and I was like, bro, this is one of my favorite Pop Punk albums ever. You got to listen to it. I listened to it a bunch over the last week. I had a few flights I listened to it on. I wrote down like a bunch of notes about it. Tell you what, tremendous album. Isn't it good, man?

Like fucking phenomenal. And it's not just like fun. Like it's dark. It's dark. But it is fun. I wrote down certain songs. Taxi put me in my fucking feels. Dude, Taxi is the one.

That's the one for me. And so I was just going to say, anytime I hear this, ah, fuck, it just takes me somewhere. I don't even know where I know I wrote it down It hits you in the feels It's got the The stutter they do

Before the final chorus Oh So good Now whenever we play With the main They generally don't Play this song live Well they have

But they just say It's kind of boring To play live Which I get it It's kind of linear It's kind of slower Yeah They play it

Because I request That I play drums with them I was gonna say You've gone up I was gonna ask you Which songs It's kind of linear. It's kind of slower, yeah. They play it because I request that I play drums with them. I was going to say, you've gone up. I was going to ask you which songs. It's Taxi that you like doing live with them? Yes. It's just such a great song. It's a weird format, too.

There's no real like, you know, intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus. It kind of comes in weird. But it kind of comes in weird. I don't really know what the chorus is, what the post is. There's a few songs on this album like that, though, because they've got like the three interludes, obviously. Lovely Little and Lonely yeah So starting with the first one Don't Come Down

This is one of the best songs in the album I think Agree and what an intro song So like dreamy the way it builds up The chorus The singer's voice is fucking awesome Dude and he's one of the best front men ever John He's a freak he's like so funny And he's a good looking dude

You guys are going on tour with we are coming up to sad summer summer we'll be here and talked about it coming up here 17 you could check out dates all over for that thing that that's gonna be exciting you know New York sold out in a day that's fucking crazy isn't that insane that's crazy it's they were so generous to invite us because that's that's the main festival sad summer fest um and they invited us on and we were like well we're a bigger band than you yeah is that okay they're like yeah you guys could have because last year they did three rotating headliners and i was like i'll fucking happily headline with the main i don't care it's such a cool tour too because we've seen pop punk tours bamboozle fucking warp tour we've

had all these for years and then they all went away yeah now they're being brought back and there's such a cool contingency of pop punk fans absolutely right yeah and they want it at a reasonable like it all just makes sense and so they allowed us to kind of come into the tour with them and curate it with them so we're not just a headliner we're not just um you know playing the festival but we're part of that tour now so like we can for years to come kind of help them curate it and make it and they said that they were like look we don't care if we're playing third fourth whatever it is we just want the tour to be successful we want fans to have a reason to go out and see a festival this summer which is not easy to do and it's very it's not easy to convince bands to do it either like you know you take a big money cut

yeah because there's eight bands seven bands sometimes a set list cut set list cut for sure like normally we'd be playing two hours we're not gonna do that but it's just such a great lineup and i'm so excited to see stories so far live main grayscale obviously um movements it's just i'm very every band on the lineup it's one of those where it's like certain festivals you're like i'll show up for the headlines right this is you show up at nine you see everybody because it's they're also you guys are all in the same bubble that works yep Yep. Warped Tour sometimes you would go and they would be like a screamo band on this stage. And then a ska band. Yeah.

A pop punk band, a ska band and then 303 over here. But this one is cool. Like it's not, you know, there's there's a little bit of like emo. There's a little bit of pop punk. There's a little bit of like just straight punk. And it's just yeah, I think it'll be a really nice like a nice ride for the fan. It's cool. So so don't come down.

I wrote literally A plus the way the vocals layer on top of each other at the final chorus. It's cool. So, so don't come down. I wrote literally a plus the, the way the vocals layer on top of each other at the final course. He's a freak. You can't ask for a better opening song than this one. And then every time I hear this for bad behavior, fuck. Come on. Oh,

it's so good. This one gave me a little Jimmy eat world. Yeah. Oh, Jimmy is there. Right. Jimmy people. Yeah. Oh, Jimmy is. They're big Jimmy people. Yeah. So funny thing enough is that we did a tour two years ago with Dashboard.

