Speaker 1: Welcome to Inside the Studio presented by h Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: I'm your host Joe Levy. Hey, so, I hope everybody's
Speaker 1: doing well out there, keeping safe, keeping healthy, and hearing
Speaker 1: lots of great music. All of those things are the
Speaker 1: reason that the Inside the Studio team put together this
Speaker 1: home edition of the show to let you know how
Speaker 1: artists are coping. Would lockdown how it's impacting their lives
Speaker 1: and what it means to the way they make music.
Speaker 1: Now this time out, our Quarantine correspondent Jordan run Talk
Speaker 1: connected with Alex and Jack from All Time Low to
Speaker 1: talk about their new album Wake Up Sunshine, which came
Speaker 1: out in April around the time everybody realized Quarantine was
Speaker 1: not going away quickly, which for these two guys men
Speaker 1: ditching their sweatpants and picking back up their guitars. And
Speaker 1: after you finished checking out this episode, be sure to
Speaker 1: give a listen to the I Heart Radio podcast that
Speaker 1: Jordan's hosts, Rivals Music's Greatest Feuds, which is available wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows. Hello, everybody, my name
Speaker 1: is Jordan run Talk, But enough about me. My guests
Speaker 1: today first started playing rock and roll together as teenagers
Speaker 1: in a Baltimore Basement back in two thousand three. Seventeen
Speaker 1: years later, they are still rock and hard. They just
Speaker 1: released their e f LP wake Up Sunshine in April,
Speaker 1: featuring appearances by Black Bear on the band Camino. It's
Speaker 1: a return of their roots. If you listen closely, you
Speaker 1: can hear echoes from that Baltimore basement nearly two decades ago.
Speaker 1: I uttered their name with reverence because make no mistake,
Speaker 1: they are pop punk royalty. I am very happy. I'm
Speaker 1: thrilled to welcome Alex and Jack from All time Low.
Speaker 1: They quite nice on Jack's birthday, I might add, Jack's
Speaker 1: very kind to share his birthday with us. Birthday, I
Speaker 1: love spending it with my with my friends and people
Speaker 1: who are lovely like you. Oh, I appreciate that well,
Speaker 1: first and foremost, How the hell are you? How does
Speaker 1: quarantine life find you today? I'm all right. I'm feeling
Speaker 1: quite good. You know, the sun is shining um and
Speaker 1: things could be a lot worse. So I'm I'm pretty
Speaker 1: I'm content, honestly, like I feel like at this point quarantine,
Speaker 1: I'm scared to go back to normal life like I'm
Speaker 1: used to quarantine life. You know what I mean? Like,
Speaker 1: that's that feels normal to I like my house now,
Speaker 1: I like my safety bubble. Generation of agoraphone. So what
Speaker 1: we are? Yeah, well, Alex, you're on a farm, right,
Speaker 1: That's like I've been fifteen years in New York City.
Speaker 1: That's the most exotic thing in the world to me. Yeah. Man, Um,
Speaker 1: we we live out in the middle of the sticks,
Speaker 1: so we're sort of like we're just surrounded by nature
Speaker 1: and woods and uh dear ticks. But no, it's great, man,
Speaker 1: It's it's really nice here. Uh. We are lucky and
Speaker 1: very blessed to to sort of be in a position where, um,
Speaker 1: the quarantine has not made our daily lives feel that
Speaker 1: much that claustrophobic. I guess, you know, we're able to
Speaker 1: get out and um, you know, get some air and
Speaker 1: and we're like sort of in our own little safety
Speaker 1: bubble here, which I'm very grateful for right now. But yeah,
Speaker 1: things things are. It's fun. It's fun. We got a
Speaker 1: bunch of animals. We got horses, we got goats, so
Speaker 1: they keep us pretty busy, keep us on our toes.
Speaker 1: Oh man, were any of the animals from the Sleeping
Speaker 1: in video yours? Like the tiny horse? I wish. In fact,
Speaker 1: that day, um that the day that we shot the
Speaker 1: sleeping in video, I actually asked if the horse was
Speaker 1: available for rescue because we were working at an animal
Speaker 1: rescue in Nashville with the sole purpose of trying to
Speaker 1: get that place emptied out. And obviously the horse they
Speaker 1: do not. They do not how as many horses at
Speaker 1: that facility, but they brought one in and I was
Speaker 1: not sure whether or not it was one that was
Speaker 1: actually up for adoption, and I did ask, but this
Speaker 1: one had an owner, which I was dismayed to find
Speaker 1: out because I would have taken them home. Do do
Speaker 1: do mini horses like, do they have health issues or
Speaker 1: they like just like a normal horse, which is smaller.
Speaker 1: I don't know. To be honest, I don't think so.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's like anything where they get weird
Speaker 1: stuff that'd because that'd be is like super cute to
Speaker 1: have one of those. And yeah, we thought about it.
