Interview: All Or Nothing

Here's another interview, this time done with Tim of English pop-punk band All Or Nothing. They just released a split with their friends Chaos Days that I reviewed here. Click the "Read more" link below to read the interview.






[This interview can be read in French here]



Hey Tim, thank you for taking some of your time to answer my questions. Could you introduce yourself and your band for those who don't know you?

Hi, my name is Tim Williams I play bass for the Birmingham pop-punk band All Or Nothing. I guess a lot of hardcore kids like us but I think we've always wanted to be and thought of ourselves as pop-punk band so that's how I'll describe it.


Tell us about how All Or Nothing got created. Which bands made you want to play music?

Well me and Tom actually met each other at an Andrew WK concert a really long time ago so I guess you could perhaps say he is the reason that we are here today. Or perhaps not... I know that everyone in the band subscribes to his views on life but I think only me and Tom really like his music, maybe Nick actually, I know Rich definitely doesn't though. But in all seriousness, I guess around that time me and Tom got into pop-punk through the mainstream bands like Green Day, Blink-182 and The Offspring, etc. Then we got more into the Fat Wreck/Epitaph bands like Ten Foot Pole, Lagwagon, NOFX, Pennywise and it was probably that kind of bands that made us want to go out there and do it. Nick and Rich weren't actually in the band back then but I imagine they followed similar paths, although Rich was in a ska-punk band the first time I met him so maybe he was more into stuff like Less Than Jake and Mustard Plug back then...


You've been around for a while now and have a quite large discography. Do you feel like it's only the beginning?

Well, yes and no. I mean when we first started we didn't really know what we were doing and would just put out whatever we'd recorded, no matter how bad it sounded and how sloppily we played on it, which is why there is so much of our music floating around on the Internet, even before the 'Dead money' album which you can stll buy off iTunes. But I think everyone would in the band would agree when we say that we think the songs we're writing now are the best we've ever been capable of... Obviously with Joe leaving after six years at the end of last year and Rich moving from drums to guitar and vocals and Nick coming, it freshened things up and could be seen as a new beginning for the band... I'm pretty sure when we've recorded the album this year we'll probably mainly focus on songs from that and the last split when playing live and gradually phase out our older output, mainly because we'd want to be playing All Or Nothing songs written in this version of the band, not previous ones. However, that is not to decry previous efforts and I'm sure every release we've put out means something to everyone in the band who played on it at the time and the beginning of the band was definitely way back in 2002... This new line-up is definitely a new chapter though, and hopefully the best one too.


You just released a split with your friends in Chaos Days, can you tell us about it?

Well yeah, basically we'd toured with Chaos Days a couple of times as we'd both been on Zone 6 Records (worst label ever) and were good friends with them. All Aboard [Records, the label] approached us to do a split with them when Joe was still in the band and we thought it would be a good idea then, then Joe left and we figured it would be an even better idea as it would serve as a sort of taster to fans to prove that we could still be a band - and an even better band at that - without them having to fork out for an album (although this is kind of irrelevant as I imagine most people would have downloaded it/streamed it anyway, but that was the mentality behind it). Unfortunately the recording process had a lot of problems, as we were originally going to record it with the guys from Out Of Sight and get this other guy to mix it for us, but after saying he would do it he just ignored us for about two months! So evenutally we had to go and do it with Peter Miles and it turned out amazingly so I'm happy with how it turned out, and it's been getting good reviews which is great, it just sucks it took so long to sort out! Gotta thank Bob from All Aboard and Chaos Days for their patience regarding that, as Chaos Days had their tracks recorded about nine months before it came out!


You also released a split with the American band The Wonder Years [new album's review and interview soon!] earlier this year. How did that happen? Do you feel like it helped you getting a name in the US?

Yeah it's basically the same story as with Chaos Days: we toured with them, they liked us and we liked them. They wanted to release something and suggested a split with us - as it happened we'd just recorded three new songs we hadn't intended to release but it seemed like a good opportunity to have a US release and it was going to be on vinyl, which is something I personally had always wanted to do with our music. So yeah, it was a great fit and came out really great and the record got a lot of good reviews again, which we were all pretty pleased about. I think a few people in the US had heard of us before the split but it definitely raised our profile over there a lot, in fact we get more US visitors to our MySpace now than UK ones. We definitely wanna try and get over there sometime next year and tour, and we have a couple of options for doing it we just really want to focus on finally getting a studio album completed at the moment though, and then see what comes from that.


You're gonna release a new full-length next year. What can we expect from it?

Well we're writing it at the moment and I think the songs are perhaps a bit simpler than before in terms of structure - I think we're going for a more classic songwriting approach than we have done in the past, if that makes sense. I think as well it's not gonna be as straightforward as people might think either, some of the songs we've been writing have been different to what we've done in the past... We're all big fans of different kinds of music now and want to incorporate other influences into these new songs rather than simply rely on the same old pop-punk formula. I won't mention what though in case it doesn't come out sounding like that and I get a lot of shit for it! We'll just have to see what happens I guess. I will mention though that we've recently been getting some dubstep producers we know to remix some of our tracks though so that should be pretty interesting!


You said something about a big name producer in America...

Well yeah, we've been talking to a few people about recording this album but we'll have to wait and see, again I don't wanna mention anything until it's confirmed in case it doesn't come through. Right now we're concentrating on writing it, and a million other things... Obviously the producer is a massively important part of this though and we'll need to decide on that sooner rather than later. The main reason we wanted to go to America was because studio rates are so much cheaper over there than in England for the same quality, even factoring in flights it works out cheaper... And if we could throw in a tour whilst we're out there, then even better.


