Fall Out Boy

Fall Out Boy

Fall Out Boy are a pop punk band from Wilmette, United States, active since 2001. The group forms around singer Patrick Stump, guitarists Joe Trohman and Pete Wentz, and drummer Andy Hurley. T.J. Kunasch and Mike Pareskuwicz are also listed among the band’s members. The band is associated with alternative rock, electropop, emo, emo pop, indie rock and pop, and releases music on DCD2.

Formation and early releases

The band begins in 2001 after Joe Trohman and Pete Wentz meet Patrick Stump while he is still in high school. Stump first auditions as a drummer before moving to lead vocals, and later takes on rhythm guitar as well. Fall Out Boy first release a self-released demo, then issue the Split EP with Project Rocket on Uprising Records in 2002. In 2003 they release the mini-LP Evening Out With Your Girlfriend on Uprising Records, and later their first full-length album, Take This to Your Grave, through Fueled by Ramen.

Andy Hurley, who previously plays in Racetraitor, joins as drummer in the early period, while Mike Pareskuwicz and T.J. Kunasch leave the group. The band builds a strong local following in the Chicagoland area, and singles including Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy and Saturday receive video and radio play. Take This to Your Grave later reaches gold status.

Mainstream breakthrough

Fall Out Boy sign with Island Records in 2003 and release the acoustic EP My Heart Will Always Be the B-Side to My Tongue in 2004. Their major-label breakthrough comes with From Under the Cork Tree in 2005, which debuts high on the Billboard 200 and later goes double platinum in the United States. The album yields the singles Sugar, We’re Goin Down, Dance, Dance and A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More ‘Touch Me’, with Sugar, We’re Goin Down becoming a major hit and earning the band an MTV2 Award at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards.

The band receive a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist in 2006. The song 7 Minutes in Heaven (Atavan Halen) is based on Pete Wentz’s attempted suicide, which is also mentioned in connection with the period around the album. Around this time, Fall Out Boy also achieve strong airplay on MTV and alternative radio.

Further albums and collaborations

Infinity on High arrives in 2007 and reaches number one on the Billboard 200. Its lead single This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race becomes the group’s most successful song in the UK at that point, and Thnks fr th Mmrs also charts strongly. The band work with a number of other artists, including Kanye West, Babyface, Jay-Z and Timbaland. Babyface produces Thriller, Jay-Z features on the track, and Fall Out Boy also appear on Timbaland Presents Shock Value with One and Only. Patrick Stump appears as a guest vocalist with Gym Class Heroes on Cupid’s Chokehold, and also on Motion City Soundtrack’s Everything Is Alright and If You Could Remember.

The live album Live in Phoenix appears in 2008 and includes a studio recording of Michael Jackson’s Beat It with John Mayer on guitar. Later that year the band release Folie à Deux, followed by the greatest hits set Believers Never Die in 2009, which includes the new songs Alpha Dog and From Now On We Are Enemies.

Hiatus, side projects and return

After Believers Never Die, the group announce a break and enter hiatus in early 2010. During this period, Pete Wentz forms the DJ duo Black Cards with Bebe Rexha, while Joe Trohman and Andy Hurley start The Damned Things with Scott Ian of Anthrax and members of Every Time I Die. Patrick Stump releases his solo album Soul Punk in 2011. The band regroup in 2012 and begin working on new material again.

Fall Out Boy announce their reunion in 2013 alongside the single My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up) and the album Save Rock and Roll. They follow with American Beauty/American Psycho in 2015, including Centuries and Immortals, the latter appearing on the soundtrack to Disney’s Big Hero 6. MANIA follows in 2018, with Young and Menace and Champion released as singles. The band also issue Lake Effect Kid in 2018 and Believers Never Die (Volume 2) in 2019.

Recent work

In 2023 Fall Out Boy release Love From the Other Side and announce So Much (For) Stardust, which becomes their eighth studio album. The record marks a return to Fueled by Ramen, the label that released Take This to Your Grave, and reunites the group with producer Neal Avron, who also works on From Under the Cork Tree, Infinity on High and Folie à Deux.