Collaboration with The All-American Rejects

[Jaya]

i think you should listen carefully to back up voices... i guess you'll find voices like Mika's

 

Yes, exactly, I don't know if i'm imagining things but it sounds kinda like mika?

[basicamenteyo]

If you say Mika sings there, I´ll believe you.... but I can´t hear his voice as clearly as to swear I heard it

[Dreamy_Queen]

If you say Mika sings there, I´ll believe you.... but I can´t hear his voice as clearly as to swear I heard it

 

I heard "something" like him, but my husband, who is not that keen on Mika, says that he can clearly distinct him.

[krysady]

If you say Mika sings there, I´ll believe you.... but I can´t hear his voice as clearly as to swear I heard it

 

I can't recognise his voice either,could be also my neighbor or Justin Bieber as well (well,maybe not JB)

[SjoerdvWijk]

It's hard to recognise Mika... Still I like it

[basicamenteyo]

I can't recognise his voice either,could be also my neighbor or Justin Bieber as well (well,maybe not JB)

 

LOOOOOL

[vanessa]

I doubt Mika sings in it

[suzie]

I can't recognise his voice either,could be also my neighbor or Justin Bieber as well :

yes, just like the Andrae Crouch Gospel Choir in WAG : it may be there if they say so but since their contribution is limited and somehow diluted in the production I wonder what purpose it serves other than some publicity perhaps.

I actually like this song (apart from the silly echoing parts ) but claiming that Mika was invited to imitate a British children's choir sounds rather ‘funny’ to me. It would have probably been better for them to say that Mika was hanging around Greg’s studio so they added his vocals to the track that would have actually sounded the same without him.

 

I doubt Mika sings in it

 

Perhaps Greg lost the tape and never admitted it to the band.

[Dreamy_Queen]

If not even talking about Mika, I sincerely like this album.

 

It seems to me that I hear something like Mika on some songs, but even if it is not him, I enjoy the whole album very much.

[A. Clay]

 

Maggie✿ ‏ @7Maggie5

@greg_wells

I love Heartbeat Slowing Down <3.

Please where is Mika's voice in this song ?

 

@7Maggie5

"loo-lee-loo's" towards the end of the song

Reply from Greg Wells

 

http://musichotsex.tumblr.com/post/19681039517/the-all-american-rejects-heartbeat-slowing

Edited March 29, 2012 by A. Clay

[Christine]

Thank goodness someone asked or we'd never know

 

I will have to buy a proper copy tonight and listen to it on headphones. I've always said that I would know Mika's voice anywhere so we'll put that theory to the test

[suzie]

Thank goodness someone asked or we'd never know

 

I will have to buy a proper copy tonight and listen to it on headphones. I've always said that I would know Mika's voice anywhere so we'll put that theory to the test

 

Have you tested it on the Ramazotti song already? I really like that one.

[krysady]

Have you tested it on the Ramazotti song already? I really like that one.

He sings in that song? I thought he only composed it.

[willywonka]

 

Maggie✿ ‏ @7Maggie5

@greg_wells

I love Heartbeat Slowing Down <3.

Please where is Mika's voice in this song ?

 

@7Maggie5

"loo-lee-loo's" towards the end of the song

Reply from Greg Wells

 

http://musichotsex.tumblr.com/post/19681039517/the-all-american-rejects-heartbeat-slowing

 

So much fuss over a few loo-leee-loo's????:roftl::roftl:

[kreacher]

So much fuss over a few loo-leee-loo's????:roftl::roftl:

 

Leeloo is my cat's name... OMG MIKA SANG THE NAME OF MY CAT!

 

if only he knew

[suzie]

He sings in that song? I thought he only composed it.

 

He sings backing vocals on it, too. He is the 'aaaah' on it. - love it though.

[krysady]

He sings backing vocals on it, too. He is the 'aaaah' on it. - love it though.

 

Thanks,now I have to go and listen to it again!! Man,he really love to make vocals

[Kumazzz]

Wiki : Kids In The Street

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_in_the_Street

 

[Marilyn Mastin]

It's a really good song! Think I caught the Mika bit.

[Kumazzz]

Tyson mentions Mika in this interview in September, 2012.

 

INTERVIEW:

Tyson Ritter Of The All-American Rejects Comes Clean

http://www.neontommy.com/news/2012/09/tyson-ritter-comes-clean

September 7, 2012 | 12:12 p.m. PDT

 

Spoiler

There's something Tyson Ritter has said repeatedly: "It's ironic, because the thing is, it's going to take a long time for things to get better."

