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Fall Out Boy - Your Questions Answered...

• Fraser M
• 14 Jan 07, 10:52 PM

The task was simple. Ask a load of Fall Out Boy fans for the questions they would most like to ask Patrick Stump, the band's elasti-throated, fret-busting singer. Then compile a list of the most interesting-looking ones, and ring him up. Along the way, things got a little (excuse the pun) EMO-tional, but that's another story for another time. All you need to know now is that Patrick is a very lovely man and we had a nice chat.

So, you've two choices. You can either read the whole damn thing in glorious textovision, or you can hear how it all went in Realmedia form, by clicking HERE.

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Brandi New: I'd pretty much sell my soul to hear you do a cover of Queen, ever thought of doing a small cover album?
Patrick: A cover album? Um, we've covered a few things here and there, but I like Queen a lot, and I think it would almost be blasphemy for me to be singing that. Because I have too much respect for Freddie Mercury [laughs].

ChartBlog: Is there a Queen song you do at karaoke?
Patrick: Oh yeah, for sure. I think I'd probably do Killer Queen.

Mia: I read an interview that said you used to have a boardname on the boards to lurk and such. Any hints? =)
Patrick: Ahhh. It's pretty close to the most obvious name you could think of, if that's a hint.

ChartBlog: Do you lurk as 'Pete Wentz', by any chance?
Patrick: No! [laughs]

Jenny: What do you think of the FOBROCK boardies? [Members of the Fall Out Boy website messageboard]
Patrick: What do I think of the boardies? It's awesome those kids come to our shows and I know a lot of them and they're awesome and they've been supportive. They have all these funny in-jokes that we're not in on yet! Occasionally they'll come to shows and they'll have us, y'know..."take a picture with this teddy bear! No, no, no...it's really funny!", you know, like, whatever...

ChartBlog: Are you a big internet user yourself?
Patrick: Yes and no. I was kind of a luddite. Like I kind of didn't really deal with a lot of stuff when everyone was getting their computers and stuff. Then I kinda dove headfirst in, like I got a MacBook Pro or whatever. So I'm kinda somewhere in between, where I see the internet sometimes but I don't really deal with it that much.

Martha: Hey Patrick! I'd just like to say first of all I absolutely adore your voice and songs - they're amazing - now my question is: Would you rather pee a plum or poo a melon?
Patrick: Poo a melon! Cos you know what? Like, here's the thing...as much as any dump has ever hurt, I can't even imagine peeing a plum. That's another level of "ow!"...

ChartBlog: I put that question to some other gentlemen in the office, and we all came back with the same answer...
Patrick: [laughs] Yeah. And dudes KNOW...

Lin: You probably know about "slash", when girls write stories about musicians being together.
Patrick: I guess...I never knew about it, but I guess I...

ChartBlog: Oh no, I feel like I've broken some kind of innocence in you there, because she wants to know what do you think about those stories about you with Pete?
Patrick: Um...whatever, y'know. I was always surprised at how much creativity our fans have. It's really weird, like I don't remember doing anything for a band when I was a kid. Like some kids got together and re-shot one of our videos in its entirety with them instead of us. And I was like "Dude, that's a LOT of work, and it looks really good, and it looks like it must've taken you, like, DAYS", and when I was a kid, I was kind of too lazy to finish writing a band's name on a notebook...

James: how long are you intending to grow your side burns?
Patrick: I only ever trim the bottom of them, cos they do get a little long. And honestly it's the laziest face hair in the universe. That's the only place hair grows on my face. I wake up, this is how I look.

Tash: If Peter, Joe and Andy where hanging off of a cliff and you could only save one, who would it be and why?
Patrick: Aw, that's a horrible question!

ChartBlog: And these are FANS of yours as well! They're ever so nasty!
Patrick: I know...I can answer that...that's Sophie's Choice, man, that's brutal...alright...if I could only save one of them...

