All Time Low are set to begin a new chapter with their latest album, ‘Last Young Renegade’.
From a beach in Fremantle before the final two shows of their recent Australian tour, lead guitarist Jack Barakat is thankful for the fans All Time Low have. “The cool thing about our band is that our fans give us this lane where we can write songs that we love and we know they’re going to love as well,” he says.
“That’s the best thing about the relationship with the fans, they know we’re not going to release a folk album out of nowhere. We kind of took steps to grow with every record, I just think this is another step in that evolution.
"I think there’s a little bit of old All Time Low on the album, but there are songs like ‘Dirty Laundry’ and ‘Life Of The Party’ that are on the other side of spectrum,” Jack explains.
“These [new] songs are amazing... the lyrical content is so deep... people will really connect with these songs.”
Although their new sound is a step towards pop rather than rock, their live show is still as loud as ever. “The cool part about those songs is how they’re going to be a different part of the show and break up the set; not every song has the same tempo or has the same upbeat choruses.
"In reality, we’re a band that wants to grow and change, to be a band that can write songs that are powerful ballads. It’s cool that we can play songs like ‘Dirty Laundry’ live and it almost sounds like a rock-ballad vibe.”
The three singles from ‘Last Young Renegade’ show promise, with vocalist Alex Gaskarth sounding more comfortable and fitter than ever. “I think it’s the best he’s ever sounded. I think the reason that is, is because we recorded 15 or 16 songs and we picked our 10 favourites.
"We picked those for a number of reasons: song content, lyrical content, sound, but also how Alex sounded on them.
“After seven albums you really know your band and you know what works and what doesn’t. That definitely was a factor going into these songs, the sound really sits with his vocals really well.”
Whenever a band tweaks their sound, they can face backlash from their fan base. However, All Time Low have morphed into their new sound with little resistance. “No one knows your band better than yourself and we haven’t felt like we’re a ‘pop punk’ band for many albums.
“Even ‘Nothing Personal’ was a transition into the pop world. When we released ‘Weightless’, the first day everyone said ‘Oh my god, what is this beat at the beginning, this sounds like The Postal Service’ and I was like, ‘really?’. When you first hear an album it’s always going to take you a second to take in the new sound.
“We feel so strongly about the new songs that we knew at first it would scare people and then they would be completely onboard. We knew deep inside these songs are amazing and the lyrical content is so deep and so intellectual that people would really connect with these songs.”
'Last Young Renegade' is available now.