 

He says it in the new ad for his humanitarian venture with Valiant Watches. A quarter of the money made from each watch goes to his charity "Don't Hate On Haiti." The group hands money over to charity:water, a global organization dedicated providing potable H20 to developing nations. The watch design is called BE.REAL, and they're red, blue and white. 

It's a catchy quip for an ad, but it's not ironic in a strict literary sense. The irony is that this man, who has stated his devotion in mind and body to the hands-on, immediate payoff of rock music performance, is striving to be a constructive part of something long-lasting.

Slavoj Žižek suggests that tying economic decisions to moral virtue, as Valiant has done, is typical of modern liberal economics. That is to say, believing that buying something like a watch, a pair of Tom's shoes or a chicken sandwich can be good for you in an ethical sense is a relatively new phenomena.

Žižek claims that this is symptomatic of a critical flaw in society's political and economic structure. Ritter said it was cool to see his name on the side of a well.

When asked about his inclination for playing music, Ritter waxes nostalgic for moments in the garage, jamming on the bass while singing Beatles songs. All the bigger stuff, such as his group's 16 years of flash-bulb caliber success, he lumps in the category of "surreal."

He refers to fronting the All-American Rejects as the only job he can handle: "The thing I know how to do," he said, "I don't know how I feel about anything right now, man. I've been doing the same thing for ten years, and this is the only thing I know."

"There's nothing to process. Just keep going. I'll think about it when I'm old and I'm wearing my band t-shirts and I finally hang up my platinum records."

Yet he clearly yearns to do something with lasting importance. Ritter claims his recent activity is the result of a "quarter-life crisis," saying that parting ways with his girlfriend/"muse" of six years forced him to wholly reconsider his motivations and the foundations of his existence.

In addition to the charity project, the newest Rejects' single is "Heartbeat Slowing Down." It's a song Ritter won't stop referring to as "the best song this band's written," and "the most ambitious thing we've ever done."

That statement may be cause for consternation, since the song's about basically the same thing as "Swing Swing," their first hit from the beginning of 2002 — breaking up is hard to do. The story's  the same, but in terms of style they've advanced beyond their years spent producing unadulterated pop-punk junk.

"Heartbeat" has a hearty belt of modern production in its gut, like the "Euro dance, totally heavy dance" sound that Ritter said defines contemporary mainstream music. He happily suggest that Mika's vocal on the track makes it greater, compounding the efforts of producer Greg Wells.

"Artists have more freedom than ever before," he said, with a clear-cut resoluteness that suggests he really believes it. "The way music's gone in the last five years has been really remarkable."

"Off-the-beaten-path music — there's so much of it, it's awesome," Ritter said. "Now it seems like you have to find the music you love. Which is, I think, very cool."

The Rejects' most recent album, "Kids in the Street," is full of lyrics talking about the same things as all their other work, e.g. girls and women and other cliché bar band foci. But their musical influences are branched out, albeit straying little from a safety net of airplay established groups. Veins of Weezer and U2 have definitely been opened up, and "Gonzo" owes a surprising debt to Radiohead.

"The 90s are comin' back hardcore," Ritter said. "History repeats itself. s**t, I'm sure we'll have a second grunge."

The songs are clearly written for his audience in the here and now — "Walk Over Me" tries for the Queen thing that could kill on the road, whereas "I For You" is nothing but coffee-shop ready pop. But Ritter may stand to be more than a pretty face bubbling around on the charts. 

He could be a lion for acting based on what feels right, be that via a charitable organization or a slick producer. After all, simply giving deference to feelings is all their songs have ever been about.

 

Full Q & A:

What's your fan base like on this current tour?

 

I think we every record we make new fans, and being the we're a band that gets played on pop radio primarily, those fans are quite young. But the people who remember us from back in the dog-ass record days still come out too. So I guess, you come to a Rejects show, you get every walk of life. It's kind of interesting.

 

How did your work with Valiant Watches get started?

 

I started DontHateOnHaiti.org two years ago, right after the terrible earthquake. And I just did DIY, I didn't have anybody help me, so I was like, well, screw 'em. I'll buy all these shirts — I owned a printing press for t-shirts, so it cost me nothing after I bought the shirts to actually print them. And so we sold them on our website, DontHateOnHaiti.org, and immediately, my first instinct was to take it on the Warped Tour with me. And we raised about 20 grand in like 20 days. That was like a really significant deal for us.

And after that I did various other little things that I could think of as I've gone — like when I toured with the suits I got some top man, I just spray painted with the "Don't Hate On Haiti" logo, and we made ten grand on it when we auctioned it off after we everyone on Warped tour that year to sign it.

