You’re going to think “Oh great, Another blog about Fall Out Boy, I remember them! They used to play on the radio all the time, They had a bunch of great songs and then a shitty third album.” or “I hate Fall Out Boy, all their albums are gay” Whatever you think about the band, Just – Hold on for a few and let me talk, Because I haven’t been able to articulate quite how I have been feeling for the past month because nobody would listen, and I don’t know if anyone would even understand.

Fall Out Boy started as a kind of unknown group of guys making music in Chicago, they made some albums, but then they kind of got Big, Unexpectedly, and things started happening – big things, Things that kind of change you when you are a teenager or you are barely out of highschool, They were all young and they were just starting on this exciting and terrifying journey of starting this group, Their music was pop-punk and the lyrics were catchy, Some songs are the kind of songs you’d hear in those movies about those people that go to highschool and theres this big high school dance or prom or this big moment where these people are together, Thats what their old music reminds me of, I was never a Fall Out Boy fan, perse.. But I don’t really hate a lot of things, especially things I don’t know anything about.. and plus I heard some of their songs in movies and on the radio, They weren’t terrible, I just never really had the urge to check out their music because it wasn’t what I was into, it wasn’t my style. But that doesn’t mean it’s bad.

So when Spotify told me to check out Fall Out Boy’s new song “My songs know what you did in the dark” I was intrugied, I didn’t know the band had gone on hiatus in 2009, I didn’t know they ever stopped making music, I listened to some of the new songs off their brand new album Save Rock and Roll (Thats kind of a tongue in cheek title, by the way, If you think it’s a pompous thing for the band to assume they are saving rock and roll or that it needs saving at all, They aren’t. Seriously watch interviews, they talk about what it means.) I was mezmerized, It was danceable, catchy, fun, the music I liked, Then I found out they had music videos for three songs off the album, They’re doing this cool project where they are telling a story with all the songs turned into music videos, It starts off as the lead singer (Patrick Stump) Showing his bandmates this suitcase full of something they never show, Everyone is excited (And I believe this scene in the video could be a reference to how they reunited the band, In complete secrecy, They didn’t talk about it on social sites, Nobody even knew they announced the tour, the album, the single, the video, All in the span of a day, basically.. They were pretty ninja-tastic about it, They didn’t want anyone to know because they didn’t know what kind of back-lash people would have considering people weren’t too happy with the last album they made, Foile A Deux, Which people hated and I don’t see why because it was actually awesome, I guess some people just can’t stand change, and this album was a total departure from “Their old stuff”. They got a lot of hate for that album and things started spiraling out of control. But more on that later.)

The lead singer handcuffs the suitcase to his wrist and leaves the area probably to deliver the contents of the suitcase to where ever, But he (And the rest of the band members) get kidnapped, First the lead is taken to a place before they capture the rest of his friends, They chop his hand off to get around the whole “Handcuffed” thing, and they strap him down to a table and torture him (Sexy) Presumably removing his organs (Not so sexy), The rest of the band gets captured and show up in the next music video released about a month later, They are all tied up and are force fed cocaine, Patrick’s organs and weird smoke, Obviously they are all drugged up quite a bit, The women who captured them suddenly become topless and they all have a party, Oh okay you’re not paying attention anymore? Cool but don’t take my word for it, The videos are actually pretty awesome, and my description isn’t doing them justice, Go check ’em out!

Anyway! I thought that was awesome, I became a fan immediately, and over the past month of my life I have been a liiiitle bit obsessive, Not only because I think the lead singer is incredibly adorable, But because they are honestly really great people and they inspire me, I was a little wary to listen to their older stuff because I didn’t think I’d enjoy it as much as I enjoyed “Save Rock and Roll” But I have over the course of the month, It’s great, I’ve found songs I love and some I don’t like that much but that’s life, I also enjoyed the solo album that Patrick Stump made during the hiatus (Which fans didn’t really like, They all said horrible things “You changed”, “You sell out!”, “We liked you better fat!” Harsh words from people claiming to be fans.. I read all about the band and the hiatus and what caused it and, They started this out and they didn’t really know how big it was going to be back in the day, So it wore on them.. Constantly being on tour and constantly being around each other but not really communicating in a way that they needed to, Stressful real life events surrounding each of them and bringing them down, So one day they all sat down and had a serious conversation about the fate of the band, People weren’t liking the new album, their sales were down, But most importantly.. They just weren’t having fun anymore.

“We need to take a break, Because if we don’t take a break now.. We will hate each other and never want to do this again.” Said the lead singer, So that began the hiatus – A lot of people mistook that for the band breaking up and hating each other and everything sucking for them, That they just didn’t want to be around each other anymore, and part of it was that during the early days, They didn’t know how to speak up, or talk to each other about things that they wanted to say, So they kept quiet and I think some resentment might have popped up through ought the constant touring and fan-hatred and creative process, Pete Wentz, the bands bassist and main lyricist felt like the world had “Too much Pete, I think Pete Wentz needs a break” He was always stylized as the front man even though Patrick sang lead vocals, Magazines mostly did this for whatever reason, But you have to think that being in the focus all that time would start to wear on you.

They all went to do solo projects, work on writing different things for different bands, different styles of music and whatever else, Thats when Patrick came out with Soul Punk (His solo album, That didn’t do too well among fans, Which is sad because I really enjoyed it when I listened to it) After you pour your heart and soul into an album that almost nobody likes, You sort of feel a little bit upset, After a while not doing anything, Patrick and Pete got together like they sometimes did, They tried writing but nothing exciting came out of it (this also shows that just because the band was on hiatus, doesn’t mean their friendship wasn’t still intact) One day they got together and then, something happened.. a spark! A flame..!… But what?

