All Time Low was formed in 2003 in the suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland. They were first a high-school cover band before transforming themselves into a melodic emo-pop group. The band was founded by singer/guitarist Alex Gaskarth and guitarist Jack Barakat. The duo later brought two other members, bassist Zack Merrick and drummer Rian Dawson, to complete the line-up.
Between school and others, the dudes managed to tour across the East Coast and South, and issue their first EP in 2004. Titled “The Three Words to Remember in Dealing With the End”, the four-song project was then followed by the group’s first full-length album “The Party Scene” a year later.
To promote their music, the lads toured across the country in summer of 2005. They met a number of other bands including Amber Pacific who later brought All Time Low to the attention of their label, Hopeless Records. The company was immediately impressed and All Time Low had officially become part of the Hopeless family by March 2006, just a few months shy of the members’ high school graduation. After finishing school, they were able to concentrate full-time on music. They then issued “Put Up or Shut Up”, a seven-song EP that mostly featured new recordings of older material, in July that year.
“So Wrong, It’s Right” came out in 2007, marking the band’s first full-length for Hopeless. After being named 2008’s Band of the Year by Alternative Press, All Time Low returned with their second album, “Nothing Personal”, in July 2009. Debuting at No. 4 on the Billboard charts, “Nothing Personal” helped make All Time Low one of the top emo-pop acts in the business.
In 2011, they returned with “Dirty Work”, their first album under Interscope Records. The LP debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard charts. The band later hit the road to support the album before announcing in 2012 that they had parted ways with Interscope.
They released a new song called “The Reckless and the Brave” on their website in June that year. Soon after, they re-signed with Hopeless and began to work on their next album. “Don’t Panic” was eventually released in November 2012. It was re-issued almost a year later with four newly recorded songs and four acoustic versions under the name “Don’t Panic: It’s Longer Now!”.
In 2015, All Time Low came back with their sixth record, “Future Hearts”, which found them reuniting with their “Dirty Work” producer, John Feldmann. The project opened at No. 2 on Billboard 200 with 80,000 copies.