So Valiant Watches came to me when a friend of mine, Jackie, just happened to go to school with Chris and Tracy from Valiant, and they approached me, and they said, 'look, we're trying to start this watch company, and we know your passion for Haiti.' And the good thing about the watches is, you can break them down and build them. And they donate 25 percent of all proceeds to the charity. And being that we don't have our own little watch company I thought it was just a great thing to do.

 

Why the focus on Haiti?

 

At the moment that happened in my life, I was just sort of lost as a person. And it kinda shook me one day, that happened. I just woke up one day, turned on the TV, and I was just really humbled by the fact that not only was it such a huge tragedy, and it's continually still a fight for those people, but I just also felt like it went away pretty quick, considering almost half a million people were displaced, and clearly shocked. Whereas in America, we forget very quickly.

So I guess my whole thing is, I know I'm not going to pry raise a million dollars for this charity, but at least I can continually keep awareness up for the fact that these people are going to be afflicted for the 25 to 30 years rebuilding their country.

It all starts with water. Water was the first affliction, water's the first thing you need to establish life, and they still have troubles with irrigation, so, charity water. I just happened to watch Scott Harrison did a Powerpoint presentation in a small house in Venice a couple years ago before charity water really got their notoriety. And all my proceeds and donations go directly to Charity Water, which have a funnel directly down to people of Haiti. And we've already built a couple water wells. And, I don't know, seeing your charity's name on the side of a well, it's kind of a cool thing. When you see all those people standing next to it, it's like, wow, this is a great thing.

 

You went there?

 

We're going to go after Christmas, this year. You know, I got invited to grab a shovel and help build, but I feel like that's more of a strict publicity thing. I feel like if I go to go down there, I'd like to do the thing that I know how to do, which is play music and make people sort of find a little bit of serenity in the insanity. I think we're gonna try to play.

 

So you're interested in bringing together the band and the charity effort?

 

I feel like I have to use my pedestal… I don't want to make it so incestuous. It's a blessing to be able to raise awareness through the fact that I do have a band. But every time I try to put it on tour, venues want to take a percentage. So it's better online, sort of social media.

What's cool is when the kids come to the show and they have the watch or something, when I see them outside, I stop everything for them, you know what I mean? It's kind of like a little club.

It's a great thing when you can wear an awareness of anything on your wrist. There's an ironic nature to the thing: it's gonna take so much time to actually rebuild Haiti. You kinda got it all on your wrist, get the watch.

 

How much are you able to identify with your fans?

 

It's crazy, still meeting those first-time concert goers. How much do I relate to my fans nowadays? It's funny, man, we've been playing this casino/college run, and we'll find some pool tables where we can just hang out. Talk to somebody. In these college towns, it usually creates a bit of a scare when we go out after a show or whatever. But meeting some of these people, sitting around a pool table, these kids that are old enough to get into a bar, they're the kind of people that have grown with us. I dunno, it's funny when you actually meet people that remind you of yourself when you were younger, and you're like, these people listen to me. It's just kinda heartwarming, knowing that these people you play to.

I dunno, nobody's like a Rejects fan. It's really nice to sort of be humbled by your audience. And they're just really cool, and they don't freak out when they meet cha, they just sorta wanna tell you something. Like, the greatest moment I've ever had, as an artist or somebody, was: I was checkin out of a hotel, like last year, and this guy came up to me and he was like, 'Hey, I just want to let you know I had two tickets to the show last night, and it was great.' I was like, oh cool. But he was like, 'I only got to use one.' I was like, oh man, what, sorry, did your date flake on you or whatever?

And he was like, 'No, my brother was sick with cancer. And he held on, and it was all because of the song "Move Along." And he almost made it to the show, but he passed a couple weeks ago. And I wanted to come because we planned on it."

So I was just like, wow.

And he's like, 'I just want to let you know that song you wrote gave him an extra fighting chance, or gave him an extra six months that I got to spend with him.'

And I was like, you know, I'm a good son, I'm a bad man sometimes. But knowing that something I penned in a 20-dollar-a-night hotel in Atlanta might have helped saved some souls out there or helped give people hope, then, I don't know, that's something bigger than I ever expect.

 

How does Kids In The Street compare to your previous albums?

 

I think that reputation-wise, and a sort of song approach, it's a totally different bag for us. It's like the first record I wrote where I didn't necessarily have a muse like I've always had in the past. It just sort of made me feel a little more reflection on life. It's a record about a quarter life crisis for a young man. Lyrically, the record sort of bounces in and out of questioning life in your 20s, and realizing who you are at the end of it.