They wrote some stuff, then they got excited – Patrick called up his friends and convinced them to come back and try this again, They all had to kind of learn if they could even still work with each other anymore, “Will we be able to do this?” was a question that was answered when they came up with some golden tracks, They realized “This is it, We’re going to do this, We are going to make an album” They went through great measures making sure the album process stayed a secret, Which wasn’t really that hard since nobody was expecting anything from them, They thought the band broke up! Sure there were rumors, But they were dispelled quickly, The band finally announced their reunited status in February 2013, The album came out recently and it’s been topping, Everywhere.

After 3 years apart, the boys are back.. And I was never a fan of fall out boy, I didn’t grow up listening to them or knowing of their lives and the troubles they all had writing and making music and just trying to get by, But I am a fan now and all of this has taught me a very valuable lesson, In the 3 years apart the band has matured a lot, Pete has stepped out of the light a little bit, Grown up into a man, a father, Patrick has gotten more confident about his abilities and everyone in the band has more freedom to speak about what they want to speak about, To suggest this or that, There is more trust there this time around, There is more patience and friendship, The bond is stronger now than it was back in the early days.

“What was crazy is that you’re in this band because you’re best friends to start. Then the band drives you apart. We talked through managers and didn’t see each other enough. Everyone had their own agenda. Especially with me and Patrick. Then it goes “poof”, It all goes away and you ask “Why aren’t we friends? We were friends to begin with.” To me, it’s important, not just for the band” – Pete Wentz – – – – – – – “We actually had a call about it where we hadn’t seen each other in a little while, We had both read some weird things in interviews. Sometimes you say things and it’s taken out of context, It’s not always the whole truth, I think we had both been scared to interact with each other, I got a call from Pete and he goes “I think it’s kind of weird that we haven’t really seen each other this year, We paid for each others houses and you don’t know my kid” – Patrick Stump

Listening to their music and reading things they have written about their life and watching interviews, seeing them interact now as opposed to how they all interacted back then is really inspiring to me in a lot of ways and it really does emphasize the absolute necessity and importance of knowing when to give someone space, Eventually if you interact with people enough, and you clash with them and you fight with them, It gets exhausting and you physically and emotionally can not handle it anymore, You have to take a break before you hate each other and you don’t ever want that person in your life again. It’s something I can relate to a lot with a situation I’m going through in my life right now, It’s interesting to know that even during the hiatus, they didn’t know for certain if anything would ever happen again with the band but that doesn’t mean that they weren’t thinking about it sometimes, That maybe they would think of a melody or some lyrics that would be great in a song, And just push it aside for that day that maybe Fall Out Boy would be a thing again, I’ve done the very same thing – With doubt in my mind but hope in my heart, I’ve pushed aside certain things I’ve wanted to do because “It would be better with this person”, “It’s not as exciting without this person” So I really relate to this in a lot of ways, I mean call me silly if you want but I won’t hear none of that, You may not like Fall Out Boy as a band, you may hate their music or how they look or their names or their faces (Which is pretty dumb if you ask me) But don’t tell me I’m wrong for feeling strongly about all of this, Four kids from Chicago changed the way I view friendship.

“For me, Patrick has always instructed me on how to live, Regardless of whether Fall Out Boy existed, I would still need to be friends with Patrick” – Pete Wentz

It just kind of makes you think, And it gives you hope in situations where you don’t know what to expect out of this friendship or this relationship and everything seems to be at a standstill or you don’t think there is any possible resolution on the horizon That this is just something that can not or will not happen, The most important thing is that you know even though things may have gotten rough and maybe driven away that friendship and broke your spirits as friends, Or you don’t feel like you have anything in common anymore, It just kind of makes you think that maybe there still is a chance, Even if you don’t believe it, You still -sort- of hope in the back of your mind that those piles of things you’re putting off for that one day when you’re friends again, Won’t just turn into a pile of dusty old papers.

“I’ve heard a lot of really awful, negative things said about Pete, and it’s like, “Dude, you don’t even have a clue how honest and real that guy is” for the amount of crap that people talk about him.” – Patrick Stump – – – – “We always had this thing, If Patrick was batman I’d be Bruce Wayne ” – Pete Wentz

And last but not least, but of course most important, My friend may never see what I wrote here and he may not even care about it one bit, It may not change anything between us or erase the bad moments, But I hope that he remembers there were good moments too, a lot of good moments, and if this is all said and done, I am happy to have known him and I write this with regret that I have said a lot of mean and not-very-nice things to him over the years, I’ve said a lot of things regarding our friendship but I may not have mentioned how much he has changed my life for the better, I think without him I am a much lonelier person regardless of who is around me, No offense to my other great and amazing friends, Sometimes you just connect with one person in such a way that you are practically twins, He will always continue to inspire me to be a better person and If we are never friends again, at least I still have Azeroth and all our old stomping grounds. With love. I hope you continue being as great of a person as you always have been. Shine on, Brother. You’re smart and you are capable of doing great things. I will always be happy that I had the chance to know you.. To end this post on a relevant quote which speaks volumes about the meaning of being friends.

“Pete’s my best friend, I was the best man at his wedding, I love that man to death. I’d take a bullet for him.” – Patrick Stump

My favorite song from one of their older albums, Dedicated to my best friend – Even if we’re not talking, even if we may never again. I will always appreciate you and everything you’ve done.