Same thing. We really didn't sound check that much. So I hit up Pat from The Main. And I was like, yo, can you send me like your studio sessions from Lovely? He's like, yeah. So me, Dan Swank, who was our assistant tour manager at the time, and our old auxiliary musician, Brian Donahue, learned track one through five and would just play it at soundcheck. Full tracks, no stopping in between. I'm talking, once again, there's videos of us doing it.

I remember you guys doing that. It's like zoomed in on us. We're just fucking sweating. You think there's like 10,000 people in the crowd. It turns around and it's just the front of house guy. Just shut the fuck up, please like you don't want to hear this but i think people fucking will love to hear that that you still love music that much i know man love playing it love getting up on stage like sound checking before your show yes and there's

something like they're jaded to it yeah and it's like i love playing all-time low songs but it's fucking nerve-wracking playing a show to people you you fuck up and they're bummed you know i mean like that's the end of it and they don't come back. Whereas if you're just sound checking to one of your favorite bands, there's this sense of like nostalgia of like, oh, this is just us

in the basement. It's like playing in a garage, right? Exactly right. And you don't really get that a lot. And even if I'm playing all-time low songs at sound check, I'm still like, well, how can I improve that fill

going into the second chorus? I'm still doing like arithmetic in my head. Yeah. Whereas playing the main at sound check is just, it's like visceral. It's just, I just let it, cathartic would be the word. Yeah. Which is basically main at soundcheck is just, it's like visceral. It's just,

I just let it cathartic would be the word. Yeah. Which is basically pop punk is our thing. For sure. We just do covers all day. We would love to get you

on a fucking kit. I want to come, man. If we ever do a show like a Nashville show and you're in town or something, it'd be a lot of fun. What am I doing? We do literally,

our set list is like probably what All Time Low played when you guys were freshmen. Yeah. Moving on, you got the first Interlude. Yeah, into black butterfly which is so sick this is the favorite part of my sound check right here at this moment one two three go that i mean fucking hell

yeah another thing about this record is that a lot of times those are skippers like those interlude tracks this one they fit perfectly they fit they add to the vibe of it, which I like, the way it bleeds in, like you said. Yeah. And there were certain interlude tracks when I was writing down notes. I was listening to it in the airport and just kind of writing down every note. And, like, I didn't realize there were interludes at first. Yeah. Which is the best.

Yeah, it just feels like the end of a song or the start of a song. Yeah, it's very true. This one, I have a note where maybe you're going to be like, fuck you because you won't be able to unhear it. I could not hear right words when he was singing it. What would you hear? I kept hearing bratwurst. Oh, God, no. So why don't we hit the chorus there?

Great song, though. Great song about bratwurst. The best song about bratwurst. It's up there. It's up there with the best song about bratwurst. There's a few. Taxi, which we talked about. This is the hit you in the feel song

I never really grew out of the fate A lot of people were like oh pop punk what are you fucking 17 years old I'm like I don't know it's what I play and I love it And it's what I grew up on Are you into Spanish love songs yet? I just saw them live in Nashville two or three nights ago Yeah they played with Wonder Years and Free Throw That new album is fucking tremendous

They were sick man I hadn't really heard of them And so on the way home I started is fucking tremendous. They were sick, man. Ray Faces Everyone. Yeah, I hadn't really heard of them and so on the way home I started listening to them because they were sick live. Yeah, Vinny Vegas put me onto them.

Ah, that makes sense, yeah. They're very Wonder Years-esque. Yeah, it was a great show, man. Wonder Years are doing a really cool thing right now. I love the Wonder Years with the acoustic stuff too. Yeah, so they do like

a 10 song acoustic set then a 14 song full band set. Holy shit. Jesus, this is so good i felt like such an asshole they're like we're playing about two hours like geez he was like do you guys play two hours don't you i was like i mean when we played wembley we played two hours they were like oh cool man i was like well i don't know oh shit that's funny that's that's a fucking great show too

wembley oh man fuck I get nervous thinking about that but yeah that was incredible I had a migraine that morning and I didn't you get hit with pyro in my eye

the day before or the sound check it was a pyro test the day before it was like pyro dust or whatever but it landed in my eye and I panicked

obviously I thought I was on fire but it was fine do you remember up next track six this is the after taxi brings you back to that more down the middle pop punk yeah man fuck Do you remember Up next Track six This is the After Taxi

