Fall Out BoyFall Out Boy were one of the premier voices of the MySpace generation. The songs from 2003's Take This To Your Grave and 2005's From Under The Cork Tree cemented themselves as emo-kid anthems, home to lyrics we'd passive aggressively quote in our MSN display names and MySpace profiles. Fall Out Boy's close ties with pop-punk label Fueled By Ramen saw bands like The Academy Is... and Panic! At The Disco find success in the burgeoning emo scene, too. Somewhere along the way, somewhat regrettably (?), bassist Pete Wentz' penis was the first we ever saw on the internet. But as the quartet release their seventh full-length, Mania, truth be told, Fall Out Boy are a far cry from the band they were in the 2000s.
His towering falsetto is flawless and immediately recognisable, yet it's endearing the way lead singer Patrick Stump responds to the compliment that he's sounding better than ever on the band's latest album. "They're scary to do live," he chuckles nervously.
The fedora-hatted Stump is in an LA studio today, "doing little bits of stuff" like film scoring - "nothing big", he advises - that he's been putting off to finish Mania, which was pushed back from a September 2017 release to January 2018.
"I'm so happy that we pushed it back. That's the first thing. When I listen to it, I'm like, 'This is so much better than it was gonna be.' That was actually one of the things I had to do today, sit and listen to early demos of this record, and it's so funny because they sound ALMOST the same. The songs sound very similar to what they ended up being, but they just weren't right yet, you know? I'd be listening and there'd be a verse that would just be wrong, or a verse and melody that would be all over the place. Heaven's Gate was there, Church was there; they were just different and weird. Crappier versions!" he laughs again.
He comes off as a mildly anxious person, but that's no surprise given the constant scrutiny placed upon a veteran band like theirs. Add to that the curveball they threw us with first single Young And Menace, a superbly jarring EDM-rock track that was met with the same bewilderment that Taylor Swift's Look What You Made Me Do triggered, and the pressure to deliver seems palpable. But Stump echoes what Wentz has shared in other interviews - the band are not afraid to innovate and move forward, as they've always done.
"I'm just so terrified of the internet, I don't even bother [looking] because I'm always like, [in a cartoony voice] 'Oh, everyone hates me!'" Stump jokes.
"But if we're gonna put out a record - and Pete [Wentz] said something that's the realest thing about it - we're a band that's made it clear we're not going to just live in the past forever. We're not gonna just redo a record that you like, you know? And that's fine if you're gonna be that band, but if you're gonna be that band, you have to BE that band and you have to really care about every song you put out. You can't have it both ways and, like, not really care about putting out new music either. It has to really validate itself; it has to be worth putting out.
"So that's the big thing, that was the main pressure - why put out a record right now? Why make a record - we COULD be chilling on an island somewhere, like, 'Hey, we succeeded at being a band that people like'. You could just do whatever and check out. But if you're gonna put out a record, it better be good. It better matter," he pauses here. "And I've also never relaxed on an island ever, I don't relax," he says laughing. "What do I have to do today? What's my job? What am I - what am I doing?" he deadpans.
Described by the band as a "palette cleanser", Stump dismisses the critics hitting out at the band for not being "rock" enough on Mania.
"I've heard a lot about, you know, 'Where's the rock? It's super different than it used to be,' and I feel like every record we've ever put out people have said the same thing to me. Which is, 'Wow! It sounds really different than the last one.' I've heard that every time I've put out a record, so I don't really know... I don't know how to take it anymore, you know? I don't know what people mean or if it's a compliment, or what? I really don't know. We sound different all the time! All we do is sound different," Stump says.
He's right - their debut was almost hardcore punk, featuring unclean vocals from Wentz, while Folie A Deux proudly used horns, strings and collaboration from artists like Pharrell, Elvis Costello, Debbie Harry and Lil Wayne. Save Rock And Roll and American Beauty/American Psycho focused more on huge stadium-rock sounds, some songs like Centuries even emerging as sports anthems for the NRL and Super Bowl.
"I have NO idea how that happened because I know nothing about sports and people are like to me, 'You're the music I work out to!' and I'm like, 'Shit, I need to work out!' You write a song and it's a really passionate thing, and they're like, 'Oh yeah, this is my workout, pump up music!' But we've written a few songs like that that really resonated with people and I didn't want to impersonate that [on Mania]. I didn't wanna go in there and be like, 'Ok, here's Light Em Up part five.' I wanted to just make music that validates you putting out a record."
Stump says he attributes a lot of Mania's varied influences to streaming services and playlists.
"The advent of playlists really changed my life. I think as you get older you kinda stop listening to new music. You hit your 30s and you're like, 'Eh, it was great when I was 15, that was good.' You can fall into that hole," he reflects. "It was something really neat because the whole playlist suggests things to you, and it forced me to listen to new music that I didn't anticipate. It reinvigorated it for me.
"And also, having kids, the way little kids appreciate music - they don't care! They're not, like, worried about genre. They like songs. They like a song if they like it. I was like, 'That's so refreshing!'"
One of the only A-list collaborations on this album came in the way of Sia, who co-wrote the band's second single, Champion. Stump literally has nothing bad to say about the Adelaide powerhouse.
"Sia's a genius! I was just gushing about her. She's one of my favourite artists alive right now. The thing that is so amazing about her - beyond that she's just a rad person and I've learned a lot about how to be a public figure from her, because she just understands how to do it - but one of the things that blows my mind is that, as a writer, so much of what you deal with is rejection. So much of writing anything is, 'Here's my idea,' and someone going, 'It's garbage!' and you having to take that. You put everything into it; how do you put everything into it and not cry yourself to sleep when someone says that? But she knows how to do it.
"Every time she stands in front of a microphone, she sings like you've never heard anyone sing - it's incredible. Every time she writes, she writes this thing and you're like, 'What was that?! That was genius!' But then she walks away, right? She's like, 'If you like it, you like it - if you don't, I don't care. I have 30 more brilliant ideas before lunch.' And that was incredible. I was really pissed off we weren't in the studio [with her] this time, because I wanted to study her and wanted to learn from her; figure out what she does, because she's such a genius."
Bringing Stump's Sia-gushing down to a more serious note, we ask him for his thoughts on the recent downfall of so many power-players in the punk/emo scene, all accused of alleged sexual misconduct or abuse. Allegations against bands like Brand New, Pierce The Veil, Suicide Silence and Neck Deep have all spurred numerous conversations about the ingrained misogyny and sexism in the punk scene.
"I think humanity has always been rife with misogyny and sexism," Stump says. He sounds exhausted now. "There's no part and nowhere in human existence that we don't need to be focusing on it and thinking about it.
"I think, yeah, that's about what I wanna say, because I also think men have had a lot to say. I think we've have our chance to say what we wanna say and I think maybe it's time for us to listen. I know everyone's saying this, but it's true. I think it's time for us to shut up and listen."
