Interview with Patrick Stump 8/28/11

Words to live by with Patrick Stump: Relax

There are many things that can be said about Patrick Stump. He’s a talented musician, a wonderful performer and one of the most genuine people one could ever hope to meet. In being an avid fan for years thanks to Fall Out Boy, I’ve kept my eye on Mr. Stump, very well aware of the aforementioned talents and hoping that in the midst of this hiatus we wouldn’t be starved of them. Luckily, he seems to have the same mindset as he is currently touring the US, promoting his upcoming solo album Soul Punk. His latest stop here in Austin brought a high energy, pulse pounding performance that got the small indoors venue of Stubb’s dancing and just having a good time. Afterwards, most milled out to the back to meet with the band and thank them for the performance they had just given.

As it grew late, or later rather, the crowd thinned out, and I was able to talk with Patrick Stump himself. Standing out by a water cooler, I feel like he almost looked out of place in his dapper attire. With a button up shirt, tie and suit jacket he looked more ready to see a theatre show than speak with a 19 year old. I couldn’t help but feel like he wasn’t the same Patrick Stump I had seen with Fall Out Boy, as he seems to have come into his own. When asked about the differences in being a solo artist and being a part of a group, he answered easily that while he is on his own, it still feels very much like he’s a part of a group. “I was actually kind of disappointed, I was getting off stage just now and the band was still playing, you know, like I get off stage and the band still plays for a couple seconds after I’m done or whatever, and there were all these people outside waiting for me and I was like ‘But the show!’ It should be about the show more importantly than meeting somebody or all that other stuff. The show is the thing, I mean, it should be exciting.” He states, rocking from side to side and using his hands to convey his point. “That’s kind of weird to me to be the center of attention that way, on the stage I’m totally comfortable with being the center of attention, that’s something I’ve been doing for such a long time. But like, being a solo artist casts you as a personality more in the focus, and that’s weird.”
It is hard to focus on much else when Patrick is on stage, as he commands attention, whether he is singing, playing his pocket trumpet or even taking a turn at the drums, which was actually what he had started on. “I was not really intending to be a singer. I thought I was going to be a drummer in a band, I really didn’t expect to be the center of attention. I just wanted to write songs, I really wanted an outlet for song writing. That was the thing for me, and that led to me being a solo artist.”

As a solo artist, he has taken his music to a completely different area than most had expected of him which caused some old Fall Out Boy fans to state their opinions, something that had actually caused him to take to twitter and call them out on it. “There are two things that I firmly believe,” he starts, “First off, there’s no reason to do a solo project if it’s going to sound like your band, that just means you should probably work out what problems you have with your band or whatever it is that causes you to do that. And secondly a band is a compromise, and not in a bad way. I don’t know why compromise in America, you say that word and people think it’s a negative thing.” Politics, I interjected. I blame politics. “No, it is! It really is! It’s a very political issue, this idea of compromising. ‘No we will not compromise!’ Uncompromising, you say that and it sounds like ‘Great, uncompromising’ and it’s like no, compromise is important and that’s how society works. And a band is a very small society and everything is a compromise. And so I find it fascinating when people assume. I remember having a conversation with Aaron from Underoath about The Yellow Jackets, who are a fusion jazz group, and there’s this expectation that Aaron plays in Underoath so he’s only ever listening to hardcore and metal and Christian music. And we were talking jazz. And I was in Fall Out Boy so everyone is like ‘So Blink 182…’ I didn’t listen to Blink 182 until we toured with Blink 182. There are a lot of those expectations and they’re so silly to me. That’s how I feel about the solo thing. It will be different because it’s me and there’s no compromise.” He stops for a moment and thinks before continuing, “Now that I think of it, I’m still kind of compromising because I want to stay out of Fall Out Boy’s way. Not that I steer it too far, but I do think to myself, especially lyrically, if there is anything I feel like Pete [Wentz] could say better, I just avoid it.” He smiles and plays with his tie, urging me to continue. By now most of the equipment has been cleared away and the crew is disappearing off to various places.

Wanting to lead the conversation from the past, I look on towards the release of his album, due out October 18th. “If there is one song off the album you could pick to introduce to someone who has never heard you, what would it be and why?” I ask. Patrick pauses for a moment, deep in thought. “Everybody Wants Somebody. It isn’t quite the big single so whatever, but I feel it’s the most me in the most ways. I mean everything’s very me,” he chuckles, “but I think that song is almost a mission statement. I think what it says lyrically, is a little bit of a message, but there’s also a lot of word play and things like that.” He stops abruptly to ask how long they have left at the venue, shedding light on how late it seems to be. Offering to leave him alone to let him eat the famous Stubb’s Barbeque, he waves me off claiming that it’s in the fridge anyway. “I just feel like it says what I want it to say.” Stump finishes seamlessly, almost like he hadn’t stopped at all.

Seeming as he really knows what he’s doing with the direction he’s heading, it only seems right to ask my last question in the vein of advice he might have for other’s looking into a profession such as his. “So I’ve been saying this a lot. It isn’t advice but it’s something that I thought of. So I’ve been trying to traverse the whole chasm of all the ideas I have. I have all these visual ideas and character ideas and these things that I want to do on stage. They’re almost theatrical or whatever but I don’t want to not be me. I don’t want to lie and be a character. I am just me at the end of the day and so it’s been kind of a learning curve because a lot of people resort to controversy and sexuality, you know whatever, you go somewhere with an angle for people to pay attention to your stuff and it’s very honestly a part of me to wear the cape and the weird stuff and play my mini trumpet. That’s very much part of me. It’s as much a part of me as me talking to you right now, so I wanted to make the conscious decision to be honest, and getting to the advice thing, it’s not really advice. It’s almost anti-advice. I read a quote by David Lee Roth where he said ‘Once you can fake sincerity, you’ve got it made.’ And that’s probably true, but it’s a lot more fun when you don’t have to fake it. I wouldn’t recommend getting into this business if you aren’t patient. If you don’t like people, entertaining is not a great job for you.” Patrick starts to get excited in what he’s saying as he starts trying to find the right way to word what he is trying to say, “It’s like punk rock. I grew up in punk rock and I’m expected as a punk rocker to be a shit head all the time, you know, to be rude to people and stuff and I’m like, that’s not what punk rock means to me. Fugazi wasn’t rude. The clash weren’t rude all the time, it wasn’t about that. They were statements they were making. That’s what attracted me, so it’s really about identity and just being yourself. But if you can fake sincerity, you’ve got it made. But don’t fake it.” He concludes with a smile. After such a long night, I’m actually surprised the man can still stand around with such a genuine smile, giving advice on being yourself. Whether you like the direction he is taking or not, you can’t deny that he is most certainly doing it as his own person and it is most certainly going to pay off. You’ll soon be hearing more of his name, that I can almost guarantee, and he will definitely be blowing up speakers for years to come now.