Recovery Magazine
Hi! First of all, thank you so much for having this interview with me for Recovery Magazine.
Alex – All Time Low
Cool. Amazing.
RM
So yeah, how are you guys, first of all?
Alex
So good! We’re good. Happy to be here.
RM
So, you’re releasing your new album on the 17th of March.What do we have to expect from Tell Me I’m Alive?
Alex
It is an anthology of the music that we spent a lot of time creating, right after we put out Wake Up, Sunshine. You know, the world was shut down, so we didn’t really have much touring going on. And so, we just kind of got back into the studio and started writing more and more songs, and a lot of those songs ended up influencing two years later when we finally sat down to like, make this record.Ended up influencing a lot of that new music as well. So, the record to me feels like thissort of amalgamation ofsongs that we worked on all through those two years that we really weren’t on the road all that much.
Jack
And it touches on a lot of things that, I think, we all went through during the pandemic, which is, you know, dealing with loneliness.
Loneliness, your life, the whole world changing your life changing, getting older and all these things and just a lot of stuff that’s outta your control.
RM
And how did you come up with the name of the title? What does it mean?
Alex
Um, for me, it became the title track becauseTell Me I’m Alive was really sort of the central theme of like almost needing that jumpstart to your life. Like shocking yourself back to life after being in sort of a very, um, like down downstate or, you know, a low point. So, I think it’s just that, it’s almost like a reminder like, let me know, let me know that I’m still alive so I can go out.
Jack
Sure. Gimme a sign that I’m still alive!
RM
And how was the production process of it? Was it a difficult album to write and produce in terms of creativity?
Alex
No, not really, because we kind of didn’t stop creating. You know, usually we make an album, we put it out and we go on tour for like two years.And so, it’s a very different gear that we switch into I think. And, in this case, like we never really stopped creating. And so I think it was just a way to kind of keep growing our sound and keep seeing what All Time Low could do.
Jack
We never ran out of things to write about or sing about or type of like kind of production stuff to do.ButI think the hardest part is putting it together at the end and making it cohesive because it was written over two years.
Alex
And there are about 30 songs.
Jack
And there’s about 30 songs. So not on the record, but in general.
RM
And have you had any relevant influence in this new album? Like, other artists that have influenced this one?
Alex
I think there’s a lot of old school influence on this record throughout, you know, songs like, Tell Me I’m Alive and Calm Down, and even like The Sound of Letting Go and I’ll be Fine. Like they were all kind of, a lot of the moments and the ear candy throughout those songs are inspired by like Queen, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Prince, Bowie, Elton John… But you know, at the core it’s still an All Time Low record, but it’s just like, I was personally taking inspiration from a lot of older music that I was listening to.
RM
And what do you do on release days? Is it like a normal day that you just do your stuff?Or do you celebrate in any way?
Jack
Well, it’s always very different. For instance, Wake Up, Sunshine release day, we’re all stuck at home.
Alex
I think we got on FaceTime.
Jack
And went “All right, the record out. Congrats.”Thisrelease day for Tell Me I’m Alivewill be unlike anyone we’ve ever had. It’ll be the biggest show we’ve ever had on like the release day of one of our records.So, I think we’re really excited for that. I think that’s gonnabe cool to be able to celebrate a brand new record with, you know, 10,000 people who love our band. So, it’s gonna be really cool.
Alex
Looking forward to it.
RM
So, you started this European tour yesterday in Madrid, and it was a sold out show.How was it and how do you feel about starting the European tour?
Alex
It was an amazing place to kick off a tour. I mean, like all of our shows in Spain have always set the bar really high for crowd participation and energy. So, it was kind ofa perfect way tokick it off really, because the crowd was insanely loud…
Jack
Very loud.
Alex
… very passionate, and it was awesome.So, I can only imagine that today is gonna give it a run for its money. So, I’m pretty excited.
RM
And how do you feel,when you’re touring, and how do you feel performing on stage?
Alex
I love it. I love it so much.
Jack
Yeah! We haven’t toured, we were talking, and we haven’t done a tour like this extensive in over a, like a year and a half.So, I think we’re just getting into the groove of it, you know, and shaking the rust off. But I think it’s where we feel most comfortable in the road for sure.
Alex
We’ve been doing it since we were 18 or 17 years old, so we like being on tour.
RM
I wa going to ask if the fact of you going together on tour does not makeyou miss home that much, but if you say that maybe you don’t miss that much home?
Alex
Yeah. I mean it’s a give and take, you know. I thinkthe thing for us is we’ve spent so much of our lives doing it that like we are reallygood at it. Like, we understand how to balance tour life and home life and family life and all that. So it’s, you know, it’s nice. It doesn’t feel as though anything gets stretched too thin when we’re away, which is really cool.
RM
And what’s the best part ofand what is the part that you enjoy the most of being on tour together, like all of you as aband?
Alex
I think probably just like, it’s kind of a family. I mean we’reall really close. The four of us have just been like brothers for years and years now. So, it’s like we’re so close and I think we love, we still enjoy being around each other generally, genuinely.You know, there’s a lot of bands that like, don’t hang out with each other and we hang out with each other. Like, we get bummed out when we don’t hang out.
Jack
Yeah. None of us live in the same state so we use tours like a moment for all us to reconnect and get to, you know, and catch up and all that.
RM
Is there like any venue or festival that you still haven’t played but you’d love to play there?
Alex
So many.
Jack
Yeah.Glastonbury…
Alex
Oh, that would be cool.
Jack
Would be amazing. Coachella would be cool. Lollapalooza in South America would be cool.
Alex
Yeah.