Speaker 1: We we talked about rescuing like a mini donkey or
Speaker 1: a many horse, but um, it didn't. It didn't come
Speaker 1: to pass. What's that old saying, never worked with kids
Speaker 1: or animals where they were they well behaved on the set. Dude,
Speaker 1: I'm honestly like the cat was not. Cats are the
Speaker 1: hardest cats are. We've worked with cats twice on videos,
Speaker 1: and they are very difficult because we all know how
Speaker 1: cats can be. Um this, this show stops for the cat,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like everything suddenly the entire
Speaker 1: production revolves around whether or not the cat feels like
Speaker 1: doing the thing that it's being asked to do. And
Speaker 1: you know, we we are not ever going to bring
Speaker 1: any discomfort or harm or anything to the cats. So
Speaker 1: it's really like, really, is there's no way to like
Speaker 1: coax it into doing something. You just it either does
Speaker 1: it or it doesn't. You just have to kind of
Speaker 1: you just kind of have to wait to get the take. Um.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean, it's it's funny. It's actually We've
Speaker 1: worked with animals a lot in music videos, and in
Speaker 1: the earlier days I didn't think twice about it and
Speaker 1: never really worried about it. Then I got to a
Speaker 1: point where I was becoming a little more aware of
Speaker 1: like some of the things that these animals go through
Speaker 1: in show business, and it made me feel a little
Speaker 1: bit icky, and I didn't love doing it until we
Speaker 1: came up with this premise for this sleeping in video
Speaker 1: where um, A, the animals were wonderful to work with
Speaker 1: and amazingly trained and we're under great care and be
Speaker 1: it was for an amazing cause. It was for getting
Speaker 1: a bunch of animals rescued, which we all in this
Speaker 1: band feel very passionate about. So it was pretty cool.
Speaker 1: That is awesome. How have you been feeling? Just like
Speaker 1: I know a lot of people in quarantine. I feel
Speaker 1: like half the people I know are feeling super creative
Speaker 1: and productive, and then the other half are just really like,
Speaker 1: what day is it? I don't know, maybe how have
Speaker 1: you been doing? Are you? Are you feeling super creative
Speaker 1: and productive? Um? Personally, the first three weeks of quarantine,
Speaker 1: I went I was like, okay, this isn't how long
Speaker 1: is this gonna last? What am I gonna do? I
Speaker 1: decided I'm just gonna watch movies that I've wanted to
Speaker 1: watch my whole life and haven't seen. So I made
Speaker 1: like a list of like fifty movies and I got
Speaker 1: like really close to hitting them all, so like it
Speaker 1: was straight up just watching an insane amount of movies. Um.
Speaker 1: And then they got to the point where I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: we have a record coming out, because this is before
Speaker 1: the album came out. We have a record coming out.
Speaker 1: This may last forever, like we need to. I need
Speaker 1: to at least personally do something that's a little more fulfilling,
Speaker 1: or else I'm going to actually go crazy. And when
Speaker 1: this is over, I'm gonna look back and be like,
Speaker 1: did I just waste like four months of my life.
Speaker 1: So I started taking music lessons with an old friend
Speaker 1: and kind of, you know, going back to why I
Speaker 1: fell in love with playing guitar in the first place.
Speaker 1: And I started reading more and doing all these things
Speaker 1: that I don't think I would have done without quarantine.
Speaker 1: So yeah, began enreaching his life. Yes, learning how to cook.
Speaker 1: I was hitting up Alex for like like cooking advice. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: you got creative in the kitchen. I was. I was
Speaker 1: proud of you, like I had never really seen you,
Speaker 1: uh cook much before, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: you were making these amazing looking dishes. I was. I
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, let's go, buddy, let's go. Thank you.
Speaker 1: What's been the most successful one? Most successful? Oh? Um,
Speaker 1: I guess most successful tasting was this bold as my
Speaker 1: sister gave me the recipe for which is actually bold
Speaker 1: as is so easy, Like it's really easy. You just
Speaker 1: like put a bunch of stuff in a pot and
Speaker 1: just wait like a couple of hours. But um, it's
Speaker 1: wait a day. It was really good. Bolonaise is always
Speaker 1: better than next day. Yes, you gotta let it cool
Speaker 1: down and then heat it back up. And there's something
Speaker 1: about whatever happens in that process in the fridge overnight
Speaker 1: just gets even tastier. You know. It's really interesting because, um,
Speaker 1: I at first kind of like what Jack was saying,
Speaker 1: Like I I kind of settled into the idea of
Speaker 1: all right, we're stuck at home and I don't have
Speaker 1: any responsibilities anymore, and I'm just gonna wear sweatpants and
Speaker 1: you know, turn the lights out and close the curtains
Speaker 1: and not leave my den. Um. And after about a
Speaker 1: week and a half two weeks of that, I was like,
Speaker 1: I need structure, I need something, and um, you know,
Speaker 1: between all the farm stuff that we just talked about
Speaker 1: and then like just needing some kind of creative outlet,
Speaker 1: I think, Um, you know, I did find myself picking
Speaker 1: up the guitar and going back to sort of these
Speaker 1: very like almost felt like getting back to the beginning
Speaker 1: you know, like when I would be in my room alone,
Speaker 1: sitting on the bed, like recording demos um and just
Speaker 1: coming up with ideas, and suddenly that started happening again.
