Panic! at the Disco Interviews
AbsolutePunk.net
Interview with Ryan Ross of Panic! at the Disco:
Q. How exactly did the band come about and what made
you want to start one in the first place?
A. Well I have known Spencer
our drummer for most of my life, and I met Brent in
high school, he transferred schools in his junior
year and met Brendon in their senior year. We had
him come to a band practice to try out for guitar,
I actually started out as the singer, and in one of
those early practices we had him sing for some reason
and found out he had a much better voice than I did.
Q. Is there any significance behind the band name?
A. The name comes from a Name
Taken song called "Panic" we were going back and forth
between that or "burn down the disco" which is a line
from The Smiths song "Panic" it's a weird coincidence
that both songs were titled panic, so we decided to
go with that as sort of a middle ground.
Q. The new album “A Fever You Can Sweat Out” Just
came out a couple of days ago. What is it like to
finally have a full-length album out?
A. It's such a huge accomplishment
for me and I know it is for the rest of the guys as
well. We put so much time and work into the writing
and recording of it that once it was completed it
felt great. Even before the record came out, just
knowing that we made something as this band that was
actually going to come out was amazing.
Q. The album is one of the best albums of the year
to me and I just wondered who are some of your big
influences when writing music.
A. First of all thank you, good
to hear that you like it. In the way of melody and
structure we all listen to bands like Third Eye Blind
and Counting Crows a ton. I think Stephen Jenkins
is just an amazing song writer.On the first half of
the record we were a little less focused on certain
bands and more on just the idea of writing songs that
people could dance to,and having parts that you
might hear in a Paul Oakenfold song or something like
that in a club.The second half of the record came
about in one sense because we were getting bored writing
only with keyboards guitars and drum machines. I started
listening to a lot of motion picture soundtracks and
really got into Jon Brion's work. He's done scores
for movies like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,
Punch Drunk Love, and Magnolia.
Q. So, when you went in to record this album, did
you already have most of the songs written or did
you go in to the studio ready to write all new material?
A. We had about half of the
songs completed when we went in to record and we had
parts of the rest written. Alot of the instrumentation
in the songs on the second half came together in the
studio, but the song shells were already
Q. What song is planned to be the first single and
can we hope to maybe see a music video?
A. We aren't completely sure yet but it's looking
like we'll be doing a video for "I Write Sins Not
Tragedies" sometime in December.
Q. I read somewhere that you had met up with Pete
from fall out boy and that was kind of how you guys
got signed. Whats the story about that?
A. I heard Pete Wentz had just started a label and
was looking for bands so I sent a link to our purevolume
page in his journal just asking if he would listen
to the stuff. I figured it was a longshot that he'd
ever hear it and I really wasn't expecting him to
contact me about it. A few days later he sent me an
email saying he wanted to hear more, and at the time
Fall Out Boy was
recording their second record in LA. Pete drove down
for the weekend and just sat in on a band practice.
After that we started talking to John at FBR as well
and signed sometime around December.
Q. Also, a lot of people have been comparing you too
fall out boy, how do you guys feel about that being
said?
A. It does and doesn't bother
me, Brendon and Patrick both have similar voices,
and I think that comes from the fact that they know
how to sing correctly, something that many singers
these days don't know how to do. Brendon was taking
voice lessons for about a year before we got signed,
and his vocal coach taught him techniques that helped
him open up his voice, to use vibrato etc. As far
as musical similarities, everyone is entitled to their
opinon, but for the people who have heard our entire
record and still think that we sound like Fall Out
Boy with keyboards?..well, I just find them to be
musically inept.
Q. How has your relationship with Fueled By Ramen
been like so far?
A. We love our label, everyone
over there is really on top of things, If we ever
need anything or don't like the way something is being
done we can always call John or Pete and get it taken
care of. They have been interested in understanding
our vision for the band since the beginning and I
think that is something labels don't necessarily take
time to do, having Pete at the label has made that
a lot easier, he understands the importance of things
like that since he is in a band.
Q. I see that you guys are from Las Vegas, what is
the music scene like out there? And did you find it
hard to get noticed or stick out from everything else?
