All Time Low are quickly becoming Soundwave line up favourites and they are coming back down under for Soundwave 2013, kicking off an awesome year of touring for the band. We caught up with singer Alex Gaskarth to talk touring, the new album and what's lined up for ATL in 2013.
‘Don’t panic’ is a fantastic album and seems to have hit the charts running, how has all the feedback been on your end?
Super positive! We’ve all been blown away by the response of it, any kind of record making process is a little nerve wrecking because you pour everything into it and it is your life, you hope for a great response but you never know what you’re gonna get. But the response has been nothing but positive and playing the new songs live is going over well so we’re all really thrilled!
How was the writing process? Was it an easy album to create?
It’s never easy, just because no matter how many times you revise a song you never think its quite perfect, but that being said I think this one came together very naturally as far as themes go and things like that, just because we had a story to tell, we had something to write about. Sometimes its really hard to find a general theme to write about for a record, but from my own experience I prefer writing records that have a central theme so that as they listen through, the listener feels like they are listening to a story. Because we did have a story to tell I found that this one came together easier than what we did in the past.
If you had to pick one song, which would have been the most fun for you to create?
Definitely So long soldier. Its just such a shredder of a song, its got such an awesome riff, the drums are so bombastic and its fast paced. I love the energy of the song. Its one of the ones that, when we first wrote it and started tracking the parts, it was the one that we would always want to crank and listen to the music of it, everyone would get really pumped and as I was writing the lyrics to the song and the melodies to the song. We knew that one would just have a raw energy.
‘Don’t panic’ is a fantastic album and seems to have hit the charts running, how has all the feedback been on your end?
Super positive! We’ve all been blown away by the response of it, any kind of record making process is a little nerve wrecking because you pour everything into it and it is your life, you hope for a great response but you never know what you’re gonna get. But the response has been nothing but positive and playing the new songs live is going over well so we’re all really thrilled!
How was the writing process? Was it an easy album to create?
It’s never easy, just because no matter how many times you revise a song you never think its quite perfect, but that being said I think this one came together very naturally as far as themes go and things like that, just because we had a story to tell, we had something to write about. Sometimes its really hard to find a general theme to write about for a record, but from my own experience I prefer writing records that have a central theme so that as they listen through, the listener feels like they are listening to a story. Because we did have a story to tell I found that this one came together easier than what we did in the past.
If you had to pick one song, which would have been the most fun for you to create?
Definitely So long soldier. Its just such a shredder of a song, its got such an awesome riff, the drums are so bombastic and its fast paced. I love the energy of the song. Its one of the ones that, when we first wrote it and started tracking the parts, it was the one that we would always want to crank and listen to the music of it, everyone would get really pumped and as I was writing the lyrics to the song and the melodies to the song. We knew that one would just have a raw energy.
We're very excited about you coming down for Soundwave again, but what other festivals would you like to be involved in if you could be?
One that I would like to be involved in is Big Day Out, I remember when video sharing was starting to happen on the web and I was downloading videos of Blink 182 playing BDO from ‘99 or something like that and the insane amount of people there…But We’ve never known anything other than Soundwave and we love it, we always have a blast on that tour.
What band on the Soundwave line up are you most looking forward to touring with?
Blink182 of course, they are a band that we’ve grown up listening to and are a bunch of nice guys. Same with Offspiring, I think Offspring will be rad to tour with again. I have to say that although however douchie they may have become in their later years, Metallica are gonna be pretty cool to share a stage with!
With Slamdunk and touring in the UK or anywhere else, do you find there is much difference in the crowds compared to Australia?
I think you notice slight differences. When youre in a city like Sydney you can tell it’s a capital city and there is more a mixture of people. There is always a difference in the crowd. But its never super stark in Australia, I think maybe when you go out to the other coast it’s a slight difference because its such a span of distance, there is always a different mentality out there, but its not quite as dramatic as some places.
What is your most memorable experience from previous Soundwave tours?
I don’t want to admit guilt to this but I guess I am going to. One of the years we were playing and Incubus was one of the headliners, and we were watching in Melbourne. We were watching from upstairs on the overlooking balcony, looking on to the back of the stage, and what we didn’t realize was that we were all pretty much standing on the main massive lighting cable and that the coupling was right in the middle of that situation, so it was two massive lighting cables that were connected in the middle that were making both sides of the stage power for the lighting rig work. I think we narrowed it down to the stage manager who was standing on the actual coupling and somehow managed to twist it apart with his feet, so halfway through one of their biggest songs, all of the lights on the stage went out and they were forced to play the song in the dark. The band didn’t seem to care about, but the stage manager and everybody were frantically running about and came up and screamed at everybody . I think it was somebody in our camps fault, but hopefully now we don’t get kicked off the tour for that one!
You’re about to take off on a small tour of Canada with Yellowcard just before SW, how many dates are you doing with this one?
It’s not actually that long, its right in the middle of winter so we didn’t want to do some of the scarier more treacherous drives to get to some of the more outskirt towns as Canada in January is pretty brutal. It’s a two week tour, so not that long. It’s our third tour with Yellowcard including the Warped Tour, we’ve become very good friends with them all and it’s always great to share the road and stage with them.
What are some of the crazy antics you get up to while on tour?
There is never anything sultry or crazy that would be interesting to write about but, its always just a prty. It’s a group of like minded individuals, so we all appreciate sports together and good food together and drnking together. Its lal kinds of things. Its nice to go on tour and have the ability to hang out with every member of the band and all the crew. Everone gets together and it’s a very social experience which is nice when youre out on the road when youre out on the road and away from family and familiarity.
All Time Low have been nominated (and currently coming 2nd) for MTV’s Best Live Performance of 2012 award, how are you feeling about it?
It’s such a huge honor and what makes it even cooler is that it’s all fan based, they are the ones who voted for us. Several of our guys live out on the West Coast in their down time now so it really went along on this excited rambling email chain for a few hours. Never the less we’re all so excited and that excitement was definitely shared!
All Time Low are planning a Summer Tour in the US before jet setting around Europe touring as well, they really want to tour the world in the next year, play all the new songs for everyone and bring something fresh to new audiences.
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