Speaker 1: And there's something very interesting about that because having been
Speaker 1: in a band for seventeen years and having made eight
Speaker 1: records in so many different ways, that sort of back
Speaker 1: to basics approach is not something that we've really done
Speaker 1: a whole lot since the early days, and so it's
Speaker 1: it's kind of cool now full to come full circle
Speaker 1: and um, you know, think about writing songs in a
Speaker 1: way that is just very d i y and like,
Speaker 1: you know what I was doing in high school. Well,
Speaker 1: for Wake Up Sunshine, you guys rented a house right
Speaker 1: like out in what Palm Desert? What was that experience
Speaker 1: like for you? I mean that almost sounds back to
Speaker 1: basics to me because that was the first time you've
Speaker 1: done that since two thousand nine, right, like nothing personal? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: absolutely was back to basics for us. I mean it
Speaker 1: we had not made an album in that way since
Speaker 1: probably uh so wrong, It's right, if I'm being honest.
Speaker 1: I mean, don't panic. We did the majority of the
Speaker 1: record with Mike Green at his studio in California. But
Speaker 1: the idea that all four of us were under one
Speaker 1: roof living, uh and like eat, sleep, breathing these songs
Speaker 1: and this music together. It was a shared experience from
Speaker 1: the moment these songs were conceptualized to the minute we
Speaker 1: finished recording them. And I think, yeah, it just lended
Speaker 1: something so good and so pure and so like very
Speaker 1: unique energy to the creative process because it's something that
Speaker 1: we hadn't really tapped into for for many many years.
Speaker 1: And I think it just refreshed us. Like it was
Speaker 1: like hitting a reset button on the band. It kind
Speaker 1: of made us look at everything from a different perspective again,
Speaker 1: and it really refreshed I think our take on our
Speaker 1: band and our music. I mean, just living in that
Speaker 1: house I'm picturing like the Monkeys directed by John Hughes
Speaker 1: or something like that. Like it seems like, what was
Speaker 1: it like when you weren't recording working on music? Was
Speaker 1: it fun? Yes? It was. It was very fun. It
Speaker 1: was very comfortable. Um, a lot of you know, it
Speaker 1: basically was like tour, but like way more comfortable because
Speaker 1: you didn't have to wake up in a different city
Speaker 1: every day. Um, it was a lot of you know,
Speaker 1: an amazing backyard. We we made sure that if we're
Speaker 1: going to live in a house for a month, it's
Speaker 1: really nice. And luckily, you know, Palm Desert is not
Speaker 1: that expensive. And um, it was about a hundred and
Speaker 1: ten degrees out every day, so there wasn't yeah, there
Speaker 1: wasn't too much going outside. We went during the time
Speaker 1: of year where everybody leaves Palm Desert, so the rental
Speaker 1: prices were so cheap. So yeah, we got we got
Speaker 1: a good amount of house for for We didn't dip
Speaker 1: too far into their record budget on that one. It
Speaker 1: was It was smart though, and our I guess our
Speaker 1: manager was like, oh, I'll put him in the desert
Speaker 1: in like the middle summer, like they're not gonna go
Speaker 1: anywhere quarantine. Really, yeah, there was no distraction because you
Speaker 1: literally could not step outside of the house without the
Speaker 1: soles of your shoes melting to How do you guys
Speaker 1: compliment each other as as songwriters? What what does the
Speaker 1: other one bring to the table? I tell Jack he's
Speaker 1: really good looking all the time. That's how I complimented him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then and then he goes in the closet and
Speaker 1: writes the song comes out here I got it, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, wow, I didn't help, that's crazy. Um. This
Speaker 1: this process was really again just thinking about Wake Up Sunshine,
Speaker 1: it was really complimentary. And I say that for between
Speaker 1: me and Jack, but also between the other guys as well.
Speaker 1: It was kind of everybody brought their strongest suit to
Speaker 1: the table, and it was really cool having everyone at
Speaker 1: their best throughout the process. UM. I would sort of
Speaker 1: I'd be sitting on the couch with my iPad and
Speaker 1: and a guitar and a microphone and sort of like
Speaker 1: spitballing these ideas. And what was nice about that was
Speaker 1: that at any given moment, Jack might walk through the
Speaker 1: room or Ryan might walk through the room or Zach
Speaker 1: and be like, oh, don't do that, try this, And
Speaker 1: just that of real time feedback UM was extremely helpful
Speaker 1: in crafting songs that felt, uh, really true to all
Speaker 1: four of us. And I think, you know, in the past,
Speaker 1: when it's just been me writing a full song and
Speaker 1: then taking it to the guys, they're always going to
Speaker 1: have input, but it's not in the moment, you know,
Speaker 1: it's not at conception, yes, I guess, And so there's
Speaker 1: something to be said for that spontaneity. Um, that I
Speaker 1: think really shines at conception of the song. There's so
Speaker 1: much more I guess, room for it to grow and
Speaker 1: change and move in different directions when you're creating it,
Speaker 1: rather than you know, going retroactively back and like being like,
Speaker 1: let's change this chorus. Then you kind of lose that magic.
Speaker 1: You know exactly exactly Prior to recording Wake Up Sunshine.
Speaker 1: Know you both have been involved with other projects, Alex
Speaker 1: with Simple Creatures and Jack with Who Hurt You? Was that?
