Fall Out Boy is returning to its roots somewhat tonight, by
doing a show at the Creepy Crawl. (The quartet certainly played at the old Creepy
location on Tucker when it was just another
The group's new album, Folie a Deux is out December 16. The songs released from it so far have the familiar FOB hallmarks: big, chugging guitars; vocalist Patrick Stump's vocal trembles; and clever, tongue-twisting lyrics courtesy of bassist Pete Wentz. But "America's Suitehearts" struts like Weezer doing a Broadway musical (with a bunch of falsetto back-up vocals reminiscent of Queen peppered throughout), and the single "I Don't Care" is a monster; to me it marries the galloping rhythms of Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" to the grooves of Dazz Band's "Let It Whip."
Andy Hurley: I don't think I listened to anything to get in the mindset. Patrick [Stump] will send us GarageBand demos of all the stuff he's working on, and then we have pre-production before, to go over the songs - although this time, I didn't have pre-production, I just went into the studio and listened to the song and then recorded it, which I've never really done. Which was kind of exciting. I mean, I knew the songs, cause I had the GarageBand demos, but I didn't really know the completed version of them. I learned it and then played it five minutes later for the record. Everything I listen to does prepare me. Just like writers read, and that helps them write more? [laughs] I don't know. I'm really tired.
I'm a writer too, and the more I read, it's like... little inspirations. I'll read something and be like, "Wow, that's really good." I won't necessarily want to write exactly like that...Well, yeah, little ideas. Like, I'll hear rhythms where I'll
be like, "Oh, that's cool," or a fill, you know. It's something so small that
maybe I never thought of doing before, and so I'll take a note and bring it
into the next time we're recording. Wherever it fits.
I don't know. I guess I really had fun with the fact that I
learned the songs and recorded them right away. That kept me on my toes, and it
kept me from overthinking things. I played what came first, which is cool, and
I like doing. I played on a friend's band's record and it was kind of the same
thing - I flew in and I learned the songs in two days and I recorded to, like,
studio drumming. That's what studio musicians do. I just wanted to see if I
could do it, and then I had a chance to do it with my own band. It was kind of
cool. But at the same time, like I said, we did have the songs before, and I
was kind of familiar with them. But we've never played them as a band before
then.
Musically, describe how
the record compares to previous records.
It's really different. It definitely has the spirit of other
records. It's the closest to [2003's] Take
This to Your Grave in feeling, just because of the fact that...we didn't give
ourselves a ton of time. Originally, [Deux]
was going to come out earlier, and we had to get it done by a certain time to
make the date. We did it [quicker] on purpose, too, because when we recorded Take This to Your Grave, we had a week
or two. I don't think we'd spend a week or two anymore, but to not spend three,
four months...I think we took a month, a month-and-a-half or something. Which is
pretty short nowadays for a recording. We all were just going with what felt
right. A lot of the time, you get something better, more real, that way.
I don't think so, really. I feel like we've prepared people
enough. I thought "[This Ain't a Scene, It's an] Arms Race" was a step out of
our normal boundaries, maybe. But it still had stuff that was totally us. It is
totally us, but it was definitely a step in a different direction than people
may have been used to. I feel like we've done things to prepare people. I felt
like "Dance, Dance" on Cork Tree was
way different than anything from Take
This to Your Grave. At the time, we were really nervous that people would...whether
or not [they] would be okay with it. Each record we take a gamble, we take a
risk, and we're okay with writing something that maybe we didn't really hit
upon on the last record.
I read the Alternative Press article and I liked
that lyrically Pete [Wentz] was trying to put himself in you guys' shoes. I
thought that was a fiction-type thing that was kind of cool. What were your
reactions when he brought in stuff for this record?
I never really know the lyrics that well, but upon playing
them and hearing it over and over in the studio, I was really blown away. We
all feel like this is Pete's best album lyrically. I feel like he's stepped up
his game so much. I think we all tried to step up our game to kind of match
that. I think it's really cool too that he stepped outside of himself and just
wrote from a bunch of different perspectives. It's a fresh take for him, but I
think he's really good writer, so it's cool to see him attempting new stuff as
well.
Yeah, exactly.
It's a dream job, so it's the coolest thing I could ever
imagine doing. The biggest challenge isn't too much of a challenge, really. It's
just the exhaustion. I just flew a red-eye - I never understand why people
would do that. I didn't want to do it, they just booked it for me. I'll be
tired for the next week, which sucks. But flying so much like that and being
all over the place every other day, really does take a lot out of you - whether
or not you're flying the red-eye. In my opinion at least, that's the worst
thing, and I don't think that's really that bad.
