Pete Wentz, bassist for multiplatinum rock foursome Fall Out Boy, has done a little bit of everything in his 36 years. Aside from the whole rock star thing, he’s designed clothes, hosted a TV show, written a book, acted a bit, and he owns nightclubs in New York and Chicago, all in addition to being a father to two young children.
Somewhere in between launching the summer tour to support Fall Out Boy’s new album, “American Beauty/American Psycho,” Wentz found time to talk to the Bangor Daily News about all those things and more. Fall Out Boy will perform with rapper Hoodie Allen at the Darling’s Waterfront Pavilion on Saturday.
The last time you guys played in Maine was in 2005. Remember anything about it?
2005 to 2007 is a bit of a blur for me, to be honest. I have a lot of love for New England. I love touring through here. My parents have a house in Vermont, so I get to visit them. And it’s always fun to play places that don’t always get as many people touring through. People are always hungry for music.
With “American Beauty/American Psycho,” you’ve made a proper rock album. What do you say to people who say the album as an art form is dead?
I say a couple things. First off, they say that younger generations aren’t listening to albums. And yet, I have a 6-year-old, and he picks individual songs, but once he’s heard one he likes, he wants more from that band, and we’ll go deeper into that back catalog. And even then, there’s still a big group of people who still buy albums. We sold more albums in the first week the new album came out than we ever had. That says something. People want to buy an album if they know you are creating art. And we love the whole process, from the song titles to the order to the cover art. It’s all part of the same statement.
You have all sorts of fun samples on the new record. At what point do you guys think, “Oh, I think ‘Tom’s Diner’ would fit in perfectly here”? How does that process work?
We’ll pitch ideas to each other. Patrick [Stump] pitched me the “Tom’s Diner” sample [the Suzanne Vega sample on single “Centuries”], and my initial reaction was like, ‘This seems silly.’ But once you hear it a few times, it starts to make sense. For every idea that ends up on the album, there’s 50 that get cast aside.
What bands from your past — better known or not known at all — do you think people should take a look at today? Any forgotten gems you can point to?
Oh man, so many. The interesting thing is that I look back at some of them — and I won’t name names because that’s not a nice thing to do — but I’ll go back and listen to an album and think I’ll appreciate it because it was a huge part of my life 10, 15 years ago. And I get nostalgic, but it’s just not the same. Then again, an album like “Dookie” by Green Day never gets old. And it’s totally wild, because we inducted Green Day into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame earlier this year. It felt like it was one of our bands that made it in there, you know?
You’ve done so many things aside from being a band. What’s something you haven’t done that you’d seriously want to do?
I would really like to make a film, in some capacity. I certainly don’t have the time or knowledge to direct, but I would love to be involved in the cinematic process in some way. Everything I do has been about my passion for it. When we opened the bar, It’s because I wanted to learn how to do it. It’s all about learning from other people who have expertise. And I want to go skydiving. That would be cool.
Almost everyone in the band is a parent with young kids. Do your kids come out on tour with you? Do they have any concept that dad is a rock star?
Our family knows the lifestyle we live. We’re sand people. We’re nomads. But we make it work. My 9-month-old doesn’t get it, obviously, but my 6-year-old, he understands. He thinks it’s funny when people take pictures with me. If I was Iron Man, I think it would be cooler for him.