Speaker 1: Did that kind of prime the creative pumping away for
Speaker 1: All Time Load? Did it kind of like flush out
Speaker 1: some of these other ideas and make you see things
Speaker 1: in a completely fresh and new way for your next
Speaker 1: project together as a band? Yeah, totally. I mean I
Speaker 1: for me personally, it was in a way for me
Speaker 1: to get some things out that I don't think would
Speaker 1: have fit the mold of All Time Low as well.
Speaker 1: You know, um, we're always gonna write for ourselves. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, you know, seventeen years into a career,
Speaker 1: you have to recognize that there's a bit of a
Speaker 1: brand and uh, you don't want to completely alienate everyone
Speaker 1: that listens to you. Um, So it's like you know,
Speaker 1: we've always been given a pretty wide lane by our
Speaker 1: fans to work in, Like, even when we've tried kind
Speaker 1: of more absurd, off the wall different ideas, our fan
Speaker 1: base has come along for the ride, which is very gratifying.
Speaker 1: But you know, for me, Simple Creatures was a means
Speaker 1: to be a little more out there and try some
Speaker 1: unusual things. Mark was in the same boat. We both
Speaker 1: wanted to explore some stuff that was not, uh in
Speaker 1: any way kind of reflective of our other bands. Um.
Speaker 1: And so you know, it just allowed us to scratch
Speaker 1: an itch. And I think that gives you perspective when
Speaker 1: you come back around to work on the main baby,
Speaker 1: because then you're like, all right, well I got this
Speaker 1: stuff out of the way. I don't need to try
Speaker 1: and force that into you know, I don't need to
Speaker 1: try and force a square into a circle here. Um
Speaker 1: And uh, it also just gave me a lot of
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of new tricks for the album. Um.
Speaker 1: That really helped out. And I think, you know, I
Speaker 1: don't want to speak for Jack, but as an observation
Speaker 1: I made was that you know, Jack going and doing
Speaker 1: who Hurt You was like I think his writing chops
Speaker 1: just upgraded tremendously. I remember the first time Jack came in,
Speaker 1: you know, and we were starting to work on Wake
Speaker 1: Up Sunshine, it was just like, who is this guy?
Speaker 1: Who is this guy? Get? It gave me a new confidence,
Speaker 1: you know, to to kind of say something. You know,
Speaker 1: it's it's like learning a new skill and kind of
Speaker 1: giving you the confidence to to to give input, you know,
Speaker 1: and and and not and be okay with hearing. People
Speaker 1: would be like, no, I don't like that, or I
Speaker 1: like that, you know what I mean. But um, I
Speaker 1: think it was important for when I was did the
Speaker 1: Simple Creatures thing. I think it was really important at
Speaker 1: least to me, Ryan and Zach for us to support
Speaker 1: him because you know, he was also starting a side
Speaker 1: project with you know, pretty much the reason why we
Speaker 1: started playing music, you know, with with Mark oppis so
Speaker 1: that I think we felt, you know, really good about
Speaker 1: because you know, we were we were like, we're letting
Speaker 1: our boy go with our with our dad, you know,
Speaker 1: with his new dad, like learn learned from him, and
Speaker 1: and yes, that was really cool. I mean not the
Speaker 1: totally famboy up, but like, does it did it ever
Speaker 1: start to feel normal working with you know, your hero
Speaker 1: Mark Office. To be honest, yes, it did actually normalize.
Speaker 1: You know, I'll say this, I feel really lucky that
Speaker 1: I got to know Mark over many years and that
Speaker 1: we did not work together until him and I were
Speaker 1: very much like friends first. Um. I think if he
Speaker 1: had come to me before meeting me like years ago
Speaker 1: and be like, hey, you want to work on something,
Speaker 1: I would have just been sitting there like with my
Speaker 1: mouth hanging open, being like whatever you say, Mark, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love everything you do. Um. And you know it's
Speaker 1: that would not have been that would not have made
Speaker 1: for a good or interesting project. I think. So the
Speaker 1: fact that like you know, we we're friends, and uh,
Speaker 1: it was amazing to be able to kind of sit
Speaker 1: down and work creatively on something together because we tried
Speaker 1: so many times in the past. We had like we've
Speaker 1: written songs but for All Time, a little four that
Speaker 1: didn't end up seeing the light of day, and we
Speaker 1: collaborated on a couple of tracks together, you know, Tidal
Speaker 1: Waves for All Time Low. He came and sang on that,
Speaker 1: And so there's always been these moments of creativity with
Speaker 1: Mark and I and and we always sort of like
Speaker 1: never fully you know, punched through that wall and uh yeah,
Speaker 1: Simple Creatures just kind of was the culmination of many
Speaker 1: years of like trying, yeah, to get it to happen.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you would have had the confidence,
Speaker 1: like ten years ago to be like, I don't like
Speaker 1: that verse he would have been like, it's hard to
Speaker 1: get to a point where, like someone who inspired you
Speaker 1: to to be in music to begin with, you can
Speaker 1: sit down in a room and be like, dude, I
Speaker 1: think that kind of sucks, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like you have to have that, You have to have
Speaker 1: that on its back and forth, and and we have
Speaker 1: that now, which is good, Like we can keep each other,
Speaker 1: we can compliment each other rather than just be um,
Speaker 1: you know, like rather than me being there like we're
Speaker 1: not we're really. So you have this new record ready
Speaker 1: to go, Wake Up Sunshine. It's it's upbeat, it's refreshed,
Speaker 1: fifteen tracks, and then Corona hits touring and release plans,
Speaker 1: I'll go out the window. A lot of acts like
Speaker 1: Lady Gaga and I think the N seventy five actually
Speaker 1: delay their albums. What made you decide to to go
Speaker 1: ahead and release yours? We actually made this record knowing
Speaker 1: that the whole world was going to shut down just
Speaker 1: um we yeah, like it's it's absolutely insane. I don't
Speaker 1: think anyone, uh could have possibly anticipated how this the
Speaker 1: whole thing was gonna go. We we really just found
Speaker 1: found that the idea of not putting out the music
Speaker 1: would be doing a disservice to our fans who were
Speaker 1: ready for it. You know, we had already announced that
Speaker 1: it was coming out music out as this was happening.
