TMF: In 60 seconds, give us your E! True Hollywood Story. A small bio about your band.
FOB Patrick: We were four dudes that used to be in hardcore bands. We were playing in basements for fun and somehow people other than ourselves liked it just as much as we did so we started going on tour and now here we are

TMF: Let’s say a movie is being made about your band. Who would you cast to play each member of the band?
FOB Patrick: I would be played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I’d say Joe would be played by Harold Raymond. Pete would be played by Billy Zane. And, Andy would be played by that guy from that Angel TV series or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I don’t remember his name but there you go.

TMF: If you could choose one actress to follow the band as a female groupie, who would it be?
FOB Patrick: I got a girlfriend so I wouldn’t have one for sexy purposes. I suppose with that said it would probably be somebody like –how about somebody like Estelle Getty? Someone old. It’d be awesome to hang out with – yeah that rules. There you go. Or like Bea Arthur.
TMF: That’d be so funny. I think your fans would really like that.
FOB Patrick: Yeah, I know! (laughs)

TMF: So how have you evolved musically over the last couple of years?
FOB Patrick: Not much. We’re still the same four dudes making the same style of music. We’re not taking ourselves seriously to the point of thinking we’re making art. But, we do take it a lot more seriously than we used to. There’s actually a little bit of thought that goes into it now. Musically, I’d say we’ve thrown in more of our own influences rather than just – we’ve always had our own influences –it was kind of a thing where we were a pop/punk band, you know? Now, we’re still a pop/punk band but we’re Fall Out Boy and whatever we’re into too at the time.

TMF: Tell us a bit about the new album. What do you particularly pride on from this album (as in lyrics, different sound, etc)?
FOB Patrick: I’m proud of the amount of work we got done on it. I know it’s the best songs that we have. It wasn’t a thing where those were the only songs we had. We picked the better ones. It’s good to know that in that respect it feels more complete. It wasn’t anywhere near as rushed. And I’m also proud of the fact we really didn’t use a lot of studio effects. We played everything ourselves. Not that we haven’t done that before I’m just saying it wasn’t a computer helping us you know?

TMF: Do you have a favorite song off the new album?
FOB Patrick: I think I like the first one, “Our Lawyer Made Us Change The Name Of This Song So We Wouldn’t Get Sued.” That’s probably my favorite.

TMF: What kind of reaction have you guys been getting in the last few shows with the new material?
FOB Patrick: Pretty supportive. People have been pretty cool about it. At the same time, people still want to hear the old stuff too. It’s good to know that people still want to be with you all around. I’m not expecting people to adopt it automatically. They fell in love with one record. It’s really hard to be into the next one that comes out too so I don’t blame people if they don’t like it either.

TMF: What song has received the best reaction from your fans so far?
FOB Patrick: “Sugar, We’re Going Down.”
TMF: The single?
FOB Patrick: Yeah. It’s doing really well.

TMF: Was there much more pressure on this album due to it being a major label release? How did you handle the transition?
FOB Patrick: There’s pressure of course. It’s weird because for the last record we made, we wrote those songs in a basement. It was no big deal. It really had no bearing on anyone else. It was just the four of us really enjoying ourselves. Let me put it this way, all the songs that they made videos for that were the singles off that record were actual recordings from demos we made. That wasn’t for anybody else like for some label trying to ship out units of your record. It’s seriously what we wanted to make and that’s what we made. So, it’s a lot different this time around. There are those people trying to put those considerations in your head. It gets to you a little bit but we tune it out. At the end of the day, none of those people were around with their great ideas to bother us when we made that record. So, why listen to their ideas now?

TMF: You guys are performing on Warped Tour this year so if every band set to play warped tour were to have a battle royal, who could come out victorious?
FOB Patrick: Geez, I don’t know. The Offspring at this point are men. They’re not kids anymore. We’re definitely kids. No one wants to get punched by a man. That’s a real punch but I don’t know. Something tells me just because there’s so intimidatingly cool that The Transplants would probably beat everybody up.

TMF: On your album, Take this to the grave, your first track Tell That Mick He Just Made My List of Things to do Today, does it have an actual story behind it and is there really such a person named Mick who inspired the song?
FOB Patrick: Oh no. That’s a quote from the movie Rushmore. But, there is a story. I don’t think there is a Mick. Mick by the way is a racial slur for an Irish person. We can make that joke because I’m Irish. I don’t even know who the actual person was. It’s kind of irrelevant. If you watch the movie, when you hear the phrase in it, it’s kind of more the feeling that he says with that that relates to the song a lot.

TMF: How do you plan to change the world beyond your music?
FOB Patrick: I can’t change the world. Fall Out Boy might change something but Patrick Stump maybe not.

TMF: Everywhere I look, livejournal/myspace/pure volume…I find thousands of fans posting daily about every aspect of your band. It seems the fans on there have a great amount of respect for each other – more than any other band I’ve seen before. Why do you think this is?
FOB Patrick: I think it’s because we kind of encourage that at our shows. We don’t tolerate jerks coming in and fighting. We don’t tolerate a lot of crap from people at shows. We want it to be safe for everybody at our shows. I think that carries over to our online stuff and our fan base in general. I think it’s awesome that we have that thing going you know? If we have done anything remotely good, it’s good to see people at punk rock shows not fighting over who looks better and all this other crap. The other thing I’m stoked to see is that there a lot of girls coming out to the show but they’re not there to pick up dudes which is beyond awesome. It feels like young women are getting involved instead of being eye candy. I think our fans are probably better than we are. They’re awesome and I can’t say enough about that.

TMF: I read in another interview how one of the best things about being in Fall Out Boy is having fans come up and share how their music has affected them personally. Off the top of your head, are there any stories that come to mind?
FOB Patrick: There are a couple kids in Omaha that would come to shows together with a friend of theirs who was also a fan. I remember him. He passed away not too long ago. It’s been awhile. It’s awesome that they still come and we still talk about him. It’s cool that- I don’t think we’re helping that much. But, it’s cool that we have stuff to talk about with that. There are tons of little stories like that. It’s cool to know we’re both supportive of each other- the fans and the band.

TMF: When you were a kid, what was the first CD or cassette you remember buying?
FOB Patrick: I don’t remember the first one I bought. The first one I ever owned was the Genesis live CD. I used to like that “The Way We Walk” song. It’s one of those things. My first concert was Midnight Oil. You never want to admit where you came from, your lame influences you know?

TMF: Do you guys enjoy being in the studio more or playing live?
FOB Patrick: I know that we kind of enjoy doing all of it. But, between all four of us, there will be one who likes the studio more and feels more at home there.

TMF: What are you guys up to after this tour?
FOB Patrick: We are gearing up to play for a while. Hopefully play a lot of songs off the new record. We’re just going to try and be happy, how about that?

Date: April 14,2005