Photo by Paris Visone
PATRICK STUMP
CONFESSIONS OF A SOUL PUNK
By Peter Marullo
In March of 2010 the world was introduced to your solo career through the South By Southwest video on your website. Then we were given a second dose through the release of Truant Wave and the subsequent tour that followed. Tell us about your debut full length Soul Punk. What can we expect?
I guess that’s the big question isn’t it? I knew Soul Punk was the title, I knew what I wanted to say, I knew how I wanted to go about everything, but the last thing I decided on was really a distinct style both musically and lyrically. And it’s weird because I think there’s a parallel evolution where if you listen to This City out of context, it sounds like a pop song, but in context with the rest of the album, there’s something different going on. Of course it is pop, but I’m equal parts punk rock and R&B. I definitely come from punk rock roots. That’s neither here or there, but I did spend four years touring around in basements, but I’ve always been interested in R&B and hip hop. I’ve always have a strong affinity for what they now call “art rock,” which is a bad description of it, but the stuff Bowie was doing in the late 70′s, Brian Eno, and John Cale and David Byrne, and all those guys. I’ve always been fascinated with pop on an intellectual level. I love getting it on a visceral level, which is like “hey this is fun.” I love getting it on a punk rock level like, “Oh that says something, I can sing along because I’m as angry or I’m feeling this.” But then I also like the intellectual level of finding something respectable about what people consider a low art. So I see that it is a pop record that doesn’t take itself to seriously, but takes pop seriously. I’m kind of looking at it as art.
Would you say punk rock DIY roots are embedded in it somewhere?
Oh yeah, absolutely. If I were never on a major label, this would be a 7”, or maybe a 10”, if I had enough money. At that level, sound doesn’t really play into what is punk rock all that much. When I think of all the punk bands I’d go see growing up or when we started playing out with bands and touring, it was never like “this is what punk sounds like.” It was never a sound, it was always an ideology, it was always a method. I definitely feel like I approached this like that. I told the label, well I didn’t tell the label anything (laughs), but I did go to them and I said put this out or don’t because I’m gonna do this thing. I did everything myself. I paid for everything myself, I coordinated everything myself. So that still matters to me, the self- direction. After a certain point, you start to get to the point where punk rock is all about trust. You have your community; you have your friends. I’ve been burned a few times in the punk rock community because there are some sleazebags and shit heads.
How did you choose your touring lineup and how have they helped to shape the songs live?
First and foremost, I’ve been writing songs and doing my stuff forever, but I was never really sure I was gonna do a solo project. And then band takes a break, and I had been off the road for so long, I was tired of waiting. Matt Rubano, for years had been saying that if I ever did a solo thing, he’d want to be a part of it. And I also didn’t take him seriously. I mean he’s a great bass player; he is a legend around New York. Everybody knows him. A lot of people know him from TAKING BACK SUNDAY, but in the first place he is a session player. He’s played on Miseducation of Lauren HiIl and all these really crazy records, he’s really amazing. He had kind of planted the seed and was like “Hey man, Come on let me know…” We started talking and I called a bunch of people I knew and he called in a bunch of people he knew. We went with everyone he knew because they were all brilliant musicians who were really good people and they all got what we were going for. The way it shapes the show, I kind of feel like I’m getting away with something. I don’t feel like I’m that great of a musician, but when I’m with them, it just explodes. I get to play one on stage for an hour, I get to pretend I am anywhere near as good as them, which is the most fun in the world. It’s a totally different show than FALL OUT BOY. It’s a totally different level of work than FOB because in FOB the arrangements were really hinged on all four of us playing at all times. And I was two instruments, guitar and singing, so I couldn’t stop for a second. I remember this one show I got zapped by the mic and it’s like almost half the show is gone. Joe and Pete were always running around jumping off stuff and occasionally missing a part here or there, so it was really vital for me and Andy to be playing. With this I feel like I’m the one who gets to run and jump around and miss my part here and there. I was looking at really great animators and I don’t pretend to be one at all, but some really inspire me. James Brown, Prince. In all those cases, their shows were so good before they would walk on stage or were even involved in it. And that’s really what I wanted to get together. I wanted a band who could do that. On our last tour we were opening with Giant Steps (Coltrane) and I would just get to sit there for a few minutes before I walked on stage and I was like “Oh my god, I can’t believe I get to watch this, I can’t believe I’m about to interrupt this!”
