Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Mike Jones. We got a good friend joining us,
(00:02):
mister Alex Gaskarth of All Time Low. Alex, how are you, Bud?
Speaker 2 (00:05):
How you doing good here?
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You? I'm great man, I'm great man. You guys have
a couple things going on. Uh, it's it's not too
busy of a time for All Time Low. Is it
just a few things? Yeah, super mellow, just just grinding
away and getting ready. Man, we got we got a
lot to talk about today, Alex. First off, though, Uh,
since it's a lot of anniversaries going on, are you
(00:28):
a big fan of Taco Bell?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Who isn't?
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Okay, that's the right answer. You know that this year
is the twentieth anniversary of Baja Blast.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Oh my gosh, this makes so much sense now. So
you're telling me, you're telling me my band was founded
the same year that Baja Blast at Taco Bo was founded.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
That the Lord gave us All Time Low and Baja
Blast at the same time.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Yes, whoa, that's a I mean that that just kind
of made the year even more special.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
That's incredible.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
We might even just say, even if it's not official,
All Time Low brought to you by Baja Blast.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Yeah, I'm ready to take that title for sure. I'll
own that.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Now, did you guys when you're first starting out, I'm guessing,
like every other band All Time Low, you guys scrape
by on a lot of bean burritos and soft tacos
from Taco Bell for quite a while.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
I have to say, honestly, like the Bell was, it
was a pretty pivotal food stop in our formative years,
you know, much to the chagrin of whoever was up
driving the van later night. But so many, so many
after show stops, you know what I mean? That place,
That place kept us going.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
When the light's on and you got six bucks in
your pocket, you're eating good whatever. Time at Taco Bell, welly, Alex,
we could talk about Chiloopas and not just Bell Grande
all day, but we got some All Time Low business
to handle. Dude. We are a week away from the
Hometown Forever show and we talked about this a while ago. Man,
does it feel real that we're getting so close?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Now? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
I mean, I'm I'm finally getting my head around it.
You know, it's gonna be a pretty wild week of
shows that week. You know, we're sort of everything's hubbed
around DC it's gonna feel like a home coming to us.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
I'm I'm really looking forward to it.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
You know, it's been a long time since we've played
Merriweather and a long even longer time since we played
nine to thirty clubs, So yeah, it's it's gonna be
a real special moment for.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Us absolutely, and the new uh, the new Atlantis too.
You guys get to play these three different shows. So
if anyone was lucky enough to get tickets for the
Atlantis in nine thirty, consider yourself one of the chosen few.
And then you can still get tickets from Merriweather. Almost
sold out, We're real close, so get those at ticketmaster
dot com because this is the culmination really of the
(02:43):
forever shows for All Time Low, and you want to
be there. This one's pretty special, dude. How big is
the guest list right now, Alex, I'm guessing you've had
a few people coming out for it.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Yeah, that's always that's always the trickiest part is figuring
out what the setlist is going to be and then
managing the guest list. Anytime we're playing this close to home,
it's like it's gonna be it's gonna be nuts. I
can feel the promoter panicking over how many how many
people are gonna be backstage?
Speaker 1 (03:08):
It's like, well, your mom's friends all have to be there,
and your old neighbor from an apartment you had, you know,
fifteen years ago, and then a coworker from a job
that a friend of a friend had. You got to
invite all of them, otherwise you're the bad guy.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Oh, one hundred percent. I mean that everyone's coming out.
Everybody's coming out.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
And then and how do you guys put together the
setlist for this, because like, of course you want to
play everything, you know, you got twenty years to go
through here. But I also saw that, you know, you're
doing an acoustics show early next week, and you've had
all these big shows and little ones and you know,
all kinds of different sizes this year, so really you're
playing a bit of everything all over.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Yeah, we're trying to hit everything.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
I mean, this year has been about celebrating twenty years
of the band, and so we're.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
We're trying to hit the whole catalog.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
We have nine albums at this point, so you know,
trying to play something off of every record is a
real challenge. It's been amazing, though, putting these shows together
because we got to make it about ourselves. You know
this this was like we treated this like let's be
let's be greedy. This is a celebration. So you know,
we're playing the longest shows we've ever played, but it's
it's like bordering on three hours or something like that for.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
These big ones. And and yeah, I mean that gives us.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
That gives us a chance to play a good handful
of songs from every album and we sort of go
in this chronological order that feels really really ara.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Specific and special.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
And yeah, it's made for It's made for one of
my favorite shows that we've ever put together as a band.
So and for once, the band doesn't have to argue
over like who gets to play their favorite song from
what record, because we have time to do it all.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
It's like, no, Jack, we'll do everything. I promise we're
gonna do it all.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Yeah, I mean, that's that's like, if there's ever been
a moment that the band has ever gotten close to
breaking up, it's been over it's during the set list
portion of prepping the show and being like, dude, let
me play this song once. You know, that's the biggest
that's the biggest argument we have for sure.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Well, let's talk about the other couple big shows too.
I mean, you guys have been really all over the
world this year, Alex, but you know you had the
other forever shows that you announced with the start of
this at Red Rocks in Chicago at the Salt Shed.
They look like I mean, it looked like everybody came
out hard in Colorado and Chicago.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Oh, it was amazing. I mean that that Red Rocks.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
I don't know if you've ever been, but it's one
of the most incredible venues I think in the world.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
You know, it was. It was very special.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
It was the second time we've done it, so we
kind of went in this time a little less nervous
and kind of knowing what to expect, and we could
get our heads around the show a little bit more
and not feel like we were, you know, going through
the motions the whole time worrying about messing up, which
is I think what kind of happened the first time.
