Today, the website
Wetpaint Entertainment has posted
an interview they did with Jack. In the article, he is talking about touring, the upcoming album Future Hearts, their collaborations with various artists, and also the movie Fan Girl, in which All Time Low will make an appearance. Check it out below.
What can you tell me about the band’s upcoming sixth album, Future Hearts?
Future Hears, obviously we’re very excited about it. I think it’s a little more of a commercially-acceptable and widely-acceptable arena version of Don’t Panic. A lot of the songs are in a similar vein, but I think Don’t Panic had its job of being an album that kind of brought our band back to the roots and back to where we came from and was reminiscent of So Wrong, It’s Right but I compare Future Hearts maybe a little more to Nothing Personal which I’d say was our most commercially-successful album. I think the songs are very catchy, straightforward, pop/rock songs that are easy to listen to and tell a good story.
You’ve got some great collaborations on Future Hearts, can you tell us about those?
It was awesome. The song we did with (Good Charlotte’s) Joel Madden has kind of a Third Eye Blind vibe to it and we thought Joel’s voice would sound awesome on it. The Mark Hoppus (Blink-182) song was actually one we all wrote together then asked Mark to sing on it after the fact because we thought his voice would lend itself to the style of the song.
You guys have been around for over a decade and that’s an accomplishment in the music industry. What keeps you guys together?
I think there’s two parts to keeping your band around for this long. One of them is you have to like each other and get along. You have to respect each other and know each other’s boundaries and know each other’s roles and just be comfortable with what you do and being on the road together. We grew up together and we’ve been through everything together — the good and the bad — and we’ve built such a strong bond that I don’t think anything really, at this point, could tear us apart bandwise. And music-wise, I think you have to know your audience and know your fan base and grow with them and try not to turn their backs on them or do something that would upset them. Write music you know they’re going to like and tell their friends about because, in the end, they’re the people rooting for you. Not the people that haven’t heard your band, it’s the people that love you and love what you do. As long as they’re happy, we’re good.
Tell me more about your movie Fan Girl with Meg Ryan and Kiernan Shipka!
It was a crazy thing. A couple years ago we started getting emails saying a company wanted to write a movie about the band and this girl’s love for the band and her relationship with her mother because of her obsession with this band. We didn’t really take it too seriously because we hear about this stuff all the time and it never comes to fruition, but it started to get more serious and they started to get further along in the production of it. Then we found out Kiernan Shipka was going to be in it and we thought, “Wow, this is a real thing. This is really happening.” Then Meg Ryan got cast in it and we were like, “Wow, this is unbelievable.” Then they asked us to be in it and perform live. We did that for a couple songs and Alex has a couple scenes in the movie. It turned out great and we’re honored to be part of a real, actual movie with successful and great actors and actresses in it.
Working with 5 Seconds of Summer?
It’s kind of an honor to work with a group like them who are just such passionate dudes who grew up listening to our band. It’s wild to see them be so successful, massive, and look up to us. It’s really humbling, it’s nice to hear. We’d love to work with them as much as possible.
It’s crazy being around as long as you guys have been seeing younger bands influenced by your music!
It is crazy! I remember back when we first started getting bigger tours like we ended up touring with Good Charlotte, Yellowcard, and New Found Glory and we’d tell them obviously we loved them and grew up listening to them. They said one day that would happen to us, we’d be that band, and we were like, “Nah. Not true. We don’t believe you.” And now it’s starting to happen and I guess it’s just a crazy little cycle and there’s no stopping it.
Being on tour I’m sure there’s a lot of TV bonding time between you and the guys. What do you guys watch together?
Every Game of Thrones episode we all kind of gather around together. We were all really into Breaking Bad but everyone was all in different parts so it was hard to watch together, but we did watch the finale together. A couple of years ago, back in 2006 when we did our first national tour, we got into Lost. We ended up watching the entire series together, so that was really long journey. We obviously watch a lot of TV on the bus.
How did your Iron Throne photo without pants come about?
We were playing the O2 Arena in London a few weeks ago and they had a Game of Thrones exhibition in part of the venue and we were obviously like, “We’ve got to go. We have to see all these props.” They had all these show props, costumes, and swords — it was unbelievable. Then they had the throne at the end of it. So many people have taken pictures on the throne now I was trying to do it my way and it was the first natural reaction that came to mind.
We actually got pretty close with Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner who play Aria and Sansa Stark. They’ve come to some shows and hung out. They’re the greatest girls and obviously some of the best characters on that show. It’s cool that kind of thing can happen and you can get to meet someone who you constantly watch on TV all the time.
