INTERVIEW: Patrick Stump on His One Man Band and Future of His Four Man Band

Fall Out Boy lead singer Patrick Stump has a number of different feelings about his debut solo album, Soul Punk. You could count “lucky” as one of them, as in, lucky he isn’t in the limelight as much as his band mate Pete Wentz.

“(Pete) was under the microscope. I’m a tiny bit, but nothing like he has to deal with,” Stump said recently in a sit down interview with “The Ralphie Radio Show.” “I think it’s a lot harder for him to make the Black Cards record because from the get-go, not only are expectations wildly out of control, but people’s perspectives on his intentions are wildly out of wack.”

If you’re wondering – all four members of FOB have moved on from the band to other projects – but Stump doesn’t believe that his solo album, nor any other activities, signal the demise of the Chicago pop-punk group.

“Fall Out Boy has a lot of fans. They’re still really dedicated. And (Soul Punk) clearly isn’t Fall Out Boy,” Stump attempted to clarify. “That’s been the hardest thing: getting people comfortable with the idea that I’m just doing this thing on the side, and if this thing takes off, then it’s still considered something parallel to Fall Out Boy.”

But even Stump admits that while his intentions are clearly stated, everything is “all talk” until he releases his album and FOB drops a new LP. For now, all he can do is promote Soul Punk, which he finished about two months ago, and comes out October 18. The first single is actually a remix of a cut from the disc: “This City” featuring fellow Chicago native Lupe Fiasco. The idea of a remix came from Stump’s label, Island Records.

“Eric Wang is a friend of mine, and he works at the label, and he gave me his list and he was like, ‘Give me your list,’ recalled Stump of trying to decide who would be asked to contribute a verse to the remix. “The top of both of our lists was Lupe.”

Truth be told, Stump’s entire list was essentially Fiasco, and that’s it. The vocalist admires the emcee, calling him a “superhero.”

“There’s not a lot of people that have an authoritative intelligence but also a ‘fun’ to them,” he explained. “There are a lot of rappers who are really smart and really intellectual, and Lupe fits that bill, but he also knows his way around a pop song.”

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Stump cited Fiasco’s “The Show Goes On” as a prime example of this, as the singer said he had never heard a pop song in heavy radio rotation deliver some of the points that Lupe made in the track.

Still, while Stump would be happy with big spins and sales numbers, those are far from his motivating factors for releasing the album.

“When I was doing this record I was thinking about mortality,” he revealed. “Someday I will either be dead or I will be someone’s grandpa and it would be nice to have something, ‘When I was younger, I did this thing.’”

Although, by then who knows if that generation will be able to recognize the now 27 year-old. Stump is almost unrecognizable now – as he lost a considerable amount of weight since Fall Out Boy’s last go-around.

“I have a lot more energy,” said Stump of how the weight loss has affected his performance. “I fret to call it dancing, because I don’t think I’m all that great a dancer, but I do, sort of get to dance.”

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