Warped Tour coverage- Interview with All Time Low

The adorable, talented, funny, and always silly boys from All Time Low are on top of the world right now.  With a hot selling new album, a spot on the Warped Tour main stage, and a quickly growing group of loving fans (including some pretty famous ones), Alex Gaskarth (lead vocals/guitar), Jack Barakat (lead guitar/backing vocals), Zack Merrick (bass/backing vocals), and Rian Dawson (drums) are enjoying every minute of their amassing success.  Gaskarth and Barakat offered their charismatic personalities and charming smiles during a brief interview on the Denver date of the Warped Tour. 

Nothing Personal is All Time Low's brand new album which dropped in July of this year.  The super catchy, assuredly clever album pushed 63,000 records during its first week.  That's a lot.  In its first month on the shelves, Nothing Personal's sales surpassed that of the band's previous full-length, So Wrong, It's Right.  So how do they react to that?  "You kind of just have to take it in stride," Gaskarth explains.  "It's very, very flattering, and really exciting."  Barakat adds, "We drink a lot of champagne."

I have the album, and I love it.  There's a song on there, number 5, that I suspect has a secret meaning.  Titled "Stella", the witty lyrics suggest that perhaps Gaskarth isn't sing a love song about a girl, but rather about a delicious import beer called Stella Artois.  Gaskarth and Barakat both smile slyly and admit that I'm right.  "It's about my budding relationship with beer," Gaskarth reveals.

When it comes time to hit the road, artists get busy and are constantly on the go.  Some find it difficult to keep up with personal hygiene.  So which member of All Time Low is the dirtiest traveler?  "Zack," Barakat claims.  "Yeah, it used to be me," Gaskarth offers.  "But I feel like Zack, on this tour, has only showered like twice."  "It's weird," Barakat says pensively.  "It's disgusting," Gaskarth corrects.  "He's the guy who works out every day too, so it's really weird."  So he really just doesn't shower?  "I don't know, I think he kind of like, uses baby wipes," Gaskarth hypothesizes then repeats, "It's disgusting."

All Time Low is a band full of jokesters.  They constantly engage in funny banter and share humorous, sometimes racy, stories on stage.  So who's the funniest?  "We're all pretty f***ing funny," Barakat assesses.  "We're all very hilarious people," Gaskarth adds.  I ask them to tell me a joke, but Barakat can't think of anything and Gaskarth claims the only ones he knows are Michael Jackson jokes.  We unanimously decide it's too soon to start telling those on camera.

Barakat tells me he and Dawson talk to their mothers the most while they're on the road.  "I talk to my mom every day," he says unabashedly.  Gaskarth then concedes that he is the most likely to get wrapped up in a bar fight.  "I have a fiery temper," he explains.  Especially after he's been drinking.  "He's tried to fight Rian a couple of times," Barakat laughs. 

But the band doesn't drink while they're onstage performing.  "We play sober," Barakat reveals.  "We're bad enough at guitar as it is.  If we were drunk, people would be like 'what the f*** are they playing? What song is this?'"  "It's happened a couple of times and it's never been very good," Gaskarth observes.  "So yes, Alex forgot the words onstage today, but yes, he was sober," Barakat shares, making reference to a lyrical slip-up that Gaskarth made during their set earlier in the day.  "It's the altitude," Gaskarth contends. 

Now that Warped Tour is winding down, what is the first thing Gaskarth and Barakat are going to do when it's over?  "Shower in my own shower," Gaskarth declares.  "Not true," Barakat disagrees.  "We have a five-day tour."  "F***!" Gaskarth exclaims.  "What ARE we going to do?"  After some intense deliberation, Barakat says, "We're going to ride rides at Six Flags."  Gaskarth agrees and our interview comes to a close.

I wish I had more time to laugh with the entertaining and magnetic duo, but I graciously send them on their way.  Listening to their albums and watching them perform live, I already knew they were destined to achieve big things.  Now, after meeting the characters behind the music, there's nothing I want more than to see them succeed and achieve all the recognition they deserve.