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![In support of their fifth studio album, Folie à Deux, Fall Out Boy has embarked on the Believers Never Die, Part Deux Tour, hitting up cities from coast to coast. Drummer Andy Hurley discussed the tour, as well as branching out into topics such as the meaning behind the band’s music, how they were able to land the legendary Elvis Costello on their latest album, and of course, zombies. The current tour will continue on through the middle of May, and has already sold out several dates. For a complete list of the tour itinerary, please go to the band’s official website.
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AoS: This tour just kicked off last week, and it’s your first full-out tour for the new record here in the states. What can fans expect, both similar and different to past Fall Out Boy shows?
Andy: Um, I mean it’s still the four of us. (laughs) We just got a new lighting guy so there’s a lot of awesome new lighting stuff that we’re doing that we’ve never had a guy good enough to do before. It’s kind of more of a theatrical show than I think any other show we’ve done. So, you know, past shows we’ve done stuff that kind of had pizzazz to it or whatever (laughs) I mean, you know, I don’t want to spoil anything and give it away, although I’m sure there are videos on YouTube. I just think this has been one of our most thought out ideas or concepts for a show. Also, this has been probably been my favorite line-up [Cobra Starship, All Time Low, Metro Station, and Hey Monday are filling out the opening slots] for a tour just because all of the bands are just awesome. I mean, just the awesomest dudes. I’ve been playing football with the All Time Low guys everyday. So hopefully that comes through in the show that there’s a lot of synergy and awesome times happening behind the stage, behind the scenes.
AoS: I heard you’ve been working on a comic book about the end of civilization. Can you discuss it a little bit or is it still under wraps?
Andy: I started it, I kind of had some ideas, I was brainstorming with some friends and then I was writing with someone else and that didn’t work so it’s kind of just in limbo right now especially since the tour, I mean even before. Basically, [since] we started recording last July it’s just kind of been busy cause we did that and we had a lot of press and we did Europe and U.S. radio shows in December and then Japan, Australia, and Europe again. So it’s been kind of crazy. It’s still something I definitely want to do. I think basically, I’m really into comics and I’m really into zombie stuff like, you know Walking Dead is awesome [and] The Last Man On Earth was really good. This is all personal to me, it has nothing to do with the band. I’m an anarchal primitivist and I just think a lot of those themes are so prevalent in social consciousness because we kind of know that things are fucked, especially now, and there’s more proof of it with the economy collapsing and things are just getting bad and are only gonna get worse as the populations grows and resources dwindle. We can’t invent resources out of nothing so I just thought it would be kind of fun and interesting to look at that from the perspective of a post-apocalyptic comic book that has more reality to it instead of the fantasy of zombies but still has fantastic elements to it.
AoS: What’s your all-time favorite Fall Out Boy song?
Andy: Mine is “What a Catch, Donnie”. I just love it. It’s the song I get into most every time I hear it. Mainly the bridge part going into the Elvis Costello part and then, the biggest part that makes it my favorite song, is the end where it kind of reprises [with] choruses from a bunch of songs. I feel like it could be our swan song, like if that was our last record, that should have been the last song and that could have been the end of everything, the end of the career. I mean, not that it is, but I’m just saying, we kind of encapsulated everything so well and [it] was also a complete departure from everything we’ve done because it is one of the slowest most ballady songs we’ve done.
AoS: You’ve got Elvis fucking Costello on this latest record. How was he to work with?
Andy: Well, we didn’t actually get to work with him in the studio. We all had a few people that were on the dream list](FALL%20OUT%20BOY%20INTERVIEW_files/shapeimage_6.png)
![for the record and mainly Patrick [Stump; lead vocalist/guitarist] had ideas of who would work for different vocal parts and [for] that specific part he thought Elvis Costello would work. I think he kind of mentioned it in passing or as a joke, nothing serious, but it just so happened that someone from our management knew someone who knew someone, you know, how ever many degrees of separation, but someone who knew Elvis Costello and he was contacted and he was interested in doing it and then it kind of went back and forth and it felt like it wasn’t going to happen because he was sick, he had bronchitis or something in his lungs and then it was kind of just like, “He wanted to do it, so that was cool,” and then a week later we got a copy of what he did and it was awesome, it was pretty surreal.
AoS: Fall Out Boy’s been pegged as a boy band from time to time. You, yourself are rather rooted in metal and a more aggressive sound which can be picked up on in Fall Out Boy’s music. Are you accepting of the boy band title?
Andy: I mean, I’ve never given us that. I think media or whatever says what they want and puts everything in a neat box so it’s more easily consumable and I guess being on a major label and being in a band that has the success we have, that’s going to happen. I obviously don’t agree, but I don’t really care one way or another. We make music that we love and we’re best friends and have been for years and that’s why we do the band because we’re friends, because we love the music we make. So I guess if someone thinks one or more of us are attractive enough to refer to us as a boy band that’s cool (laughs). Whatever you want.
AoS: When someone listens to your music, what is the absolute last thing you want him or her to think of or feel?
Andy: Wow that’s deep. (laughs) I don’t even know. I guess what I want them to think or feel is to take it apart and really dig into it. I mean, for me, my favorite band and my favorite record is Metallica and Justice for All. It’s just a record that I’ve been able to sit with for most of my life and I still listen to it a lot and every time I listen to it there’s something else I hear. I’ve never been a big lyrical person, unless it’s political lyrics, bands like Propagandhi or whatever or political hip-hop stuff so that’s the stuff that I kind of get into lyrically, but you know, it would be awesome if people heard the subtle things that we throw into the music or the things that Pete [Wentz; bassist/backing vocalist] throws into the lyrics. I do think that he is a really good lyricist. You know, if people pick that apart. I don’t want people to do the opposite. I don’t want people to just be like, “Oh, this is cool,” and then throw it away.
AoS: What do you think of Folie à Deux in comparison to Take This To Your Grave?
Andy: I personally think it’s the most similar record to it since then for a lot of reasons, because we took the least amount of time, which just in a really physical sense is similar, but then I think kind of the spirit and what we put into it is the same. I think we’ve come together the most on this record since Take This To Your Grave. I think this is our favorite record and the record we most believe in every song since then and especially in cohesiveness. I think Infinity On High we all love and [on From Under the] Cork Tree there are things we all love but I think we all kind of feel that they weren’t as cohesive as Take This To Your Grave was. But I feel like Folie à Deux is the most cohesive record we’ve had since then. I mean, obviously musically it’s way different but we’re also years older and we’re just not going to write that record again (laughs). I think my favorite two records we’ve done are Take This To Your Grave and Folie à Deux. I do feel [there are] a lot of kindred spirits within both of them.
AoS: Any last words for your fans or anyone reading this?
Andy: Stay off drugs. (laughs) Just read into everything. I don’t think that’s just for us or for a band you like. I think you should just read behind everything you’re into, like frame into a context and then understand whether it works for you or not, whether it’s politics or school or whatever.](FALL%20OUT%20BOY%20INTERVIEW_files/shapeimage_7.png)