All-American Rejects on top ofthe world

Wed 16th Aug, 2006 in Features

The sun is certainly shining on the All-American Rejects and they’re enjoying every second of it.  The last time Tyson Ritter (lead vocals, bass), Nick Wheeler (guitar, keyboard, backing vocals), Mike Kennerty (guitar, backing vocals), and Chris Gaylor (drums, percussion) were in Oz they were opening for A Simple Plan, but now they’re hitting our sunburnt shores for their own world tour!

In a time when radio is saturated with pop-rock and pop-punk bands, AARs upbeat vibe, catchy hooks and driving rhythms still grab our attention. The band avoids being pigeon-holed in one genre by concentrating “on making good melodies and catchy songs” that are not “restrained to being now”, that won’t be forgotten when the next musical fad strikes.  “I think when you concentrate too much on trying to write a certain genre, or a certain style, then it sounds that way, it sounds contrived.  You can tell what bands are trying,” Kennerty explains.  “Hopefully we’ll just always sound like we’re writing what’s naturally coming to us.” 

This approach is definitely working for AAR.  While other pop-rock bands fall away after a few hits, AAR’s tracks continue to skyrocket up the charts the world over. Their last two albums have gone platinum in the US, they’ve played main stage spots for Vans Warped Tour and Bamboozle, and had over a million digital downloads of one of their songs alone, Dirty Little Secret.  Not to mention that they’ve got their songs on everything from TV shows to video games to blockbuster movie soundtracks. ”We’re up for whatever. Not to say we’re whoring ourselves out…” Kennerty laughs, “but if someone’s asking us, you know, we’re going to be appreciative…  we enjoy the fact that we’re getting asked.” 

Something else the band appreciates is their fans.  ”We try to accommodate our fans as much as possible… hang out and talk to them after shows and sign stuff that they want,” says Kennerty.  “As cheesy and clichéd as it is, you know, we would be nowhere without the fans, so we gotta show them the respect they deserve.” 

Their contact with fans isn’t limited to concerts and festivals. The group’s official website let’s you “Ask the Band” anything and has a band journal for fans to read.  Also, Kennerty used to run their MySpace until it “got to the point where…I’d be spending two hours a day just hitting approve on Friend requests… not even getting to messages.”  With the constant touring and whirlwind of photoshoots, interviews and TV appearances, Kennerty handed the reigns to Amber, a regular at their concerts.  “It’s really more of a curse for her, cuz it’s just so much work,” he chuckles.  Wheeler and Ritter have joked that most of their 177, 000 + My Space Friends are mostly made up of their family from Oklahoma.  However, a recent gig in Canada showed just how much of the globe is covered by the AARMY – as their fanclub has been dubbed.  At the gig, the band played one of their B-Sides, ‘Eyelash Wishes’.  Even though the track had only ever been released in the UK, the whole Canadian crowd was “singing along and knew it all.  And we were all like: ‘How do they know that?’  And then I remembered that it’s on our My Space and it’s had like over a million plays.”

So with all the success they are experiencing, do the guys feel like they’ve finally made it?  “Not until super-recently have I felt that way… usually we get the: ‘Are you guys in a band?’, but [last month] they were being like: ‘Hey, you’re the All-American Rejects’.  So, it was like at that moment, and then since then it hasn’t stopped… it’s really strange… [it’s] not bad”, Kennerty laughs.  But fame has not gone to guitarist’s head.  When asked how headlining the tour in Australia was going to be different to the support role they had for Simple Plan, Kennerty smirks: “the shows’ll definitely be a lot smaller.”  This won’t be an issue for the band, who haven’t forgotten where it all started.  “We’re excited to be playing, you know, more stuff like that cuz that’s definitely where we came from, like playing small shows.  That’s what we love to do.”

Kennerty confesses that offstage AAR is “one of the more mild bands out there”. Though “there’s occasionally some debauchery, usually instigated by, ah, the guys in our crew”, you won’t find the band in any backstage fights with drum smashing or guitar throwing.  ”We get along really well, almost too well to the point where it’s like, we’re just boring,” laughs Kennerty.  But don’t expect anything mild on stage!  With Ritter recovered from a voice injury that caused them to cancel their last 4 Canadian gigs, the guys are stoked to be performing again.  As to what Aussie fans can expect from the upcoming tour, AAR will thrash out electric shows with tracks from both albums (plus “a B-side or two”).  There will be no shortage of energy on stage, or as the guys jump off stage, or climb on any amp or drum kit in sight, as has happened in the past.  “We definitely aren’t content to stand there still and try not to sweat on stage.  We kinda have contempt for bands that do that.  So we try to jump around and rock out, but still play well.”  And if the power displayed on their previous Australian tour is anything to go by, we can expect an amazing concert that’ll force us to our feet and onto the dance floor.

After Australia, the band are heading on to Hawaii and the UK, and then they’re “gonna just keep touring” through to next year.  They are also releasing the fourth single off the Move Along album, titled ‘It Ends Tonight’, coming out in the next few months. “Hopefully that’ll do well.  Cross your fingers”.  Though a new record is in the pipeline, when exactly it will be recorded is still uncertain… “Ah… next Spring, at the end of Spring, maybe during Summer… I would say probably the earliest… it might be out the beginning of 2008,” Kennerty laughs. 

However long it takes, Aussie AAR fans can take heart because the band will be back here soon: “we love coming over there, we definitely want to come over as much as possible [and] hopefully we get a little more inland on future visits.”

All American Rejects Tour Dates
August 17 – UNSW Roundhouse, Sydney 
August 18 – The Arena, Brisbane
August 19 – The Corner Hotel, Melbourne
August 20 – The Corner Hotel, Melbourne