You toured in Russia and played in front of 4000 people with Bring Me The Horizon in Moscow. How was that?

Touring Russia was probably one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I mean when I first started a band, it wasn't exactly one of the countries I dreamed of playing in but to go over there and be treated the way they treated me was beyond my wildest dreams. I had all the food and drink and cigarettes that I wanted and must have spent about three pounds whilst I was over there. The people over there were just so nice to the point of ridiculousness, it was really humbling but also some of the most fun I've ever had. The shows were awesome too, I couldn't believe how many people over there had heard of us considering our records haven't even been officially released over there. There were at least 300 people at every show and they were going completely crazy - it was insane. Playing with Bring Me The Horizon was definitely a highlight too, we were meant to have a day off and we were gonna go to the show anyway to hang out with them and we spent the 10-hour train journey back from Saint Petersburg just getting hammered on Russian vodka, we got in at about 8 A.M. then went to the appartment we were staying at to sleep, planning on doing so all day... Then around 3 P.M. Tom couldn't sleep so went on the Internet to check the band's email and we'd been asked to support them! We all felt well ropey but couldn't turn it down and it was one of the best experiences ever! Such a good day.


You're going to open for A Loss For Words in the UK in March, do you guys already know each other? Are you excited?

We haven't met those guys no, but we've toured with a bunch of their friends and they're a good band, so I assume they're going to be cool guys - at least they had better be. I just hope they can party as hard as us! I guess I'm fairly excited, it should be a good tour with good turnouts so yeah... Make sure all you readers come out and check that out. LYU are on that tour too and are a good band I've known for a while... Watch out for more from them in 2010.


Any tours out of the UK planned for next year?

Well like I said we want to make it to the US, but again our main priority, at least for the start of the year, is writing and recording this album... We want to go back to Russia, and we've got people in China, Japan and Europe and maybe even South Africa who could probably sort out tours for us so we want to hit up all those places. Like I said though, all the touring will be a lot easier once we make a killer record so we have to do that first.


What are your thoughts on the current pop-punk scene? Do you feel like good bands are finally taking it back?

I don't know, that's kind of a difficult question. I mean, it kind of depends on your definition of "good" and that's obviously a very subjective term when talking about music. As well, being so directly involved in the pop-punk scene I don't tend to get into bands so much on record as I try to listen to stuff a bit different to what I'm surrounded by constantly when I'm at home... But yeah, there are a lot of pop-punk bands out there that I like and I'm friends with a lot of them so it's great to see them doing well and attendances at shows increasing. I mean, I think there are definitely two (maybe more) different types of pop-punk show... The ones that are full of screaming 12-year old girls and the ones that are full of dudes moshing. And from experience they seem to be getting more well attended and more publicity, but I don't think they'll ever reach the level of the other type, just due to the basic exposure that bands that play that genre receive. But hey, nobody got into bands like All Or Nothing by not starting somewhere like that. I guess what I'm trying to say is it doesn't matter to me really, as long as people are listening to guitar music and pop-punk in some format. That's a good thing for all people involved in the music scene as it increases their potential audience. I don't know if that was really that good of an answer, I kind of rambled a bit and I didn't really want to mention any bands in case I offended anyone reading so yeah, sorry about that.


It was fine. 2009 is coming to its end. What were your favorite records of the year?

Well, here's my top 10 list:
1. Title Fight - The last thing you forget
2. Banner Pilot - Collapser
3. Tegan And Sara - Sainthood
4. Johnny Foreigner - Grace and the bigger picture
5. Shook Ones - The unquotable AMH
6. Broadway Calls - Good views, bad news
7. Fake Problems - It's great to be alive
8. PJ Bond - You didn't know I was alphabetical
9. Blakfish - Champions
10. The Swellers - Ups and downsizing
I did just get Julian Casablancas's solo record too though which I'm really digging, that might have made it if I'd picked it up sooner, I really liked the Four Year Strong covers album and the Alexisonfire record this year though too, as well as the new MSTRKRFT and the Lady Gaga album, but that was a reissue so I don't know if I could count it.


How about your most anticipated for 2010?

Hum, I don't even know who is releasing new albums next year! I don't really pay as much attention to release dates as I used to, I just get. I guess I'm excited to hear my friends' bands who I know are recording - Fake Problems, Blakfish, Me Vs Hero, Save Your Breath (although their singer just left today so I don't know what's going on with them) [the band stated they were looking for a new singer] and Sharks, off the top of my head... I already have the new The Wonder Years record and that's pretty great. I think there's a new A Wilhelm Scream record and a new The Flatliners record coming out too, I'd be excited to check them out definitely.


One last thing... For me, Birmingham means the Cadbury Factory. How many times, man? Twice for me! So good...

Haha, I can't speak for everyone else but I've only been once in my life and that was a really long time ago with my family. I remember Joe took a girl on a date there once and she really loved it... But then he stole money off her so that didn't end so well. If anyone is coming to Birmingham though they should probably check it out! And the Sea Life Centre is pretty cool too.


Thank you very much Tim! I'll see you in March.

Cool, see you there!


[Thank you very much to Bob from All Aboard too, for contacting me and making this interview possible! Check the label and their great signed bands here and here.]



www.myspace.com/allornothing
www.twitter.com/_allornothing