Whatever notoriety Fall Out Boy used to have prevents me from having the ability to start over from the bottom again.
In Fall Out Boy, we were all playing with our pop punk influences, so that was always within that kind of framework.
Gym Class is a band I am more directly involved with than any other band except for Fall Out Boy.
I wasn't necessarily frustrated in Fall Out Boy, but there were things that didn't get satisfied, desires left wanting. We didn't all meet on the same kind of music. When bands break up, there are all these buzz words that get tossed around to maintain a front for the audience, but in this case there literally were creative differences.
'As Long As I Know I'm Getting Paid' is a satire. Lyrically, I want to be direct. With my history in Fall Out Boy, there's some expectation that I'm going to be lyrically obtuse. But that song is a straight-faced satire of consumerism.
One of the things that always was Fall Out Boy was trying new things and kind of pushing ourselves in different directions.
In Fall Out Boy, I noticed that I wasn't putting all that much soul into it. It was just kind of screaming, I guess. I was just dying to get out of there!
I was going to record a solo album when I was 15 on a four-track. I started working on it, but then Fall Out Boy happened. The band was awesome and took me in a totally different direction. I don't regret it at all, but the band delayed the record I had been planning.