INTERVIEW: All Time Low Talks 'New Adventure' Of Making 'Last Young Renegade'
By Nicole Mastrogiannis
June 2, 2017
All Time Low, which consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Alex Gaskarth, lead guitarist Jack Barakat, bassist Zack Merrick and drummer Rian Dawson, have been writing and recording music together over the last 14 years, and on June 2nd, the band released their seventh studio album called Last Young Renegade via Fueled By Ramen.
Last Young Renegade follows the band's 2015 album Future Hearts, and features several songs the guys have already shared with fans including "Dirty Laundry," "Nice2KnoU," "Life of the Party," the title track "Last Young Renegade," and their latest single "Good Times."
The band's drummer Rian explains to iHeartRadio that the band wrote and recorded this new album "in private" and that "fans didn't know [they] were making a record throughout most of the process." He adds, "It was cool not to have this outward pressure on us, to like, 'You know, when's the new music? What's the new music sounding like?' Because nobody even knew there was any."
All Time Low's Alex says that making Last Young Renegade was a "new adventure" for the band. He explains that he went up to the mountains of Big Bear, California, as well as Palm Springs where the guys worked on a lot of the music. "One of the coolest things that came from that was, rather than just writing songs, we backed up and were looking at everything from the big picture," he tells us. "So we kinda came up with this concept for the album, and came up with all this connective tissue that gets you from song to song. That's something that I don't think we've ever really done as a band, so that was kind of a new approach for us, and it was very exciting to try that out."
The album's title, Last Young Renegade, comes from a character that the band wrote about on the record. Alex explains, "We wanted to give that person a name and a face, and help us and our listeners to identify with what we were writing about on the record. The song itself helped craft the rest of the album and that theme for the whole thing."
Speaking of crafting the album, their new single "Good Times," is the first song they wrote for the record, and in a tweet the band says that "it set the tone for the entire album." In fact, Rian says "Good Times" is one of his favorites from Last Young Renegade. He tells us, "I just remember being so excited about the new album because we were off to a great start. It's a special song to us."
The band explains of the meaning behind "Good Times" is about "reflection." They tell us, "It's about looking back on all the things that made you who you are, and I think we can all get into that, because we've all been places."
"Good Times" may be among one of the band's favorite songs, but they tell us that one of the most important songs on Last Young Renegade is its lead single, "Dirty Laundry." They knew that was the song they wanted fans to hear first. "We knew it was going to be something that would come as a surprise to a lot of people, and sort of polarize people, and get people talking again," Alex explains. "It was one of the songs that we wrote in the middle of the writing process, and it felt like it really encapsulated all the feelings that we were gonna express on this record."
He elaborates on the meaning behind Last Young Renegade's first single, "The inspiration is about wrestling with your demons, but then coming to terms with them and realizing that everybody, no matter how much you sugar coat it, everybody has the things that they struggle with. It's about acknowledging that and realizing that once you do acknowledge that, it's easier to grow and come out on the other end better for it."
Also on the album is a collaboration with Tegan and Sara called "Ground Control." The guys tell us they are fans of the indie pop duo, and it turns out, the girls were fans of theirs too. The band explains, "We just weren't sure, because it was so out of the box. It felt like something that would surprise people and maybe a collab that people wouldn't expect from us. But it ended up being that they were sort of mutual fans of ours, and we've been fans of theirs for a long time." The guys add of the song, "They took it to that place that we wanted it to go. We knew that they would get it there, but they really did."
And as Rian says, "It was kind of a nice little surprise."
All Time Low is set to take the stage in Las Vegas this year during the Daytime Village at the iHeartRadio Music Festival, alongside a lineup of talented artists including Halsey, Bleachers, Judah & the Lion, Hey Violet, and more.