A. The music scene at home is
a mess.There aren't really any places for local bands
to play, and the kids there just don't get behind
too many bands. There isn't a real sense of community
there, it's more like, when a new band starts the
thing to do is to talk shit on them rather than support
them, the same goes for local bands amongst themselves.
No one really wants to help each other, save a few
exceptions. I'm not really sure why it's like that
there but it's a shame. Some of it may come from it
being such a competition to even get shows and the
resentment towards bands that make it out of Vegas,
and it's just going to stay like that until the attitiude
changes there. We decided to go outside of the local
scene because it was such a stagnating thing, the
internet has become such a great tool for bands in
so many ways, I mean we had almost five thousand friends
on myspace before we had even played a show. We have
most of our fans because of the internet and especially
websites like purevolume that allow bands to put their
music out there for free.
Q. Is it true that you still use recorded synth parts
at shows or have you found a full-time synth player?
A. Yes, we sample our keyboard
parts which, really, most of them are humanly impossible
to play anyways. When we were recording we did all
of the sequencing and drum machine parts on a computer,
but eventually when we find players and can afford
it, we want to have everything on our records played
by musicians live.
Q. You have been lucky to jump on some great tours
this year, what has the experience been like so far?
A. I don't think we could have
gotten luckier to go out on the Take Cover tour, all
the bands kind of took us in, we learned a ton being
out with those guys, I consider the people we met
on that tour to be some of my closest friends. The
Nintendo tour we are out on now has been such a different
experience than Take Cover. We've been playing to
10 times the amount of kids every night, its kind
of overwhelming at times, but in a good way. The sizes
of the stages got a lot bigger on this tour and so
did the distance between us and the kids, that's something
that we are trying to adjust to still, it feels a
lot less intimate than the shows on the last tour,
and that was something I really enjoyed about it,
being real close to the kids.
Q. Do you miss being away from home while out on tour,
or has it been nice to finally get out and see the
states?
A. I do once in a while but
we've been so busy I don't really dwell on it too
much. This is what I've wanted to do since I started
playing music, I couldn't be happier.
Q. Have any crazy tour stories that you would like
to share with us?
A. We aren't to big into partying
but I guess one thing that happened on the take cover
was during our last show, the guys from the other
bands came out during the last song of our set and
taped us up, covered us in shaving cream unplugged
my amps and took away all of spencers drums, haha
it was great, we finished the song somehow I think
with three new singers, bass and a snare drum.
Q. What has been your favorite city to tour in so
far?
A. Honestly I can't pick one
there were really good ones for us on the last tour
and really good ones on this tour as well. I know
we liked the northwest, I really enjoyed Seatle I
thought it was a really attractive and interesting
city, honestly I think I'd like to move there someday.
Q. I can’t even imagine what its like to be as young
as you guys are and have such a huge fan base already,
how has that changed your life and how are you dealing
with it?
A. It has definitely been a big change, it's great
but at the same time it's taking some getting used
to. don't get me wrong I'm flattered that anyone would
want to listen to my band and want to know about us
I'm just not used to it yet.
Q. If there was one thing about the music industry
or music scene in the u.s.a. today, what would it
be and why?
A. There is just such a lack of creativity and really
a lack of demand for it. Kids will have their top
5 favorite bands and they all are just copies of copies.
It's going to come to a point when people open their
eyes and ears and finally see through all of the uninspired
lyrics and songwriting.If I could do anything to change
the scene it would be to wake everyone up.
Q. What are your top 5 albums of all time?
A. In no order:
Third Eye Blind-Blue
The Refused- The Shape of Punk To Come
The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind soundtrack
Brian Wilson-Smile
Queen-A Night at the Opera
Q. If I was to go and search around in your tour van,
what would I find?
A. Way to many books and movies,
and xbox, a tv, a lot of trash, dirty socks..
Q. That’s about all the questions I Have for you guys.
Is there anything else you would like to say to all
the fans and readers out there in absolutepunk.net
land?
A. I just want to thank you for doing this interview,
and thank everyone who has already bought the record
and or who has come to see us at a show.
at AbsolutePunk.net
