I recently had a chance to interview guitarist Joe Trohman and drummer Andy Hurley of Fall Out Boy at the St. Petersberg, FL stop on the Nintendo Fusion Tour. I caught up with them a few hours before the show started during sound check at Jannus Landing, where the concert was to be held later that night.

PGC: Alright, first let’s get a short history of Fall Out Boy.

Joe: Pretty much, I was trying to do some heavier bands with Pete. He was already doing some stuff, but it wasn’t really working out. We kinda joked around about doing a poppier band. We had kind of decided that we were going to do it, but not take it really seriously, but look around for things to do. Then I met Patrick by mistake at like, a Borders, and started talking with him and he had his stuff online and I listened to what it was and it was really awesome. Me and Pete went over to his house and he played some stuff for us and we were like “alright, we’re on this band with this guy.” Then we went through a couple drummers before we got Andy. We wanted to have Andy in the band, but he was doing other bands just then. We ended up having to steal him from other bands, and that’s pretty much it.

PGC: What’s it like to go from being a small band with a really dedicated fan-base to being massive and all over television?

Joe: It’s weird. We’re walking up here to do the interview and there are people screaming and stuff and I just end up screaming back at them because I don’t understand what I was doing. It’s just strange. I don’t understand it. I love our fans, they’re amazing. Sometimes it’s crazy, like how rabid people get. I can’t believe there’s a huge line already [two and a half hours before the doors open]. I mean, when I’d go to shows I’d show up like, when the show starts, or show up a couple bands in. These kids show up at like eleven in the morning or even earlier to stand in line. But it’s like, “you already have tickets.” That’s awesome! They’re really cool, really dedicated. I love them for that. We wouldn’t have anything without them.

Andy: We do it for Star Wars, so I guess it’s similar.

Joe: That’s a good point. We do do it for Star Wars. So maybe we’re like, their Star Wars, ya know? That’s awesome if that’s true. Everything seems crazy, like what’s going on. But for us, we’re here day after day and things are the same for us every single day. We get up, wipe the sleep out of our eyes, have a couple peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and then sit around and do nothing all day and then play. We don’t notice all the stuff that’s going on around us. It’s the same every day for us. We don’t let anything go to our heads, I think that would be horrible to do.

Andy: Yeah.

Joe: Sorry if I’m eating this food [while we do the interview]. It’s the first thing I’ve had to eat all day.

Andy: Dude, it’s ramen, you’re cool.

PGC: How’s the tour going so far? Are you enjoying it?

Joe: Yeah, it’s really fun.

PGC: So do you guys have a GameCube on your tour bus?

Both: Yeah.

PGC: What’re you playing on it?

Joe: Resident Evil 4 and NBA Street. I’ve actually been going inside, before doors, and playing the new Zelda demo. It’s amazing! I’m totally excited for that. A lot of the Mario sports games like Mario Baseball. I really loved Mario Tennis and Mario Golf for Nintendo 64.

PGC: Do they have Mario Strikers here?

Joe: Yeah, I want to get a copy of that. That looks really fun.

PGC: Do you guys play any Smash Bros?

Andy: Yeah.

Joe: Mario Party too. It’s a great game to play with a couple other people really drunk.

PGC: So you play a lot of multiplayer stuff then?

Joe: Yeah, though I think I actually prefer GameCube for multiplayer stuff. There’s not a lot of one-player things.

Andy: It’s all like stuff for you and your friends.

PGC: What about the DS, do you have them?

Joe: Yeah, I’ve been playing Mario 64.

Andy: I just got the new Castlevania.

PGC: Oh, I just beat that a couple days ago.

Joe: Is it awesome? I haven’t played it yet.

PGC: It’s got a bunch of fake endings.

Andy: I just got the new Lunar game too.

Joe: You know what, back to GameCube. That new Fire Emblem looks kinda cool, though I haven’t played it yet.

PGC: I know you’ve been on a lot of EA games, how does that come about?

Joe: I don’t know really. Honestly I think they just ask. It’s really cool to be in Madden. That’s one of the biggest games around. I’m really excited to be in the new NHL.

PGC: For the new Tony Hawk soundtrack you guys covered Gorilla Biscuits, how did that come about?

Joe: Well I know they came to us.

Andy: Yeah, they came to us.

Joe: And I know that what we played was a couple years off from what they wanted. They kinda wanted more like ‘84 punk-rock stuff and we kinda picked an ‘88 hardcore band.

Andy: I think it’s a good experience to get in.

Joe: I don’t think it’s necessarily a good idea to just pick a time period because there’s just so many bands that have influenced every band that’s around now. Gorilla Biscuits is one of them.

PGC: What’s your favorite song to play live?

Joe: Uhhh... I like [Of All the] Gin Joints [in All the World].

Andy: Gin Joints.

Joe: Oh, by the way, that’s our security guard playing patty cake over there.

PGC: [Laugh]. Alright, well thanks for doing the interview. Good luck with the show tonight.

Joe: Sure thing.