All Time Low: “Proud of the pop punk and rock renaissance”
“We consider ourselves a current bandwho is making music now. We don’t want to be perceived as a legacy band, or a museum one. So we always try to keep the show balanced, fresh and aliveIt is a clear statement, without smug nostalgia or backward glances, with which he All Time Low they photograph the moment they are experiencing. To pronounce it is Alex Gaskarthin connection via Zoom with Rockol, while the band is in the midst of the European tour in support of “Everyone’s Talking!”, the tenth studio album released last October 17th. After the overseas dates and the passage in Australia, the tour crossed the United Kingdom last January and landed in Europe, with only one date scheduled in Italy next February 13th at the Choruslife Arena in Bergamoa city which also represents an absolute debut for the band.
Gaskarth talks about a tour that immediately took off, starting right from the United Kingdom, where All Time Low returned to the arena stages after a few years. A return that had the flavor of confirmation, not celebration: “It’s really nice to be back, Europe has always been great for us from a touring point of view, so it’s really nice to be back here and taking this new album out on the road“. With the promise, also for Italian fans, of a show built on great impact and energy, he adds: “I’m very excited at the idea of arriving in Bergamo, because, first, we’ve never played there, and then, from what I’ve heard, it’s a rather large hall, and I think it’s going to be a fantastic show“. The bond with Italy, in this context, remains one of the most heartfelt. “The thing that strikes me every time we play in Italy is the passionbut also the human warmth that surrounds us: there is always a very strong demonstration of affection and support towards the band”, confesses Alex to Rockol: “Italian fans have always been incredibly passionate and determined to be there, wherever the concerts are held. They often travel from very far away, and it’s an aspect that has always stuck with me.” In Italy there is also a strong community linked to punk and hardcore: “Yes, and that’s exactly the beauty of it,” confirms the All Time Low frontman: “We really like the fact that that counterculture and that subculture in Italy are really strong. And it’s nice to feel represented within this context.”
Underlining how this new round of concerts is allowing the band to test live a record born with the ambition to hold its own against twenty years of career behind it, Alex explains: “What we wanted to do was with ‘Everyone’s Talking!’ era capture the energy that we have managed to maintain over a twenty-year career. The year before releasing this album we spent twelve months celebrating twenty years of All Time Low, even going back and re-recording many songs from the past to bring them back to the sound we make today. And I think that put a kind of extra pressure on this album: it had to ‘work’. Why it’s about recognizing ourselves, understanding who we are as a band and what we are still capable of. The energy with which we entered this album was like ‘pedal to the floor’: we had to be at our best, on all fronts.”
Energy which, according to Alex Gaskarth, is one of the “incredible” aspects of this phase of the tour, due to the enthusiastic response of the public to the new songs as well as the historical pieces. “You know, to be honest I feel really luckybecause for a band with a long history like ours it would be very easy for fans, or the public in general, to get carried away by nostalgia and only want to listen to songs from the past.” He continues: “And it’s true, of course they want to hear historical piecesbut it really is It’s nice to see that when we play the new songs, they work just as well. Knowing that people listen to the new record perhaps as much as yesterday’s music is a fantastic feeling, because it makes us feel like we’re on the right path.”
With ten studio albums under his belt, building the set list for a concert therefore becomes a sort of challenge. “Apart from last year, when we celebrated the band’s 20th anniversary, we consciously try to distance ourselves from nostalgia as an end in itself. Obviously I love playing our historical catalog and it’s right that the older songs have space in the concerts”, underlines Alex:
“At the same time, though, today the setlist is designed as a celebration of All Time Low’s entire journeywithout focusing on a particular album. If anything, the focus is on the new album, with many recent songs included in the show, alongside key songs from each phase of our history. It was important for us not to just ride the wave of nostalgia, because we see ourselves as a band that looks forward and continues to move in that direction, and that’s how we want to be recognized.”
Among the songs on the new album, the one that the frontman didn’t see or can’t wait to playing live is the title track “Everyone’s Talking!”: “We haven’t played it live in front of an audience yet,” he says: “And I can’t wait to get it into the show.”
