All Time Low talk ahead of their Birmingham gig

All Time Low will be opening the show by performing their album So Wrong, It’s Right in its entirety. The band formed in 2003 and released So Right It’s Wrong in 2007, securing a massive worldwide hit.

They’ve been building on that ever since and were winners in the 2017 Rock Sound Awards as Last young Renegade was named Album of the Year.

Frontman Alex Gaskarth says the band were under pressure to deliver after the success of previous record Future Hearts. “I think what’s interesting is we don’t really know what to chalk up to the fact that there was a big jump in popularity of the band. Maybe part of it was that we saw a new wave of fans come aboard; a younger generation that’s jumped on. As far as musically and creatively, we felt like it would’ve been too easy to go and make another record that sounded the same as Future Hearts. It wasn’t about putting out that same thing because it worked.

“The growth was because I think the songs got better, in general, on Future Hearts and it was more about pushing that, rather than rewriting Something’s Gotta Give. It’s more important to us to be a long-lasting band by shaking things up and growing, and not becoming complacent.

“I think what’s cool is that on Future Hearts, there are the beginnings of the new album. From ‘Don’t Panic’ to now, Future Hearts is something of a bridging album. Tidal Waves and The Edge of Tonight feel like they take us to where we are now, so it feels like quite a natural progression despite the fact this record is pretty different.”

Nostalgia plays a big role in the band’s new record and All Time Low – but the band don’t wear their 1980s influences on their sleeves.

“Oh god, no! It’s not an 80s tribute record! I was actually just thinking about that; I was listening to a bunch of 80s music. Do you remember Nik Kershaw? He was one of my favourite 80s artists and it’s so good but it’s so cheesy. That was a big thing, we wanted to capture some of those feelings, and that vibe, but without doing it in a way that felt like we were doing a tribute to 80s music. I think it’s easy to get too far down that path and you end up sounding too like it, but we didn’t want to do that.”

The band has been determined to strike out and make a difference, elevating themselves to rock star status following the deaths of such icons as David Bowie, Prince and George Michael, who are all mentioned on their new record. Bowie was particularly important to the band and the song Ground Control is a nod in his direction.

Alex adds: “Again, it’s all a little more subtle and it wasn’t like I was going, ‘Let’s flip that riff around from Bowie and record that again’. It was a little more of . . . What I love about Bowie was how experimental he was and it just felt very natural: something would get written in a room and they wouldn’t think too much about it. What I really liked about those records from Bowie and Prince – is that there’s a lot of intros and outros. It was less about crafting Bowie-esque songs and more taking little things that those artists made popular, and introducing them into our music.”

The pop-punk favourites had to dig deep when making their latest record and Alex says it’s his favourite to date. “We’ve gone through a lot getting to where we are now, and I think a lot of that story we’ve never told – some of the darker times, some of the times when we had self-doubt . . . We kind of got a little more creative with the story on this record. I think there’s a big overarching theme on the album and a lot of connective tissue between the songs.

“You’re thrown into situations at a young age that people that age usually aren’t exposed to. So on that hand, it kind of matures you, sometimes before you’re ready for it.”