Said Patrick Vaughn Stump, the band’s vocalist/guitarist, “We still feel like we’re the same band as the one that did (the 2003 breakthrough) Take This To Your Grave. I could never write that record again, but as far as we’re motivated, we’re doing the same thing, we’re doing it the same way as we ever did.”
The band’s two other members are Joe Trohman (guitars) and Andrew Hurley (drums).
Funfare interviewed Pete Wentz by telephone.
Excerpts:
How is your album, Folie A Deux, different from the first three?
“You know, that’s a hard question to answer. But I would say that this is our best so far, our biggest album so far, better than the first three albums put together. But I must say that every album is a snapshot of where you are as a band. Folie A Deux is the snapshot of where the band was when we recorded it. A year from now, it would be different. It could be better or it could be worse...I don’t know. It’s also the snapshot of where people are at the time they first hear the album.”
The album is described as “cynical” and “hopeful.” Don’t the adjectives contradict each other?
“Because that’s what the album is — cynical but hopeful.”
And why is the album described as “a madness shared by two people?”
“It’s a phrase that goes back to the ’30s. It’s kind of a bit outdated but the idea is that madness can be shared by two people...it’s Romeo and Juliet. It could be you and your girlfriend or you and your best friend. Or America and the world.”
You call yourselves Fall Out Boy. Singular. But you are four boys in the band. Didn’t you consider any other name before you settled for that one?
“It’s a name that sticks. I’ve always corrected journalists who refer to the band as the Fall Out Boys. Plural. I would never suggest that I was the center of the group. Every boy in the band has his own different ideas. Honestly, I would say that the most recognizable idea is defined by Patrick’s voice. I would never call myself a Fall Out Boy and neither would I call Patrick a Fall Out Boy. I would just make it clear that the band’s name is Fall Out Boy and not Fall Out Boys.”
How long have you and the three other members known each other before you became a group? Were you friends before you became a band?
“Yes, we were. I’ve known Joe for a long time, Andy for maybe 12 years and Patrick for about six. You know, it was an accident...a happy accident...that we became members of the one band.”
Do you always agree with one another when it comes to choice of songs?
“We are a band, so I suppose that we have to agree.”
How are the four members alike and different from each other?
“You really need a whole magazine to write an article on a topic like that. How different are we from one another? Well, we are four different people. But we really understand each other in a nice way, even if each of us has his own individual way of seeing the world.”
The band was quoted as saying that you want to make records because you want to say something.
“We have a different statement in every interview that we do, in every record that we make and every piece of art that we create. The moment you don’t have anything to say, you stop making art...you start making a product. What I’m interested in is being an artist.”
In 2007, the Fall Out Boy attempted to enter the Guinness Book of World Records by playing in all seven continents. But sadly, the weather prevented the band from entering Antarctica. Would you make the same attempt?
“We would but we just don’t know when. There’s no harm in trying, right?”
(Note: Tickets to the Fall Out Boy concert are now available. Call Ticketnet at 911-5555. Prices are: P4,725 for Patron; P3,675 for Lower Box; P2,625 for Upper Box A; P1,050 for Upper Box B; and P525 for General Patronage.)
(E-mail reactions at rickylo@philstar.net.ph or at entphilstar@yahoo.com) - FUNFARE By Ricardo F. Lo (Philstar News Service, www.philstar.com)
