Fall Out Boy need no introductions. Last week they came to the UK to play a super intimate show at the Islington Assembly Hall, and the next day they had to fly home after the tragic news that guitarist Joe Trohman’s mother had passed away. This week they released their sixth album ‘American Beauty/American Psycho‘. We talked to bassist and songwriter Pete Wentz from Chicago to find out how everything is in the Fall Out Boy camp, and how they coped with the album being leaked before release.
Firstly, I’m really sorry about the sad situation you’re all in right now.
Yeah, it’s really sad. I think the best you can do is give each other support really.
How are you feeling about the album coming out?
I get the anxiety before it comes out, like what if itās not what people expect? I get anxiety until it happens and then afterwards ā well, weāve delivered it now and when people hear it they’ll decide whether they like it or not.
So it leaked…
Yeah, then we put it on our Youtube. The company that leaked it, I donāt think they care about music. They put up these streams and itās frustrating because we really care about this stuff. We made it, we crafted it, we took a lot of time with it. We decided that if there were all these poor quality streams we would put it up ourselves and thatās the best thing we can do. Itās ok, you know, I truly believe in our fanbase. The people that are going to get the record will still go and get the record, and the people that donāt wouldnāt anyway, so it doesnāt matter.
How have you found the reaction from people that have heard it?
Some of the songs got the reaction I really expected. Like I really expected that āFavorite Recordā would get the reaction that it got. I was unsure about the reaction that āUma Thurmanā would get because to me itās a weird song, but it got a much more positive reaction than I expected for sure, as well as āIrresistibleā. Weāre a band that are kind of polarising. Every time we put out a record people are like, āWhy isnāt it like the last record?ā Weāve gotten used to that, so itās ok. So thereās some of that and thereās some positive stuff. Generally a pretty positive reaction. I think people are happy that we did the record.
I think it’s a lot better to be a band where people love you or hate you, rather than people not caring at all.
Thatās exactly how I feel more than anything.
Where did the title come from? What does it mean?
I think it means so many different things on so many different levels. I think that we probably meant it to mean this idea of this modern romance, a bit like the one that happens on the record itself, in the title track, but I think it can mean so many things, from American culture, world culture, I donāt know ā I donāt want to explain it too much because itās gonna mean something else to somebody and I donāt want to take that away from them.
I’ve seen a lot of people talk about how much they love the lyrics. What kind of place would you say you were in when you were writing?
I think that I was in this place where I was able to look back on life in a way that I havenāt been able to in a long time. I hadnāt really been able to think about my life and take in where Iāve been for the past five years or whatever, and so it gave me a chance to do that. I think I really tried to progress the lyrics and make them better and this one was a little bit more personal than āSave Rock & Rollā. I think āSave Rock & Rollā was a specific thing, rallying the troops, like āWeāre backā kind of thing, so this one was able to be more personal.
How has it been being in Fall Out Boy since you came back off hiatus?
Itās cool, thereās so much similar and so much different. Definitely last time stuff happened so fast and we were so much younger and we didnāt know. Life moves so fast. You donāt know when youāre being an asshole and youāre terminally jetlagged and you donāt understand how interviews work, and thereās just so much we didnāt know, and so I think that this time, not that we know everything, but I think weāre a little bit more prepared.
Do you think it helped you to keep things fresh in the band?
Yeah, I mean it was important definitely. We wanna be the best version of Fall Out Boy we can be, but sometimes thatāll mean we gotta do different things and take odd turns and stuff like that. Thatās just the way it is with our band.
You just announced an arena tour in the UK for October.
Yeah, and just today we announced a second Wembley date, which is pretty crazy for us. We feel like weāve had such good support over there. It just feels like thereās so much ā we really feel so appreciated, and to be able to come back is awesome. One of the things for us the first time around was we didnāt really figure out how to have our UK shows and our Australia shows etc have the same production as our US shows. We didnāt know how to do it. But since weāve learned itās been a really important part of us touring worldwide, so we want the fans in the UK to experience the same show that they would in the US, so thatās something weāre stoked on.
How did the London show go on Wednesday?
Yeah, it was fun. Itās always crazy in these little tiny rooms. It reminds me so much of 15 years ago. Itās so crazy but so cool. We had a lot of fun doing it.
What else have you got coming up this year?
We go to Australia in February, then we go to Asia after that, and then Iām not really sure. We just announced this summer tour in the US, so a lot of touring coming up. It’s a busy year for Fall Out Boy.
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