Fall Out Boy: Not Sell-Outs

| Print Post This | Like (0) | Comments (0)

Over the past six years, Fall Out Boy has gone from just another pop punk band from the Chicago 'burbs to one of the most recognized names in music. That's led to some changes, of course, but no one is complaining — in fact, some of the bandmates still can't believe they've made it.

"Every time we've made a record, there's been this feeling that this record might be our last one," vocalist and guitarist Patrick Stump says. "That's been going on for four records now."

Stump says that he, bassist Pete Wentz, drummer Andrew Hurley and guitarist Joe Trohman are beginning to acknowledge they can leave those fears in the past.

Fall Out Boy's four-album discography is split evenly between albums released on the indie Fueled by Ramen and Island, part of the Island Def Jam music group. It was their first album for Island, "From Under the Cork Tree," that brought Fall Out Boy to the masses, charting in the Billboard Top 10 and featuring the breakaway hit "Sugar, We're Goin' Down."

While it's hard to imagine how things would have gone had they not signed with Island, there are certain undeniable differences.

"We're small potatoes [on Island], but we were a big deal on Fueled by Ramen," Stump says. "But back then Fueled by Ramen wasn't established either."

That doesn't mean Stump doesn't recognize the importance of his first label. He asks: "Would we have gotten to this point if we hadn't spent that time on Fueled by Ramen?"

Theoretical musings aside, Fall Out Boy upset some fans with the label switch. When a pop punk band (though Fall Out Boy derides the use of that term for their music — "We started out as pop punk," Stump admits, but says the band's sound has changed significantly) leaves an indie label and abandons basement shows for arenas and amphitheaters, calls of "sell out" are quick and easy to come by. "[We get called 'sell out'] all the time," he says. "I say this: If we were selling out, we'd be making a lot more money."

Despite Fall Out Boy's fame, Stump says little is different when he returns home to Wilmette, Ill., where the band is based — well, except that he no longer needs to work at the local Borders.

"Sometimes I see old coworkers and they're either impressed or duly unimpressed .... But I'm the same dude I ever was. I don't raise anyone's eyebrows — unless I go by the high school. Then it's 'Hey, it's Fall Out Boy.'"

» Merriweather Post Pavilion, 10475 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia, Md.; with +44, Paul Wall, The Academy Is ... and Cobra Starship; Mon., $35, 800-551-7328

Written by Express contributor Katherine Silkaitis
Photos courtesy Island Records