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"I couldn't write a song, so I wrote a song!"- Alex Gaskarth
All Time Low has emerged as one of the most popular new bands in recent memory, beloved by an increasingly fervent fan following for their fast-paced and fizzy brand of pop-punk. Now, with the hugely anticipated "NOTHING PERSONAL," the Maryland-based band has exceeded all expectations with a collection of effervescent new songs, marked by unstoppable hookiness and a newly discovered knack for exploration and invention. Where other bands might have played it safe by rehashing established hits, All Time Low instead opted to push the envelope by collaborating with a veritable who's-who of producers, each with their own unique sonic stamp. Unified by singer/guitarist Alex Gaskarth's clever lyricism, songs like "Weightless" and "Therapy" are marked by a range of diverse musical approaches, all the while retaining the patented All Time Low energy and enthusiasm.
"This record was less about doing what the bands we grew up listening to did," Gaskarth says. "It was more about knowing what we do, developing that sound, but also stemming out, trying new things, and exploring other veins."
Gaskarth, guitarist Jack Barakat, drummer Rian Dawson, and bassist Zack Merrick first got together while attending high school in the suburbs of Maryland. In 2005, the band released its debut album, "THE PARTY SCENE," the success of which led to their signing with Hopeless. The "PUT UP OR SHUT UP" EP arrived in the summer of 2006, mere weeks after the band members' high school graduation. "SO WRONG, IT'S RIGHT" followed in 2007. Fit to burst with overwhelming singles like "Dear Maria, Count Me In" and "Poppin' Champagne," the Matt Squire-produced collection scored major MTV rotation, instantly placing ATL at the forefront of modern pop-punk. The band further sealed its status by touring nearly non-stop, with highlights including multiple Vans Warped Tours, co-headlining the AP Tour 2008, and a series of their own sold-out headline tours, both here and abroad. In December 2008, All Time Low were named "Band of the Year" by Alternative Press, a remarkable achievement that even now feels like something out of a dream.
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"It's still all catching up with us," Gaskarth says. "It was a sort of seamless transition from being nobody to being a band that people wanted to go see. It happens so quickly that you almost don't realize that it's happening, it just becomes a blur. Then when you get home and suddenly you're being recognized in the mall, it takes you aback, because it's just not something you've come to expect."
Having achieved so much in such a short span of time, the heat was on ATL to deliver a follow-up, which would both satisfy their loyal fanbase while also winning over new listeners.
"We didn't let it affect us too much," Gaskarth says. "We were definitely aware that we had to turns some heads, but was it weighing on our shoulders? No."
The decision was made to team up with an array of top producers, with the goal of utilizing special skills while maintaining – and refining – their own sonic identity.
"They all had their own idea of what direction this band should go in," Gaskarth says, "but because we as a band knew exactly what we wanted to sound like, the album ended up sounding like All Time Low with a little bit of dynamic flavor from the producers who worked on the songs with us."
In February 2009, Gaskarth flew to Los Angeles to begin writing with producers Matt Squire and Butch Walker. Recording kicked off shortly thereafter, with the initial sessions helmed by Squire, the band's longtime friend and collaborator.
"Matt truly understands this band back to its roots," Gaskarth says, "the basement pop-punk scene where we came from. The songs we did with him lean more towards what we always used to sound like, with a more mature twist."
Exuberant and irresistible, the tracks recorded with Squire provided the band with a solid foundation on which to build upon, "a structure on which we could start developing up and out," according to Gaskarth. The sessions also yielded one of the album's defining moments in the buoyant first single, "Weightless." While it sounds counter-intuitive, the song emerged as Gaskarth found himself at a rare loss for words.
"I felt like I couldn't write anymore," he explains. "I was feeling completely stressed out, because we weren't even halfway through the record yet. Writing that song actually became the medicine that cured my writer's block, which doesn't make much sense when you say it out loud – y'know, I couldn't write a song, so I wrote a song!"
Next, ATL headed to Malibu to collaborate with Butch Walker (Katy Perry, Pink, The Academy Is...), who Gaskarth hails as "a genius when it comes to great hooks and melodies." The mission was to pen a straight-up summertime pop classic, and in "Damned If I Do Ya (Damned If I Don't)," ATL and Walker deliver just that. The song's title was initially suggested by Walker as a lyrical play-on-words, but Gaskarth loved the concept and ran with it.
"The ideas just started flowing," he says. "I mean, everybody's had one of those moments. A few, maybe."
From there, All Time Low headed back east for two weeks' work at producer David Bendeth's New Jersey studio. If Butch Walker's contribution was all about bringing the pop, Bendeth – known for his work with such bands as Breaking Benjamin, Hawthorne Heights, and underOATH – cast his gaze on the rock side of ATL, with tracks like the album-closing "Therapy" revealing a finely honed edge on the band's punk-fuelled sound. More importantly, Bendeth guided Gaskarth in how best to amp up the raw emotional power of his wry, self-reflexive lyrics.
"We needed a little bit of truth," Gaskarth says. "Something a little more abrasive and shocking and striking. David brought out a side of All Time Low that we'd never really had the chance to explore before. He encouraged me to write honestly and not cover things up in metaphors, to just lay it out there. He showed me a way to express myself so that I didn't have to hide behind tongue-in-cheek little jokes."
Upon wrapping the Bendeth sessions, ATL hit NYC to work with illustrious production team Sam & S*L*U*G*G*O (Gym Class Heroes, Cobra Starship, Boys Like Girls). The producers' diverse background and boundless knowledge allowed the band to indulge their love of a killer party via fizzy pop tracks like "Lost In Stereo."
"They have such eclectic taste in music," Gaskarth says of the duo. "They've done hip-hop, they've done pop, they've done rock. They pull ideas from so many places, they know more '80s bands than I could possibly name!"
With that, "NOTHING PERSONAL" was a wrap...or was it? The sessions were all but concluded when hit songwriting team Christopher "Tricky" Stewart and The-Dream freed up time in their schedule to work with ATL. Gaskarth quickly returned to LA and set to work with the award-winning pair behind such blockbusters as Rihanna's "Umbrella" and Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)." The resulting "Too Much" offers yet another view of All Time Low, this time merging their pop-punk sensibility with ultramodern R&B.
"It gave us another chance to put something completely different on the record," Gaskarth says, "to explore an area that we'd absolutely never gone into before."
A recording session was hastily scheduled, as the band were slated to embark on Fall Out Boy's "Believers Never Die Part Deux" arena tour. With Matt Squire behind the board, the band took the track and retooled it to fit their own unique voice.
"We had this demo that sounded like an R&B song," Gaskarth says. "We had to take it and turn it into a rock song but we didn't want to lose the sentiment that the original song had. It became this crazy hybrid, like nothing we've ever done before – it doesn't sound like much, really. It doesn't sound like anything else I've heard yet."
Despite the many cooks, "NOTHING PERSONAL" ultimately works as a truly cohesive whole. Collaborating with the various producers gave ATL the opportunity to explore and expand their own creative palette.
"The producers encouraged us to step outside of our comfort zones," Gaskarth says, "in good and subtle ways that didn't take the band too far from what it has been, but allowed us to be much more."
"NOTHING PERSONAL" has already proven a popular triumph, debuting at #4 on the Billboard 200 in its first week of release. With its ambitious artistic range and undeniable charm and energy, the album looks likely to fulfill Gaskarth's grand vision of just how far All Time Low can go.
"This band will always, always recognize where we came from," he says, "but I hope we also become a band that goes beyond the pop-punk niche. I would love this to be a band that accessible to anyone of any age. Every band dreams of that, but the more and more we do this, I really believe we can transcend."