ChartBlog: It's going to be Pete, isn't it?
Patrick: [makes unsure noises]

ChartBlog: Come on, he writes the lyrics!
Patrick: Yeah but...I dunno...you know what? I would go with Pete...because Pete would figure out a way to get the rest of them. Cos he's the most resourceful dude I've ever met.

Becky: How has fame affected you? Do you like it, or do you regret that there's always going to be somebody saying 'hey, aren't you that dude from Fall Out Boy'?
Patrick: Yeah, I hate that. But I love making music and that ultimately outweighs not liking...y'know...I'm not a big attention guy. But that's the price I pay to make music, and I'm so lucky to make music, so...

ChartBlog: I was talking to the FOBROCK boardies today about this interview, and they said the one thing I mustn't do is call you Pat. And I thought, for the lead singer of a rock band, that's pretty tame as far as rules are concerned. Besides, Pat's my mum's name, I'm not going to call you Pat.
Patrick: Pat's MY mom's name, that's why I don't say it! Ultimately, if you did say it, I probably wouldn't even care, cos I'm used to it. It's not my favourite name, but I don't really...

ChartBlog: See, I'd have gone with Stumpy, but they said not to do that either...
Patrick: [laughs] You know what? Don't even worry about that, I was Stumpy for a good ten years of my life, I'd say, so...

Sab: hey, what type of penguin do you like?
Patrick: Is this a meal, or to hang out with, or..?

ChartBlog: I'm not sure. I can't even think of any different types of penguin.
Patrick: There are different types of penguin. There's a weird penguin relative that lives in Australia. It's a really weird looking little dude. I'll go with that guy. I don't remember his name, but it's a type of penguin that lives on the coast of Australia.

Rachael: Peter Wentz says that you are the golden ticket, what place do you take him to?
Patrick: [flummoxed] Where are we going? We're going to this really ugly basement that we had our first practise in. And him, me and Joe...I'm gonna show him my stupid little songs, and they're gonna go, like "I don't know about that song, but you should sing, maybe..."

ChartBlog: Aww..and then did Pete go "I've got all these lyrics, here..."
Patrick: Do you know how that one started? This is good. It would be like, I would write something and he would be like "you should change this word...you should change both these words...you know what? You should change this sentence...", and I was like "JUST GIMME YOUR WORDS! JUST GIVE 'EM TO ME!". It would be basically like "I like your melody, I don't that song, I don't like what it's about, I don't like this", and I'm like "that's cool, you're better at writing than me anyway. Just GIMME THE FRIGGING LYRICS!"

Helena: Patrick, important question; Otis Redding or Marvin Gaye?
Patrick: Ooh! I'd say as a full career, Marvin Gaye. Otis Redding didn't really have time to prove himself really...though, I would say in single songs though? Otis Redding's 'These Arms Of Mine' outshines anything that Marvin Gaye ever did. But Marvin Gaye's amazing too. That's pretty hard to say. I'm sure Marvin Gaye had his song like that, but I just don't think it got recorded.

Katie: Hey Patrick, how r u? Anyway you're a lucky kid you have an incredible distinctive voice but would you ever like to sing like somebody else?
Patrick: Of course. I mean I think that's how you start singing anyways. It goes to all sorts of people. When I was in high school I wanted to sing like Jeff Buckley, get older I wanted to sing like Sam Cooke or Nat 'King' Cole...I dunno. There's tons of people I wanna sing like. I even want to sing like Tom Waits, cos there's something so characteristic about him, y'know? You'd know him from a mile away.

Samara: How many hats do you own?
Patrick: [thinks for ages] More than enough! Er, I dunno, let's make it a nice round fifty.

Tash: are Fall Out Boy as a whole still as close friends with each other as they were back in the early days? and do you still drink garlic butter with the homies?
Patrick: [laughs] The garlic butter was a one-time dare. Pretty much before we met our friend Dirty we would divvy up the Idiot Tasks, like taking stupid dares from each other. And I was the 'Drinking Gross Stuff' guy. I drank a bottle of Tabasco and everything. But I retired from the professional drinking gross stuff circuit...are we as close friends? Absolutely. I think we're closer friends now. I think we've got to this level where it's like brothers, it's like brotherhood.

