All Time Low Feature for The Inlander

Band For Sale
All Time Low plans to be the next big thing. No matter what you say

By most standards, All Time Low is doing wonderfully. The band’s latest studio effort, Nothing Personal, debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard charts (No. 1 among alternative, rock and independent releases) in July. For years, they’ve worn grooves in highways across America, touring constantly and steadily building a loyal fan base of screaming young fans. Last holiday season the Baltimore, Md., quartet were immortalized in a four-piece vinyl-toy gift pack.

Yet for All Time Low, the lauded kings of modern pop punk, one thing holds them back: They’re a pop-punk band.

“It’s the nature of the style of music. Anything that has ‘pop’ in its name, a lot of the time, gets a bad rap,” says vocalist Alex Gaskarth.

Their music is the genre’s ideally concocted brew of hooky guitar melodies, infectious lyrics that appeal to almost any high schooler, and fun-loving, down-for-anything spirit. And while the group was named Alternative Press’s Band of the Year in 2008, Gaskarth says that sort of acclaim is not what the band was ever about.

“We’ve always played music for fun — just to show people how to have a good time and for us to have a good time,” he says. “We don’t sweat whether someone gives a shit about our style of writing or reshaping the music world. It’s less about what people write about us and how many stars we get in a magazine; it’s more about how many people are coming to our shows and buying or downloading our music.”

He continues, “It’s definitely weird to become a commodity. I don’t think anyone really wants to feel that way, but at the same time it’s flattering.”