RM
And you had your single Monstersfeat. blackbearas a number one radio hit. How was it to work with him and how did the featuring come up?
Alex
It was awesome! I mean, he did so much for that song, brought a really cool energy to it and, it was kind of all through our collaborator on the song. This guy Andrew, who co-produced that song, but at the time he was also producing bear’s record.And so Andrew basically took the song to bear and said, you should get on this.
Jack
He was like, all right. And he just did his verse and sent it back to us. We’re like, well, it’s amazing! And no input was needed.
Alex
It’s always a little bit like worrying when you send something off for a feature because you’re like, you never know what you’re gonna get back.And we love this song so much already, but he took it to like such an amazing place.
RM
And when you write and compose songs like Monsters or Sleepwalking which have made it to number one, do you already have that feeling of knowing that it’s going to be like a big one?
Jack
You never know like what it’s gonna do.Cuz we definitely thought songs are gonna do really well and they haven’t, you know what I mean? It’s more about like just knowing you love the song and you’re proud of what you made. And then if everything else comes into place, it makes it that much cooler because you’re not forcing something.
RM
And what artists you really to right now, like any new stuff?
Jack
Uhhh, new.
Alex
I love Games We Play. I love Lauran Hibberd. Yeah, big fan. Like Ithink what’s really cool is there’s this new resurgence in rock music and you’re seeing, um, a lot of young artists now come up that are sort of inspired by the music we’ve made andthe bands that we looked up to even.So yeah, I’m inspired by what they’re doing here.
Jack
I love the new Fall Out Boy. That’s very cooland it reminds me of the stuff that I grew up listening to them. So that’s really cool.
RM
Last year there was this TikTok trend, that you already know which one I’m going to say: it was never aphase mom, It’s a lifestyle! How did you find out about it? Were you scrolling on TikTok and you found or did someone tell you about it?
Jack
I don’t have TikTok, so people just started sending it to me and I was like, what is this? Like literally like 10 of my friends sent it to me and I was like, what is going on?
Alex
Same.
Jack
“Like it’s got millions of views!”
Alex
I’m like, oh, cool. Like we, we had no idea.
RM
What was your first impression on finding out that your “old” song had become a TikTok trend?
Jack
I was very confused. It’s weird. It was exciting, but at first it was very confusing because I don’t understand how TikTok works and I didn’t know thatthat’s how songs get popular and I was like, wait, why are they playing this song? It was just, I don’t know. It made no sense. But once Iunderstood it and realized that people were celebrating our band and this whole genre that we come from, it wasreally cool.
RM
And how do you feel about social media? Do you think it’s key to connect with your fanbase oryou don’t think it’s like for you, as a band?
Alex
We’ve always embraced it. It was, you know, social media was really like starting to become a thing when we started our bandso, we’ve always sort of like come up alongside it and tried to move with it as best we can.You know, I feel like at this point I see it as like a gift and a curse. Like, I love that it allows us to connect so closely with our audience and our fan base, but obviouslyhaving to think like when you make music and spend all this time being creative and then having to think about, okay, how do I market it on TikTok now?Like, it’s a tough thing because, you know, we just wanna get on stage.
Jack
Our brains aren’t trained for that.
Alex
Nota digital media marketer. So yeah, it’s tricky, but along as it’s us connecting with our audience, I’m always open to it, you know?
RM
So you express yourself through music. Would you consider that you also express your yourselves through fashion or the way you dress?
Jack
Alex for sure.
Alex
I like to, I like to, yeah. Sometimes I’m also very much like, I don’t know. Thereare times when I like to put on a sick outfit and there are also times where I just like to be in sweatpants, so like, you know what I mean?
Jack
I was definitely good at connecting music and fashion and all that. And yeah, I think it goes in, it’s good. At least one of one of us has that.
RM
So do you consider that fashion is a big part of your identity as musicians or toconnect as well with your audience or not that big of a thing?
Alex
I’ve never really thought about it too much.I think that’s the thing. Like I don’t go into making like a conscious effort to connect the two things.
Jack
Yeah, that’s a good question.
Alex
But obviously I think they do go hand in hand. I meanlike music influences culture and then fashion the same way and fashion ties to different genres of music and, you know, it’s cool to see people express themselves in that way, through the way they dress.I’m always inspired by it when I see it.
RM
And you’ve been together since 2003. lf you looked back to yourselves from that time, what would you tell them? What advice would you tell them?
Alex
Keep having fun and stick to your guns. I think that would be a big one for us, toalways trust.
Jack
Don’t give up when it gets hard, vause it’s definitely gonna get hard.
Alex
Exactly. And just trust ourselves. Like we, we, we’ve always been the ones to make the best decisions for ourselves throughout our career and so, you know, anytime that I feel like we’ve questioned that or been pushed into making a decision by an outside influence, like that’s when we’ve sort of regretted it.
Jack
Yep.
RM
Do you have any dreams yet to fulfill as a band?
Jack
Yeah, there’s tons of festivalswe wanna play, tons of bands we want to tour with, collaborate with…
Alex
Just continue to see the band grow. I think like the way that we continue to reach people is really inspiring and I think as long as people keep coming on board, we’re gonna keep going.
RM
And last question, what do people have to expect from All Time Low this year (2023) and in the future?
Alex
Tour, tour, tour, tour!
Jack
Yeah. Because of the pandemic, we weren’t able to tour on Wake Up, Sunshine and then we went in to make another record. So, we haven’t toured really in like three or four years, like extensively. So, we just wanna play as many shows as possible.
RM
Okay, that’s it.
Alex and Jack
Thank you!
RM
Thank you very much.
Alex and Jack
Thank you! Appreciate it.