It's the most ambitious thing we've ever done — we worked with Greg Wells, who's done a lot of these really ambitious things that have gotten really great critical acclaim over the last years. But mainly I decided to work with him because of this Mika record — this artist named Mika who I think is really incredible — the sounds on that record were just really well recorded. And I was really sort of into the Greg Wells thing before I even met him. And working with him, it was just a hell of a journey. And Kids In The Street takes ten years of things we've always experimented with and masters it into one record. It's a bold statement for us as a band. And we're really excited that Mika even preformed on what's going to be our next single, it's called "Heartbeat Slowing Down." I think it's collectively the best song this band's written, as a band.

Sometimes when you sit down and write a song, and you're writing the words for it, it's an emotional thing to actually write the words themselves. Writing that song, it took me two days to, really, really… it's about an affair, where we're running through life. It was an interesting little thing. Sort of being that honest with yourself through a song. And it yielded what I think is, yeah, a favorite of our band.

 

How did collaborating with Nick Wheeler work on this album?

 

I'm kind of the skeleton maker of the Frankenstein relationship we've had. I'll give Nick just the bare bones on what lyrics there may be, and Nick's kinda the doctor, he can sew it all together. We've been going on these little writing trips since I was a kid, and that's always been how we sort of find our sound. And we haven't really deferred from that for the past three records.

But this journey was more intense. Because every time Nick would suggest a writing trip… it was always perfectly timed. I really needed to get out of wherever I was every time we went on a writing trip.

So there's a lot of that sort of volatility and tension on the record. If you're out in the woods with a guy for two weeks, s**t gets weird.

 

How has finding success been for you?

 

This girl got a tattoo of the band. So it's this surreal, two dimensional, digital proof that you always get. It's surreal. Everything's sort of like a dream I guess. I guess when you wake up, your feet sort of jump back to the ground a little bit. I see my family's reaction to stuff sometimes, and that sort of makes me giggle.

I don't know how I feel about anything right now, man. I've been doing the same thing for ten years, and this is the only thing I know. So if anything changed I would just be completely devastated.

You learn to live traveling. Like, when you have guests on the bus or you have someone ride with you for a couple days — like, my mother, she came with me to Europe for a week for the first time. She'd never been on the road. And just, sort of, watching her get beat down after nine days, and the fact that I'm like a squirrel, I never run out of energy, and she's just like dying. I'm like, wow, I guess this life is something you gotta be cut for.

I'm completely in this dream world, touring. And when you have success partner up with it, it makes it even more surreal. Right now I'm in a hotel room, in Lake Charleston, Louisiana, waiting for a hurricane to pass. Two days ago I was in ####ing Tahoe. It's just, like, sort of just a dream world. And when you have anything that's successful, coupled with the lifestyle to make it even more surreal — I don't know.

 

What's it like in Louisana? 

 

Windy. Cloudy. Rainy. And the casino is full. It's funny how people are making this such a massive deal, when it's probably the weakest hurricane to land in America in a long time.

I spent the last the last six years in Destin, and I went through Ivan, and it's so funny because that was a category four and that wasn't really on TV at all, but ever since Katrina, they've really hyped it up. It's a big advertising day when hurricanes land.

It's all show I guess, really not punch.

 

Speaking of places you've lived, when was the last time you went back to Oklahoma?

 

You know, small towns get really small. It's weird, you grow up, and when you're from a small town, a lot of people just stay. So when you leave and come back it's surreal. But I love it every time I go, because my family's beautiful. And we're like the 3rd oldest family there, but we come from the mutt side. We're the dust bowl children, that great grandfather staked a claim in the land run. We're not the rockstars of the town. I have a very colorful family.

It was my great-grandfather's father. My great-great grandfather. They did the land run and everything. It's crazy. On my grandfather's property there's this sandstone, that's etched in there, it says the date and s**t, that's sort of bizarre.

 

Have you always sworn so much?

 

I'm a sailor, unfortunately. I've been on the bus for 10 years, and taken time to record records in-between, so you kinda get a mouth on ya. Every time we play Oklahoma though, I clean it up for mom. She comes to my act every time.

 

How did you come to play the music you do?

 

I was always drawn to the bass because I could sing while I played it. And I felt like that sort of, you can find the beauty of a song by playing it on a bass and singing it. A good song, you can get completely naked and it still looks good. That's what the Rejects are about: we strive to make every song that we write completely stand alone on a guitar.

When I was 12 years old in a garage learning Beatles songs, I didn't think why I loved the bass, I just knew it felt right. I think every musician just finds their calling, either that or they're just freaks that can play anything. But I find that the freaks that can play anything don't really… it sucks. I always say  the world is music and as Magellan, once you discover a place, it's gone, it's on the map. So writing a song, you only have so much of the world to discover, and people that know everything about every instrument, they've been around the world so many times they don't know where the #### they're going.

