Last year’s All Time Low Forever Tour marked the band’s 20th anniversary, but it also became a major turning point for the group.
“When you do this for as long as we have, there’s always that little voice in the back of your head that goes, ‘Do we need to do this again? Does there need to be another All Time Low album?’” frontman Alex Gaskarth told Us Weekly exclusively while promoting the band’s new album. “We wrestled with that back and forth quite a bit.”
Ultimately, the 20-year anniversary shows “rekindled this fire inside of us,” said Gaskarth, 37, referring to himself and bandmates Jack Barakat, Rian Dawson and Zack Merrick.
“It was the fans and the outpouring of love that we felt through those shows that reinvigorated us and made us want to go and make new music,” he added. (But don’t worry: The idea of The Forever Sessions Vol. 2 is still on the table.)
After feeling “rejuvenated” by fan support, the band got to work on their 10th studio album, Everyone’s Talking!, which was released Friday, October 17.
Gaskarth admitted that “there’s always pressure” when it comes to making new music — but the guys put it on themselves.
“We wrestle with imposter syndrome. You wrestle with, ‘What if nobody likes us this time?’ There’s all of those things that factor in,” the singer continued. “We try, at the end of the day, to remove as much of that as possible and just be engaged and in the moment and excited about what we’re making.”
All Time Low’s New Song With JoJo Is a ‘Full-Circle’ Moment for the Band
When it came to the surprise June drop of their lead single from this era, “Suckerpunch,” there were no hesitations — the band knew this is what they wanted to put out first.
“When we wrote ‘Suckerpunch,’ in the room that day, we all kind of said, ‘This feels like it should be the first thing people hear next.’ It’s nice when that happens, because it really informs the process,” he explained. “It’s really easy to get trapped within the creative process and then start to spiral and overthink.”
Gaskarth added, “You have to learn to trust your gut on those and not overcomplicate it and overthink it. I think that’s when you start to lose some of the magic. It’s best to trust whatever is happening in the room.”
Overall, the band is in “a really good creative stride” at the moment, especially when it comes to this record — the first released under All Time Low’s own imprint, Basement Noise Records, launched with Photo Finish Records and Virgin Music Group.
“I will say, going into this new era and being fully self-released and getting to sign off on everything above everyone else is definitely a good way to be firing on all cylinders right now,” Gaskarth said. “I feel like we know our band better than we ever have, and we know what we want to be accomplishing and what we want to be doing.”
With 20 years under their belt, the four-piece group knows “what works,” which helps a lot.
“Being able to call those shots at this stage in our career is just a nice place to be because I think it gives us the best odds at reaching people,” Gaskarth added. “It’s on us to get it right and also not screw it up.”
He concluded, “Anytime something doesn’t feel right, we’re so keyed into that, because it’s us. … It’s a good place to be.”
Everyone’s Talking! is out now.
