The Forever Sessions (Vol. 1 / ATL's Versions)

In 2004, All Time Low took the stage at their first real ticketed show at the now-shuttered Recher Theatre in Towson, Maryland. Back then, they were high schoolers, a local band with big dreams, swooped bangs, tight shirts, and even tighter jeans. Twenty years and nine studio albums later, they’re a multiplatinum pop-punk band, marking the milestone, reflecting on their legacy, and showing off their hard-earned wisdom by revisiting some of their biggest hits. The first volume of The Forever Sessions features songs from the band’s 2006 EP Put Up or Shut Up, 2007’s So Wrong, It’s Right, and 2009’s Nothing Personal. “The focus of Vol. 1 was really about hitting the staple songs that are still massive parts of our show,” lead singer Alex Gaskarth tells Apple Music. “But now we’re in a territory where there’s these songs that are really meaningful and important to people that are deeper cuts that I think I would love to go back and revisit.”

The project starts off with “Dear Maria, Count Me In,” arguably one of ATL’s most beloved songs. The rerecorded version stays true to its original (right down to Gaskarth clearing his throat), but sounds more refined and bigger—bigger vocals, bigger guitars, bigger percussion, and bigger production. “It was very important to us to thread the needle of doing [the songs] justice and getting them right in a way that stays true to how we did them back then,” says Gaskarth. “But also brings them into the wheelhouse where if you’re listening to our newer catalog, you can put one of these on back-to-back, and it’s not this vast difference in quality.” “Poppin’ Champagne” feels more anthemic than ever, and “Jasey Rae” takes their fans back to high school but shows off an unmistakable glow-up. “I didn’t know what I was doing back then,” Gaskarth says. “I was just yelling into a microphone and figuring it out. It was formative, but we learned as we went. And so now, applying the knowledge that we have, it feels really refreshing to go in and actually sing the shit out of that song.”

For All Time Low, the do-over has been a chance to take stock of their legacy and the music that inspired them to begin with. “It’s been a lesson in gratitude for every step of the way,” Gaskarth says. “And being so thankful for all the people we came up around with us that helped shape not only our band, but the scene of music that we came up in.” Below, Gaskarth lets us in on a few stories behind the songs and their rerecorded versions.

“Dear Maria, Count Me In (ATL’s Version)”
“We were nervous to touch it. It was like we knew we were doing this project. We had picked a handful of songs we wanted to dive in and do, but ‘Maria’ felt daunting because it’s the one, throughout everything, that keeps having these moments and keeps circling back in our catalog with these new waves of fans finding out about it. And that song in and of itself has been a huge part of why we’ve stuck around for 20 years. But it’s almost become a meme in the zeitgeist of what pop punk’s all about. And so, the fact that it’s such a mainstay was like, this one’s sacred and we can’t screw this up. We got to figure this one out. So, there was a lot of pressure on that one to get it right.”

“Coffee Shop Soundtrack (ATL’s Version)”
“We started with ‘Coffee Shop Soundtrack,’ which is even older [than “Dear Maria…”]. It’s from an EP of ours called Put Up or Shut Up, and that one felt like pressure was off a little bit because we were like, ‘We want to just make this one sounds a little better and perform it a little better.’ But at the same time, it's like we can’t eff this one up—it’s already effed up.”

“Damned If I Do Ya, Damned If I Don’t (ATL’s Version)”
“I felt like we took a little bit more creative liberty with this song because, in my opinion, this song was one that, at the time, I think could have been a much more successful mainstream radio song had we had the infrastructure around us and it to take it there. It was a meaningful song for me back in the day, for all of us, because we wrote it with someone that I really look up to, a producer/writer named Butch Walker. It became one of our most popular songs basically off its own merit. It never got major push. It just landed with our fans. And so, this was one that, when we came to rerecording it, I was like, ‘I want to update this one in a way that feels like we could put this on Top 40 radio now.’ So, we kind of went in that direction with it.”

“Remembering Sunday (feat. Lindsey Stirling & Lisa Gaskarth) [ATL’s Version]”
“This was an important song, I think, for our fanbase, but also that was an early feature that we had. And there was a vacant space getting a feature for this new version. We tried to figure out who would be right for it, and we’ve been very fortunate to have our friend Lindsey Stirling, who is an incredible violinist. She’s lent her talents to it in doing the string arrangements on it, so that’s already taken it to this incredible place. And then, beyond that, I asked my wife to sing it with me, and she has such a badass voice. We’ll sit around at home sometimes and sing or whatever, but we’ve never done anything like that together.”