Brings you back to that More down the middle Pop punk Yeah man Fuck Their use of guitar hooks Are so good Like the guitar parts

Get stuck in your head Yeah Which isn't easy Getaway Green Has a great one Yeah Which I've heard You know

The thousand live videos Every angle I sent you the real one Didn't I Yeah you did I don't know if I was Alot to say That's okay

Secure stream Yeah that's a great one And then didn't I? Yeah, you did. I don't know if I was allowed to say. That's okay. Secure stream. Yeah, that's a great one. And then that goes into Little. And the Little mini solo that they have in this song. So good. Dude, I think it's Jared. He's their lead guitarist, quote unquote. And just his use of pedals and just the way the guitars just kind of melt into the song

and just create another texture is really impressive. And I sent you. There were some people comparing Wake Up Sunshine to this album. Yep. the guitars just kind of like melt into the song and just create like another texture. It's really impressive. And I sent you there. There were some people comparing Wake Up Sunshine to this album. And you were kind of gassed up about it. I sent that to everyone. After hearing it, after hearing some songs off Wake Up Sunshine, I feel like I feel like I know where he was coming from.

Yeah, absolutely, man. I mean, there's a literal song that didn't make the record, but I had to go in like after a full day of writing and be like, hey, Alex, I love this song, but this guitar part is an exact rip from the main oh no and he was like no it's not no it's not i played it for him and he was like well gotta change that guitar part have you ever had that happen with a song that you already put out that you had no idea and then someone was like isn't this yeah we have had that but it's usually bullshit like you know i mean there's only so many chords even when when you see the lawsuits come out, the high-level lawsuits from pop sites, it's usually, yeah.

It bothers me so much. Like, I mean, I can't say for sure. Like, I'm sure at some point there is, like, theft, and it is, like, that is my property, and that is my art that I made. But at the same time, it's like, okay, man, like. It's also pop punk. We're not doing things in six, seven-time signatures. We're not ripping off Beethoven here. Yeah, do you remember Fucking Great Song?

Yeah, it's another good one. I'm so happy you like this record. And then we kind of hit a little bit of a sad dip. And yeah, the album sort of, I feel like it closes with a whisper. What a nice little thing. That's a really nice quote. I'm going to steal that for actually our record. you guys know the main tell the main they could put that on the back of the 20-year anniversary oh that's good a little quote robbie fox said

closes with a whisper is that good probably not when you read that you're like oh i don't know uh yeah you got another interlude and then into the sound of reverie um great acoustic jam third eye blind is a good shout yeah Yeah, they love Third Eye Blind. Their last album was awesome. Yeah, I know. Really surprisingly good. You know we toured with them? Really?

Third Eye Blind on Bamboozle Roadshow. It's like, oh, Third Eye Blind, good Charlotte, LMFAO, Hanson. Yeah, you know, classic lineup. Bamboozle was like my thing because I grew up in Jersey. Yeah. Literally right down the block from Giant Stadium. So you make the original house I grew up on, you go up our you make one left you go for like a mile and it's giant stadium oh yeah so bamboozle was the shit for us for sure that one that one year i saw like bruno mars we

the kings motley crew and wiz khalifa and then that night we fucking got osama it was an all wow what a day it was just one of the all-time nights in history i love that that's like your memory while we did Bamboozle. Oh, right. Then we got Osama. Yeah, because as we were leaving, it was like Motley Crue fucking wrapping up Kickstart Your Heart. And they were like, and Osama's dead. USA.

That's very USA. Yeah, it was something. I wish Bamboozle still existed. I know, man. Well, hey, maybe Sad Summer will get us to that point of being able to. Actually, fuck Bamboozle. Sad Summer's where it's at. That's the next poll quote.

Robbie Fox says, fuck Bamboozle. Lost in Nostalgia. Lost in Nostalgia's great. I like a two and a half to three minute. That's Pop Punk 101. Yeah. Anything less, I often feel like it makes the listener think it's forgettable or skippable. I want so much more.

Like, I want this again. Like, I remember when I was a kid, I would take, maybe it was Say Anything, Fed to Death, I think, where, like, it goes verse, chorus, out, or something like that. And I would copy-paste chorus one and then verse one and just make a full song out of it. I was like, this is too short. Like, I want more.