The music business thing, it's always changed. It's always gonna change. The way s**t's now, it's reverted back to the 1960s way of gold-record singles. It's not about the records anymore, it's about the songs. That's the way it was in the 50s. History repeats itself. s**t, I'm sure we'll have a second grunge. I'm seeing a lot of kids rocking flannels and the ####ing thermal underneath the shorts.

The 90s are comin' back hardcore. It's really great, turning on the radio and hearing a bunch of 90s songs. I just think it's great that's the reverted music now — remember when the 80s were cool? Now the 90s are cool. As far as the return, on Sirius radio and stuff. It's really kinda funny.

The way music's gone in the last 5 years has been really remarkable. If you're talking mainstream music, then that's a totally different conversation. Mainstream music has totally gone the way of the Euro, dance. It's totally heavy dance. 

Off-the-beaten-path music, there's so much of it, it's awesome. Now you have to have the treasure map, which is just sort of, knowing about it. Now it seems like you have to find the music you love. Which is, I think, very cool.

Jesus, pop radio changes every two years. When people start getting irritated that everything is four-on-the-floor, I think that'll happen. There's going to have to be a serious epidemic of broken necks, or strained necks in order to change the dance beat. 

 

Are there any changes going on in rock music?

 

Rock and roll is never gonna go away. Music has always been cyclical, like a kaleidoscope, never showing you the same thing twice. The wheel keeps on spinnin. I don't think music's ever going to fall on its ass. People need it. It's the language of life. It's the breath of your ears. I'm not really too concerned about it. I think the artists have more power nowadays than they ever have, so it's only going in the right direction.

The foundation of music has always been: people want to listen to it. So as long as people want to listen to it, we'll always play it.

We continued to push ourselves for ten years, and that's what's kept us on the chain for ten years. So I'm not too concerned. I feel that every musical discovery that happens is only a tool for your kit, and if you use it wisely and you use it to make a song that is genius, because that's the only thing that can ever break through nowadays. The music that's perfectly executed, that's the cream nowadays. That's the way it's going.

We have more control over where our music goes, what our music is. More importantly, how the music works. Music works harder now than the people that promote it, that's a beautiful thing.

 

What are things like for you currently?

 

We're on a nationwide tour with Boys Like Girls for the next two months, and we'll be supporting our new single "Heartbeat Slowing Down," off our new record "Kids In The Street," blah blah blah. 

We toured with Boys Like GIrls way back in the day. It's cool, we brought out Eve 6 on this little fair run, that was like surreal, because I listened to them when we were going to shows we weren't playing. Like, college radio, 14, Eve 6  comes on. And then they're opening for us ten years later. It's definitely a pinch-me scenario. If you'd have told me when I was 13 that a band that had a song on the radio that I liked would be playing before us ten years of 15 years after that, I wouldn't believe that. I'd call bulls**t.

Why process it, man? Nothing to process. Just keep going. I'll think about it when I'm old and I'm wearing my band t-shirts and I finally hang up my platinum records.

 

How was touring with Blink 182?

 

It made me feel young. They've been doing it for 20, it was their 20 year tour. Seeing them as a band, how they operate, it was kinda cool knowing that wfter 10 years, we're still all great friends. We're still chummy. So it made me feel really good about that. It made me realize we still do it cause we love to. It made me love it even more.

They had their children out there. It was kinda a full time job just keeping up with their family. I learned something from it: never to procreate. It was a really good lesson for me: never have a family, if you want to play rock and roll. You can have your extended family, but, babies and rock and roll just give me the chills. 

I eat banana peels every day just to be sterile. I'm just kidding. It's a tribal thing.

Don't ask me for expert insight. I'm just a kid who writes songs inside a hotel room. There is my depth. And personally, we all figure it out.

 

 

 

[Kumazzz]

Tyson Ritter interview

 

Metrolyrics

May 10, 2012

http://www.metrolyrics.com/news-story-the-all-american-rejects-tyson-ritter-interview.html

 

The All-American Rejects' Tyson Ritter Tells Us About Songwriting, Running Into An Old Flame, and His Small-Town Roots

 

Spoiler

Recently, we got the chance to sit down with The All-American Rejects' Tyson Ritter and ask him about the band's new album Kids In The Street, his songwriting, and his musical influences. Here's what he had to say...

MetroLyrics: Growing up in Oklahoma, who were some of your musical inspirations?

