All Time Low

With All Time Low set to hit our shows next month for the second time this year, touring for their most recent album, 'Don't Panic,' Killyourstereo.com managed to catch up with lead guitarist Jack Barakat to talk about their upcoming Australian tour and the band's recent adventures.

Hey Jack, how is it going today?

Oh, it's amazing.

What have you guys been up to today?

We just got home from a seven week tour so I think everyone is kind of like lying at home and sitting in bed all day because people are crazy in Australia, everyone's mellowing out.

So you were recently in Europe right?

Yeah, we were over there supporting Green Day.

That must have been really awesome, Green Day are such a big band.

Yeah, they really are big and we definitely learned a lot from touring with them like that.

Thats good, it must be hard to be away from home that much though, how do you guys cope with that?

At first it was a little weird, but we have been doing it for so long that you just get used to it and it's just something you do and it's probably the hardest part of touring and being in the band. But, it is possibly the most fun part [too].

You guys have been a band for about 10 years now, whats the secret to staying together so long?

I think that we started so young and that we grew up together. It helped us and you know we got through a lot of bullshit in the beginning so that it made it so much easier once you started touring and doing well, and that we just became a touring family. that just helped us stick together because we are all going through the same stuff.

So you guys have already toured Australia this year, you must love it here a lot to come back again.

Yeah, I think we have been to Australia six times in four years, which is pretty crazy. It's definitely one of our favourite places to tour. So as big of a pain in the ass it is to fly there it's worth it. Australia is great.

You also have sold out shows and you tend to sell out shows whenever you come here, it must be feel good to have sell out shows in another country.

Yeah, I mean it's great for the trip. It makes it a lot better, we have done so many festivals and so many Soundwaves, it's good to come and have our own shows.

Do you like having your own shows more or do you like the festivals more?

You know there is plus and minuses for both, I do think that headlining is a lot more fun, you get to do your own thing and you can have as much time as you want, and there isn't as much pressure. You just can relax and just play a show. I think that festivals can be a lot more beneficial to your band you know you can win over a lot of fans when you are playing for a bunch of people that don't necessarily know who you are, so it can be a really big thing for you. But, it's definitely a lot more work and not as fun, you are spending a lot more time trying to win over the crowd.

What do you guys like to do when you come here? I'm sure you have held enough koalas in your trips here

(laughs)

Yeah, we did all the touristy stuff the first time we went over to Australia so now we just kind of hang out. You know go to bars, try new bars and restaurants. We just kind of take in the cities, it's an awesome place to tour and it's so nice out and so beautiful, it makes being away from home that much easier.

Do you plan on touring for the rest of the year or are you taking a break after Australia?

Technically this next tour we are doing, Australia is starting our second world tour of the year so I think it is going to be a lot more touring this year and it's just all we good at so we are just going to keep doing it (laughs).

So with the record 'Don't Panic' it was pretty different to your last albums, what were your influences or your vision for that album?

I think our vision for this album was kind of like a coming home album. We wanted to do something, instead of taking lots of influence from other bands, we just wanted to take all different aspects of all our records and kind of put it into one, take some old All Time Low and pop-y All Time Low, rock All Time Low and mix it all together and see what happens. [Also] do it all with one producer instead of running around with different producers and getting completely different sounding songs, so I think we just got a more cohesive album. I'd say the most natural All Time Low you can get.

What was it like working with Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy for 'Outlines'?

He is awesome. He is a really nice dude and he is really humble and confident all the time. He definitely is one of the most talented people in the music industry.

I have to ask, with the 'Backseat Serenade' video, what was the idea behind the animal suits?

The whole idea for the shoot was the life of a whack-a-mole like animal or you know those animals you hit in the arcade. What their life would be like outside the machine, you know when you feel like crossing into your day job is like going into the machine and almost like a real life Wreck It Ralph. We just haven't done a funny video in a while so it was good to be fun.

It was very creative. Now, you and Alex are also doing your Full Frontal radio show, how is that going?

It's actually blowing our expectations out of the water. We are not professional radio hosts and we are not really that good at being serious, so we didn't know how it would turn out, but it's awesome you know, it's an extension of what we do on stage. It's another way for us to interact with the fans and talk about weird news and it's completely natural, it's not forced and it's just very relaxed. So yeah just an hour of uncensored, weird date jokes.

Do you guys do the radio show on tour as well, how does that work?

Yeah, we can really only do it on tour to be honest. I thought it would be the other way around, but the way we have it set up is Rian records or engineers it on Pro Tools and me and Alex talk into mic and we do it on the laptop, then Rian sits down and edits it all after because he is really good at that kind of stuff. When we are off tour, Rian lives in Los Angeles, Alex and I live in Baltimore so we are all separated doing our own thing so it's actually a lot easier to do it on the road when we are all together just bored on the tour bus, it worked out well that way.

What made you want to get into radio, did you start this up or did they contact you?

They actually approached us and were like, "hey do you want to do your own show?" They know we focus a lot of our band on interaction with fans and I think they figured it would be the perfect kind of thing for us to do but we never even thought about it or talked about it, we never even knew it was an option so when they came to us we were like yep.

So lastly, is there another album on the horizon? You guys are still a young band.

Right now we are just focusing on touring and we have so many albums out at this point that we want to kind of slow down on the recording.

Fair enough, you do have a lot of your albums close together.

Yeah, we just made an album and the others are so close together, we are just going to focus on touring and getting a DVD.

Well good luck and thank you so much for talking to us today. We look forward to seeing you in Australia.

Yeah no problems, thanks for having me. See you in a little bit.