You get very overwhelmed by the scope of that place.
And yeah, we like we were able to settle into
(05:46):
it a bit more and it felt.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Like it was just one of the most special nights
and then there was.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
A UFO siding that night, so that was kind of
a it capped it off.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Oh my god, what's the story with the UFO?
Speaker 3 (05:56):
You know, it happened during loadout of our show, but
there was like kind of made headlines and stuff. There
was like apparently a bunch of the stage hands, a
couple of our.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Crew guys were out.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
It was pretty late, like one in the morning, and
they were looking out over the landscape there that you
can see from high up on red rocks, and I
don't know, there was something in the sky.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Wow. Okay, well, now we're gonna have to invite aliens
to the Merriweather Show too to keep up with the
other one. So life forms from Earth and from any
other planet, please get your tickets at ticket Master. Let's
make this the biggest show ever for all time low
And also, you know, not that you guys aren't busy enough, Alex,
but you got a new album coming out next week two,
the Forever Sessions Volume one. Pretty awesome that you get
(06:40):
to re record your biggest songs from twenty years together
and have those changes now officially official that you do
with the shows and everything, and you're like oh, we
should have done this to the song now, let's do it.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Man, It's a really nice opportunity to go back and
kind of fine tune, you know, some of our biggest
songs from our early days that still feel very important
in our live show and feel very important to our fans.
So it's a unique opportunity. You know, It's like very
rare that you get to go and have a moment
in the studio where you rethink and rework your earliest songs.
(07:15):
I mean, we wrote those songs when we were teenagers,
you know, So it's it's kind of cool now to
approach it the way we approach it live these days.
And it's it's cool to hear them brought up to
speed with our newer music.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
It kind of all lines up and fits now.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
And yeah, it's been a special special thing to dive
into now.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Even though Alex, you play these songs all the time,
is there still pressure in the studio because you're making
these changes. You want to nail them and make them
the best they can be. I imagine that you guys
are still like treating this as a regular album.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Absolutely, It's it's not like it's definitely not phoned in,
you know. I mean it was it's almost more sacred
because you kind of want to do justice to the original.
Like everybody has a preconception of what they're of what
those songs sound like, and they're attached to them, you know.
So it was it was we had to stay true
to what they were then and how much they mean
to people, while also still putting our new kind of
(08:05):
spin on it.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
So yeah, it was.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
It was almost like a trickier needle to thread than
than just going in and writing new music, you know,
because then it's just on you. It's like it's that's
that's coming from a raw place, Whereas this time it's
like we had to be true to true to ourselves now,
but also true to form for where all time I started.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Now, I saw you guys were just in Cleveland too,
and not only did you do a show, but pretty
awesome that All Time Low. You guys have an exhibit
at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. What's going
on with that?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Man? That's isn't that Isn't that so rad? That's wild? Yeah,
it's so wild.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
I mean we I walked in there, and I've been
there a couple of times throughout my life, and it's
always pretty special to walk through and like I'm particularly
obsessed with like the grunge era and all that, So
like walking through those halls and then kind of turning
a corner and seeing, you know, our own exhibit in
the same space as.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
It's a true honor and just very cool to be.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Recognized in that way and awesome to to work with
the rock Hall and something like that.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Alex. So it's twenty years for All Time Low this year,
and that's what Forever is all about, with the new
album coming with the show at Merriweather and all the
shows too which you could see all about everyone. There's
still more on the schedule at ticketmaster dot com and
you don't want to get tickets everyone. What advice if
you could go back twenty years to starting out All
Time Low to talk to Alex and the boys, what
(09:20):
advice would you have for yourself for twenty years ago.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
I think I kind of always circle back to this.
It would be to go with your gut, trust your gut.
I think you know, when you're young and just starting
out in the business, it's it's real easy to wanna
kind of make everybody happy and people please, because for
us it was like there was a lot of imposter syndrome.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
We never quite felt like we belonged.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
And so I think, you know, I'd probably just go
back and give us all a little pep talk and
be like, look like, you guys are gonna find a
way and and when.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
You trust your gut, it usually goes well. So yeah,
I think I think I think i'd say that.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
I think that's good advice for anyone at any time,
Alex because really, like it could be music. I could
give myself that advice from radio. It's like, just don't
worry about everyone else, do your thing, do your best,
and you're gonna be okay. Yeah, absolutely, Well once again,
let me tell everyone. Next Saturday, the twenty fourth, is
when it's all time Low Forever at Merriweather. This is
(10:20):
gonna be your biggest show of the year, the hometown show.
We got to make sure to sell it out, so
everyone get your tickets at ticket Master. And on Friday,
you have the new album coming out, the Forever Sessions
Volume one. Will we have a chance to get the
vinyl there at Merriweather? Will they be on sale there?
Speaker 2 (10:37):
The physical will not be, but you will be able
to pre order it.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Okay, it takes a little while to turn that stuff
around these days, but were We are working on it.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Okay, all right, okay, so pre orders are coming. You'll
have eighteen different special editions like every other vinyl. They're
gonna look awesome. So all time Low fans, you know
what to do. Let's make sure we're out there supporting
the boys. Alex and I'll be there too. We're broadcasting
live next Saturday, so I can't wait to see you
eyes and throw it down once again, my friend.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
That's awesome. Can't wait to see you