That's my only thing. You were producing back then. Exactly right. Max Bemis called me up. Have you heard any of Green Day's new album? I've heard some of it yeah i was like this is too short like i want more that's my only thing you're producing back then exactly right max beam has called me any of uh green day's new album i've heard some of it yeah so they kind of took that concept where they were like we're doing all short songs yeah one song's gonna be over three minutes and it was interesting i think for some songs it works and for other songs it's what you said where you're like oh no that was good though like yeah give us more of it yeah that's an interesting record and a very interesting um roll out they're doing i'm just yeah for them i feel like Green Day's got nothing left to prove, so fucking do whatever you want.

Do whatever you want. Yeah, whatever you want to write and makes you happy. Totally. They're doing stadiums this summer, too. Yeah, I'm excited for that. That's cool. I'm excited for that mega, yeah. So, I Only Want to Talk to You is just a deep one.

I don't necessarily like concept records, like ones that are just in your face, like this is about a comic book character that did this. Whoa, whoa, whoa. I know, you fucking love that i barely sir i've never seen it's a whole nother story listen i know i know the whole star wars story you and fucking steve both of you as you left after the opening crawl it was all don't think vinnie vegas didn't give me every every little detail about your fake fan oh my god we rented a movie theater so the boys could see i don't know, the 90th Star Wars. The Rise of Skywalker is the ninth. What the fuck?

Like, we had such a nice podcast until this moment. Well, here's the thing, man. Here's my thing. I have nothing against Star Wars. It means so much

to so many people. I got a lightsaber on my arm. It means fuck all to me. Which is fine. So, but here's the thing. I, for some reason,

skipped it as a kid. I don't know why. When were you born? When were you born? 87. See, yeah, you should have been in a kid. I don't know why. When were you born? When were you able? 87. See, yeah, you should have been in because they re-released the movies in the 90s and they were fucking huge. And it was, but so my problem is now I'm not going to go back and watch those first three

and be like, oh, this is so sick. I'm sure I'll be like, oh, this is rad, but it's not going to mean anything to me. No, but. I know. And I'm certainly not going to start with a ninth one with Steve. True. So I walked out. Ricochet to start with a ninth one with Steve. True. So I walked out. Ricochet at Steve with the tone you had there.

I wanted to see the credit, you know, that little crawl because I'd never seen that. You wanted the Instagram story is what you probably wanted. You wanted a boomerang to be like, check me out. It's like going to see a band you don't really want to see. It'll be like, you know, just show up, say hey. You get the hit on your 10 second clip. I was there. I mean, I'm master at it.

Listen, we're even for me stopping at the mains first album and you stopping at the opening crawl. Okay. I think we are. Okay. I have to accept that, I guess. I think we are. I'm glad that I listened to this album. I'm glad that this is the album you picked because I'm not blowing smoke up your ass like I'll listen to this album later this week.

I'll listen to this album later this month. So this was fun, man. Yeah, I really – how long have we been talking? We've been talking, I don't know, 40 minutes I think. Yeah, this is fun. I like the relaxed environment here. And I really do enjoy being at Barstool. Yeah.

It's a cluttered mess. This is your first time at HQ. It is cluttered. We're in the Pardon My Take studio right now if you're listening to just the podcast version of this. Yeah. It's some studio to bring a guest into for the very first yeah i'm amongst royalty here um but yes we keep referencing steve steve is one of my best friends since high school and helps with out with all time all the time comes out on the road and helps torment us and everything but steve is a barstool freak i don't

i mean you know that's the best yeah steve was kind of my introduction to the band yeah steve was the first one to hit me up because he saw me wearing like all time lotion in all of our Instagram stories and that's how you and I met it's just like Steve said this guy and then he would send me

you know some shirts every now and again yeah totally and then eventually I wore it on stage here in New York you did and I still post that picture

all the time because it's fucking dope and Dave even said like what did he say like my new favorite band or something like that I was like alright yeah I remember he walked up

to me that day and he was like yo who the fuck is that and I was like it's all time it's a great picture too greatest band there is um yeah this was fun we're gonna have to do it again in the future maybe get everyone in here yeah i'd love to man when the album comes out when you guys come through for sad summer we would love to do it it'll be a lot of fun um like i said april 3rd yes sir this album comes out i'm gonna be doing a lot of talking about it on this podcast probably

so the listeners will know um talk to you soon all right man thank you very much