We get slammed for having this gee-whiz nature about things,” smiles Patrick Stump. “It’s this thing where it sounds like false modesty after a while, so I understand it, but you tell me, how unlikely is it that Fall Out Boy, of all bands, is still here?” Andy, Joe, Pete and Patrick have been such a relentlessly present force in recent years, a mainstay of radio, arenas and hearts, that it’s easy to forget that it wasn’t always the case. Coming back from any hiatus is tough enough. For Fall Out Boy, they had to shake off a sound and image that helped define the early noughties as well as find a new space to call their own. Echoing the past was never an option. Former glories are for those with nothing new to say. The back to back might of 2013’s ‘Save Rock and Roll’ and 2015’s ‘American Beauty/American Psycho’ saw the band switch lanes, carve out their own space and create something new. ‘M A N I A’ sees them switch it up all over again. “The older I get, the weirder it is that I’m still here, that we’re still here doing this and that we’re still talking about this,” continues Patrick. “It still feels weird to me every day. Not in a bad way, it’s amazing, but I’m in genuine disbelief every night when we play and have that many people sing along, or are excited to see us, or are wearing the shirt or have the tattoo and all that. Really, still?” he asks with a grin. “It just shocks me. Maybe I’m just oblivious, but it feels very surreal. You never get used to it.” Back in 2003, Fall Out Boy had a “pretty successful” record with ‘Take This To Your Grave’. “It was fairly up the middle in terms of genre. You can define that album,” explains Patrick. “So when we did ‘From Under The Cork Tree’ [in 2005], I was college age. Maybe I was going to go back to school if the band didn’t work out. And here I am about to do a major label debut record! Most of those major label debuts disappear without a trace. That’s the story for most artists. The odds are you do this; then you never make another record again. I knew bands personally, and that was their story. A lot of the bands from Chicago, a lot of the biggest bands in our universe, our sphere, were bands that had gotten signed and then disappeared off the face of the planet. They got signed, put the record out, nobody cared. That was the narrative we assumed we were going to be a part of. “Not only did that that not happen, but we put out ‘...Cork Tree’, and it was a big hit. Then we put out ‘Infinity On High’ [in 2007], and by some measures, that was an even bigger hit. It doesn’t make any sense. I don’t mean this in a self-deprecating way, but I’m not the most charismatic guy on earth, right? I didn’t imagine that I would be a part of something that would be that successful. Then we put out ‘Folie A Deux’ [in 2008], and the way this story goes for most bands is that that’s it. That’s all you get. Time’s up. You’re going to be playing the festival circuit, or carnivals and state fairs, for the rest of your life. That’s normally what happens.” Not for Fall Out Boy, though. “When we came back post-hiatus [in 2013], it was amazing because I genuinely didn’t know people still wanted us. I didn’t know people missed us or wanted anything out of us. The fact we were coming back with new music that was very different to what we left with, and then people embraced it, that was very liberating. The things I’ve gotten to do now, after the hiatus. It’s so amazing. If Fall Out Boy had kept going and kept being what we were, I don’t think we would have ever been able to score films or work with orchestras and write hip-hop beats and do all the things we get to do now. That would have been an option if we were just the little midwestern pop punk band forever. It’s definitely been very liberating.” That feeling flows through new album ‘M A N I A’ like blood through veins. Once again but like never before, it sees the band push things forward and chase rabbits down twisted warrens. From the shattered glint of ‘Young & Menace’ through to the spread palm of ‘Bishop’s Knife Trick’, Fall Out Boy nudge your expectations and shift the boundary lines a little further. It’s what they were always going to do, though. Believers never die. Back on ‘...Cork Tree’, Patrick said to himself: “This is my only shot. This is probably the last time I’ll ever put out a record. I want something that 10, 15, 20 years down the line, will have laid a blueprint for musical change. I know I’m not a genre guy. I’m not the guy who’s going to be playing the same kind of music for the rest of his life. I wanted to make sure that was there, even then. “The thing that I’m excited about is that it feels like this record finally realises that for me. It’s like all the things I wanted to set up in ‘...Cork Tree’ have come to life. All the weird, different elements of folk, blues, RnB, future bass, metal and jazz are there. There’s all sorts of weird stuff.” “Musically it’s a progression,” starts Pete Wentz. “It just feels like it’s moving the ball forward.” “It’s pretty broad in terms of sound,” continues Patrick. “That was there early on. With ‘Young & Menace’, everyone thought it was