Happy Memorial Day!!!!
Before we left for our spa getaway, we sat down to chat with Tyson Ritter and the boys from All American Rejects!
We talked to the band about their new album, the inspiration behind it, still being together after a decade, and really important things – like collaborating with Mika on a song off their new record and farting on the tour bus. Ha!
Read some highlights from our chat… after the jump!
Watch our interview with the All American Rejects in full above!
Perez: Hey everybody, it’s Perez joined by the All American Rejects, who have a new album out. It’s not your first, it’s not your second, it’s like your third album?
Tyson: No, fourth.
Perez: Fourth.
Tyson: Yeah, we’re pouring them out.
Perez: What — were you going for something different this time? What was the process like working on this album?
Tyson: This is like the first album where Nick and I decided to move away from Oklahoma, away from sort of where we’re from.
Perez: Are you — I see you around all the time.
Tyson: I know. We moved here like two and a half years ago and it’s sort of like —
Perez: Okay.
Tyson: — after we had, “What Gives you Hell”, and we started writing for our new record, “Kids in the Street”, it was sort of like, “Let’s go to Los Angeles, and just lose ourselves for a couple of years.”
Perez: In a bad way or a good way?
Tyson: I don’t want to tell — I mean, the good with the bad, the bad with the good. It was fun.
Perez: Did it resolve in great some inspiration for you?
Tyson: Yeah, yeah, no I think the whole thing about this record is like, we’ve been putting out records for ten years, so it’s, the “Kids in the Street” sort of — I felt like the first record where all four of us on the same page, and we’re really embracing the inspiration that a quarter life crisis can give you.
Perez: You’re 25?
Tyson: I’m 28 now, but we started writing this record like three years ago, so it’s kind of a mid life crisis 25 then.
Perez: And fourth album though, what’s monumental about that though is that you’re still together, and you guys haven’t broken up.
Chris: Yeah, the same four dudes too for ten years now.
Tyson: Yeah, right.
Perez: Ten years. Is it easy at the longer it goes? Like do you guys still fight? Do you ever fight?
Tyson: [Watch above.]
Perez: And did you work with any new producers — you said so there’s a lot of change, you moved to LA. Did you work with new people on the album that you hadn’t worked with before?
Nick: We’ve always worked with a different producer on each record, and I think it really helps us because our writing process never really changes, I think it really helps us like makes up how we approach recording.
Perez: Who worked with you on this one?
Nick: Greg Wells.
Perez: Oh he’s amazing.
Nick: Yeah.
Perez: I love him. He’s worked with Mika, —
Nick: Actually Mika is on our new record.
Perez: Oh is he?
Tyson: Yeah he did a little spot.
Nick: We wanted a British boys choir sound. So instead of bringing in a bunch of children, we tried to do it ourselves but our British voices aren’t —
Perez: What song is that? Let’s take a listen to it now.
Nick: It’s called, “Heartbeat Slowing Down”, and at the end, the choir is all Mika.
(Clip)
Perez: And it’s summertime now. Are you guys going to be heading out on tour soon or are you on tour already, and I don’t know?
Tyson: No, no, we’re between tours. We’re out with, we’re going to go out and do two and a half months with Blink 182 this summer.
Perez: Oh wow.
Tyson: And then come back to the states do some dates with Neon Trees, and then a possible tour on the horizon for the fall.
Perez: Blink 182. That’s fun. Are your fans predominantly like girls?
Tyson: I mean I think —
Perez: Or is it everybody?
Tyson: It’s weird, the fact that we’ve been doing it for so long now, it’s like the front four rows are yes, completely hairless and adolescent. And then as you get back, everybody sort of starts to get adult beverages in their hands. So it’s a fun show when you come see it.
Perez: And is touring still fun for you guys or — I mean, I imagine it’s pretty exhausting always like being on the road.
Nick: It is exhausting, especially the older you get. But —
Perez: Well 28 isn’t that old or 27, 26.
Nick: But we spent so long writing, making this record, the last, the first like few shows that we did were really small clubs, and it felt like exactly what we used to do ten years ago, it was a blast.
Perez: That’s awesome. And do you all share one big bus?
Nick: We do.
Tyson: Yeah. Yeah, but not with all the dirty pirates that travel with us. They have their own bus.
Perez: You’re pretty clean?
Tyson: No, no, no, but when we’re together, it’s just, it’s awful, it’s just a sty.
Perez: No, no, no big farters on the bus?
Nick: [Watch above.]
Tyson: [Watch above.]