Speaker 1: Everything was sort of starting to shut down, and we
Speaker 1: had that conversation like two weeks out with the label
Speaker 1: and everything, like do we push back, do we delay this,
Speaker 1: do we wait? And it's just the more we thought
Speaker 1: about it, the more we felt like it would be
Speaker 1: kind of selling everybody short. Like this was this was
Speaker 1: an album that you know, made us feel really good
Speaker 1: and really excited and felt like kind of therapeutic and
Speaker 1: cathartic for us to make it, and so maybe some
Speaker 1: of that would shine through in the music for people
Speaker 1: in a really tough time. And uh, we we just
Speaker 1: decided that it was the move to put it out
Speaker 1: and to let our fans enjoy it and hopefully have
Speaker 1: it be sort of a safety net in all of this.
Speaker 1: Looking back, I'm happy we stuck to our guns because
Speaker 1: you know, we released a song in January and then
Speaker 1: a song in February, and then March came around. If
Speaker 1: we would have you know, delayed the record a couple
Speaker 1: of months, you know, then those songs and the whole
Speaker 1: and the whole kind of anticipate anticipation for the record
Speaker 1: kind of dies in my opinion. So I think it's
Speaker 1: important that we stuck to to what we we felt
Speaker 1: in our gut was the best decision. And yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: happy we did that because you know, people had something
Speaker 1: new to listen to, you know, throughout all this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: people need stuff to look forward to. How have you
Speaker 1: been connecting the fans in the midst of all this?
Speaker 1: We have tried a myriad of things, you know, every
Speaker 1: everything we could think of that's that's physically possible, uh,
Speaker 1: in the current state of it all, Um, I mean,
Speaker 1: zoom calls have been huge. We've done concerts exactly what
Speaker 1: we're doing here, but with three hundred fans all at once,
Speaker 1: UM playing some songs for them. We've been doing like
Speaker 1: weekly live streams which have been pretty incredible. UM. Jack
Speaker 1: and I actually kind of dug our podcast from out
Speaker 1: of the Grave and renamed it and rebranded it, and
Speaker 1: we're doing it a slightly different way now. We sort
Speaker 1: of live stream recorded and then it comes out as
Speaker 1: a podcast later. And that's been a really cool way
Speaker 1: for us to sort of connect with people in a
Speaker 1: way that's not just music focus, because obviously, you know,
Speaker 1: our music is a huge part of it, and and
Speaker 1: that's out there now, that's living out there in the world.
Speaker 1: But the other part of it, for us and and
Speaker 1: for our band especially, I feel like it's always been
Speaker 1: our personal connection with the fan base, and so for
Speaker 1: us to be able to reach out and connect with
Speaker 1: people through the podcast Crushed Us Live and through these streams, uh,
Speaker 1: it kind of feels like being there in real life,
Speaker 1: which is the one thing that's missing from from our
Speaker 1: lives right now. Obviously you can't tour, and I'm sure
Speaker 1: that's incredibly painful. So to try to help with the pain,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask you this question, what was your biggest
Speaker 1: most spinal tap like toward disaster ever, concert disaster ever?
Speaker 1: I mean to be on us there, We've had a
Speaker 1: very real spinal tap moment before where we were It
Speaker 1: was during the filming of our Wembley Live Show. It
Speaker 1: was part of our DVD UM It was one of
Speaker 1: our biggest headliners shows to date at that point in
Speaker 1: our career, and we were filming it all live and
Speaker 1: there was this moment in the show where I come
Speaker 1: off the main stage and have to run through the
Speaker 1: inner workings of Wembley Arena to get to front of
Speaker 1: house to do a song acoustic, and I literally had
Speaker 1: that moment from spinal Tap where we took one one
Speaker 1: wrong turn and we were suddenly in this like labyrinth
Speaker 1: of hundred year old halways, halways with tiny doors and
Speaker 1: some were locked and some were not, and we would
Speaker 1: open one and there'd be like a person cleaning or
Speaker 1: changing or like making food for everyone that knows anyone
Speaker 1: know how to get to the front of house. And
Speaker 1: the whole thing was like before the show that you know,
Speaker 1: this was all being shot live, and it was like
Speaker 1: very expressly stated to me, it's like, Okay, there's one
Speaker 1: thing we can edit, we can clean things up, don't worry.
