All-American Rejects talk unusual comeback that led to 1st album in 14 years

A year ago, The All-American Rejects returned to the zeitgeist in a most unusual way: showing up in backyards, barns and living rooms around the country to play free shows packed with spunky guitar-rock.

These guerrilla pop-ups launched the heartland quartet – singer Tyson Ritter, lead guitarist Nick Wheeler, rhythm guitarist Mike Kennerty and drummer Chris Gaylor – into a world of TikToks and Instagram posts, simultaneously cultivating a fan base decades younger than the now-middle-aged rockers.

That success has been parlayed into a resurrection that resulted in playful appearances with the equally iconoclastic barnstorming baseball team Savannah Bananas, an opening stint for the Jonas Brothers and the completion of All-American Rejects’ first album of new material in almost 14 years, “Sandbox,” out now.

Though they still relish playing their zingy earworms “Swing, Swing,” “Move Along” and “Gives You Hell,” the band is psyched to add new tunes including “King Kong” and “Clothesline” to their set lists. They’re also ready to share some deeper emotions, as Ritter does in the poignant “For Mama” and “Green Isn’t Yellow.”

Ritter and Wheeler recently talked – in separate interviews with USA TODAY – about what is still driving The All-American Rejects.

Question: Now that you've been doing the house parties for a year, what has evolved in the process?

Tyson Ritter: The first time we did it was a lot of reacting to things we didn’t prepare for, and this time we came prepared. We’re still refining and learning how to keep our audiences safe. We had a pop-up (recently) in Albuquerque. That was staggering, with 2,000 people and there were still 4,000 or more outside the gate. People were complaining about people cutting in lines, but are people blaming Walmart for the line outside at a Black Friday sale? It’s almost a social experience when we gather. How kind can we be to each other? There are occasional bad eggs who break a neighbors fence or cut the line but it’s a universally positive experience.

How is everyone holding up with the physical side of touring, especially since you don’t usually have glamourous accommodations?

Nick Wheeler: It’s exhausting! I’m not falling apart, but I prioritize sleep and moving my body, whether working out or just stretching, and taking my daily coffee pilgrimage, which is part of keeping me sane. The bus is grueling and I make sure onstage to have my rug under my feet so concrete stages don’t kill me. But once the music stars, it doesn’t feel like I’m in my mid-40’s.  

What's the most chaotic house party you've played?

Ritter: Every time we do one of these I could say last night! All I can say it’s been a really cool thing … It’s bigger than a house party right now. It’s about exposing the underbelly of the world and these kids who had the trauma of (the COVID-19 pandemic) can be lifted into a gathering that isn’t completely the protocols of these big venues. Everybody paid the same amount to get in, which is nothing. There is no elitist sectioning or dynamic pricing.

Last summer the band opened for the Jonas Brothers on a major tour in the midst of playing house parties. What was the transition like?

Ritter: The Jonas Brothers are great as humans and the show they run is fan-centric. Joe (Jonas) is such a sweetheart. But that tour was such a juxtaposition from the house parties. It was like a we had a swath of the U.S. – the haves and the have-nots and the have-littles – and the people who pay $2,000 for floor seats like at any big arena concert. That crowd, for an opening band, is a different experience than going to a person’s house and offering a free experience and asking for nothing but their time.

Tyson, you and your friend Brian Battjer launched the digital platform Playhouse to connect artists with alternative venue spaces. Do you think it could replace traditional touring infrastructure?

Ritter: This DIY scene has always been there – a Facebook page, a Reddit thread. Now we have a central place for this real market. The House of Blues in Anaheim (California) is $40,000 to rent and a band that sells that out, when you split the money five or six ways and give 20% to management, that keeps bands off the road … We have 6,000 artists signed up on Playhouse and more than 3,000 unique venues they can play, from a high-rise apartment in Chicago to churches and breweries. Disruption is the nature.

So how are artists making any money with this if fans are coming to the house parties for free?

Ritter: With sponsorships. And yes, you can look at it as bowing to a sponsor, but this to me is the way. All artists take sponsorships and 99% pocket that money on top of (ticket) sales.

Let’s talk about AAR’s first new album in almost 14 years. Was there a point you thought the band had said everything it needed to?

Wheeler: Yeah, absolutely, especially coming off “Kids in the Street” (in 2012). It didn’t do well and we had very high expectations, but the week it came out half the people at our label got fired and it fell flat. We took a beating with that and it had been a decade of doing the same thing: writing, recording, touring and doing it all over again. We were just burned out … We devoted all of our 20s to this band and had a lot of growing up to do and soul searching and personal lives to figure out. I started therapy and figuring out our own (stuff) in our 30s.

The songs “For Mama” and “Green Isn’t Yellow” seem particularly personal. What’s the backstory?

Ritter: This whole record is like a daydream of the past 15 years of us as a band and me personally growing. There was a moment where growing apart from this band was a very real thing, and as we grow, family is super complicated. There is a family member in my life going through a lot who put us all kind of through it. That was the realest thing, and the music I wrote about it saved me. My mom struggles and I struggle. Mental health is not a conversation we’re afraid to shy away from in this moment. I moved back to Tulsa. It’s a quiet city and in that silence you can hear the songs of your past. It wasn’t hard to find these songs because they wanted to find me.