With the announcement of their new album 'Future Hearts' and a new track / video in the form of 'Something's Gotta Give', it's been one hell of a week for All Time Low. Frontman Alex Gaskarth is in town, so we grabbed him for a catch up on the new album, their massive tour with You Me At Six and more...

Hi Alex! On Monday you pressed the big red 'Go' button on 'Future Hearts'. How have the last 48 hours been for you?
“It’s been really crazy. We spent a lot of time last year and even into this year writing, recording and setting up this record, so it feels awesome to finally hit it and hit it hard, you know? We dropped the video last night and it’s had a great reaction. It’s one of my favourite videos we’ve ever done.”

Where did the idea for the 'Something's Gotta Give' video come from? It's pretty wild...
“The director Chris is a super awesome talented genius man. He sent us the concept and we honed in on it a little bit, rewrote a few things, but not much. We saw it and were just like ‘that’s hilarious!’. You know us, we like to keep our videos fun!”

We half expected you to come back as a 'serious' band after being away for so long...
“Whenever someone gives you a lot of money to do something like that, you’ve got have fun with it. Those videos aren’t cheap, so we’re not just going to spend our day being like ‘oh we’re so serious now!’ Of course we’re gonna spend it all on getting sweet zombie make-up and making my head explode!”

Was keeping quiet over the last year while the album came together quite a difficult thing to do?
“Yeah, it was tough. It really built up internally. As soon as something’s done and I’m proud of it, I want to share it with everybody. I’m having a hard enough time right now not having the rest of the record come out until April.”

What should people expect from 'Future Heart'? 'Don't Panic' saw you guys reeling it back to your roots after 'Dirty Work'. Where does the new album fit in that respect?
“It feels like a definite progression. I wouldn’t say it’s an insane departure or anything like that. We haven’t gone completely the other way and tried all kinds of new things. We’ve certainly tried some new things, but I don’t think it’s necessarily going to alienate anyone or push people away that loved the last record. There’s a lot of stuff that’s in line with ‘Don’t Panic’, but there’s a lot of stuff that’s a logical next step from it, too.”

It was only seven years ago that you came over here for the first time supporting Plain White T's. Now you're heading out on an arena tour with You Me At Six and headlining Wembley on your own. How different are things for you now?
“I think we’re definitely more focused and there’s definitely a greater sense of purpose now. I think that just comes with age and growing up and really figuring out who we are. But at the same time, it’s super weird to be 11, 12 years into it and having this much success and seeing that it’s still able to grow. Doing it organically without any sort of big machine behind it has been really awesome and really rewarding. We have so much control over what we do and what we choose to put out, but who knows? It could all end tomorrow, so you’ve got to stay very appreciative of what you’ve accomplished so far. As long as we can keep pushing forward, we’ll keep growing this thing.”

So… The tour with You Me At Six. How are you feeling about that at this point?
“I definitely get nervous. They’re some of the biggest shows we’ve ever done, and it’s a co-headliner, so it’s not just our show. Another big part of it that’s going to keep it fun is the friendly competition we’ll have back and forth with the guys in You Me At Six. Both bands are really eager to put on their best show because neither wants to be the underdog (laughs). Everybody wants to put their best foot forward, so I think it’s going to drive both bands to do their best. Also, we haven’t played in a while. We haven’t played shows in general since we’ve been making this album. It’s a little intimidating to think we’ll be knocking the rust off with a show to 9,000 people in Cardiff. That’s the one where it’s like ‘alright, let’s give it a try and see if this thing still works!’ It’s a little nerve-wracking, but it’ll be fun. It’s a really good way to start the year. We’ll start big and get in that mindset.”

You've got your own Wembley headliner coming up once the tour with You Me At Six wraps up. Are you approaching that differently? That one really is your night.
“That’s a really special show for us because before the conception of this tour, that was going to be our big play over here. We’ll be putting the record out around that time, and we announced that we’re shooting it for our next DVD, so it’s a big night for us. The fact that it sold out in a little over a week is just an insane response for a show like that. It’s going to be very special. And that’s what drew us to doing this other tour. We can afford to put a few more shows up and see what happens. It felt like this was the greatest way to do it. If we were just doing more of our own headline shows, solo as All Time Low, it might take away from Wembley, or Wembley might take away from them, but because You Me At Six are out there with us, it makes it a really worthwhile event for fans of music to check out. It’s unique, you know? It’s not often two bands that can headline on their own figure out how to bring it together.”

14. Bottle And A Beat
15. Your Bed
16. Cinderblock Garden (Acoustic)

1. Satellite
2. Kicking & Screaming
3. Something's Gotta Give
4. Kids In The Dark
5. Runaways
6. Missing You
7. Cinderblock Garden
8. Tidal Waves
9. Don't You Go
10. Bail Me Out
11. Dancing With A Wolf
12. The Edge of Tonight
13. Old Scars/Future Hearts