#smfsd is such a pretty song

[unironicallyconfused]

And when Fall Out Boy performs So Much (for) Stardust live for the first time, and all FOB fans across the world ascend towards the sky at the same time as the strings play and Patrick sings, what then?? WHAT THEN??????

[fob4ever]

patrick stump & neal avron on tape notes podcast (12.15.23)

songwriting stuff, demos, lyric process, a bunch of things! they talk about the songs lftos, heaven iowa and smfsd.

long summary under the cut!

talked about how they sat outside “emo” because they leaned more towards hiphop/rnb, but also how they didn’t fit in the “pop” genre too and how they would be put on pop shows and “comparatively it was like slayer was playing” lmao “but we’re still a pop band!”

they experimented with reggae and 90s shoegaze and hardcore during the pandemic

they recorded most of stardust together in neal’s house :D at the beginning it was mostly just neal and patrick working together, at the end of the day everybody would come in to listen

patrick said he got “kinda obsessed” with streamlining pete’s lyrics in the chorus over the past few albums: “pete is very wordy. he has all these ideas that take up a lot of space.” and that their manager sat him down at lunch and said “don't do that. you guys used to ramble. why don't you ramble?” and lftos was the first song patrick put together after that convo

lftos writing process: patrick followed what he was feeling, and most of what he did in that song were things that years spent working in pop music had scared him off on doing.

the “every lover's got a little dagger in their hand” lyric tied it all together for patrick: “[i was] singing that line and EAGERLY emailing neal: listen to this!”

they play a little of the lftos demo (16:55). it's wild. VERY guitar-forward

“neal and i lost most of the demos for [folie a deux].” the burning of the library of alexandria. to me

talks about how the folie demos were infinitely stranger than the final versions, “psychedelic at times”

for stardust, they didn't really keep much of the demo stuff- patrick: “and my demos are pretty decent!”

lftos piano demo (21:35)

patrick: i want some drama. when i look back at our records, our best ones start off with a sense of melodrama

they play individual parts of the lftos instrumentation (31:25), andy's drums, pete's bass, joe's guitar. <3

bridges are patrick's favorite thing to write, because he just gets to play

patrick: "pete doesn't even send lyrics in lyric-form, he just sends words. and it's interesting when you see it- it's almost like one-liner after one-liner. and i'll just get an email of those, and then you kinda have to figure out what thematically goes together, what feels like the same song. but then i also try to keep lyrics together as much as possible, because i feel he's in a place where it does feel like one thought."

"when i read it, there's almost a passive thing where i just imagine what it sounds like to me. and [the lyrics for heaven, iowa] scared me a lot, because it felt kind of sparse, and i don't really like sparse- i don't really like singing by myself. [...] i don't like being so front and center, and i could tell that there was something really intimate about this song, and it was a big challenge for me."

everybody immediately went for the heaven, iowa demo- it's from the first stardust session and it took the longest to complete because patrick wasn't satisfied with just his voice over keys- "it was too naked."

patrick doesn't ask pete about lyrics because: "first off, he will not explain things. but second off, i think there is something to that. where i'll read his lyrics, and i'll interpret it one way, and years later i'll realize it's another way. there's so many double entendres that i've only gotten decades later, i'll be singing and go, 'OH it's a sex thing.'"

patrick really attaches to the story of a lyric, the craft of it, and then years later he'll be like "oh that was a HEAVY lyric. [and] pete must have felt that thing! i don't really question it when i'm writing- it's kindof unfair on him, like, should i check on him?"

heaven iowa instrumental demo/instruments isolated (53:30)

patrick would tell joe to "go nuts" on heaven, iowa!

neal talks about the ambient guitar pedal joe plays during heaven iowa and how it worked really well. patrick says this was the kind of thing that saved (the song).

