All Time High

All Time Low guitarist Jack Barakat & drummer Rian Dawson discuss their new album, Lady Gaga and hanging out with Blink 182.

**_For the record, state your name and your role in the band._**

Jack: I’m Jack and I play guitar in All Time Low.

Rian: And I’m Rian and I play the drums.

**_In a recent interview with Kerrang you said your new album ‘Dirty Work’ is due for release in May?_**

Jack: Did he [Alex Gaskarth, lead vocals] really give another release date for it!? Dammit!

Rian: We really don’t know. What we’re saying now, is hopefully before the summer. We keep hearing one thing, but it keeps getting pushed back. We’re not quite sure to be honest, but it’s gonna be in the first 6 months of this year.

**_Is it spiralling into a ‘Chinese Democracy’ [Guns and Roses album, which took 15 years to record]?_**

Rian: **_Laughs_** Yeah we’re gonna record it for 15 years.

Jack: Chinese Democracy? That album is awful! I hope it’s not gonna be like that.

Rian: Luckily it’s not on our end, it’s not that we need to record any new songs. It’s just for everything to be setup perfectly. They [Interscope Records] want it to be perfect.

**_So is it fully recorded and finished?_**

Jack: Yup, we just got it mastered last week.

**_How stoked are you for its release?_**

Rian: More than ever, just because we’re waiting, we’ve been sitting on this record for quite some time now.

Jack: Literally, it’s underneath me right now.

**_Being on a major label [Interscope] do they influence the song writing process?_**

Jack: Nope, it’s basically been the same writing process as the last record [Nothing Personal]…

Rian: Even with a bit more freedom, because we had a bigger budget this time round, so we could take our time..Quite obviously! You know, you hear these stories about “you need more..”
Jack: Rihanna?

**_You’re on the same record label as Lady Gaga, have you had the chance to meet her?_**

Rian: Yeah, Gaga’s one of our girls! Nah, I don’t think we’ve even been in the same State as Gaga..I’m not sure we’re allowed to.

Jack: What are you talking about? We went to the same party as her – the Interscope party!

Rian: You did. I didn’t. That doesn’t count!

Jack: Yeah, we haven’t met her yet. Alex [Gaskarth] has, but he was kinda drunk. **_Laughs_**

**_How many producers did you work with for the new album?_**

Rian: We worked with a bunch – Mike Green (_Paramore, the Matches_) did the bulk of our recordings… We did one with Matt Squire (_Panic at the Disco, 3OH!3_), one with Butch Walker (_Avril Lavign, Dashboard Confessional_) and one with John Fields (_Jimmy Eat World, Switchfoot_).

**_How was it working with so many different producers?_**

Jack: I think we’re kinda use to it at this point. We did a similar thing on the last record, it worked out well, so why not try it again?

Rian: It’s kinda nice, yeah, there are pro’s and con’s to it – the pro’s are that you get to jump around and you don’t have to stay in the same State, the same studio, for months at a time. Plus you get some fresh blood in there for every song you do. Downside, there is something to be said about staying with the same producer and vibing with that person throughout the whole process, but it’s worked for us so far!

**_You streamed the song ‘Time Bomb’, but after the release Alex [Gaskarth] tweeted “this song really doesn’t speak for the rest of the album”. Was he making excuses for the direction of the new song?_**

Jack: I think what he meant was; it’s not a good portrayal of what the whole album sounds like. We love the song, obviously we put it on the album, but the not every song on the album sounds like that.

Rian: The reason we chose that track was because it’s a great bridge between the last record and this one. It’s not to say that ‘Time Bomb’ is the outlier – each song has its own sound.

**_Are you caught in the “Catch-22” of being accused of selling-out if you move too far out of the pop-punk genre, but being called unoriginal if you stick with your current sound?_**

Rian: Well, there’s no winning man. If you do that, of course you’re a “sell-out”, but otherwise it’s the same record as the last one! I think with this record we did a good job of pleasing everyone, including ourselves.

**_Which bands influence you guys? Do you still listen to pop-punk?_**

Jack: Oh yeah, we definitely have a broader listening pallet.

Rian: When we started out it was strictly _Blink-182, MXPX, NOFX, Anti-Flag, New Found Glory, Sum 41_. Whilst we still listen to and respect those bands, we’ve also evolved into listening to artists like Lady Gaga and John Mayer. As you grow out of the niche of one genre of music, you can respect the song-writing of another type of music.

**_Is that something that has come with age or being in a band?_**

Rian: Both.

Jack: Yeah, but age is a big factor though.

Rian: Yeah, your piers influence you: a lot of our friends now listen to John Mayer. 5 years ago, when we were all “Dickies out”, with high-socks listening to pop-punk, we would have scoffed at people that listened to Lady Gaga, but now we’re like “that’s good song writing,” who cares if it’s synths, and fake drums and top forty, it’s good song writing!

**_This is your second night in England, of your UK tour – How has it been so far?_**

Jack: Great, it’s almost like playing home. Even better sometimes.

