All Time Low

Most kids finish high school and kick it for a few months before shipping out to college… All Time Low got in the van and they haven’t looked back since.

With one of the most well received pop punk albums of 2007 under their belt and a trip to Australia in the not too distant future, we caught up with vocalist Alex…

Interview w/ Alex Gaskarth

(Vocals/Guitar) of All Time Low

By Cameron Chambers

How are you today Alex? 

I’m doing well man, how are

you? 

Yeah, I’m great man.  

Right on! I’m driving with

my cell phone so the line is pretty bad. 

That’s cool. We’ll make

do. 

Ha ha, alright. 

It’s only recently that All Time Low have started getting some press here in Australia,

if you’ve had any line up changes etc… 

We started in our freshman

year in high school but we haven’t actually had any line up changes.

All of us had played around in different bands before All Time Low

but once we officially became All Time Low that was it. It was

just the four of us. 

It was started as a joke…

it gave us something to talk about school while we were waiting for

the weekend to roll around so we could go to shows, ha ha. 

Since then it’s turned into

something a lot more than that. It’s all such a blur with everything

that’s happened in between. What started as a small joke has now turned

into a big joke! Ha ha 

Ha ha.

further or did they come to you? 

When we signed to Emerald,

who is the small east coast label who released our first record, even

the guy that runs Emerald wanted to see us grow. He was into

doing it for the passion and helping out bands that he believed in.  

Ultimately we wanted to sign

to a label that could take us further. It was always a goal to get our

CD in stores and just take the band as far as it could go! 

Hopeless also created Sub City Records, so their bands had an avenue to get involved

something that All Time Low has been or will be a part of at some stage? 

Hopefully! We haven’t really

had a chance to do anything on that front because we were more worried

about getting established first and getting people familiar with the

band. 

We would love to do something

with Sub City because they’re one of the main reasons we signed

with Hopeless. They allow you to be more than a band and to actually

give something back.  

“Put Up Or Shut Up”

name out there and get you out on the road as soon as possible? 

Basically what happened…

we felt we should put out the EP with some older songs because we didn’t

want to come straight out with a full length. We believed there were

some good songs that we’d put out with the smaller label. 

We just took what we thought

were the best couple of songs from our previous album and wrote a couple

of newies to keep it fresh for the people who’d been following us

for a while and then we’d go from there. 

We put the EP out with the

intention of pleasing as many people as possible.  

You guys pretty much hit

curve becoming a full time band at such a young age?  

Definitely man! We were always

one of the younger bands in our scene, even locally. We’d already

learned from bands that’d been at it for a while. When we started

to tour on a larger scale with bands that’d done it on a national

level for years… well, it forced us to learn and grow a bit faster. 

In the end it made us more

street smart.  

Have you ever had any cases

– didn’t take your band seriously based on how young you are? 

Yeah man. When we started off

we were all under 18 and we were booking all our shows ourselves. We’d

show up to the venue and they’d ask for our ID and find out that we

weren’t of age. We’ve run into the issue that we weren’t old enough

to play in the club even though we were booked! 

It was always interesting though.

One night we had to leave right after we played because we weren’t

old enough to be in the bar. 

It was weird and surreal but

it was never too bad. At first we were… well, people looked down their

noses at us. They were sceptical that people our age could do what we

were trying to do.  

Recently though there’s been

more bands proving themselves at a younger age so we got very lucky! 

“Put Up Or Shut Up”

has? 

We have never expected any

of our releases to go as far as they have! Every week we get the Soundscan numbers and it just blows me away! 

“So Wrong It’s Right”

of your first album? 

He’d actually taken an interest

in our band from Point A, at the same time that we were getting interest

from Hopeless and other labels. He was there guiding us and giving us

a helping hand. 

When it came to the full length

it just made sense. He was a guy who’d been there from the beginning

and had a great track record with other bands that he’d produced and

we just had a great chemistry! 

You began recording

that the first time you’d worked with a producer? 

Sort of… we’d worked with Paul Leavitt on the full length as well and he’s actually worked

on all our past releases too. It was good to have a familiar face in

the studio. I guess it was a comfort thing. 

He’s really good in the studio.

He’s a great engineer and he’s able to get really cool sounds and

such a unique tone. Working with Squire was cool because we got

to sit down with someone who had a formula. He has a system to develop

songs and we hadn’t seen that before. It was such a learning process

but he helped the songs a lot.  

What did Matt bring to the record that may have been missing if he wasn’t

involved? 

I think he brought in a sense

of singularity… or wholeness to the record. Some of our ideas had

been a bit all over the place because we hadn’t worked with a producer

before so we were just doing things the way we’d always done them…

which isn’t a bad thing but when you’re writing any kind of pop

inspired music there’s definitely a formula that’s required. 

He helped bring some of our

songs together and he’d introduce new ideas and if we had any ideas

that were too bland then he’d spice things up! 

There was just good chemistry

all round so we were able to bounce ideas off each other!  

As I mentioned earlier your

intimate audience? 

We no longer play any music

so we play to backing tracks and dance naked. It’s slightly different

but it entertains everyone a bit more… ha ha. 

That’s probably the best

answer I’ve ever had, ha ha. 

Ha ha ha. 

It’s just been announced

shows that you’ve played so far? 

That tour has some pretty big

rooms so I guess we’ll see how many kids actually show up, ha ha. 

Ha ha. I’m sure you’ll

be fine man. 

Hopefully! We’re doing a

smaller headlining tour in January to warm up though which will be cool.  

Five kids could show up to

the House Of Blues though, so you never know! Ha ha 

A headlining slot obviously

this give you a chance to play some of your older songs? 

It’s going to be a mix of

everything. There’ll be a couple of oldies but we want to focus on

playing the majority of the new record.  

We have been known to throw

in a Blink cover every now and then but I’m sure we’ll come

up with something new. 

All Time Low are

bands on the show? 

I don’t know… coz we don’t

get to Australia that much because, you know, it’s kind of far away!

If you’re after a unique experience and a general party then come

and see us! 

Apart from the festival

to a festival? 

Not really. We just act like

arseholes and it seems to work for us, ha ha. 

Nice, ha ha. Which bands

will you be checking out during the tour? 

I’m pretty stoked to see The Offspring. It’s going to be awesome! Oh, Incubus too! 

Incubus are a great band… 

Both headliners are pretty

massive man. I’ve never seen Incubus before and I’ve only seen The Offspring once. They were one band that was around while we

were growing up so I can’t wait.  

2007 was obviously a huge

year for you guys but what was the biggest highlight? 

Going to the UK for the first

time and just heading overseas. It was our first time touring overseas

so that was a huge thing for us and putting out our full length as well.  

What are your top 3 records

from last year? 

Jimmy Eat World, Big Casino. No wait, Chase This Light… no Chase This

Light was the single I think? 

It’s definitely the album

mate. 

Ah, I’m stupid, ha ha.  

So… Jimmy Eat World

with Chase This Light. Paramore and their Riot

record and…. The Starting Line’s latest album! 

That wraps it up Alex, is there anything else you’d like to say? 

Not really man. Thanks to our

fans in Australia! We didn’t know that you existed so we’re stoked! 

Thanks mate.