All Time Low

Tue 9th Aug, 2011 in Features

With the release of their fourth record Dirty Work, All Time Low are due to be back Down Under for Soundwave Revolution in September. They were last here for Soundwave 2010, but this time they will be sharing the mainstage with acts as varied as Hole, Alice Cooper and Van Halen. Fasterlouder spoke to lead guitarist Jack Barakat while he was stranded in the hills of Spain because of a broken bus during their recent tour on the festival European.

While the Soundwave Revolution bill is eclectic in its scope of heavy and/or punk bands, this current European tour is good preparation for them in terms of playing with the big names in the business. “It’s great because it’s given us an amazing opportunity to play with bands that we don’t usually get to play with like Foo Fighters, My Chemical Romance, Disturbed… which are kind of out of our reach in the US.”

The reason these bands don’t typically fit well together is due to All Time Low’s distinctively upbeat, radio-friendly, pop-punk sound. In the vein of Blink-128 and Fall Out Boy before them, All Time Low have made a name for themselves over their eight year career with catchy hooks and major power chords (they are in fact named after a New Found Glory lyric). Dirty Work shows a band growing more confident with its own sound and displays a drive to achieve more and head straight to the top.“We’re really stoked. It’s quite an accomplishment to have four CDs out. We’re really excited and it’s getting great reviews and reactions from the fans, and live the songs are going down really well. We couldn’t be happier”.

Formed straight out of high school, All Time Low’s image has always been one of fun and youthful energy. Being notorious for their antics and pranks on tour, Barakat explains that the years have had their mark on them as a band. “Every record makes us feel a little bit more professional, but we’re still just as immature [in terms of having fun on tour]. We definitely feel like things are coming together and it feels really good…We’ve been together for 8 years, so it’s like a brotherhood that can’t be broken at this point. We also have a nice little following that is super loyal and dedicated, so we couldn’t ask for much more”.

Establishing a loyal fanbase is understandably hard when touring Europe, due to geographical and cultural span, but what about All Time Low’s Australian fanbase? “Australia’s always been really good to us. Even the first time we went over there, we had fans. This’ll be our fourth time over there, so now we have a nice following, and judging by our Twitter replies, I think they’re going to be really good shows”.

The visits to Australia have gotten bigger each time and most recently culminated in Soundwave 2010, which Barakat says was “fucking awesome!”. The progression from small, to middle to large stage over the Soundwave years shows the growth of All Time Low’s Australian fanbase, and also parallels their early years working Warped Tour in the States, from which Barakat says they basically built their entire fanbase. “Soundwave is kind of similar to Warped Tour in the sense that you’ve got tons of bands from different genres on all these different stages. We’ve spent our Australian career moving from stage to stage, moving up…kind of similar to how we started in the US”.