March 04, 2009

The All-American Rejects: Nobody's Rejecting Them Now!

By Cheryl Leong

When The World Comes Down, they want you to be listening to their record. And just who can lay claim to such an audacious statement? Tyson Ritter (lead vocals, bass), Nick Wheeler (guitar, keyboard), Mike Kennerty (guitar) and Chris Gaylor (drums) - The All-American Rejects(AAR), of course.

From Stillwater, Oklahoma, The All-American Rejects was formed in 2001, and their self-titled debut album spawned the hugely catchy single "Swing, Swing." Their second offering, Move `Along packed even more of the fun, infectious sound of AAR with the title track and "Dirty Little Secret." These two songs were also featured in the popular video game Rock Band.

AAR spent the last two years on their third album, When The World Comes Down, with the colorful carrier single "Gives You Hell" now working up a storm on the airwaves. Here in Singapore for the Nokia "Earn Your Stripes" Party, Nick and Chris took a moment with MTV Asia to talk about their musical influences, the making of "Gives You Hell" and being fans of Britney Spears (or not).


What's a favorite song of yours from the latest album, When The World Comes Down, and what are some of the influences behind them?
Nick: Hmmm. Which song should we say this time? [Laughs]
Chris: "Another Heart Calls."
Nick: I think our collective favorite for this record, is "Another Heart Calls." Track 7, I believe. It's the first time you'll ever hear another voice on the record, other than Tyson's. It was written as a duet, and it was a really fun song to see come together. The other voice didn't come around until way long into the process. We had less than 30 days to finish the album, and we still didn't have anybody to sing the female part. It was written as kind of like a fight between a boyfriend and a girlfriend. So there's got to be a girl involved.

Anyway, so we went through a list, like everyone was just throwing names at us, of all the contemporary, popular, poppy female artists, which really don't fit the song, or us at all. I think we were just searching online, and we came across this band called The Pierces, two sisters from Alabama, Catherine and Allison. They just worked perfectly, it was a perfect fit. They came in and they nailed it. They actually sang the song face-to-face in one microphone. We wanted to do it like how it used to be, like this and then they'd record. That was kind of the theme when making When The World Comes Down: trying to make something real. So much music out there is just pumped out so fast, so many bands just trying to make records, that it gets really watered down, and sound the same. What we wanted to do, was just to make something real. We recorded it all on tape.
Chris: It was our first time doing it.

Who are some of your favorite artists?
Chris: Nick obviously listens to Queen.
Nick: I do. There's this Queen tattoo right there. -points at his arm-
chris: I think our collective band favorite would be Queen.
Nick: Oh yeah? Why'd you start playing drums, Chris?
Chris: I liked this Rolling Stones song called "Paint It, Black." I started playing drums that way. My dad wanted me to play saxophone, like Kenny G. [Laughs] That was probably one of the lamest things in the world to tell your son. "Play the saxophone, man! Kenny G plays saxophone!" That was like the only way he'd get me to never want to play saxophone in my entire life.
Nick: What is it with them? My dad wanted me to play synthesizers. Not piano. Because he loved Rick Wakeman. And Yanni.
Chris: Yeah, my dad loves Yanni too! What is up with old men... My dad listens to Peruvian flute band! That's the influence, yes. We got slightly off tangent. So then Nick, what made you want to play the guitar?
Nick: I will say my influences growing up, were Def Leppard and Bon Jovi. That's the reason why I'm doing what I'm doing right now.
Chris: But what made you want to play in a group? Like, "Whoaaa, I wanna be in a band man!" When did that moment happen?
Nick: I don't have that kind of accent man. [Laughs] I was about 7, raiding my sister's tape collection. She had everything from Def Leppard to... Pebbles.
Chris: Pebbles?! [Laughs]
Nick: [Laughs] I never touched that tape though! I was like, "Wha...What?! Pebbles?!"
Chris: That's the one with Dino.
Nick: Right. But we should probably go back and talk about our band. Sorry! So... next!

Are there any other genres of music that you'd like to explore?
Nick: I don't know man. You know, it seems really trendy to go country these days. [Laughs] We did get to explore a little bit. Ty played a little bit of steel guitars. I've been known to pick up a banjo in the past. Sleigh bells, and what not. I think it's just a matter of, when we wrote When The World Comes Down, we didn't take the songs past an acoustic guitar and the vocals. We got to a few chances taken on this one. Like the song "When The Wind Blows" it's a lot more synth-driven. My dad's proud. [Laughs]
Chris: Yeah sounds like Rick Wakeman!
Nick: Right... erm. Anyway, we got to take our music in a lot of different directions in this album, but the root of it is still us. I don't know what we'll do in the future. We got to do kind of like aFantasia-esque love song, it's the hidden track on the album called "Sunshine." That's just percussion, strings and sleigh bells, more atmospheric sounding stuff. I don't know where we'll go, but it's just what will keep it fresh for us.

You guys did a cover of Britney's "Womanizer." If you had to do another cover, what would it be?
Nick: I don't know. Growing up in Stillwater, Oklahoma, we had to play a lot of covers to get gigs, because a lot of the bars there don't have original music at all. It's mostly cover bands. So we kind of hate doing covers. I can't stand it. I went to one of those live band karaoke nights, where there's a live band playing, and the people at the bar can just sign on and get up to play. And they actually let Ty sing, and let me play in the band, and once we did a Ramones song. That's when doing a cover is fun. It was in Atlanta. This time, we had to do it to get on Yahoo. And it had to be a contemporary song, otherwise we wouldn't have picked "Womanizer." But I mean, it ended up being quite the hot topic. As we've been to more countries than I can count on my two hands, in the last 30 days, and have been asked this same question in every single country. So thanks Yahoo! And... Britney, I guess. [Laughs]

Are you guys fans of Britney then?
Chris: Oh God, no!
Nick: I met Britney once. Most of us are still living back in Oklahoma, and we're still big rubber-neckers, like when we're in situations where we go out to L.A. to do videos or something, and we go "Oh my god! That was that guy from Weekend At Bernie's over there!" Doesn't matter who it is. Actually I saw Britney one night. And the next day I went to one of those TMZ shows or whatever. And they were talking about the time when she went through the drive-through with her shirt tied around her head, topless.
Chris: No way...
Nick: Yeah, this was like, a year and a half ago.
Chris: She is out of her...
Nick: She WAS.
Chris: You don't just GET sane. Once you go crazy, you're crazy.
Nick: That was the only time I ever saw her. I didn't interact with her though.

Your latest music video for "Gives You Hell" is more story-oriented, like a mini movie. Has the acting bug finally caught on?
Nick: I think there are a couple of types of music videos that they don't make anymore. The narrative videos. And then there's the video to a soundtrack, where they show the band performing, and then they insert clips of the movies. They don't make those anymore. So we decided to make this, more of a narrative type video. It's more of a classic approach, that's not been touched that much anymore. And Marc Webb directed the video. He also did the video for "Move Along." And we have an interesting relationship with him. We don't always see eye to eye with him at the moment, but at the final product, we all have the best intentions. So there have been heated moments, and some arguments, but at the end of the day, the videos were great. And "Gives You Hell" was a lot of fun to make. I think by now, we're slowing accepting that we're going to have to do these things. Chris and I, particularly, hated making music videos for the longest time. We got to interrupt another tour, and fly to someplace else.
Chris: Yeah I hate it so. Eurgh.
Nick: Now I'm getting a little more accustomed to it. But I've heard that making movies is just way more sitting around, waiting and doing nothing, so yeah I would never act for real. Not saying that I could, either. [Laughs]