After four years of hiatus, rock band Fall Out Boy from Illinois have made a return to the musical stage with their newly released record Save Rock And Roll.
The record came as surprise to fans that hadn’t been kept up to date on social media platforms with the news that the band was writing and recording, let alone being notified of album updates like popular artists tend to do.
The punk rockers made a prompt visit to Australia to promote the album for a couple of secret shows but have since announced a national tour.
Actor, owner of a clothing line, father and bassist Pete Wentz managed to check a few items off his to-do-list during the break from Fall Out Boy.
“I did a whole bunch of things as well as a whole bunch of nothing [he chuckles]. I have a four and a half year old [son] so I spent a lot of time doing a lot of basic-every day dad stuff.”
The 34-year old explored musical dimensions he had never previously had time for, indulging in some electronic and reggae music.
“When you’re on the road all the time, you don’t do your own laundry and you don’t follow basic human schedules so it has been really good to do a lot of those things as well.”
“We went into the studio with a new mindset and we were doing it from a different perspective for the first time in a long time.”
Wentz felt refreshed after the band’s hiatus came to an end. “We went into the studio with a new mindset and we were doing it from a different perspective for the first time in a long time.”
The band are well aware of rapid change in pop-culture and endeavour not to fall through the cracks. “It all moves so fast because of the internet so we wanted to make a different record, the purest version of Fall Out Boy we have done in years, and we knew it was going to be a different animal than it ever was before.”
Save Rock And Roll certainly demonstrates musical maturity by the Grammy award nominees with some unexpected guest appearances including Elton John and controversial Madame of rock and roll – Courtney Love.
“We heard Elton was a fan so we reached out to him and were like ‘so how big of a fan are you really?’ [Wentz snickers]” which led to Fall Out Boy’s feature of John on the title track of the record. “Elton John in some ways – just is rock and roll.”
Wentz consequently addressed his Love for Courtney. “We’ve crossed paths over the years and we couldn’t make an album called Save Rock And Roll without some original, animalistic, brilliant, female rock and roll vocal on there – it would have been incomplete” the bassist justifies.
With Love’s history and reckless identity, some fans may have expected trouble with her inclusion on the new record. “She’s awesome man, people think that she is not with it [sic] but she is smart and super creative.”
Wentz assures that people who have heard Hole [Love’s band] would understand what he means, and those who haven’t, should – “people’s minds will be blown.”
Back in April this year, Fall Out Boy fans’ minds were blown too with the release of the new record coupled with a brief visit to our shores. “Australia has always been really good to us. It reminds me of the best weather of the U.S. but with even cooler people.”
After a rushed couple of shows, the band is saying ‘Thnks Fr Th Mmrs’ to Australia and making a return shortly. “The shows were pretty insane” Wentz reflects. “Australia has a pretty rabid fanbase and a culture that is different to American culture.”
Wentz really appreciates the casual attitude down under. “Everything has a flaming word associated like ‘Maccas’ and that kind of stuff, we don’t really get that in the U.S” he admits. “It’s so laid back, a lot of my information I get from chatting to Joel Madden [of Good Charlotte and Australian television show The Voice] and we agree how authentic and easy going Australians are.”
“Australia has always been really good to us. It reminds me of the best weather of the U.S. but with even cooler people.”Before the headline tour was announced, some rumours were circulating around the band playing Soundwave. “According to some people on the internet we were going to play a festival” but Wentz cannot confirm or deny these rumours.
“I don’t really book our band, I’m just the guy who plays bass and kind of like jumps in the crowd” he teases.
“We would love to play a festival though, it’s always a lot of fun, and we get to play with bands we wouldn’t otherwise play with like Knife Party and Metallica” – a diverse comparison.
Fall Out Boy are more than content with their alternative option of a headlining tour.
“A headline show is so much fun though. Since Australia is like 15 hours away from my house, I’d like to get down there and play all the songs people want to hear” as well as doing meet and greets with the fans “because we don’t get to come as often as we’d like to.”
Fall Out Boy have a few stops before hitting Australian shores this October. “We finish the U.S. arena tour in about two weeks and then we are off to Mexico before playing Indonesia as well.”
Even after Australia, the band will be heading to back to the U.S. for one final ‘Dance, Dance’ for the Save Rock And Roll touring cycle.
“The only places we haven’t really gone to on this record [that we have been to before] would be places in South America and South Africa.”
With some fans in those areas, Wentz hopes to make a few more stops on the world tour before taking a break.
You can catch Fall Out Boy on tour at the end of October and perhaps with an Elton John cameo. “If we can get the private jet to him in time, we could expect that to happen” Wentz giggles.
Fall Out Boy Australian Tour 2013 Dates
with special guests BRITISH INDIA
Tuesday 22nd October – Adelaide Entertainment Centre (Theatre), Adelaide SA (All Ages)
Ticketek.com.au | Ph: 132 849
Friday 25th October – Entertainment Centre, Sydney NSW (All Ages)
Ticketmaster.com.au | Ph: 136 100
Saturday 26th October – Festival Hall, Melbourne VIC (All Ages)
Ticketmaster.com.au | Ph: 136 100
Sunday 27th October – Convention Centre, Brisbane QLD (All Ages)
Ticketek.com.au | Ph: 132 849
more info at http://falloutboy.com/tour