Rian: Especially when you hit London and Manchester the next day, the shows are bigger than the ones we play at home. We did two weeks prior to this in Europe, at slightly smaller venues, we’ve built our way up to these huge venues we’re about to play.

**_Do you find that your stage banter is influenced by Blink 182’s stage-show?_**

Rian: It’s good to say ‘influenced by’, because it always bummed us out back in the day, when people use to say that we were ripping off Blink and reason being is because we talk and have fun on stage.

Jack: Yeah, to be honest, tonnes of bands used to do that. Like when I went to see _Blink, Fenix Tx_ did it and _New Found Glory_ used to do it. And no-one said anything about that!
Rian: Yeah, it’s not to say that we didn’t listen to the _Mark, Tom and Travis Show_ [Blink 182’s live album] and be like “Oh shit, this is great” and every now and then we’ll rip one of the jokes off. They might have given us the courage to be like “Ok, you can do that and still be a successful band”.

**_Do you still get a chance to go to live shows?_**

Jack: It’s difficult, but festivals are a good chance – especially UK festivals where there are f*cking 50 bands!

Rian: Yeah, but when we’re home it would have to line up with the one week we’re home. But we still love to go to shows if we can.

**_Yellowcard are supporting you tonight – did they influence you growing up?_**

Jack: Yeah we went to all their shows growing up, me and Rian would always be in the front row at their shows.

Rian: Absolutely, they’re good dudes.

Jack: It’s crazy having them support us, but it’s more crazy hanging out with them back stage. LP [Longineu Parsons, Yellowcard drummer] played with us during sound check today, that’s the cool part.

**_You toured with Blink 182, and Alex [Gaskarth] has a well-documented social-networking friendship with Mark [Hoppus, Blink 182 bassist], did you get to hang out with them?_**

Jack: Yeah, we got to hang out with them a good amount on that tour. On the first day of the festival tour, Alex [Gaskarth] got a text from Mark [Hoppus], and it said “come to my dressing room”. I was like “Oh shit!”, and we walked in and it was me, Alex, Mark and Tom [Delonge, Blink 182 lead vocalist], which we’ve never experienced before. We were sat chilling and talking about The Cure and The Descendants and Tom [Delonge] poured everyone Vodka Redbulls and I was like “f*cking A!”. That’s when it hit us that we touring with Blink.

Rian: Yeah, we lucked out on that tour, cos’ we were the only two English speaking bands.

Jack: They had to talk to us! **_Laughs_**

**_Was it a dream come true?_**

Rian: Yeah, but in the moment you try not to be too in awe of them.

Jack: You masturbate with the same hand that you shake Mark [Hoppus’] hand with. **_Laughs_**

**_You’re on the bill for T in the Park and Sonisphere, are you excited_?**

Jack: Yeah, they’re gonna be huge! We haven’t played T in the Park before, are Foo Fighters playing that?

**_Yeah, Foo Fighters and Blink 182._**

Jack: That’s probably the ultimate lineup.

Rian: We still wanna play with Green Day and Linkin Park. These festivals are the perfect opportunity to take, to see these bands on stage.

**_Are you playing any other UK Summer festivals?_**

Jack: I know we’re not playing Reading and Leeds.

Rian: Yeah, we’re doing 4 weeks in Europe. And to be honest, we keep getting added to bills.

**_You’ve been rumoured to be playing select dates of Warped Tour – Is this true_?**

Rian: Nah, that’s not happening this year. It’s so tough going overseas to play festival, to come back just to play a couple of dates.

**_Which do you prefer to play – Warped tour or a UK festival?_**

Jack: The great thing about a UK festival is you play to a shit-tonne of people. Warped tour is much more intimate in that sense.

Rian: When you’re over here doing festivals, you show up and you do nothing all day, cos’ you’re in the middle of nowhere. When you’re on Warped Tour, you have a bunch of your friends..But Reading and Leeds was phenomenal – they’re both different beasts!

**_I’ve heard that British fans are a lot more responsive to American bands than American fans – is this true?_**

Rian: American kids are spoilt, I think.

Jack: But it depends what city you’re in. New York would be similar to here, but there are some cities in the middle of the U.S. that are lacking.

Rian: You gotta think here, when an American band plays, you don’t know the next time that you’re gonna get to see them again. In the U.S. you can assume that you’re gonna see them at least 2 or 3 times this year. The crowds here are differently more responsive.

**_Will you be playing any songs off of the new record tonight?_**

Jack: Just ‘Time Bomb’.

**_Not ‘Actors’ [a song leaked by the band in August, that was later scrapped from the album Dirty Work]?_**

Rian: We practised ‘Actors’ once, a couple of tours ago.

Jack: …It didn’t translate well.

Rian: Plus it’s not gonna be on the new record – so who cares? **_Laughs_**

**_Ok, thanks guys – Do you have any last words for the students of Warwick Uni?_**

Jack: Stay in school, don’t do drugs!