Updated Sep 3, 2009 - 5:57 pm
All-American Rejects take a minute for Bumbershoot
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MyNorthwest.com
The All-American Rejects are stopping in Seattle for Bumbershoot and a breath of fresh air in the midst of their whirl-wind world tour.
The band released its third album, "When the World Comes Down," in December 2008 and has been touring ever since. After headed across the pond to Europe, the band plans to tour with Taking Back Sunday through the end of the year. There are no definite plans for 2010, yet, but it sounds like a fourth record may be in the works. A number four so quickly may be rushing it a bit, according to the current production rate.
Whatever the band decides to do, it'll surely be a success. Mike Kennerty, back up vocals and rhythm guitar, took a minute to talk about life on the road, his stop in Seattle, and the future.
What are you guys up to?
We are just continuing to support our new album, "When the World Comes Down." We have a new single called "I Wanna" that's just coming out. We've been touring our asses off. We just came from a Southeast Asia and Australia run.
What's your schedule like?
We're touring through the rest of the year, going back to Europe for a bit, and then coming back to the states to do a tour with Taking Back Sunday. We don't have anything set for next year yet, but I guess if "I Wanna" is doing well, we'll keep going or we'll start working on a new record. It's kind of up in the air right now.
Any crazy road stories?
These shows in Asia we just did, a lot of them were the first time we have been to those countries. We played Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, and Taipei. It was just assumed that we were going in there as nobodies and we show up and apparently we're really popular over there. It was a really crazy surprise. It was awesome. All the kids there go crazy at shows. It turned out to be this amazingly fun experience. We had no idea. It was the first time we've ever felt like rock stars, the way people treated us and we were getting chase by people. It was insane.
Have you ever checked into a hotel under another name?
No, we haven't done that, but we probably should. "When the World Comes Down" was released at the end of 2008.
Is this a different sound for the band?
With each record we've done we've sort of lucked into not repeating ourselves. A lot of bands, when they have a little bit of success, try to capitalize on it and try to shit out a record really fast to follow it up. We've always taken our time and in that process of taking our time we naturally grow up as people and we start writing different types of songs. We take a lot of time between records and I think that makes the records better. This one is no exception. I think we've gotten a lot of varied styles that we haven't explored before on it. "Gives You Hell" was one of those songs that definitely sounds like nothing else we've done before. It turned out to be the one of the biggest songs that we've ever had, so that was cool. "I Wanna," the new single, is one of the few songs that is sort of a call back to previous albums. It's sort of a mix of the two. It was actually the first song we wrote for the record over two years ago. It's the new thing for people, but for us it's...we're sick of it.
You mentioned another record. Do you already have enough material?
Yeah, there are little things coming here and there. It's tough for us to lock in and really work out songs when we're on the road because there's so much shit going on, but this time we're being more productive than we have ever been before. Maybe it won't take as long to make a record this time.
Have you ever played Bumbershoot?
No, this is our first time. We're excited.
Do you have any plans in Seattle?
There is one record store that I love: Singles Going Steady (2219 2nd Ave # C Seattle). I always enjoy going there.