Tyson Ritter: I mean, definitely my dad. Everyday he'd pick me up after school and we'd take dirt roads and he's have a six-pack of beer and I'd drive. He'd play all sorts of music for me anything from Black Crowes to INXS to AC/DC. He really loved rock n' roll. That kind of always stuck with me. My mom, my pops, and my grandma [were] huge musical fans and [they] got me into that.

ML: The All-American Rejects formed in 1999 but you guys really broke out in 2002 with the release of your debut self-titled album. Can you tell me where that album came from, being that you wrote it when you were still essentially a teenager?

TR: We wrote like 5 songs and started touring around Oklahoma and Texas. We sent all our CDs out to every record company that our favourite acts were on. All of a sudden Doghouse records came and saw a show and they were like "Well, you guys need a record's worth of material in order to do this", so in the next 6 months Nick dropped out of college and I graduated highschool early and we wrote the rest of the record (6 songs). We flew to New York and recorded it after that summer of touring and the rest is sort of history I guess.

ML: From that album, "Swing Swing" was the most popular single. What did that song mean to you guys at the time?

TR: You know, it's a lyric about a girl that I was seeing who was pretty much the muse for the whole record. It's funny, I ran into her for the first time in 10 years last year and I just gave her a big hug and I was like "Thank you SO much!" She seemed a little bit distraught by it but it's funny how powerful music can be cause it almost seemed like she was kinda holding onto something. Music turns into a person, and that person is still alive: it can mess people up a bit.

 

ML: You guys have had a number of massive hits, BUT your most popular lyrics on our site are "Gives You Hell" followed by "It Ends Tonight". What do you think it is about those songs specifically that connects with fans of your lyrics?

 

TR: I think "Gives You Hell" is just an anthem of, you know, defiance to someone in your life that you think hasn't believed in you. The song is a big middle-finger to anyone you don't like and those songs are always fun, I guess. "It Ends Tonight", I think that when it came out it was just sort of appropriate for people who never had the lyrics to stand on. It was funny — the other night I was talking with my tour manager and I had just met him and he was like "Hey, 'It Ends Tonight', man: I'm surprised you were the first person to pull that out". And I was sort of like, "Hmmm." You know, when a lyric and a melody comes together for the first time, in the 50's the most popular one was probably like "My girl hurt me" or something, [or] "Don't take my baby", but to be the first person to drop lyrics like we did in "It Ends Tonight" was cool. Like with "Dirty Little Secret", I think when a lyric has never ben used in a song before, it has more of an impact.

 

ML: Especially when you know it's something as simple as "It Ends Tonight", but it can really hit hard with your fans.

 

TR: Yeah. Lyrics don't always have to be 8-layers deep to have an impact.

 

ML: Totally. So Nick Wheeler and you form the songwriting force behind All-American Rejects. What's that relationship like?

 

TR: When we started writing our new record Kids In The Street, it seemed like our relationship had changed just as it's done throughout the past 10 years. I think just as we become more individuals, the more that we bring unique things to the music we create. Every time we do a record, the music changes. Kids In The Street was our first stride towards something that proved that not only had we grown together as writers, but as individuals as well. The sort of conflicts in the music play along with the lyrics but also reflect the development of the band.

I think the difference between us is that Nick is very controlled and I'm very chaotic, and when you stir that up you get some sort of tasty cocktail.

 

ML: Speaking of Kids In The Street, how would you say it differs from your previous albums?

TR: I mean, I think it's just us after 10 years. I like to think of musical discovery like Magellan, you know, travelling, discovering new parts of our world. This record I feel like we kind of got in a rocketship and jumped out of this world. Our producer was a really big influence on the fact that this record is more diverse sonically than all our others combined. I think this record has proven to be a bold move for us as a band.

ML: I've read that you referred to the theme of the record as "a callback to the moment in your life where you're so dumb but so smart at the same time." What exactly did you mean by that? Can you elaborate on the themes on the album?

TR: We called it Kids In The Street because there's a reflective moment where you think back to those pure moments in life where it's funny how when you turn into your twenties, you blow out your candle of naivete and light the flame of cynicism. It sort of obscures the joys that you once had, so this record tries to let you grab into those moments in the songs. Where I'm from we run down dirt roads and you know, we didn't have all these terrible outlets to poison ourselves, we just had a fast car and a dirty road and a great girl that would experience life with you in those lost moments of your youth. It's kind of a good mirror that shows you the person you once were. Honestly, when I think about who I am or who I was, I think about some of those cherished memories of being a young adult. Not like being 15 but being almost graduated from high school and just really knowing your sh*t even thought you didn't know nothing at all.