Speaker 1: One thing that really needs to hit on time is
Speaker 1: your queue getting to that center's day videos and everything
Speaker 1: lined up and the funny part they had to flip
Speaker 1: all the cameras around and everything, and it was just
Speaker 1: like instead of having like a professional like security your
Speaker 1: bodyguard who had like like figured out the route before,
Speaker 1: we had like our buddies, like our buddy Steve doing it.
Speaker 1: He's like our friend from high school. He's just like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's this way. Like so I'm just I'm
Speaker 1: just tearing tearing butt around backstage at Wembley for a good,
Speaker 1: probably a very long feeling two minutes. It really wasn't
Speaker 1: that long in actuality, but that two minutes really dragged
Speaker 1: when it was supposed to be thirty seconds. Well, now
Speaker 1: I'll go to the opposite question. What was the most
Speaker 1: incredible on stage moment that you can remember? Um, it's
Speaker 1: gotta be manny, I mean in a weird way. Probably
Speaker 1: that show too, that that show was so like pivotal
Speaker 1: for us, um Jack, I think I was gonna say, um,
Speaker 1: so too. I think it was two years ago they
Speaker 1: did the end of Warp Tour, like the last Warp Tour,
Speaker 1: and they invited us to play a couple of the
Speaker 1: California dates. You know, Warp Tour is pretty instrumental in
Speaker 1: all Time Loaves. I guess everything really, you know, we've
Speaker 1: been doing it since we're like seventeen, and so you
Speaker 1: know it's gonna be a really cool moment for us.
Speaker 1: We knew and you know, really cool to be a
Speaker 1: part of. And so they put us last on the
Speaker 1: San Francisco Warp Tour date on the main stage. And
Speaker 1: that was the day that because of the venue, it
Speaker 1: was in the Amphitheater, you know, so it was in
Speaker 1: like this mountaine mountain mountain view amphathe you know, which
Speaker 1: is like you know, fift people and goes up like that.
Speaker 1: And so we closed out the stage and we closed
Speaker 1: that Warp Tour that day, and everyone was in there
Speaker 1: because we're the only band playing and all the bands
Speaker 1: were behind us on stage, and it was just this
Speaker 1: whole crazy moment for us to like, you know, I
Speaker 1: like almost started crying on stage. I was like tearing
Speaker 1: up and it was just very emotional and you know,
Speaker 1: one of those like you know, this is where we
Speaker 1: started and now it's ending kind of thing. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: was that was a very incredible moment. I mean to
Speaker 1: like you said, to have the Amphitheater was full of fans.
Speaker 1: I think the whole everyone that was there that day
Speaker 1: went into the Emphatheater to watch his play and um
Speaker 1: so it was packed out front. But then uh yeah
Speaker 1: too pretty much what felt like also the entire tour
Speaker 1: was behind us on the stage watching aliment everything. It
Speaker 1: was just it was a really special moment. And it
Speaker 1: was yeah, like Jack said, the fact that that's where
Speaker 1: we sort of got our our start to then sort
Speaker 1: of be able to close out that date that way
Speaker 1: with everybody. And you know, so many of the staff
Speaker 1: on that tour had been there for years and so
Speaker 1: there were people that we we hadn't played Warp tour
Speaker 1: for years at that point, but like to go back
Speaker 1: and see a bunch of old friends that we had
Speaker 1: toured with uh in years past and things like that.
Speaker 1: It was it was really really special. Oh man, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be moments like that. You gotta think, like it's
Speaker 1: a long way from the basement. Yeah, yeah, it's we
Speaker 1: have so many of those moments. It's mind blowing. It
Speaker 1: really is. Well, speaking to your early days. One of
Speaker 1: my favorite songs on your new album's Basement Noise. I
Speaker 1: just think that's just really throws it back. Tell me
Speaker 1: a little bit about those early days. What does that
Speaker 1: song mean to you? We had never really reflected in
Speaker 1: a song about our earliest memories of a band, of
Speaker 1: being the band you know, and like it. It was
Speaker 1: cool the way that song came to be because Jack
Speaker 1: and I had spent most of the day working on
Speaker 1: another song in the studio with with Zach Servini, our producer,
Speaker 1: and it was probably like two in the morning, and uh,
Speaker 1: we sort of hit a wall with this other song
Speaker 1: we were working on, and we were like, look, we
Speaker 1: gotta get something even though it's late, even though we're
Speaker 1: tired and we're burned out, we gotta get something tonight
Speaker 1: to walk away with. It's like a success, a win um.
Speaker 1: And so we we shut down that old session and
Speaker 1: opened up a new one and started writing what would
Speaker 1: become Basement Noise, And like, Jack and I were sort
Speaker 1: of working on the lyrics, and as we were writing,
Speaker 1: we realized that it was this like self reflective story
Speaker 1: of how him and I met up in got together
Speaker 1: and started writing songs for the first time, and and
Speaker 1: Ryan's basement. It was a really cool way to sort
Speaker 1: of reflect on that and pay tribute to the fact that, uh,
Speaker 1: we sort of we're making this record in a very
Speaker 1: organic way that was very reminiscent of the way we
Speaker 1: made records back then. What were your goals back then
Speaker 1: in the basement, Like, what were you looking towards? We
Speaker 1: played these shows locally, were like at a church hall,
Speaker 1: and it was basically about like being the band had
Speaker 1: the biggest crowd, you know, like bringing like the most
Speaker 1: kids from your high school to come. So we're very
Speaker 1: much like trying to like I feel like impressed girls,
Speaker 1: you know, like the same thing everyone started, the same
Speaker 1: reason why everyone starts a band is to impress the
Speaker 1: girl or a guy. I feel like in the beginning,
Speaker 1: at least for us, that's that's personally what a lot
Speaker 1: of that was like that, I mean's high school, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. You know you're not like, oh,
Speaker 1: we're gonna go out and tour and make money, Like, no,
Speaker 1: that's not really what you're thinking about. Yeah, we certainly
Speaker 1: were thinking about money. We were like, if anything, we
Speaker 1: were losing money, but like you know, losing our parents
Speaker 1: money rather exactly cutting grass to go play shows on
Speaker 1: the weekend is pretty much what it came down to.
