The All-American Rejects have been the scene’s most prolific radio darlings all through the early to late 2000s, scoring numerous chart-topping singles and eclipsing the Warped Tour circuit. And whereas it would not be unusual to listen to the band in any taste of the month coming-of-age teen comedy or rom-com throughout their preliminary peak, they at all times wished to make it identified that they weren’t aspiring to grow to be the largest band in the world — it was at all times for the love of the music they created and a shared dedication to creative integrity.
Following the discharge of their fourth and final studio album, Kids in the Street, in 2012, the All-American Rejects have but to ship a correct follow-up album in the 11 years which have since handed. It’s a testomony to the band’s pledge to maintain their legacy as sacred as doable and resist to the urge for a fast money seize or a shallow enterprise into the murky waters of nostalgia. Nostalgia is a little bit of a double-edged sword for the band, who, on the one hand, can’t keep away from that the music they launched and the scene they have been initially part of is having a big resurgence. On the opposite, they’ve a singular alternative now to show that they’re greater than the sum of their largest radio singles.
Read extra: 10 most criminally underrated the All-American Rejects songs
In 2023, the All-American Rejects are actually in a singular place the place their music is being launched to youthful audiences who won’t have even been alive upon the discharge of their debut studio album in 2002. So how does a band with 4 timeless information, a bunch of hit singles, and a die-hard fan base of each scene veterans and keen newcomers strategy the following chapter of their careers? For starters, they tour, however in this case, they put collectively one of many summer time’s most stacked lineup with the aptly titled Wet Hot All-American Summer Tour.
Joining the All-American Rejects is none aside from their closest musical friends who both got here up alongside them throughout their preliminary rise or impressed their very journey from the start with assist from the Get Up Kids, the Starting Line, Motion City Soundtrack, and New Found Glory. The Wet Hot All-American Summer Tour shouldn’t be merely a tour for nostalgia’s sake; it’s a celebration of the onerous work and impactful songs that enable a band to enter legacy standing. The Wet Hot All-American Summer Tour is proof that whereas the years have handed and the world has modified significantly, the All-American Rejects and their friends nonetheless have a lot left to say.
In an unique interview, we spoke with the All-American Rejects’ frontman and bassist Tyson Ritter and guitarist Nick Wheeler to debate the Wet Hot All-American Summer Tour, nostalgia, and the prospect of recent music.
Why does now really feel like the appropriate time for the All-American Rejects to embark on their first main headlining tour in almost a decade?
NICK WHEELER: I believe it is the right storm. It’s been a very long time since we have now finished a headlining tour, and whereas we launched just a few tunes and did a few assist excursions 5 or 6 years in the past, it is largely been one-offs. Whether it was festivals or company exhibits, we weren’t essentially enjoying for our personal followers, so we began doing just a few membership exhibits earlier than COVID. When that went away, we simply sat at residence for a few years earlier than we lastly received again on the market in 2022. The When We Were Young pageant, in explicit, not solely confirmed us that individuals are nonetheless enthusiastic about this sort of music once more, however we have been simply as joyful, excited, and stoked to play for our followers once more.
AAR at When We Were Young 2022. Jawn Rocha
TYSON RITTER: It simply felt right for us to do that tour. There was no purpose to pander to a crowd by releasing one thing new that wasn’t heartfelt or would open up a beast that solely wished to feed on the recollections of why this band solidified itself in the first place. If it’s the proper time for one thing, it is to see if folks can lastly acknowledge that it is a band, not simply songs. We have been a band from Oklahoma with rock shirts and blue denims, and we have now at all times been a band the place id was not as vital because the music we made, whereas our contemporaries have been much more calculated about what it seemed like and what it smelled like. We simply wished to do our personal factor. This tour is for us to do not forget that we have now a physique of labor that may rise up in entrance of the group and never solely transport you again to a spot but additionally be one thing greater than only a fast repair or an enormous MTV hit.
For the tour, you set collectively an unbelievable bundle of iconic bands to assist you that appears like a present to your devoted followers with how curated it’s. How vital was it to focus on your musical friends who got here up alongside you and likewise provide followers a one-of-a-kind expertise?
WHEELER: It was like that meme of Charlie Day from It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, the place we brainstormed for a number of months. [Laughs.] This is actually our dream bundle.
RITTER: While we have been doing demos for our first file, we took the tackle off the again of the Get Up Kids file Four Minute Mile for Doghouse Records and despatched an unsolicited demo to them that they pulled out of the trash and signed us. That’s why the Get Up Kids are on this tour for me, and they’re a seminal a part of our existence in greater than only a musical ambiance. Motion City Soundtrack was the first band we toured with in the Midwest, and we got here up on the similar time for these seminal moments in our band’s profession. With the Starting Line, we did one among our first large excursions with them, which was an enormous benchmark second for us. [Not to mention], with New Found Glory, I used to be 14 overlaying their music, so it is a full-circle second to get to tour with them now. This [tour] is a walkthrough of our fucking diary of life, and it is deeply private for us.
Another vital side of this tour is that it’ll enable new and youthful followers to expertise your music dwell for the first time. Do you discover yourselves contemplating the impression your music has had on the following era, the place children need to bands like All-American Rejects or My Chemical Romance because the Nirvana of their age?
WHEELER: There’s one thing particular about this scene and the music, even when we by no means felt like we belonged to it. I believe our songs helped us transcend and allowed us to do the radio and MTV factor, however actually it is simply the cycle of nostalgia now. When I began touring in 2002, I used to be solely listening to ’80s music, and now right here we’re 20 years later, and individuals are listening to 2000s music once more.
RITTER: The new era will get to purely take up [our band] in a random flicker of an algorithmic introduction that is pure with none predisposed concepts that this band is “too cool” or “too popular.” We had extra songs on the radio than any of the bands [in our scene] and threw our tunes in each 2000s rom-com film, which turned many individuals off, however I believe now folks get to see that we made an actual fucking providing. To be capable to spotlight that to a brand new era is cooler than [simply] making an attempt to remain related.
2023 additionally marks the fifteenth anniversary of the discharge of your third album, When The World Comes Down. Are there any plans to do something particular to have fun this milestone or spotlight a few of these songs in the upcoming setlist?
WHEELER: We’re not the kind of band to play a file entrance to again, however we have now at all times had enjoyable with vinyl repressings and particular releases.
Ritter: “Gives You Hell” [the lead single from When The World Comes Down] was a tune that grew to become larger than the band, whereas the remainder of that file received missed. With that album, we have been looking for a depth with the rock inside us. I truthfully do not know what songs we might pull from the file for the upcoming exhibits aside from “Gives You Hell.”
“Mona Lisa” can be cool.
RITTER: There you go! “Mona Lisa” is certainly going to come back out through the set. That’s a very particular tune to me.
Will this upcoming tour reinvigorate the band’s creativity and doubtlessly open the door to writing the long-awaited fifth All-American Rejects album?
WHEELER: We have but to seek out that magic components for making a real, new Rejects file, however perhaps we’ll over the summer time. This would be the first time we’ll all dwell collectively for the first time in six years — will probably be a visit, man. There aren’t any plans, however you possibly can by no means say by no means. If it feels proper and works out, then nice, however we’ll by no means do something to capitalize on a second. One of the explanations there hasn’t been a fifth Rejects file is that we refuse to compromise our style and pleasure a few mission as a result of it at all times needs to be higher than the final one.
RITTER: I’ve to need to do a Rejects file greater than something in the world for me to even strategy it. To go into the Rejects’ land once more, it may possibly’t be the identical this time.
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