going to be an electronic record. Then we put out ‘Last Of The Real Ones’, and everyone thought it’d be more rock. It’s not a thing you can pin down; it’s a lot of different things. I think that’s neat. One of my managers was saying how the thing about Fall Out Boy is that we have this natural thing that’s us. Pete’s words, my voice, the way Andy plays drums and Joe plays guitar; there’s something natural about those things that comes through in any context. Or it seems to. If we played Old MacDonald, there would be something inherently Fall Out Boy about the way that we’d do it.” That belief gave the group a license to go on some “musical vacations” and do some “weird things”. “This is one of our more all over the place records, but in a good way.” Somewhere between ‘...Cork Tree’ and today, Fall Out Boy became more than a band toying with genre. Something like ‘Hold Me Tight or Don’t’ doesn’t sound like anything the band have done before, but it instantly feels like them. It’s a legacy that’s still finding new spaces to explore, but it’s one they hold dear. It’s why you’re hearing ‘M A N I A’ four months later than originally planned. It was missing that spark. That special something that makes FOB twinkle like they do. The turning point came over a coffee. “I was talking to Patrick,” says Pete. “I thought he loved the songs. He thought I loved the songs. We realised we had a problem because neither one of us did. If we hadn’t have had that conversation, we would have put out a record in September, and it would have been much more awkward, asking well, why did we put this record out? “Originally it felt like an extension of ‘American Beauty/American Psycho’. That would have been fine, but it would have been just fine. We didn’t have ‘Last Of The Real Ones’ yet, we didn’t have ‘Hold Me Tight or Don’t’. We had ‘Champion’, ‘Young & Menace’ and that was it. It wasn’t bad; it was just fine. I don’t want to be just fine. When we go out and play in front of 15,000 kids, I don’t want to play some shit I’m not inspired by. It’s not enough. It’s like faking it. It’s not what we want to do. The benefit was that we were able to try and do something a little more thoughtful.” Rather than try and breath life into old songs, Fall Out Boy took out the scissors and started cutting. Songs were scrapped because “they were just mediocre to me,” continues Pete. “It wasn’t going to be anyone’s favourite song; it wasn’t going to be a massive song. It was just filler. They were good enough, and that’s just not. You can do anything in 2017. People will give you a chance, but there’s no room for middle of the road. There’s nothing worse than people having no opinion. I’m fine with people saying the sample in ‘Uma Thurman’ is fucking terrible or asking why we put a hair metal scream on the radio. Any of that shit, I’m fine with it. ‘Young & Menace is way to EDM? Okay. For people to just have no reaction? That would be rough.” For a moment, there was a different lyrical perspective on ‘M A N I A’. “It was straight ahead from our last record. In doing the reboot, it felt like a chance for us to go in and examine other stuff, other perspectives,” offers Pete. ‘Save Rock and Roll’ and ‘American Beauty/American Psycho’ both realise the unrest. Grand statements and opposites attracting under their banner of hyper-charge. Battling anxieties with huge choruses and avoiding the darkness by constantly chasing the light, those two records ran forward, hand in hand, and refused to look back. A kneejerk to a world slowly falling away. ‘M A N I A’ almost followed suit. The band took the spark of ‘Young & Menace’ and tried to write, record and release a new album in just twelve months. In pushing it back, they paused to look around. The result is a record that refuses to stand still, leaning from left to right and wringing hands as ‘M A N I A’ swells into an “examination of subtle neurosis,” Pete starts. “The Larry David-isms of the world.” “I love the world; I just don’t love the way it makes me feel,” sings ‘Church’. Full of spirit and fiery soul, it looks at “love or lust, where you’re so into them they become like a religion to you.” ‘Heaven’s Gate’ considers “the idea that you can sneak somebody into Heaven with you, the same way you could sneak somebody into the VIP bit of a club. Religious imagery can be super powerful. Obviously, we’re all over the place with religion. Personally, I don’t know what I think. I like the idea that you can try and be a better version of yourself. Whatever makes you want to do that is good, whether it’s having kids or believing in God or whatever.” “This record is one of those, I’m here, flaws and all kinda things. And that’s okay. People are a complicated animal. We’re happy and sad, and I feel all these things. It’s a range. A buffet of emotions.” At times, ‘M A N I A’ is awkward, lonely, confused and lost. “There will always be these feelings underneath, but you have to evolve and adapt, and that’s what this record has within it too. There are imperfections, but that’s okay. That’s the intent. It’s not like really one thing. It’s hopeful, more than anything. I think there’s hope.”