All Or Nothing Interview

I recently had the opportunity to interview Birmingham, England's All Or Nothing.

How would you describe your band to someone who has never heard All or Nothing?

I guess i would say we are a modern day pop punk band. Different to a lot of whats out there at the moment as we try and keep things more varied and not so "samey" with everything that we write.

What bands would you say are your biggest influence?

We all listen to a ton of different stuff these days. But we all grew up on the same Pop Punk scene of Saves The Day, New Found Glory, Green Day a lot of the Drive Thru era bands etc. As we have gotten older all of our musical tastes have changed a lot. But those first bands have probably influenced us the most as they were the ones made us all love this style of music yknow.

You're playing the Slam Dunk Festival on May 30th in Birmingham. How did you get involved with this Festival?

Yeah we have been lucky enough to have played the Slam Dunk festivals for the past few years. This year we weren't really expecting to be on the bill as we have been away from the road since December writing our album. Luckily for us as this one is in our hometown we got asked to play it as they wanted some local bands on the show. I cant wait to play it though and show people what we have been writing.

There's a crazy amount of pop punk coming from The United Kingdom these days. Who would you say are some of your favourites?

Yeah there are a lot of bands playing this kind of music. When we first started out like 9 years ago most bands were all playing Ska and Post Hardcore whatever the hell that was haha. So its cool that there are so many good bands from the UK. Im not sure if you would class these bands as Pop Punk bands but we all love Lower Than Atlantis and Futures. I really like Sharks and there is a band called For Eyes who people should check out.

Your sound has evolved a lot since your 2005 release “Who Got Shot”. What can we expect from your new material?

Haha yeah it has. i was listening to that e.p the other day and i forgot about a few of those songs we used to play. Everything back then we tried to write was to be fast and aggressive with a poppy chorus. The new stuff now is a lot different to our last release. We still kept a lot of what All Or Nothing is about but now we have Paul in the band our writing has changed a lot. The songs have different moods now and are a lot less one dimensional. Don't worry we aren't turning into a prog pop punk band haha. There are still big choruses and is real upbeat. Its hard to explain haha which is why i cant wait to get this music out there so people can hear it!

How's the new full length coming along? Have you started recording yet?

Yeah its pretty much all been written. We have around 18 songs now that we need to cut down to an album. Pretty much every week day we have been practising all day so there has been a huge amount of time and effort to make this the best record we could. Unfortunately we haven't started to record it yet and are still sorting out schedules and which producers to go with. Things are different now we have singed to a label. We cant just decided everything on our own and bang things out. It has to be thought over a lot more. We are itching to get it recorded though so we can get out there and get drunk.

How did you get involved with Transmission Recordings?

Well once we signed a deal with our manager he got us in touch with them. They already took care of our publishing and they had just started up their own label. So it made sense to get it all under one roof. We were really stoked to be picked up by a label like Transmission and judging by the stuff our label mates The King Blues are doing we are excited about the future.

What are your fondest memories about touring with The Wonder Years?

There are a lot of good memories we have with those guys. I think my fondest memories personally are of the first tour we did with them in 2007. It was our first proper tour and we were all so pumped to be out playing shows. I havent drank so much cider in such a short amount of time. Every night on that tour something stupid happened haha. Its real good to see those guys do so well. They work hard and deserve it.

Do you have any plans on touring North America? Maybe with your friends in The Wonder Years or The Swellers?

YEAH!! As soon as we can possibly sort this out we want to get over there. Since we released the split with The Wonder Years on No Sleep loads of people have been emailing us and tweeting us about getting over there. So we are desperate to play shows. Im sure once we get over we'll be playing shows with The Swellers, The Wonder Years, Man Overboard, Transit, A Loss For Words. All those yanks haha.

What's the most memorable show that you've been involved with?

There are loads of them that have been unbelievable. But personally my favourite show was when we toured Russia. We somehow got to play this huge 3000 people venue with Bring Me The Horizon and we had no idea how people would react to us. As soon as we went onstage people were going crazy. Seriously mental. Best show.

What's the weirdest thing that has ever happened on tour or at a show?

Haha this didnt happen that long ago actually. In December we toured Europe with Man Overboard and Transit. We had just played the oddest show in Belgium in this community hall thing. Where there were these dj's going for the world record of being on air for the longest time?!?! Haha anyways we all play and its snowing pretty hard. Jo B from Transit eats the BEST POTATOES OF HIS LIFE. But that night we didnt have anywhere to stay. So the promoter who was a janitor at this local community hall says we can stay in there as long as we" dont make any noise" as we werent allowed to be there and people started working at 9am below the hall. So we get there and its literally like my old school assembly hall. No beds, just a wooden floor and a raised stage. Ridiculous. We ended up sneaking downstairs and finding LOADS of beers. We all grabbed a load and drank them and snook out the next morning.

What can your fans expect from you in 2011?

Fingers crossed we will have our album out by the end of the year and follow that up with touring pretty much everywhere and anywhere. We were all hoping to have the album out already but hopefully 2011 can end up being really exciting for us and our fans. We miss playing shows and hanging out. Being at home all the time sucks.

Any final comments for your fans?

Yeah sorry we have been away for so long but we promise that once we have this record done it will be worth the wait. We will tour everywhere and anywhere and Nick will eat all your food haha.