patrick and andy double drummed at the same time in the studio for heaven iowa! <3

pete told joe to go "full slash" at the end of heaven iowa : )

patrick almost didn't send out the demo for the title track, smfsd! he was almost sure no one was going to like it, even though he liked it. but he sent it out, and it "kept surviving"

both patrick and neal brushed smfsd off because they assumed they "couldn't do that", but pete really pushed for it, which surprised patrick.

so much for stardust demo (1:25:07) patrick plays drums on it, sloppily. which he freely admits to lol. it is quite sloppy indeed

patrick: "i'm a drummer too, but andy and i are very different drummers. and it's very cool translating our things between each other, because he comes from metal (...) and i'm more a funk drummer."

lotsa joe layering in heaven iowa and smfsd : )

it was patrick's idea to do a lyrical callback in lftos/smfsd, and pete was hesitant about it. but patrick pushed for it, becasuse it made sense as "story beats"- "it's like 'empire strikes back'!"

patrick doesn't like to putz around the studio that much, he just wants to be recording something.

patrick: "my routine [during the writing of the album] was just to make it to the studio as on time as i can be- i have adhd, it's very difficult- but i'd be there within 10-15 minutes of when i was supposed to be there, and then we'd just work through it."

patrick's advice: FROM ELTON JOHN: when you find your producer that understands you, stick with them. patrick: "and that was on a record we didn't do with neal, and i remember thinking [makes unsure noises]..." also prioritize in the short-term, what's important. take a step back.

neal's advice: if music is your passion, do it, and do it all the time

patrick was afraid people wouldn't like him "rambling" in songs, even though it was honest and natural to him. he was terrified of doing it again, thinking people wouldn't like it. but people did! "don't subvert yourself too much."

the host asks for them to choose a stardust song to close out the podcast, and patrick chooses what a time to be alive :)

the end

[earlgreytea68]

idk if you seen this but SMFD is going to be a single which is very interesting to me for a few reasons one being we are past the time to release singles to promote the album and it's also not due to popularity bc according to spotify the most listen to non-single is fake out. my best assumption as to why is to promote the upcoming tour

I have a few theories on why SMFDS tho bc it is an odd choice. don't get me wrong I love that song but it's a song you really appreciate having also listened to the rest of the album and it's very good in concert but imo you release a single so it can be played on the radio for whatever reason (as a album teaser, it got popular) which is why I think it's about promotion and not radio. SMFSD is like THE track in terms of representation for the album for a lot of reasons to me so it makes sense they'd use it to promote their tour to fans who likely have listened to the album. also I suspect we'll get a SMFSD music video which I'll be excited to see (I do hope it has a little story line like the other mvs from this era rather than just clips from tourdust but we'll see)

I am FASCINATED by SMFS as a single, not because I don't love the song (it's one of my favorites on the whole album, I adore it), not because I don't think it's a super-strong song (lyrically I think it's transcendent in how it nails a very true emotion and musically I think it's complex and smart), but because it doesn't really strike me as my idea of a radio song, as you say. So yeah, this feels like an emotional choice rather than a marketing-based one, which also feels right to them. Their contractual situation makes their record label pretty hands-off, I think, so they can kind of do what they want. And maybe the song being labeled one of the top ten songs of the year by Time, or whatever that was, made them think that it deserved more attention not just by fans.

I'm sure the music video will be intensely plotted and silly because I genuinely think that's how they like to make music videos and I would be surprised if it's just tour footage, but we'll see.

I have a theory about Fake Out. To me that song seems like such an obvious single and I've always been surprised it didn't get a big push last summer. But I think once the new We Didn't Start the Fire dropped and ended up performing so strongly for them (and over the entire summer building gradually), they didn't want to crowd it out and let it play out. But I think Fake Out is definitely a summer song. It's a roll the windows down song to me and always has been since the first time I heard. Whereas SMFS is a perfect winter song (I'm in a winter mood dreaming of spring...). I wonder if they'll try to ride the album out a little longer and push Fake Out this summer. I wouldn't be entirely surprised, because I think there are no real rules anymore over when you can push a single from an album.