Patrick Stump Falls Out on His Own

The scariest thing is like talking in between songs and like, you know, there's a lot of things that I. What about interviews?

Uh, interviews are all right. They're awesome.

Yes, I am. Hey everyone, Nikki Novak here in the Young Hollywood Studio with Patrick Stump. Color coordinated.

Yeah, I know. We we planned this. We really didn't talk ahead of time.

And you I see, I know what the studio looks like, but you don't know what it looks like.

I had no idea. No, this was uh this was a happy accident.

And this is a new look for you.

It's new to other people, but this is stuff that I've been doing the whole, you know, my whole life. And I've always been more comfortable in shirts and ties and suits and things and And in a rock band it was like really frowned on. You have to be a you have to be like this rebellious or have a look that sort of goes with the band. Yeah, it was it was And that was the thing is I was like, well, I don't want to be the weirdo, the one weirdo in the band. But when I when I met everybody, I wasn't in tee I had to buy t-shirts and jeans. You know, it was it wasn't that wasn't comfortable.

Right, you had to go out and buy them all. You know, I heard you say something like you had to have the same haircut for ten years.

Yeah, that was And usually only girls say that. Usually only girls are like, oh, yeah, I really want to change my hair but None of it was planned. Fall Out Boy wasn't this thing that we, you know, I say that to people and they're always like, yeah, sure, you know, you guys thought. Everybody was in hardcore bands like like punk hardcore bands and stuff.

And you auditioned to be the drummer, didn't you? Initially.

Yeah, basically. Yeah. I mean, it was it was I never actually really got to audition. It was I was showing I was going to show them songs that I that I'd written. That was all I really wanted was to be a songwriter. And and

And so you didn't even necessarily want to be in the band. You just wanted to write

I just wanted to I just wanted any outlet to write songs, you know. I wasn't planning on being a singer. Um but they were like, oh, you should sing. And and I was like

How does it How did that work? I mean, did you just get up and you were just sort of riffing showing them your songs.

Yeah, you know, I write songs and I I didn't really play guitar and I didn't really sing. I was only as good a singer as I needed to be to to show other people the songs. The singers that I really enjoy, that I really look up to, I don't think I even am even in the ball park.

Who are some of those singers?

I mean, Prince and and, you know, Stevie Wonder was an influence when I was really young.

Have you ever met any of your idols? Like Stevie Wonder, Prince

No, I don't really I I try to I try not to. Um

Are you afraid Cuz sometimes if you meet your idol, it's like it's never as good as you imagine it.

Exactly. And I also feel like it's for me, I really don't like the cult of personality of like of like I don't care kind of. Like I don't want to meet the person. I want to meet the music. I want to understand the music. Not even how they made it or any of those things. Like it's not It's like I love George Lucas, but I don't really want to know what Darth Vader looked like as a little kid. I don't really want to know I don't There's a lot of questions I don't want to be answered. Everybody in every facet of entertainment, every career goes like this. No one's career is like that, you know, or or like that. It's so you're always going to find artists who are at some point down here and think they're like way up here. I'm a musician. I want to I just want to focus on the music. I just

Which you did because you your new album Soul Punk. First of all, it's getting so much great buzz. What's amazing to me is that you wrote it, you produced it, you funded it.

Yeah, I did. Yeah.

That's a big gamble. And there's and then you also played every instrument. What was how did that decision come about?

I resisted it for a long time cuz a lot of my friends, you know, I always made music on my own. And a lot of my friends were like, oh, when you doing a solo record? And I was like, ah, you know, I'm not really, you know, that like a lot of attention on me. I'm not I don't walk into a room and own a room, you know, that's not really a part of me.

But when you're performing, does that sort of go away? That shyness?

When I'm when I'm on on a stage is like that's Different. Totally different. That's not even that's not even relatable because I mean like like that feels like a really natural thing. When I have to you know the scariest thing is like talking in between songs and like, you know, there's a lot of things that I

What about interviews?

Uh, interviews are all right. They're awesome.

Oh, thank you. Yes, I am. Tell me when I'm like, you know. Well, I heard that you wrote and you basically wrote the whole album and you loved all the songs, but you felt like they didn't go together. So you sort of chose one and and scrapped it and kind of built it around it.

Yeah, so there's two things happened. First off, there's this one song, Everybody Wants Somebody that I felt like shined in a way that the rest of my original draft of the record didn't. And then I wrote The City. Cuz this city is my city and I love it

Yeah, I love it. I have a little game for you. Okay. It's kind of like a true or false. Yes. Because there are misconceptions about everybody. True or false. You don't like being called Pat.

Yeah, true.

What are some of the nicknames you've got? Cuz you have some pretty crazy ones.

All my nicknames derive from my last name. Everyone's like Stump, Be, Stump, Stump whatever.

At this year's South by Southwest, people thought you were a tech worker.

Yes, that's true. Yeah.

What is the one gadget that you can't live without?

I pretty much need my phone as my memo pad.

Okay, you're rumored to be a shoe dork.

Um, I was for a minute. Yeah. I had a um I had a phase where I was really I

Those are pretty schmancy shoes.

Thank you.

Who was originally offered the role of Han Solo? Jeff Goldblum or Burt Reynolds?

Burt Reynolds. Jeff Goldblum.

Jeff Goldblum. Well, thanks so much for coming in.

Thanks for having me.

Good luck with everything. Yeah, next time you come in, we'll tell you what the color scheme is.

Yes, please, ahead of time.