hello, all time low.
It’s not often you get a wake up call from a rockstar. It’s probably one of things you’d never expect you’d catch. Especially if the call is from Alex Gaskarth, frontman of pop punk band, All Time Low. His very jovial “Hello, this is Alex from All Time Low, is this Niche from Manila?” was enough to rattle my groggy carcass out of bed.
For the uninitiated, All Time Low is a four piece pop punk band hailing from Baltimore, Maryland. Since forming in 2003, ATL has become one of the biggest pop-punk bands to emerge on the scene. Composed of Alex, lead guitarist Jack Barakat, bassist Zachary Merrick, and drummer Rian Dawson, the band has 3 successful albums under their belt including the breakout album, Nothing Personal. Currently, the band released their new album - ‘Dirty Work’ - a 12 track mix of hard-charging anthems and sugar-shot rockers that are poised to dominate house parties and joyrides of fans from Mandaue to Mandaluyong. For Dirty Work, All Time Low also teamed up with some of rock’s most in-demand producers and studio aces, including Mike Green (Paramore, Boys Like Girls) and Butch Walker (Pink, Dashboard Confessional). And on a more impressive note, the band also roped in the Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo to co-write their carrier “I Feel Like Dancing”.
Now going back to that phone call,
N: How are you, man?
Alex: I’m very well. Taking it easy. Just chilling here and doing some phoners with people from all over the world.
N: So how excited are you for this show and be in our part of the world?
Alex: Extremely excited. It’s gonna be our first time in your city I’m sure it’s gonna be a very cool experience getting to meet our fans in that area of the world. I’m personally stoked to know that we’ve got a cool following in the Philippines that’s why I can’t wait to hang out and meet the fans.
N: What should we be looking out for when you hit the stage?
Alex: A good time and lot of energy. We hope people would go crazy over our new material. As to me getting on stage is just about having fun with the people and it’s also about leaving a lasting impression and spread the world about the music that we play.
N: Speaking of new material, I noticed that the songs in Dirty Work seem a little poppier compared to the previous ones. What brought upon this direction?
Alex: The songs we wrote for this album, I feel, is a natural progression. Here, we focus on pop music and in this album we wrote songs that have a universal appeal. Growing up, our influences may have changed and I think this was also one factor why there’s a slight change in sound. But really, it’s still All Time Low.
N: I read somewhere that Rian describes Dirty Work as the perfect summer record.
Alex: Yeah. It’s still about having fun and blasting it really loud for you and your friends to go crazy over.
N: When you write songs, do you concentrate first on the melody or the lyrics?
Alex: It depends really. Some start with the lyrics. Just some stuff I play in my head or write on some piece of paper. Sometimes it’s the melody or the riff or the concept. It changes really. Sometimes we write one song and then totally hate it but when we come back to it after some time we feel that it totally hits the mark. So yeah, it changes.
N: So what’s your favorite song in the new record?
Alex: Hmm tough one. I can’t really say. (Laughs)
N: Ok, so how about your favorite song on the record you love playing live?
Alex: I guess it’s “Forget about It”.
N: When playing live, how do you consider your setlist?
Alex: We focus on we play song likes to play and please the crowd. On tour we like playing a wide range of songs. And for the show in Manila, we’re gonna cover all records we’re gonna do songs we’ve never included in our list. It’s pretty crazy.
N: When traveling in different countries, do you check out the local front act?
Alex: Yeah. We check out the local music and we ask our fans what they listen to in their area.
N: Any last shout outs to your Filipino fans?
Alex: We’re really excited to meet everybody and to see your beautiful city. Philippines has always been on the list we wanted to play in. We never imagined we’d be playing your side of the world when we started the band. It’s really cool that it’s happening. I’ve been reading the tweets I get from you guys and it’s insane! We really love you guys.
After the frontman and I exchanged our goodbyes and Twitter contacts, I tried to get back to sleep. 10am is rather ungodly on a Saturday. But having an All Time Low member wake you up, I guess that’s not gonna happen.
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Originally appeared PULP November 2011
