Finding their way

Fall Out Boy had every intention of following in the footsteps of the aggressive, earsplitting rock bands that its members grew up listening to.

But a funny thing happened along the way. The more hard-core they tried to be, the more they realized it didn’t fit their vibe.

“When you’re playing hard-core music and you’re screaming every night, it just grates on your ears, and at some point, the grass is always greener. You want to be doing something different,” explains Pete Wentz, the 26-year-old bassist and lyricist for the Chicago-based quartet.

The result is a melodic pop-punk and rock mixture that has helped turn Fall Out Boy into the breakout band of the year.

“At a time when a lot of artists and bands sound alike, when you listen to their album, you feel like your feeling and hearing something a little bit different,” says Rob Weiss, head of entertainment at the music network Fuse. “They are kind of special.”

A lot of people agree.

Fall Out Boy has sold more than a million copies of the album “From Under the Cork Tree,” released earlier this year, and the band’s clever but weird video for “Sugar We’re Goin’ Down” – which might best be described as a star-crossed lovers story involving antlers – was one of the year’s most popular, helping Fall Out Boy nab a moonman at the MTV Awards.

The band was nominated for a best new artist Grammy earlier this month and plans to close out 2005 by performing at MTV’s New Year’s Eve bash.

The group – composed of Wentz; 21-year-old lead singer and melody maker Patrick Stump; guitarist Joe Trohman, 21; and drummer Andy Hurley, 24 – got its start performing about four years ago.

Stump describes their early performances at local venues as “exclusively for our own enjoyment. And then people started showing up at shows, and we were like, ‘Uh … all right.’ “

Back then, what people would have heard at early Fall Out Boy shows was a punk band trying to fit into the Chicago hard-rock scene, which Stump remembers as violent, homophobic, racist and just plain “horrible.”

“We wanted out of it. It was the most negative thing in the world,” he says.

In leaving the hard-core scene, Fall Out Boy was forced to develop its own identity after searching for one in other people’s music.

“I think you feel safe in your own skin. That’s the thing,” Wentz says of the group’s evolution. “When you’re sitting there and you’re writing and you’re trying to imitate these bands, like, eventually, you look in the mirror …. and you say, ‘OK, it’s all right to be Fall Out Boy, and it’s all right to sing these songs.’ “

The band dropped the more aggressive rock stance for more pop fare, anchored by Stump’s music; the emo-angle came from Wentz’s pen, fueled by bitter breakups and other relationship drama.

“It’s like a bunch of hard-core kids who decided they were going to write pop music,” says Wentz.

They were already developing a significant following, touring with other established acts and self-releasing their own EPs, when they caught the ear of John Janick, president of the indie rock label Fueled by Ramen.

“I thought the name was weird, and I didn’t think it was a very good name for a band, but it caught my attention,” chuckles Janick.

His misgivings about the band’s name became a nonissue once he heard its music.

“There are very few bands that just from hearing a song you just feel something, like you’ve got to sign (them) right away, and they were one of those bands,” he says.

Fall Out Boy’s debut album on Ramen, “Take This to Your Grave,” was released in 2003. As the group’s popularity grew, Island Def Jam took notice; eventually Island and Fueled by Ramen entered a partnership to release their second set on Island this year.

Now that they’ve achieved platinum success, there are likely to be bands looking to be the next Fall Out Boy. Certainly the group’s days of trying to emulate other bands are over.

“I think the problem is that bands start feeling the heat, and then they try and rub sticks together and start a fire of their own, whereas Fall Out Boy, we’re completely happy to go out and blaze a path,” says Wentz.

“If people are following us down it, that’s cool. Otherwise, it will be fun for us to go out and hang by ourselves.”