Speaker 1: But um, yeah, we were like, you know it was
Speaker 1: back then. It was really Uh, I felt like we
Speaker 1: were very lucky because in Baltimore there was this really
Speaker 1: budding local scene at the time. Um, there were a
Speaker 1: few bands that were a little bit older than us,
Speaker 1: like a band called a Delphi comes to mind, who
Speaker 1: sort of got signed to drive Through Records. Drive Through Records,
Speaker 1: which at the time was like a really impactful label
Speaker 1: from our scene, and um, you know they they sort
Speaker 1: of set the tone for bands in our area to
Speaker 1: sort of aspire for that next level. Good Charlotte sorry interrupt.
Speaker 1: Good Charlotte was kind of like the first we're like,
Speaker 1: we're like, oh shoot, we can do this. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, but there was definitely a Good Charlotte was
Speaker 1: definitely a huge one. They were they were sort of
Speaker 1: they were kind of already on their way to being
Speaker 1: largely successful before we kind of start having any kind
Speaker 1: of significance. But like they definitely set the path and
Speaker 1: and set the goal for us to be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: there's more out there than just playing the one local
Speaker 1: venue that we have here or whatever. It was kind
Speaker 1: of like, let's start reaching out to bands in Pennsylvania
Speaker 1: and New Jersey and New York and trying to drive
Speaker 1: a few hours to play some shows at these other
Speaker 1: vfws and other church halls and um, get in front
Speaker 1: of people, and that I think is what instilled in
Speaker 1: us the idea that it could work. When people started
Speaker 1: to come see us from far away or what felt
Speaker 1: like far away, then, um, it made things much more real. Man,
Speaker 1: you guys should run some like band team building workshops
Speaker 1: or something like what's been keeping like the inter band
Speaker 1: dynamics so strong after like all this time, you guys
Speaker 1: seem like the bestest friends. It's incredible. Good question. Um.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think the biggest thing that I always
Speaker 1: pay attention to with our band, and I'm very grateful for,
Speaker 1: is that we really treat it like a family. We
Speaker 1: treat each other like family. It's you know, there's never
Speaker 1: it's not one of those things where when there's a disagreement,
Speaker 1: the like three of us go, let's getting up on
Speaker 1: that one person to make them feel terrible for having
Speaker 1: an idea. You know. It's always been about respecting everyone's
Speaker 1: thoughts and feelings and checking in and making sure that
Speaker 1: everybody everyone feels spoken for and heard. Um. And I
Speaker 1: think at the end of the day, when it comes
Speaker 1: down to is just nobody's let their ego get in
Speaker 1: the way ever, really it's never been about one of us.
Speaker 1: It's always been about the four of us, which because
Speaker 1: without one of us, this doesn't feel like all time low.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think I think we've just always looked
Speaker 1: out for each other and made sure that everybody's in
Speaker 1: like a good mental space throughout all of it. And
Speaker 1: and yeah, just we just always check in and treat
Speaker 1: each other like the brothers that we are at this point.
Speaker 1: I think it's because of our roots. You know, we can't.
Speaker 1: We grew up together, we went to high school together,
Speaker 1: we grew up knowing each other's parents. And I think
Speaker 1: because we built like this high school kind of groundwork
Speaker 1: in you know, it made going through life and the
Speaker 1: success and they're not there, no success, and every the
Speaker 1: ups and downs, it made it all so much easier.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, banned team building zoom conference calls. Let's go,
Speaker 1: it would work, Let's do it. It's so great. I mean,
Speaker 1: do you guys keep in touch a lot when you're
Speaker 1: not torn? Like, what's your group chat call? I gotta ask,
Speaker 1: we got a couple we have? Which one? We have
Speaker 1: so many? So the one from the one from the
Speaker 1: creative process of wake Wake up Sunshine is called analog warmth. Boys. Um,
Speaker 1: it's because we started referring to everything we were doing
Speaker 1: on the record is analog warmth, even though I don't
Speaker 1: think anything we did on the record was actually analog.
Speaker 1: We have we have a group chat that we started
Speaker 1: for Alex's bachelor party, like six years ago. You've been
Speaker 1: married for a couple of years and it's still going strong.
