Fall Out Boy - From Under Melkweg Cafe
On February the 4th. I had an interview with Andy, drummer from the band Fall Out Boy right before their show in the Melkweg in Amsterdam.
First time in Holland?
Yes first time.
Had any time yet to check Amsterdam?
Haven’t seen to much yet, I just walked around looking for food and stuff, that’s all.
At first when did you start the band?
Pete started it. I know him for 10 years. He always came to hardcore shows were I had to play and than we started to play in hardcore bands together. And then I met Joe because he was a fan of one of the hardcore bands I was in. And I knew Patrick because we had a lot in common about the music we liked. o we were fed up with the negativity and we wanted to make more positive styles of music. So we started this band in 2002. we didn’t have a name and then someone in the crowd shouted Fall Out Boy, so it became Fall Out Boy.
Your record From Under the Cork Tree. Is entitled to be your breakthrough record.
What was it about this album that could achieve that?
I don’t know. It’s our first album at a major label and we have been touring a lot, and than writing songs, recorded it. We were under a lot of pressure. It’s just very honest. The cover of the record is inspired by the fact we crashed our van and almost died. There are a lot of things that changed in our lives that takes us to that. I don’t really specifically know why it worked but it did, and just something truly honest. We were never moulded by our label or anything.
So it was like, this is our album, like it or not?
Exactly. The song sugar, we’re going down is kinda about that.
It’s just like we’re doing this our way and if we are going down, we are going down swinging but either way this is what we are.
What makes it so different from the earlier record Take This To Your Grave?
We had a car crash and been touring for 2 and half years. Which we never have. Well we have toured but for 2 years. So that changed us a lot, we’re finding our identity as a band more. The things we had experienced with people and touring but also with labels, being at a major label and stuff that shows in the new album. There were also some good songs at the first album though.
Did you expected a respond like this with the new album?
No, especially not here. Cause we’ve never been here. And we have this place sold out show the first time we’re here.
How do you respond to all this attention and being so popular in once?
At first I didn’t pay attention to it. And I realized it and than it hits me, like its kinda serious. It can end all like tomorrow. So you try not to get caught up into it. Because if it becomes you and the rope is pulled, where do you end up? The main thing for us is this band is about playing. Is there is one person or a million people, if one person cares that’s all that matters.
We have really a lot of fans that care and a big fan base at home. And that’s really cool to have that. That’s why we’re playing. So if we weren’t known from radio and tv than that was cool too.
About touring, are there bands you love to play with?
Not really. We toured with a lot of bands who were really good friends. Well green day would be cool because we definitely grew up with them
Are there still bands you look up to?
I’d say green day again. Saves the day, bands like that. You know, stuff that really influenced us a band. Especially in the beginning. But they still do.
Why do you come up with these crazy titles for the songs?
Pete writes the songs. And the titles are song because there are a lot of bands with song titles like photograph or pain or whatever and it’s just boring! It’s so easy or obvious because it’s in the song and I think we are really influenced by pop culture so it’s fun to have song titles that maybe not initially have to deal with the song but it either does in a way that is a joke within the band or you have to read into it more. But it makes the fans and people who read it think, what does this? And that’s the point of it.
What has been the coolest/strangest/worst gig for you guys yet?
No strange things happen really. Well joe and pete started out jumping around with their guitars so Joe hit pete in the head once with the his guitar and he was bleeding and passed out for a second. And we had to go to the hospital afterwards. So that was a bad thing.
What part of being a band looks real attractive to people, which isn’t really.
Uhmm, I think the fame. Actually it’s not so cool as you think. It’s like being a hot girl and getting chased by a lot of guys. It’s not that you are respected as a person but as an object. Or you’re not being respected at all and being treated like an object. And that’s how it feels sometimes. And touring is sometimes hard. When you got taken away from your home and your family. But the band is like family too and we have a lot of fun so it’s fun also.
How do entertain yourselves in the tourbus?
In America with videogames. And i read a lot. Pete reads a lot, he writes songs everyday. In America we have a studio in the back of our bus with a microphone and a computer so he can write.
Final question, I saw in your tour guide that after this show you guys have 5 weeks off, what are you gonna do in those 5 weeks?
We’re gonna shoot a new video for a little less sixteen candles, a little more touch me. Than we just have some weeks of before the spring tour. Pete and I just got ourselves houses, Pete in Chicago and I got myself a house in Milwaukee so we have time move in there.
Interview by:
Kirsten van Dongen
Maarten Somers
Interview by:
Kirsten van Dongen
Maarten Somers
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