The All-American Rejects – Interview

On the line with Nick Wheeler of The All-American Rejects!

It’s funny, not just a few minutes ago I was watching a screening of a television show and your single “Swing, Swing” was used in it.

Really? What show?

“Black Sash”. It was funny because in the beginning of the show it says that not all music has been cleared.

Oh. I actually turned that down. I remember being asked about that.

When you signed to Dreamworks were you a four piece?

Well before that when we were signed with Dog House we didn’t even know the guys we are playing with now. We were signed as a songwriting duo. We recorded the songs last winter. Just recently we started playing with Mike and Chris and we are a touring band. Everything works now, but originally it was just Tyson and I.

I thought it was interesting that you had to program everything for shows because you had only two guys playing. You must have gotten pretty masterful at the instruments.

I’ve been playing guitar since I was seven and drums since I was thirteen. The entire midi drums programming I really just learned as I went. I kind of had to learn how to play piano. I know how a piano works, but for the life of me I can’t get my two hands to work.

I’m guessing you wanted to add some guys so you didn’t have to do a national tour with just two guys and a drum machine.

Yeah, we did two shows with a drum machine, but we didn’t want to do anymore.

How have the crowds been?

They’ve been fucking amazing. Last night in Chicago we played at the House of Blues and the crowd was retarded. (We both laugh) We played there just a month ago and there was like only fifty kids.

What is it like to go back and fans know the words?

It’s funny, Tyson started singing and two words came out of his mouth and the fans were singing along. It was amazing.

It has to be fulfilling.

They even know where the guitar solos come in. It’s great.

I know you guys are pretty young.

I’m twenty and Tyson is eighteen.

Wow, really? Then how old is the oldest song?

Probably two and a half years old.

You probably never imagined when you wrote it then what would be happening now.

No way. The songs have become a part of us and we love them. But we are also always working on new tracks whenever we have a minute in the hotel room.

How much have the tracks changed from the demos to now?

A lot. “Don’t Leave Me” was one of the first songs. When we first did the demo it didn’t have a drum loop, and now it has a drum loop and sample now.

So you must have did a lot of your own recordings previous to getting signed.

We recorded in my bedroom. When we went into the studio we had everything laid out the way we wanted them to sound. Aside from the sonic differences from our demo to the album, the songs are pretty much identical.

When you finally went into the studio I’m sure someone was using Pro Tools, but that costs a fortune, what were you using at your home studio?

I was using Cakewalk.

Ah, I’m familiar with that. It’s more in my budget range.

I know. The first time I bought a computer it was for recording. I wasn’t familiar with computers at all before that. I got a PC and Cakewalk. It’s easy. The basic ideas in all software programs are similar. Pro Tools is obviously the standard, you can do anything with it. You can cook bacon and eggs with Pro Tools. (We both laugh)

I know people that started out with an old Atari computer.

You know we started out with a basic Tascam 8-track cassette.

I have one of those.

Cool. We went from the Tascam to the computer. It was quite a jump. (Laughs)

Are the harmonies natural to put together?

It is. Once we get a basic chord progression we work on the melody and the rest falls in. On my laptop now I put the drums on midi and we start laying down guitars and everything else. We never know what it is going to come out as. Once we find our way of doing things it works, hopefully it’ll always work.

Who were you pretending you were when you were learning how to play guitar?

My guitar idols have always been CC Deville (Poison) to Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi) to Phil Collin (Def Leppard). Since then I found all the bands that came before those guys like Thin Lizzy and Led Zeppelin. I love Jimmy Page. The two dudes in Thin Lizzy are amazing.

Every kid who has a guitar and some friends in a band do a lot of covers, what made you want to stop doing covers and write original material?

We are just anal. When you hear a band doing covers you immediately judge them and compare them to the original band. You can tell how accurate, or inaccurate they are because you have something to compare them to. Unless we were to play something verbatim and do it justice I couldn’t imagine us doing a cover. We are just as anal about our songs but our songs only sound like us. (Laughs)

I heard you were beating some old guys at battle of the bands.

(Laughs) Yep. We used to beat the old guys in the battles. We played at this little tourist attraction called Eskimo Joe’s in Oklahoma. We played this battle of the bands and all the other bands were covering Jimi Hendrix. They were actually playing pretty well. Those old dudes can really wail sometimes.

Lastly what are you looking forward to?

To do this forever. This is all we know. We don’t have college educations and we don’t know anything else. This is all we know and all we have ever done. I hope I can do it forever.

+ charlie craine