Patrick Stump Is Amazing (99.5 Radio Set)
alpheratz won a radio contest to see Patrick Stump play a short acoustic set and Q&A session. She brought me with her because she is the best! They gave us pizza which was an awesome surprise because I had not made time for lunch at all. Then the ~20 people there were all taken to a room with a little stage to watch Patrick play.
alpheratz and I got front row seats! Patrick played "Everybody Wants Somebody", "Run Dry", and "This City".
In between songs, he took audience questions. Someone asked what music he's currently into, and he mentioned a band called King (might have been Kings) with 3 female singers. I asked if there would be any Halloween surprises at the show at the 9:30 Club that night, and he said no because all the cool costumes had masks. He really wanted to be Darth Vader, but he didn't think he would sound that great singing through the mask. Someone else asked what inspired all the hidden things in the liner notes for Soul Punk. Patrick said it was all his idea because he like pop music, but he felt that the word 'pop' connotes (yes, he actually said 'connotes.) something not great, not intelligent. He wanted to show subtextually (again, he actually said 'subtextually', twice.) that there could be a message, an intelligence, a cleverness to pop. He is really articulate and interesting.
One of the radio djs asked if he still drank like the lyrics in 'Run Dry', and Patrick told us about how little alcohol they ask for on their rider. They ask for stuff like Kashi cereal and almond milk. They do request one bottle of wine because his drummer, Skoota, likes to have a glass of wine and a cigar after a show. He said clubs often give them more alcohol than they ask for but are hesitant about the cereal and milk because that's not anything they have in stock, and it's so much extra work to send someone out all the way across the street to get it.
The last question I can remember was about the differences between doing every single track for every song as a solo artist versus just tracking guitar and vocals when he was in Fall Out Boy. Patrick told us he actually tracked everything when he was in Fall Out Boy, too, because no one in FOB can read music. Patrick wrote all of the music for FOB. To teach the other band members their parts for recording, Patrick would go in and track everything himself. Then the other guys would come in and 'do it better'. For 'I Don't Care', both Patrick and Andy are playing drums on the cd because the producer liked the sound from Patrick's track better for part of it and Andy's track better for another part. Patrick said the difference is now he plays all the tracks and goes 'Here, have an album.' where as before he played all the tracks, and everyone would come in behind him and do all the tracks again.
After the set and Q&A, we all got to take pictures with Patrick and get his autograph. I gave him pumpkin chocolate chip bread that I made and thanked him for the experience and for the recommendation to see the Museum of Science and Industry while I was in Chicago. He was really enthusiastic that I had liked it and referred to it as the best place ever.
The radio station has posted the pictures they took during the show. I'm in a couple. My pictures are on this page.
The radio station posted the video of the whole thing!