Do you record as a one-man band or do you have other musicians take part in the process?
On Soul Punk I did everything and anything. The Lupe Fiasco version of This City is a remix. We put him on the second verse, but on the album version he’s not there. Playing everything is something that was really important to me. Sometimes these ideas are a little metamorphosis and are a little hard to describe and have different elements of things. I mean imagine if George Lucas was trying to describe Star Wars, how fucking weird would it sound? That’s how I felt trying to explain how my record was, not to say it’s as awesome as Star Wars, but trying to explain it to people at the label and management was pretty hard. They were like “So it’s going to be a soul rock record?” and I was like, “No, not really, I’m going to call it Soul Punk” and they were like, “So it’s going to be a guy Adele meets THE BUZZCOCKS?” and I was like, “No, not really.” But now thinking of it, that would be a great record, someone should do that. (Laughs) But I just had to do my thing that was honest, and me, so it made sense to do everything my self. Sometimes it’s easier to show something than explain it.
Did you record Soul Punk at your own studio?
I produced it myself, but decided that I wasn’t going to try and engineer and mix it. I thought I should have someone to bounce ideas off of and have someone to call me on my shit. I had my friend Manny, who is a great engineer, come in and engineer most of the record. I also had my friend Bill come in. I ended up giving him and Manny co-producer credit. If I was plowing through stuff and scrapping songs or parts, I wanted them to be there for the second opinion, the voice of reason in the room. That’s the closest thing to collaboration on the record.
Are there any producers or artists that you would like to collaborate with in the future?
With FALL OUT BOY we got slammed for being “collaborative.” I thought it was fun, but after awhile we pretty much exhausted that list. The Truant Wave EP, which came out in April, was recorded after I finished Soul Punk, which I had done all by myself, and I was like, “I want some guests. I want to hang out with some people. I want to have fun.” So I did a couple songs with other people. D.A. from CHESTER FRENCH did a string arrangement on “Big Hype.” I had Om’mas Keith, who is genius, do a song called “Cute Girls.” I kinda want to work with friends; I think I’m over the whole “I always wanted to work with …fill in the blank.” I’ve done all that. I got to work with Jay Z, Elvis Costello, Kanye, Debbie Harry. At this point, all those little feathers in the hat of your ego don’t really amount to much if you’re not enjoying the experience and enjoying playing. I mean if you can’t enjoy making music without your biggest hero on your record than you are definitely doing something wrong.
Your singing style reminds me of Thriller era Michael Jackson meets Jamie Woolford of THE STEREO. Who would you say has influenced your singing style?
The biggest thing for me was just letting it out and not hiding behind things. When I look earlier on in FALL OUT BOY, I wasn’t a singer, I wasn’t trying to be a singer, and the band really encouraged me to be a singer. Looking at the perimeters of punk rock, I was always scared of what people would say about R&B. I remember having a conversation one night with one of my old bands. We put on the craziest records we could think of. Someone put on Lou Reed, someone put on DROPDEAD. I put on WEATHER REPORT and they were like, “this is elevator music man, this sucks.” That kind of reverberated for years; I was just terrified of being that aspect of myself. So early on in FALL OUT BOY, I looked to emulate punk rock singers. The voice I use now I pretty much had the whole time, I just didn’t want to do it in front of anyone because I thought I’d get laughed out of the building. Early on, you grapple at and look for things you do like. I think I definitely heavily relied on Elvis Costello, because that was something I could get away with in punk rock; I could sing like Elvis Costello. I could sing like Chris Conley, I could sing like Jamie Woolford. At the time, a lot of bands were trying to sound like NEW FOUND GLORY, so that was something that was easy for me to go for. No one really said I sounded like that, but I hear myself basically doing an impersonation because I thought that’s what the band wanted. As I got older and more confident, I just wanted to sing how I really sang. When I finished Soul Punk, I gave a copy to my mom and she was like “Wow Patrick, you sound like yourself!” and I thought that was really telling. When I think of singers that I really respect and music and writers I really respect like Bowie, Michael Jackson, Prince, Tom Waits-there are definitely some “Waits-isms” in some of the things I do. There are definitely some other things in there like Marvin Gaye, Bobby Womack, Sam Cooke, Curtis Mayfield, and Nat King Cole and then of course you have the Elvis Costello and Van Morrison. None of these are conscious, I just kind of let them out and then I realize “I’m doing my Elvis right now.” The first ones I mentioned are the big ones and the rest are sprinklings.
