‘Fall Out Boy’ high on new album
For a band founded and so deeply invested in the MySpace generation, nude Internet photos on the run are just par for the course.
In this case, we’re talking about pop-punk icon’s Fall Out Boy, bassist/lyricist/melodramatist Pete Wentz and a series of photos in which the emo rocker can be seen posing with his naked goods in his hands for all to see.
“If I was reading this, my first impression would be, ‘Oh, this guy probably released the photos himself,’ or something like that, no matter what the guy says and I think people keep that in the back of their heads when they’re talking to me,” says Wentz, during an interview backstage at the band’s recent MTV Live gig in Toronto. “The only thing I can say is that I’d probably put out better pictures if I was going to do it myself.”
Wentz says someone hacked into his PDA and went buckwild on the web (shortly thereafter, the bassist topped an AOL poll of the most popular Internet search keyword, ahead of second and third place searches — Pamela Anderson and Paris Hilton). No real word on why the bassist was carrying around nude photos of himself. Although, he suggests it was just a pre-fame thing.
“The pictures were actually taken like a year before (they were released) and, at that time, I was this dude who no one cared about, ’cause, otherwise, I don’t think I’d have those,” he says. “Somebody just decided to put them out and it’s pretty much the most terrible thing ever. Having the choice between three million people seeing me naked or three million people not seeing me naked, well, everyone would pick the latter.”
It certainly hasn’t hurt the plight of Fall Out Boy, who are set to release their sophomore major label album, Infinity On High, on Tuesday.
After premiering the record’s first single, This Ain’t A Scene, It’s An Arms Race, during a live performance at the American Music Awards in November, the track went No. 1 as a digital single in its opening week, selling 162,000 copies.
This, after selling more than three million copies of their major label debut, From Under The Cork Tree (which went double-platinum in Canada alone).
It was pretty hard to get away from either of the album’s singles last year, particularly the ruthlessly catchy summer anthem Dance, Dance.
Much Music and MTV have showered the group — rounded out by vocalist/guitarist Patrick Stump, guitarist Joe Trohman and drummer Andrew Hurley — with awards and the Grammys nominated the emo troupe for best new artist last year.
Despite their initial success, Fall Out Boy’s staying power has come as a bit of a surprise in this fast-food/pop-music climate — the same one where bands like The All-American Rejects and Jimmy Eat World come out strong and fizzle out quicker than the kids can delete them from their MySpace friends list.
“Some of the bands that have really exploded in the past couple of years need to show that they can stick around for a couple records,” says Wentz. “I think a band like Green Day are a good example of a band that can have ups and downs in their career then come back and have even more success than before. It’s something we really look up to.”
If Fall Out Boy doesn’t work out, Wentz has built up quite the proverbial emo empire to fall back on. He founded Decaydance Records (and promptly signed Panic! At The Disco) and started his own hoodies-and-tees clothing line, Clandestine Industries (the clothes bear the same bat-and-heart shaped image that the bassist has tattooed above his you-know-what, as can be seen in the infamous rogue photos).
If that ain’t enough, there are Fall Out Boy dolls and a self-published Wentz-penned book for the hardcore fans. Rumour has it that Wentz is set to release a novel in 2007 called Rainy Day Kids.
“Fall Out Boy is the most important thing and is the basis for all of that because no one would care about anything else any of us did if it wasn’t for Fall Out Boy,” says Wentz. “That’s the thing we take the most care with — it’s always important that the outside projects aren’t superseding the band. When you’re in a band and you get to the level that we’re at, you have to interact with corporations and I always think, ‘Why can’t you just be the corporation?’ Then you’ll always know what ideals are and then you can sleep at night.”
Wentz insists his side projects are not his Fall Out Boy-insurance policy.
“I don’t think it’s a safety net; I think it’s the other way around. I think Fall Out Boy is the safety net,” he says. “If Fall Out Boy goes away, who would ever care what I was doing?”
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