Speaker 1: And that's that's all of us banning crew. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: a good one. Um, we do have a tour one
Speaker 1: that fires up every now and then. Obviously, like we're
Speaker 1: not on tour right now, but um, a lot of
Speaker 1: our crew members are still active crew members for us
Speaker 1: when we do eventually get back on the road. So
Speaker 1: there's that one, and every now, every now and then,
Speaker 1: someone will fire into that one being like what is
Speaker 1: your guys? So yeah, there's there's a lot aside from
Speaker 1: not being able tour. What's been the hardest thing about
Speaker 1: Quarantine for you? Um, I've loved it. I mean I've
Speaker 1: loved it other than other than not touring, it's been great. Um,
Speaker 1: it's been tough. I don't know. I mean, look, I
Speaker 1: I feel really really lucky that the worst of it
Speaker 1: for me and my family has been that we're bored,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like, I think there's so
Speaker 1: many people out there that are really in a bad
Speaker 1: way because of everything that's going on, um, be it
Speaker 1: financially or or career wise, or health wise or whatever.
Speaker 1: You know. Like I I continue to feel that, uh,
Speaker 1: we are very very lucky to be in a position
Speaker 1: where the worst that we have is just a bit
Speaker 1: of boredom. Um. You know. Obviously, like I I hate
Speaker 1: not being able to see like friends and family as
Speaker 1: much as I would like to. Uh, you know, like
Speaker 1: my I have a family member who is you know, compromised,
Speaker 1: so like it keeps me from seeing them often and regularly,
Speaker 1: and I have to be really careful. Um, So that
Speaker 1: part is obviously not ideal, but like you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's been fairly manageable for for me personally. And and
Speaker 1: you know, I've just been enjoying the time at home
Speaker 1: with family because a lot of the time we don't
Speaker 1: get that we're out on the road of the year
Speaker 1: most years. So this has been like the one positive
Speaker 1: thing to come from this, I think is that we've
Speaker 1: gotten a little extra bonus time with our friends and
Speaker 1: family at home. But that being said, I also really
Speaker 1: miss being on tour like so much with the guys.
Speaker 1: We haven't we haven't played shows because we you know,
Speaker 1: we haven't toured in I don't know two years now,
Speaker 1: and like this was supposed to be our year back
Speaker 1: to tour, So really missing a tory. I know it's
Speaker 1: very early days on the music are working on, but
Speaker 1: what can you tell us about it so far? About
Speaker 1: new music? Um? Well, I mean we've already had conversations
Speaker 1: about the fact that, you know, we put an album
Speaker 1: out during a time that we can't be out there
Speaker 1: promoting it and playing it for people. So by the
Speaker 1: time all of this is behind us, um it may
Speaker 1: be time to put out more music, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? Like that could that could be a reality,
Speaker 1: And that's a reality that we've never really had to
Speaker 1: deal with before. So we're already having those conversations of like,
Speaker 1: all right, when can we get back in the studio
Speaker 1: and start cooking up some more fresh ideas so that
Speaker 1: when things open back up and we can get out
Speaker 1: there and play music, it still feels fresh and it
Speaker 1: still feels new for people. Um. So, I mean, it's
Speaker 1: it's very preliminary right now, because obviously we're still kind
Speaker 1: of uh, really excited about Wake Up Sunshine. But I think,
Speaker 1: you know, sooner than later, there will most likely be
Speaker 1: the four of us in a room again trying to
Speaker 1: make some new music. Yeah. Now that we know that,
Speaker 1: you know, writing together with the people that we wrote
Speaker 1: with and made the record, and we know how successful
Speaker 1: it was, you know personally in you know, with our
Speaker 1: fan base, I think that we're going to kind of
Speaker 1: get back to to that and see see what comes out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's more, there's more to tap into in that process.
Speaker 1: I think you know it was. It was a really
Speaker 1: refreshing one for us, and I think there's there's more
Speaker 1: that it can offer us creatively. So it was a
Speaker 1: hypothetical fantasy, epathetically, snap your fingers pandemics over what's the
Speaker 1: first thing you do? Just that that person you hug,
Speaker 1: think you go do trip you want to take? What
Speaker 1: is it? Man? I would give my parents a big
Speaker 1: kiss because I've been I've been like every time I
Speaker 1: sort of see them, it's like the weird half hug thing.
Speaker 1: We're like, oh, we're being careful. Um. So I'd give
Speaker 1: my parents a big kiss, um, and then I would
Speaker 1: probably I would air being be another house somewhere, maybe
Speaker 1: back in Palm Desert, and I would fly all of
Speaker 1: you guys in and Zach Sarvini and we'd we'd make
Speaker 1: some more music together. I we're supposed to be on
Speaker 1: Sad Summer Festion, which is a summer tour we're gonna do,
Speaker 1: so I'd probably go straight to that. Fire it up.
Speaker 1: That's a good one. When we moved it to next summer,
Speaker 1: which is going to be great, but I'll just push
Speaker 1: it another year forward. Yeah, move it back and exactly.
Speaker 1: Oh Man, Alex Jack, thank you so much for tech
Speaker 1: the time. It's been a real pleasure talking to you.
Speaker 1: Ye man, thanks for having us. Thank you. Jordan's appreciate it.
Speaker 1: We hope you enjoyed this episode of Inside the Studio
Speaker 1: home edition of production of I Heart Radio. For more
Speaker 1: episodes of Inside the Studio and other shows from my
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, check out the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts.