Albums That Changed My Life: Rian Dawson (All Time Low)
This week's "Albums That Changed My Life" contributor is All Time Low drummer Rian Dawson!The band are currently on tour across the country on "The Rockshow At The End Of The World Tour" with The Summer Set, The Downtown Fiction and Hit The Lights. All dates and ticket information can be found here.
Billy Joel - River Of DreamsThe first time I recall ever hearing a song was in Kindergarden, during naptime. I remember the teacher would always play the local 'Mixed Hits' radio station to lull us to sleep, but one song got stuck in my head and I would not stop singing it. That song was River of Dreams by Billy Joel. I became obsessed with everything Billy Joel, and he became my favorite artist of all time, and the first concert I ever saw.
Blink-182 - Enema Of the StateThis record shaped my adolescent years. I based everything I did, wore, listened to, loved and hated on Blink-182. If Blink-182 said the Descendants were their favorite band, suddenly Descendants were my favorite band too, even if I had never heard a song. I would go home from school everyday, and try my hardest (failing miserably) to play every song on the record on my drums. This record is the reason I started playing drums, there is no doubt about that.
Foo Fighters - There Is Nothing Left to LoseThis record was implanted in my mind, almost against my will. When I was younger (12-14 years old) I would sleep over my Dads house on the weekends, and I loved to sleep in until late hours. My dad didn't like this, and would remedy it by blasting the Foo Fighters at 9am until I got out of bed. I started by hating the record for this reason, and then fell in love with it and the band in general. I loved the straighforward rock energy they brought to the table, and I consider Taylor Hawkins/Dave Grohl to be two of the most inspirational drummers to me.
Fall Out Boy - Take This To Your GraveI remember buying TTTYG at the mall near my house, and thinking "They did it, we can do it too." Fall Out Boy at the time encapsulated almost everything I wanted to create musically, and they seemed to be having a good time doing it. Andy sort of created his own sort of pop-punk drumming style, and I tried to emulate it heavily back in the earlier days of All Time Low. It had quite an impact on my drumming, and you can definitely still hear it to this day.
