you paint me purple and boy i'm in love

So. The last time I blogged I apparently accidentally quit music. I can only imagine I must be poor at expressing myself considering how easily people misunderstood me.  Somewhere around the time my mom called me to check if I were okay I figured I was in way over my head/totally sucked at venting. 

This time I’ll try to be brief and see how that works:

1) I won’t ever quit music, I just may not release some of my own for a little bit.

2) Sometimes I’m just taken aback at how cruel people can be because deep down I’m just some naive/affable suburban middle American wuss.

3) I’m very grateful to all the people who support(ed) Folie A Deux and Soul Punk.

4) I felt I owed it to those people to let them know I wouldn’t be able to tour as much as I (and hopefully they) had wanted.

5) I guess I got carried away with the sarcasm and hyperbole in trying to say that.

I’m not depressed. I’m super embarrassed/humbled by all the compliments/heartfelt support I’ve gotten in response to my blog. No worries: Things are rad by me. I’m still writing and working with other musicians. Really focusing on being more of a co-writer than a producer. The best stuff is when I feel like I’ve sort of tricked the other writer into writing a really good song on their own. It’s really rewarding to watch somebody inspire themselves. 

I’m kind of amassing non-musical hobbies for the first time in my life: Collecting Silver Age X-men, learning how to taste whisk(e)y like some sophisticate (started with mostly Irish but learning a lot about Scotch, some good Japanese ones, and a bit of Bourbon…BTW drink responsibly or something), and taking acting classes (note that the latter is in the hobby category of my life…I don’t expect much more from it than to have some fun and holy smokes I am).

-p.stump

Ten years ago today, my band released our debut album Take This To Your Grave. We were just four unsuspecting Midwestern nerds named after a moderately obscure Simpsons character, living life like the background characters in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. We were totally unprepared for everything that followed.

Up to that point in the band’s history, we were merely something to do before we were forced to give in to the pressures of real life. We saw ourselves as a pretty cool excuse for a semester off of college. My accountant mother was also the ex-wife of a musician (my dad in point of fact). She knew empirically the odds weren’t in our favor and wisely advised me to consider planning on getting a real job. Instead of taking her advice, I went ahead and recorded an album.

Take This To Your Grave began as a demo…a supremely lucky long shot lightning strike of a demo. The band was a fractured and seemingly futureless mess at the time; No drummer, having also freshly lost our most recent of many revolving door rhythm guitarists. We had all entertained the thought that our collective candle for our little pop-punk odyssey was about to flicker out when the great Sean O'keefe offered to record us. We discussed a three song demo to be recorded at the legendary Smart Studios in Madison Wisconsin. We thought “What the hell? Why not?” We didn’t even have three new songs to record, but who doesn’t love a hearty bluff?

I remember writing “Homesick at Spacecamp,” on the plane home from visiting family only days before the session.

We’d asked our friend Andy Hurley to play drums on it. He said yes…granted he could make it to Madison in time after tracking an entire album earlier that day for another band in Chicago. I actually checked drums with Sean, under the assumption that I’d have to play them. We were literally about to start my first take of “Dead On Arrival,” when in walked Andy.

I guess in a lot of ways, in walked the actual beginning of Fall Out Boy as well; From that point onward, Joe, Andy, Pete, and I were a proper band. The three songs we recorded in what felt like two days (“Dead on Arrival,” “Homesick at Spacecamp,” and “Saturday,”) would go on to become three of our most enduring, and certainly the first time any of us heard ourselves in speakers and went “Huh! We definitely don’t suck!”

It laid the groundwork for many “Huh! We don’t suck!” Moments to follow on our four subsequent albums.

So here we are, ten years, two gold and two platinum albums, three MTV VMAs, a couple Kerrang awards, and a Grammy nomination later. Hell, we just had our second Billboard number one album a couple weeks ago! I guess I can say this now: Mom, I’m sorry, but I don’t think I’m getting a real job.

Thanks to everybody who’s supported us over the years. It continues to be a crazy ride.