In Conversation x All Time Low
Interview & Words by: Anya Duncan
All Time Low’s Alex Gaskarth on Independence, Intention, and the Community That Carries Them
“It’s fun to experience your music again through everyone else’s eyes.” When All Time Low, long-standing titans of the pop-punk genre, announced new music, speculation buzzed louder than ever. What does a band, two decades deep, sound like in the present day? For fans who grew up on the melodic angst and emotional introspection of their early catalogue, the announcement of their independence from any major label added further intrigue. What would this version of All Time Low sound like? What would they say?
Fittingly, the album was titled Everyone’s Talking!... because they were. About creative freedom. About longevity. About what comes next for a band formed 22 years ago in a Baltimore basement. The answer (or at least the opening statement) arrived in the form of Suckerpunch, a track soaked in both the nostalgia of where they began and the clarity of where they’re heading.
“You know, I think there is a lot to be said about nostalgia these days,” Alex Gaskarth muses, thoughtfully unpacking the emotional current running beneath their new song. “Given that the themes of the video were about retelling the story of a legend, we framed this character out as a guy in his older years, looking back and reflecting on the glory days. We thought some good iconography around that to tie it together would be to reimagine one of our old logos.”
A skull and crossbones (one of the band’s earliest symbols) appears front and centre during the music video’s opening credits. A wink, perhaps, to fans who’ve been around long enough to remember its first run. To some this visual felt like a declaration from the band: we’re reclaiming our sound, and we’re bringing you all with us. “We get to drive this 100 percent,” Alex explains. “That way, all the successes mean that much more. Even all the shortcomings or shortfalls, if there are to be any, we know that we can own those and then course-correct ourselves, rather than being like, ‘who messed it up?’”
There’s freedom in that level of authorship, and Gaskarth is clearly thriving in it. With full creative licence, he’s increasingly shaped not just the sound, but the vision of All Time Low’s new music, too. The recently released video for The Weather is yet another testament to this evolving visual language, co-directed by Gaskarth himself. “I think it’s been our last four or five videos that have been concepts I came up with and then either directed or co-directed,” he says. “I love being in that space because when I write a song, a lot of the time, I will imagine what a music video might look like for the song we’re writing in the moment.”
Owning every frame, every lyric, every idea comes with risk. But for Gaskarth, that vulnerability is part of the reward.
“Even if there are other people that don’t like it, I can at least own it and go, ‘the people that don’t fuck with it just didn’t quite see my vision,’” he laughs. It’s the kind of self-awareness that only comes after years of handing your work to others and watching it shift shape on the way to the public. Now, what the fans get is what the band intended. No distortion. No compromise.
But All Time Low’s clarity of purpose doesn’t end with the music. On stage, too, the band are rewriting what it means to connect with their audience. During a recent show in Washington DC, they were joined by the LGBTQIA+ marching band DC’s Different Drummers, and the American University Cheer Team for a joyful display of inclusion. “Those particular communities have lifted us up for so many years,” Alex reflects. “That weekend in DC, it was feeling kind of heavy, and it was feeling like a certain kind of representation wasn’t being spoken for in a way that we would’ve liked. It felt important for us to lift those voices up and make that a huge aspect of our show.”
This ethos continues across the European leg of their Everyone’s Talking! tour, where connection remains the driving force. “I think one of the things we noticed pretty early on in our touring days was that at our shows, we were bringing together a lot of amazing people from different walks of life,” Alex says. “Our shows were really colourful and really exciting and vibrant and accepting and welcoming… there wasn’t much of a thought other than that. It was like, this needs to happen.”
In this light, Everyone’s Talking! feels less like a title and more like a mission statement. This era isn’t just about All Time Low talking at their audience, but it’s about talking with them. A collaboration between creators and community. Fan interaction, far from being an afterthought, is woven into the very fibres of the album and its rollout. “We try to recognise every time we go in and create something that there is an expectation that exists,” says Gaskarth. “I think you need to push people and push boundaries and kind of re-educate people, otherwise you stagnate.
We’ve always tried to navigate that space in a way that broadens our lane without hopefully ostracising the people that want to be here.”
That balance between innovation and inclusion is where Everyone’s Talking! finds its rhythm. Nostalgia paves the way, but it’s the band’s refined sense of purpose and self- direction that propels the album forward. The clarity of the band’s voice allows their fans to hear exactly what was intend, so the audience can decide where this music belongs.
As AlexGaskarth himself puts it: “It’s one of the most interesting parts of creating a record, when you hand it over to the audience and it’s no longer yours. It’s those kinds of interpretations and takes that I find so satisfying and fascinating.”
I opened this piece with a quote from Alex that I think, in hindsight, exemplifies everything I’ve been writing. The conversation doesn’t end when the song fades. It starts there. In the rewinds, the replays, the reinterpretations. In the hands of the old fans and the new. And if you’re still wondering where Everyone’s Talking! fits in the story of All Time Low, the answer is simple: exactly where it belongs. One foot on stage, the other in the crowd.
MULTI-PLATINUM ROCKERS ANNOUNCE HIGHLY-ANTICIPATED NEW ALBUM ‘EVERYONE’S TALKING!’ DUE OCTOBER 17
BAND UNVEILS NEW SINGLE ‘THE WEATHER’
OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO OUT NOW