ML: Is it sort of a rejection of some of the negative and toxic aspects of fame and big-city life or what comes along with that?

TR: Yeah, when I moved to LA after I broke up with my lady and fired my manager at the time, I just realized when you sacrifice everything for a job that you love dearly, you lose some of the sense of self and the reality that you had. When I reflected on the moment that I wanted to sort of embrace and try being "real", it was that moment right before I left Oklahoma for the first time. Those are moments of pure joy and reality had a virginity to it. It's a lot more precious to me.

 

ML: On that note, I've heard that this album holds that cohesive theme as opposed to previous albums that had many themes. What was it like having a clear mission driving the making of this album?

TR: It's funny, we really didn't have a vision until we sat down with Mike and Chris, the other guys in the band, and we sort of had a big jury trial for the songs. That's kind of how we do it, we write like 30 songs and then take them to the butcher shop and see where we can trim the fat. And then what was left was this skeleton of a story of a man who, like myself, moved out to Los Angeles, ran with the wrong crowd for a few months, [and] got torn down by that. I'm a simpleton from Oklahoma, and when a girl rips your heart out in a big city kinda way, it's different, man. It's a little bit more of a cardiac arrest that happens. From that, I sort of spun out of control and then through writing and through music I feel like this is a lyrical record of putting the pieces back together; settling up old accounts, if you will. I feel like that narrative you hear in the album just kind of happened by accident. When you write 20 songs that are all chronological, and based on your life at that moment, it definitely comes together as a story. In past songs, I would just sort of use people in my life for inspiration. I didn't have much to complain about. I was so domesticated and bored. This record is a lot more of a truthful record, personally. The last records were more stories.

ML: Tell me about your new single (title track) "Kids In The Street". Is that sort of a representation of the album as a whole in one song?

TR: It's definitely the mermaid at the front of this ship. We're really proud of it not only sonically but I feel like lyrically it paints a picture that anybody can sort of look at and haze their eyes over in reflection. So yeah, I'm really proud of the song, and I'm really proud of the record. There's songs on the record like "Heartbeat Slowing Down" which is the one I really want to get to, where we had Mika from the UK who is an incredible singer and he was accompanied by this massive choir. It's probably the biggest most anthemic song we've written as a band. As far as the record is concerned, "Kids In The Street" and "Heartbeat Slowing Down" are really the standout tracks.

 

ML: The music biz has evolved a lot and it seems that rock bands don't have as easy of a time selling their music as they might have 10 years ago. Is that intimidating for you coming out with a new album?

TR: I mean, I don't know. We've enjoyed this for 10 years, I think that those 10 years made it so that we can enjoy it for 10 more. As long as we keep making music that our fans love, then we'll be as satisfied as they are.

ML: Lastly, I've read about the writing retreats that you and Nick take. Can you tell me a bit about those and how they play into your songwriting?

TR: I'm a creature of my environment. If I'm in the woods, I write like i'm in the woods. If I'm in a suburb of a city, everything's a bit peppier. I think it's funny Nick and I we choose to seclude ourselves in log cabins and little hold-ups because we have to sort of beat ourselves into submission of sort of looking inward as opposed to having all this distraction where we can put it off and put it off. Also I feel like the city feeds us different energies so being able to write different songs, I think that's where we're real. That's reality for us. Like me at a house where I sleep on the couch you know, that's not my reality. My last 10 years have been on a bus and then the other times just catching up with family. So when Nick and I take these little trips, I think that's sort of when we're really finding ourselves, which is really necessary for our writing.

ML: Do you have a favourite lyric of all time?

TR: Man! That's tough. I think it's the melody that has to be perfect with the lyric too. I'm not one of those people that just sort of geek out over lyrics. I think they have to be married to a beautiful melody. I'll have to get back to you on that one, man.

ML: What's your favourite cheesy karaoke song?

TR: I like to do "Apeman" by The Kinks. That's a sleeper hit that no-one knows but everyone can pick up by the end of the song. And then [there's the] Man From Mars: anytime you pull out Bowie and can do it, the crowd's in awe. I love it, it's such a good time. We're pretty hardcore karaoke-ers! It's a big deal for us, we dress up for it.

ML: What's next for you guys? Touring?

TR: Yeah we're on tour right now doing a little club run then we'll jump on board with Blink-182.

 

 

 

[Kumazzz]

Z Zounds

Video interview

https://www.zzounds.com/lp/all-american-rejects-video-interview

 

Spoiler

We caught up with All-American Rejects lead singer Tyson Ritter while on the road promoting AAR's latest album, Kids in the Street. In this exclusive video, Ritter tells us about the recording process, his love of Fender basses, the test of a great song, and more.

