Fall Out Boy bassist and lyricist Pete Wentz has announced his newest project, Black Cards, which makes his comments to MusicRadar last year, that FOB was going on "a hiatus," feel like something more than that.
After all, since that time, Fall Out Boy singer Patrick Stump has begun recording a solo album, while the band's guitarist Joe Trohman and drummer Andy Hurley have formed a heavy metal side project called Damned Things.
Wentz has laid low for the past six months, but now he's released snippets of two songs while explaining the inspiration behind his new, somewhat secretive, reggae-flavored group on the Black Cards' website. "The takeover, the break is indeed over," Wentz writes.
"When FOB went on hiatus, I wasn't really sure what to do with myself. I know I wanted to keep traveling the world with my family," Wentz writes. "We had been to Jamaica recently. I spent a lot of time hanging around the beaches and I started to get inspired again by songs like [Culture's] Two Sevens Clash and [The Gladiators'] Warriors… I could imagine them having an everlasting imprint, like people would dance to this stuff forever. I could feel these songs really meant something. Not just in Jamaica but globally, crossing through culture and language.
"I know this won't be for everyone, but honestly it's a chance for me to try something different," Wentz adds of the poppy, vaguely dancehall-ish music he's posted (a portion of which you can hear below).
For the project, Wentz teamed up with producer Sam Hollander, whom he worked with on Gym Class Heroes' As Cruel as School Children. The pair recruited a female vocalist, whose identity, for the time being, they're keeping to themselves: "I couldn't imagine trying to replace Patrick [Stump]." Wentz writes. "Combine all this with my nonsense and ideas. Stuff I could never write or never had a perspective to write from in FOB." Some have already speculated that the mystery singer is Wentz's wife, vocalist Ashlee Simpson.
Whether or not this project truly marks the end of FOB, Wentz ends his letter to fans with this message: "I remain Fall Out Boy's #1 fan."
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