All Time Low

Ask Alex Gaskarth about his time spent over the last few years as the frontman for alt-rock icons All Time Low, and he’ll tell you it’s been nothing short of a whirlwind. Between pop-punk and emo nostalgia kicking into full gear in recent times, and All Time Low celebrating its twentieth anniversary last year with the release of The Forever Sessions - Vol. 1, it had many in and around the band awestruck at all they’ve accomplished. But, while yes, memories are nice, as has been the case throughout All Time Low’s career, the Maryland-bred band has never stopped looking ahead. To that end, when Gaskarth begins chatting one recent morning, his typically upbeat charisma bleeding through in spades, he can’t help but smile when he starts thinking about what this year will bring for All Time Low. Specifically, he says, with the release of Everyone’s Talking!, the legendary band’s thrilling new album, their tenth full-length studio release, due on October 17 via their own imprint, Basement Noise Records, in partnership with Photo Finish Records/Virgin Music Group. “It would feel inauthentic to tread old ground and step in our own footsteps perfectly,” the singer says of the band’s progressive mindset when writing and recording, Everyone’s Talking!. He notes how All Time Low was specifically encouraged in a major way to sonically push forward with their new music by the success of both 2020’s “Monsters” – which hit #1 on the Billboard Alternative Airplay Chart for an unprecedented 18 weeks and emerged as the longest-charting song ever at the Modern Rock format – as well as 2023’s #1 Alternative Radio single“Sleepwalking.” “We see ourselves as a current band, a current act that continues to push forward and not one that’s just built on its legacy,” Gaskarth says proudly of All Time Low, who have sold more than 3.5 million albums in the U.S. alone and have garnered over 5 billion streams worldwide to date. “It’s cool to realize that we’re still very much a rock band in the now.” It’s why, while Gaskarth admits the pop-rock legends are “always going to have a touch of what made us All Time Low from back in the day,” he and his bandmates — guitarist Jack Barakat, drummer Rian Dawson, and bassist Zack Merrick — are entirely focused on pushing the envelope with their music and exploring both new sonic and lyrical territory. Recorded principally at the band’s Nashville home-studio with Gaskarth and touring member Dan Swank leading production duties, Everyone’s Talking! sees the band taking itself in new and exciting directions. Where in the past, Gaskarth – who recently launched his own publishing company with Warner/Chappell, Sweet Heat Songs, and nabbed Swank as his initial signee – admits, his self-proclaimed “biggest flaw” has been self-doubt and uncertainty about where All Time Low can take their sound, this go-round he and his bandmates leaned into sonic adventure and experimentation. Case in point is the album’s lead single, “SUCKERPUNCH,” — an adrenaline shot of heavy rock riffage coupled with an anthemic, pop-leaning hook. Having had the song’s lead riff stuck in his head for several weeks before recording it, Gaskarth says he knew almost immediately the song “had to be the first thing people heard” off the new LP. “Somehow,” he adds of the song, “we pieced it all together.” The band additionally spent time in Los Angeles for this project recording with one of their longtime friends and collaborators, Grammy-nominated producer Zakk Cervini (blink-182, MGK). The result was “The Weather,” a “Ramones-toasting pop-rock missile that Gaskarth describes as “a cynical but playful concept” about seeing a close former friend or partner and, instead of reminiscing about the heavy times spent together, bs’ing instead about trivial matters. “The more you listen to this song,” he adds, “ the more it sticks its claws into you.” And then there’s “Little Bit,” an equal-parts humorous and sentimental song that finds Gaskarth peeling back the curtain on his personal life. “I’ve never gone there in a song before,” he says of an infectious cut that while sonically fronting as feel-good vibes, is at its core a deep dive into the singer’s psyche. Gaskarth says the song is centered on the trappings of fame and success through his personal lens. The song, he adds, is his attempt to describe the constant need in his life to forever be chasing whatever the next “high” might be. Even after having recorded two decades worth of albums with All Time Low, Gaskarth admits it never gets easier to “thread the needle” each time they enter the studio: “Our music showcases us literally growing up,” he explains. “Our band has been this unfiltered piece of ourselves that we’ve put out there into the world. We were never overly think-tanked. Our records never started with a board meeting. So how do you continue to get people to care?” One surefire way is to continue delivering emotionally-charged live shows – a staple of the All Time Low oeuvre. “ I will always be a live musician and performer first,” Gaskarth, who is headed out on tour with All Time Low for a headline run this fall, offers. “There’s something irreplaceable about the connection with the audience. From the first time we played in a church hall to 30 people to now when we play a venue like Merriweather Post Pavilion for 14,000 people, I got that same cathartic, communal rush.” As for what lies ahead for All Time Low the rest of 2025 and beyond? Gaskarth puts it bluntly: “We’re here to kick another wall down and say, ‘We’re here for the long haul!””