 

Your album Kids in the Street was recorded with Greg Wells, who's worked with such acts as Adele and Katy Perry. What was it like balancing your rock sound with his more pop background?

Greg is like a chameleon; he can sort of blend into whatever scenario he's working with. The main reason why I really loved him was that Mika record he did. It sounded incredible. It had all sorts of different things on it that I never heard before. It just sounded really beautifully recorded. So balancing the pop of Greg with the pop-rock of us really wasn't that difficult. He was more like a fifth member.

 

Tell us about the recording process for Kids in the Street.

We had a really conscious effort to incorporate keyboards in the studio a lot more -- just because they were around, really. Every day we'd sort of walk in and start tooling on them, to whatever we did the night before. We recorded live a lot on this record...capturing it as a band, all together on a song -- like on a song called "Out The Door," we did live together. And the first song on the record, a song called "All Days Gone," we did all live. It was great.

 

What's your favorite track on the album?

My favorite track on the record is our new single, called "Heartbeat Slowing Down." And it's sort of the bookmark of the record. It really is a turning point where this sort of grand sound comes out through this ballad that is a bleeding heart for the record. I think it's one of our greatest songs that we've ever written as a band.

 

We're digging the electro version of "Heartbeat Slowing Down" on your Flatline EP. What influences do you look to when working on something in that genre?

Can a good song be dressed any way you want? That's the test of a great song. You can dress it up as a reggae song; we've heard that version of "Move Along" and it's incredible. And you can dress it up as a country song -- cool. However you dress a song, if it has staying power, then it works. The Flatline EP is something I'm really proud of because it just sort of seamlessly shows that in that application, these songs still ring true. And they're really fun. I really took a spin on the song that actually made it happy, instead of so anthemically melancholy.

 

What's one song you'd love to cover but haven't?

One song I would love to cover that we've always messed around with at soundcheck is just Pixies' "Where Is My Mind?" I just think it's fun, and I think the band can do it, so it's cool every time we try.

 

You've played a number of Fender basses with AAR, including both Jazz and Precision models. How do you decide which is right for what occasion? What sort of tones do your different Fenders offer?

I was kind of torn whenever I got the Jazz bass because it played beautifully, but it didn't have the beefy bottom that I love on a P bass -- or, I guess the "dirty" bottom that a P bass has. It's got a round, clear, bottom... You know, every song, we play a different bass. It's not like we record with P basses the whole time. So I think it depends on getting as close to the sound we achieved on the record. That's what discerns what bass we use.

 

What was your first piece of gear? What advice would you give to younger players just starting out?

My dad bought me a Razor guitar. It looked like a Strat. It was like a hundred bucks at a pawn shop. I learned as much as I could on that thing. To younger players just starting out, I would say, just play out. That was the only thing that ever worked for us, when we played shows out in the city and in the surrounding cities, and wherever. We were inventive -- we played 24-hour relays, we played jungle gyms, we played whatever. We played any place that would have us. So, just play out!

 

You've been on a pretty extensive touring schedule; what are some of your favorite cities to pass through?

My favorite city in the world is Barcelona, Spain. It's heaven on earth, and you should go there if you ever get a chance. Get a boat! Get a small boat and enough provisions for two weeks to cross the Atlantic.

 

You're stuck on a desert island, but you can take one instrument or piece of equipment with you. What do you take?

I'm stuck on a desert island? For one day, or for forever?

 

For the rest of your life.

Crap. I would probably take just an acoustic guitar, 'cause you could probably catch a fish in the soundhole as well, so that's two for one!

 

 

 

 

[Kumazzz]

Interview  by Perez

 

[Kumazzz]

Rock Ur Life

ALL-AMERIC REJECTS（22/06/12）

 

https://www.rockurlife.net/interview/english/the-all-american-rejects-22-06-12

https://www.rockurlife.net/interview/the-all-american-rejects-22-06-12

 

There is few collaboration on this album, how did you decide all that?

 

T: Mika is because of our producer. I'm a great fan of all his stuff. His music and his melodies. We wanted to go in studios with a producer who had a vision pretty close of ours. Then we've invited Mika on "Heartbeat Slowing Down", my favourite song on the album. I hope it's the song how will get the biggest on it, having that guest on it makes it even bigger I think.
N: We really tried to think about what type of voices we wanted to have on every song. If sometimes we think a girly voice would be better there or there, Tyson sings it with a sort of girly voice. We don&rsquo;t do collaboration only to add a name on the album. Some people do, we don't.