“Big Hype, Big Letdown…” How important do you think hype is in the music industry?
Hype is one of the stupidest things out there man. It’s amazing because it’s so “important” and people put so much emphasis on it. Why are radio remixes tacky and selling out? The idea of it, any opportunity to make art is an opportunity to make art. You could make something awesome at any given point, right? “Shake It Like A Polaroid Picture” was a product placement, but Andre 3000 did it so well and so inspired that no one called him on it because people loved the line. So when they asked if I wanted to do a remix of “This City” I asked who they were thinking and I was terrified. I don’t want to throw anyone under the bus, but there are a lot of people, a lot of rappers, that I don’t want to work with. I want to enjoy the music I am making and I want it to be better for the experience. I don’t ever want to ruin it for commerce. We had this tee off and they positioned Lupe and we were like “Lupe, YES!” Everything in that moment was “Big Hype.” If you look around at pop music and pop culture, hype is what sells everything. What sells Transformers? It’s all hype, there’s nothing else to that movie. I’m a huge comic book fan, but there is nothing to see in those first 3 Sam Raimi Spider Man movies, besides the hype of Spider Man. It’s like that in the music industry. “This is the new thing, buy the new thing, what are the kids saying these days.” Everything is a buzzword and everything is a marketing scheme. Look at Wall Street. For years, throughout its history, Wall Street has been trying to put together an algorithm that will predict everything and figure things out. Then even crazier, they will come out with the algorithm and they say, “We have it, we have the answer! Everyone put your money on this formula.” People end up losing their money. It happens all the time. “Check out this new weight loss drug!”
You’re going on a desert island. You can only bring one version of “Spotlight.” Which is it?
“New Regrets.” I recorded “Oh Nostalgia” and I just couldn’t look in the mirror and say, “That’s a great song Patrick.” I just didn’t like it. I went back and did my version and then I called my manager and was like “I wrote it, I finished it” and he was like, “Ehhhhh, I’m not so into it.” So that’s why I did the vote, and it was so tight that it was hard to make the decision. It was like Bush-Gore. 48 to 50. It was in favor of “Oh Nostalgia,” which is one of the reasons I did Truant Wave. It didn’t really fit in with the rest of the record, so I made a record around it. It had a proper release and more of a moment. I think with the new album “New Regrets” won’t be as much of a centerpiece that “Oh Nostalgia” is on Truant Wave. I don’t think it’s an issue of which one is better. I know most people relate to “Oh Nostalgia.” To me, it’s like a funeral march, but I’m singing this positive stuff. It didn’t feel right and didn’t really resonate with me. I think it’s better on the EP. I think it’s awesome and makes sense the way porcelain leads into it. Also, when the band plays it, I like it. On the last tour, we were starting with “New Regrets” and ending with “Oh Nostalgia.” As an artist, you try not to let your personal taste get in the way of doing something good. A lot of the time, you are full of shit, and totally don’t know what you’re talking about. That’s what a producer is for, and I was my own producer, so that’s even worse. I had to tell myself to be objective.
Do you have any future recording plans or will you be focusing on touring in support of Soul Punk for the rest of the year?
It’s weird, I get asked to produce a lot. I like to do it, but it’s a tough job and not necessarily rewarding, and I don’t mean money wise. Who cares about money? Sometimes you put yourself into something and then the artist says, “We’re gonna go with this other song instead.” So I’m always on the fence on if I want to get back into production. I still get the occasional cupid chokehold of “can you sing the hook for us?” kind of call. So I might do some stuff like that. As far as my stuff, I’m really going to focus on Soul Punk. I have stuff written and a lot ready for the next record. I’m ready to do a bunch of records. I want this to be what I do. If FALL OUT BOY never comes back, or even if it does, I would like to keep doing this. I’m really enjoying it.
Photo by Paris Visone
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