[EXTRA BANTER HERE, PLAY AUDIO INTERVIEW]

Laura Gamble: Kerrang! magazine recently said "Patrick Stump looks like he's made of plasticine" is this true?
Patrick: I'm afraid I'm not totally sure what plasticine is. I would assume it's...I mean the root word is 'plastic'...

ChartBlog: It's that gunky stuff like Silly Putty that Wallace and Gromit are made out of...
Patrick: Ahhh yes. I'm made of plasticine? I would assume...I don't know what they're referring to...I would assume I was probably sweating in that picture, and that made me kind of greasy and shiny...and, um...yes I am made out of plasticine. And there's a team of stop-action animators, who animate me.

ChartBlog: Surely that's got to be a dream video to make, the Aardman Animations Fall Out Boy video...
Patrick: I don't know, like I say, I've been animated my whole life.

Lozzy: I get bullied alot at school for being a "freak", anyway were you bullied at school and if so how did you cope?
Patrick: I was bullied at school until I started playing music, and I started playing music when I was, like, 10, or something like that. From then on, I was like this weird level where I was not popular, but generally everybody would high-five me in the hallway. That was where I was. They wouldn't call me to hang out on the weekend, it wasn't like that. But in general they wouldn't make fun of me. Ultimately the lesson I learned is do whatever you do, as long as that doesn't involve, like, shooting a bunch of other kids...[tails off, worriedly]

ChartBlog: You find your niche, don't you...
Patrick: [relieved] YEAH! Find your niche.

[EXTRA BANTER HERE, PLAY AUDIO INTERVIEW]

Brandi: Oh no, I know what I wanted to ask, I know you can play drums...ever considered switching it up at a show and playing the drums live? And what else can you play? Cos it sounds like you're pulling a Prince and trying to learn everything about music.
Patrick: I started out on the drums, then I moved up to bass, then I moved up to guitar. And I kind of dabble on, like, trumpet and trombone and stuff. And I play some piano. On this record I play a lot of piano. Do I ever think of switching? No. I think Andy is an awesome drummer and I think it would be silly. I played with My Chemical Romance once, at Warped tour. I played a song with them on drums. It was awesome. I was really nervous though because I hadn't played drums in, like, 5 years. I'm sitting in this little trailer, like a backstage room, and I'm sitting there and I'm practising my ass off and Gerard's like, "dude! It's OK, man, calm down!", and I'm like "NO NO NO! I haven't played in FIVE YEARS! YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!". I took it really seriously and the song's, like, two minutes long.

ChartBlog: Was it one of their really fast ones?
Patrick: Yeah, it was...was it 'Thank You For The Venom'? Can't remember the name of it, can't remember what song I played. But it was one of their fast ones.

ChartBlog: That's SO unfair. You wanna be doing one of their slow ballads.
Patrick: I chose that song! And I did pretty well, except Bob Bryar, the drummer, likes to set his drums pretty far away, and he plays with his arms instead of his wrists. And so I couldn't come up with some of the really fast fills, cos I don't have the arm strength that he does. He's a lot more buff than people give him credit for.

ChartBlog: Well you need ONE of them with big muscles in My Chemical Romance, just to be ready...

[DRUM-RELATED BANTER HERE, PLAY AUDIO INTERVIEW]

ChartBlog: It's been a pleasure to speak to you Patrick.
Patrick: Thanks a lot, man. Bye!

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PS: HUGE thanks to everyone who sent questions in. Sorry if yours didn't get asked, there were loads to choose from and only a small amount of time. Special thanks to the FOBROCK boardies, who've been very patient. Hope the wait has been worthwhile.

[Oscar winner speech mode] I'd also like to thank my mum, for the Pat thing, and my agent, for believing in me...you know, this award isn't just for me, it's also for all the little people out there who work their hardest to make sure every little thing is right and if not for their diligence and hard work...(etc etc, forever)...