06 May All American Rejects: Q&A

The All American Rejects returned to SunFest last night (they previously played in 2007) to deliver an explosive show to fans. Tyson Ritter, Nick Wheeler, Mike Kennerty and Chris Gaylor are currently on their “Shaking Off The Rust” tour and in addition to playing their smash hits “Move Along,” “Dirty Little Secret,” and “Swing, Swing,” the boys are also performing songs from their new album “Kids In The Street,” which dropped in March.

We had a chance to catch up with guitarist Kennerty about their tour and recent album.

Cassie Morien: How is the tour going so far?

Mike Kennerty: It’s going great. It’s the first tour we’ve done in about two years. It feels really nice to get on the road because it is what we love to do. We’re kind of always the-grass-is-always-greener band. In the studio, we want to be on tour, and when we are on tour, we want to be in the studio, but right now we are in those moments where we are just so excited to be back on the road. We just love it.

Your fourth album,”Kids In The Street” just dropped this March. How is it performing your new songs live?

We’ve been working hard on translating the songs on “Kids In The Street” to a live setting because it’s definitely kind of our most experimental and advanced record musically. It took a lot of time figuring out how to best translate those songs live. So we are doing a good number off that [for shows], but we know what folks want to hear too, so we’ll play all the old stuff as well.

What are you most proud of on this new album?

I think am most proud that we made a record that’s truly a record from start to finish. I think in the past we’ve kind of just taken the newest songs and put them together. But this time we really wanted to make sure that we weren’t just banking on a song or two, to make the record popular. We wanted to make a record that was a record. That someone had to sit down and listen to from start to finish to kind of feel it. And I feel like we did that, and I’m really happy with the way it turned out.

After 10 years of performing, have you reached a level where you are comfortable with your success or do you still worry about the future of your music?

I think we are always stressing out and I think that’s what keeps us on our toes and keeps us fighting to make good music. We’ve watched a lot of bands around us get very complacent and very comfortable and having expectations that they are always going to have this success. And once you get that way, that’s when it all goes away, because you quit trying. For us, we are still making “Kids In The Street”, we’re still pulling out hair out the whole time, worrying about how to make the songs the best they can be. We never take for granted the success we’ve had, and we know it can all go away as easily as it came. We still try to get out there and do everything the best that we can and hope people kind of come on the ride with us.