Right from the title, “Everyone’s talking!”, All Time Low’s new album works for the band as declaration of intentto establish who they are at this moment in their career, with responsibility. “This album is about taking full responsibility for who you are and, in some way, to declare it without hesitation: this is who we are, we are here and we are still here, despite the voices of those who perhaps never really loved us”, states the frontman: “It is a clear stance, a direct response to all this. It is also a reminder to all the people who have been close to us and who have remained with us for many years, to those who really know the nature of our concerts: a celebration, a shared atmospherealmost a ‘cult’ dimension, a welcoming space that transforms into a community“. In this sense, the album was made with the aim of “amplifying this spirit, to motivate those who follow us and to speak to that audience in a direct way”, specified Alex, who when asked how the group’s way of working together has changed over the years explains: “I think the biggest difference in the making of this album was the fact that, in fact, we were the label. We took care of everything: A&R, creative direction, marketing. Last year we launched our own record label Photo Finish Records, in partnership with Virgin, and that brought a lot of the decision-making power back into our hands.” He adds: “This gave us much greater control over how we operate as a band today and the type of album we wanted to make, but at the same time it also brought with it an extra pressure: that of having to do things the right way and being fully responsible for our choices. The real novelty of this album is precisely this: it’s about a completely autonomous work, self-produced and guided directly by us from a creative point of view“.
In talking about the nostalgia and, consequently, also of attempt to distance oneself from itAlex Gaskarth also talked about how All Time Low felt about the revival of the genre in recent years and how they contributed to the scene. Gaskarth states:
“I love that there’s this resurgence and new energy around pop punkto rock, or whatever you want to call it, and I’m really proud to be part of it. We never left: while some bands broke up, others took breaks, disappeared and then returned, we have always remained here.”
He continues: “In a way, now those bands are re-entering a wave that is already in motion, and I feel really honored and happy to be part of, perhaps, what has helped bring back this resurgence. I think that it all started around the time we released our 2020 album ‘Wake up, sunshine’ and we had great success with the single ‘Monsters.'” He adds: “At the same time, artists like Machine Gun Kelly they released pop punk records, and a was created particular situation: on the one hand we were there, a band that had been active for a long time who was experiencing a level of success never before achieved, on the other new artists who were entering this worldinspired by that sound and ready to give it a new interpretation. It was a sort of perfect storm, made of memory and love for that genre, which attracted many new people, many young listeners and new artists who today have picked up the baton and are carrying it forward. And it’s really beautiful to see.”
Thinking of a revival that owes much to the power of social platforms, Is there more creative freedom today or more pressure from algorithms? According to Alex Gaskarth “the question of algorithms is complicated.” And he elaborates:
“I try not to pay too much attention to it. I think the best music and strongest moments still come througheven when they are not perfectly aligned with what is expected to work within an algorithmic system. I have faith that as long as we make a record that we really love and that we feel is the best possible music to be making at that time, that it will connect with people and reach who it needs to reach. Having said that, it’s true that there is a certain pressure in having to ‘deliver’ something that works: as I said before about our label, we want to stay relevant, we don’t want to be remembered only as ‘the ‘Dear Maria’ band, as if that was the only reason why people come to our concerts. Of course ‘Dear Maria’ will always be there. But we want the audience to be involved also because they are connected to other songs. This is why we always try to give our best. And creatively this pushes us to continue taking risks and moving in as many avenues as possible – musically speaking.”
On stage today, the image that Alex Gaskarth claims is that of a band that has learned to be strong livecapable of conquering even those who arrive with a superficial knowledge of the repertoire. Pride in concerts remains central, as does the belief that live music continues to have fundamental value as a collective experience. Looking beyond Bergamo and this cycle of tours, our gaze is therefore turned to the future. “What I’m most excited about right now is the future“, says Alex in conclusion: “The future of what this band can continue to do. We are very lucky, as I said, to be a band that has built a solid position thanks to its history. I think we have become, in some way, a point of reference in rock, or at least I hope so. And this is exactly what I would like to continue to achieve: I would like All Time Low to remain ‘in the conversation’, a bit like Foo Fighters or Nirvana are. It would be nice to be seen as simply a band that is part of the rock zeitgeist. I believe this is it my most ambitious goal: to be there forever“.
