Interscope RecordsThe All-American Rejects are currently working on their fifth studio album, their first since 2012's Kids in the Street. Over the summer, the band released two previews of the album with the new songs "Sweat" and "Close Your Eyes," which sound very different from each other. Frontman Tyson Ritter tells ABC Radio that sonic diversity will be a hallmark of the new album.
"Every song is a completely different sonic build, completely different board, sound-room," he says. "So every song sounds like it's a completely different record."
"I really like that," Ritter adds. "Because when you collect them all together, it just sounds like madness."
What will connect the songs on the album, Ritter thinks, is the visual component. "Sweat" and "Close Your Eyes" were accompanied by an 11-minute short film, and the visuals will carry on for the rest of the album as well.
"I wanna make all the visual the things that marries it," says Ritter. "Then the audio can be free, and it doesn't depend on each song to sort of define a sound of a record."
In fact, Ritter sees the album as a soundtrack of sorts.
"It's kind of a soundtrack to a band trying to figure out what its next record is going to be," he says. "And," he adds, "is it gonna be the last one?"
"We're kind of letting ourselves just define our ambition by the reception," says Ritter. "So, it's great: if nobody listens to it, or if people don't dig it, then it's like, 'Cool, let's move on.'"
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