Fall Out Boy Open Up About Not Touring With Emo Bands And The Struggle Of Finishing “M A N I A”

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Fall Out Boy have opened up about their new album “M A N I A”, which will be out in January, as well as the trouble they went through in order to finish it and their decision not to tour with emo bands anymore.

When discussing the latter, vocalist Patrick Stump had this to say: “None of the emo bands messed with us. They hated us. They wouldn’t tour with us.” 

Or in the words of guitarist Joe Trohman: “I’m going to sound like a jerk, but we are still doing the band and making records – we are not on a 10-year-anniversary tour. We are still an active band. That is not an easy thing to do.” 

When asked about the possibility of doing something special for the 10th anniversary of the band’s album “Infinity On High”, bassist Pete Wentz adds:  “A band like us could get stuck if we did that. […] It’s a loop, and we’d be doing it forever.”

In fact, that fear of getting stuck is quite present within the band, as it was one of the main reasons they had to push back the release date of “M A N I A” from this September all the way to January. 

Back in July of this year, when the band had orginally almost finished the album, there came a moment where Patrick Stump realized, he was not happy with the result at all. He recalls:

“It freaked me out. […] I was like, ‘I don’t think this is something the four of us will like, I don’t think it’s something the label is going to like. It doesn’t sound like Fall Out Boy. Oh, God, I can’t turn this in.'”

He then turned to band mate Pete Wentz who agreed and eventually the band decided to take more time and push back the release date. However they did go through with their US tour this fall, which was meant to be in support of “M A N I A”.

Now even after all the hard work, overcoming of doubts and changing things around, there is no guarantee for the record to be a success, for example in terms of radioplay. But Patrick Stump is very much okay with that:

“Do I need another hit in my life? I don’t really care. The only reason to put out a record is if it’s really great. And once you are past the radio-hit stage of your career, that becomes even more important.”

“M A N I A” is the seventh studio album by Fall Out Boy and will be available for stream and purchase on January 19.

You can check out the full interview the band did with Rolling Stone here.