All American Rejects On Upcoming Album: We 'Mastered Our Art'

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It's hard to believe it's been nearly ten years since the All American Rejects came out with their first hit, Swing, Swing.

In 2002, the single was released and in 2003, they achieved mainstream success with their debut album. Now, they have their fourth album coming out, and it'll be the band's first since 2008. Hollyscoop caught up with the All American Rejects at the The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Official Launch Party, and they told us about the upcoming album.

"We have a new record coming out February 2012," front man and bassist Tyson Ritter told us. "We’re really excited about it, it’s like the collective effort of three years of work muddled into 12 songs. I don’t know, it’s crazy. A lot of people say it takes 10 years to master your art, and I think, you know, this our tenth year as a band together. And this is the record that is definitive of that mastering said craft, art, thing, whatever."

That craft, art, thing or whatever is what has launched the band into stardom. It Ends Tonight, Dirty Little Secret and Move Along all charted on the top fifteen of the Billboard Hot 100.

When it comes to inspiration, the band cites Jane's Addiction as one of their favorites.

"That first record I’ll never forget…that open. It's totally that, or the Smashing Pumpkins back in the day. Their records came out at the same time. Depending on what school you went to, it was like everybody had the Zero…"

The band was invited to the video game's launch party along with a variety of other celebs. And the band likened their presence on the red carpet to the connection between video games and good, old fashioned Rock N' Roll.

"We’re honored just sort of supporting the fact that music and video games, especially rock and roll and video games, still has a sweet connection, not only with the audience, but kids still today. It’s good to know that rock and roll still lives in video games at least."

Ritter says the band has "had a lot of success sort of by putting our music in video games." He continued:

"Whenever I see children playing race car games and one of our songs comes on, I’m like, 'Hell yeah!' I want to be the race car driver just like this seven year old."