Interviews

By Aimee Curran

Fall Out Boy started in Chicago. The quartet - vocalist/guitarist Patrick Stump, bassist Peter Wentz, drummer Andrew Hurley, and guitarist Joseph Trohman took their thrashy metal roots and the boom of being emo offspring to create a mix of pop-punk melodies that have backhanded music fans and critics alike. They have managed to work the industry to their advantage, traveling to different countries, securing a bus for the Warped Tour, and successfully releasing their sophomore album, FROM UNDER THE CORK TREE.

SKRATCH caught up with Pete Wentz while he was driving through Florida to see what all the hoopla surrounding their MTV appearances, touring, and song titling was all about.

SKRATCH: Why do you like being a member of Fall Out Boy?
PETE: Probably because of the money or the bitches;I'm not really sure which. [Laughs] I don't know. You get paid to hang out with your friends. That's kind of a hard thing to wrap your head around, but I get paid to hang out with my friends, and that's awesome.

SKRATCH: How was the process of recording FROM UNDER THE CORK TREE?
PETE: Pretty much really insane. It was pretty much writing a bunch of songs, then trashing them, then not thinking any of the words were good enough to go with the music, and back and forth - which was kind of insane. It pretty much involved me and Patrick sharing a dark apartment for three months in L.A. and only coming out to trade words or music with each other.

SKRATCH: What do you do when you feel like all your songs are crap?
PETE: If a song doesn't make you feel alright or make you fell like so happy that you own the song, then I guess it should be trashed.

SKRATCH: What do you think of all the attention you are getting from MTV? Is this type of attention something you have been working towards, or is it a nice bonus to what has already been a rewarding experience?
PETE: That's the kind of thing about attention: you can't really pick the kind that you get - which is unfortunate, because you have these child stars, and their dads just get wasted and drive their cars into trees, [which is] attention [the kids] are getting, too. [That's similar to] when you want your songs to be heard by as many people as possible: you have to take everything else that goes along with it. Everyone likes to see themselves on the screen, but I'm not trying to lick the reflection off the TV. It's flattering and it's really cool, but at the same time there's other things out there that make my world go 'round [...].

SKRATCH: How have you reacted to people calling you sellouts?
PETE: I feel like we haven't really had that backlash. I think it's a legitimate concern of people to want to keep these bands in their back pocket. These bands that they discovered are kind of like gold to them. The best [example] of it is this letter that this guy wrote. He didn't write it to other people, he wrote it to himself 10 years ago when he was calling people sellouts. It's just like the different places you can be at. To me, selling out is when you do something that you normally wouldn't do just for the money or fame or whatever. There are certain lines that I would never cross. It doesn't matter if there's a million dollars or two dollars on the table if it's something that I am just not interested in doing.

SKRATCH: How is your life different from what you think your fans perceive?
PETE: I think that it's probably far more boring than they think it is. At the same time, I think there's far more anxiety and [drama]. I'm kind of a drama queen, and maybe that doesn't come through when I am just meeting people - but that's another side of my personality.

SKRATCH: Why should people care about your music? What makes you stand out?
PETE: The reason I think people should care about our music is because inside my head we write the best songs on the planet Earth. But music is such a wide open thing. Every person in every single band - from Nine Inch Nails to my brother's garage band - thinks that [theirs] are the best songs [...] That's why I hope people care about them. But not everyone is gonna like your music.

SKRATCH: What do you want to be happening with the band a year from now?
PETE: Celebrating the one-year anniversary of that question.

SKRATCH: What's a band you really want to tour and or collaborate with?
PETE: I'd really like to collaborate with Natalie Portman. I don't know - whatever gets her into my bedroom. I'd like to collaborate with someone who nobody would expect. Collaborations are so overrated. It's two people who can't do it on their own just getting together and rubbing sticks together and barely making a fire. We could burn the fuckin' room down by ourselves. Why do we need the two people with the sticks?! [Laughs]

SKRATCH: What's a song you are sick of playing?
PETE: "Where's Your Boy". I want to sell it to Heineken. [Sings] "Where is your beer tonight? I hope it is a Heineken." Wait, could we go back to the sellout question now? [Laughs] That's the song I'm kind of sick of playing, I guess - but that's the song we're most known for. Every band is cursed by that: the song that everyone seems to love is usually the song the band kind of hates.

SKRATCH: What's the significance of the title "FROM UNDER THE CORK TREE"?
PETE: We wanted for people to get their parents to buy it for them [having] to say, "Will you go by me FUCT?" It's just an awesome acronym.

SKRATCH: What are the three most important things to being a musician - especially at the point you're at?
PETE: [Silence]

SKRATCH: Do you want to skip this question and go on to the next?
PETE: Yeah, let's go on to the next question.

SKRATCH: Favorite word to describe something?
PETE: I use late-'80s gangster stuff like "dope" and "fresh." My friend uses "totes" (short for "totally"). I'm pretty into that, too.

SKRATCH: Do you think you would ever incorporate those words into your songs?
PETE: [Laughs] Maybe into a song title.

SKRATCH: Do you want to be famous?
PETE: I saw Axl Rose step off the bus in the "Welcome to the Jungle" video, and I thought it was a hot chick for a second; but a minute later he was singing with the band, and I thought "I wanna be that guy." So, definitely - I guess...probably.

SKRATCH: What do think of the mystery surrounding the artist Jandek? Do you think it's a good way to go about promoting yourself?
PETE: You know what? I don't think I would know about that at all except for Patrick: he schooled me on it completely. I think that it's amazing when one person does something like that, 'cause it's totally like the Bigfoot experience or the Loch Ness Monster, I guess. I don't know. I think that if a lot of people did it, it would be a lot less interesting. But at the same time those people are not on the public radar at all.

SKRATCH: What Fall Out Boy song means the most to you? Why?
PETE: "I've Got a Dark Alley and a Bad Idea That Says You Should Shut Your Mouth". It is the most honest thing there is, and it captures a moment. It would be impossible to play live because it's just too real.

SKRATCH: What's your reasoning behind your lengthy song titles?
PETE: We feel like we can't write good enough songs, so we really have to dress them up, kind of. Like, we're the ugly chicks who are kind of really slutty so that dudes still want to hang out with us, anyway.

SKRATCH: Any good road stories?
PETE: I've seen a guy from another band get with a transvestite hooker. I was like, "Wow, that guy's gonna get a hooker. Wow, that's a dude dressed up as a chick."

SKRATCH: What countries have you guys traveled to?
PETE: Canada, Japan, and the U.K.

SKRATCH: And where have you gotten the best-
PETE: [Interrupts] Blow job? That's really a U.S. thing. Just kidding. Oh, wait, sorry: you mean best coke? That's still a U.S. thing, definitely. Naw, I'm just kidding.

SKRATCH: I'm talking about the best reception.
PETE: I guess the best will always be Chicago. But it was so strange stepping off a plane in Japan [with] people waiting at the airport and hotel. They knew all the words to our songs, but they couldn't speak English. That was kind of cool.

For more news and band-related stuff to feed your head, check out www.falloutboyrock.com.

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