Exclusive Interview: Pete Wentz

Pete Wentz has an analogy banked for describing what it’s like to start a new band, Black Cards, in the wake of his previous and super successful group Fall Out Boy.

“It’s Christmas morning/finding the lights switch in the dark,” Wentz admitted on The Ralphie Radio Show. The Fall Out Boy took a break from a photo shoot at the Glamour Kills offices to talk about his new project. “Yunno, and there’s a little bit of like the, ‘Ok, I’m 18, I’m on my own now – Dad, you’re paying my cell phone bill though right?'"

For what it’s worth, Wentz’s father actually did pay that bill for the bassist until at least April 2009 – Wentz also told me last year around that time that he didn’t get a pad of his own until age 26. But he’s out on his own now, married to Ashlee Simpson-Wentz and the father to little Bronx Mowgli – who turns 2 on November 20. The bassist describes his family as “mobile” – so touring in a new band while Bronx grows up won’t be as hard as one would think.

“Whenever Ashlee’s not doing stuff, we kind of try to coordinate our schedules,” said Wentz. “So like, Bronx has been to Japan, he’s been to Europe. A big misnomer is that Fall Out Boy slowed down because of Bronx coming out, and that’s not the case at all. I definitely want him to see the world, and see it on the record company’s dime is rad.”

So with no travel issues, Wentz can focus exclusively on launching this new project. You’d think this wouldn’t be an issue given his experience with not just FOB, but also Decaydance Records. However, Wentz is as wide-eyed as the kid on Christmas morning.

“I think that maybe I’m not the puppeteer-master that sometimes people make me out to be,” he said. “This was a process of figuring out what we thought worked and what we thought didn’t work, and definitely we’re in the middle of that process.”

Point-and-case: the whole point of this mini tour that the band, which features a front woman in Bebe Rexha, embarked on – with just a couple small venue dates in the States and in Europe. Wentz said point-blank that one of the main purposes of the shows was just to learn how to play the songs live, and hear how they sounded in front of a crowd. The studio work is mostly behind the group – as he also revealed the first Black Cards album is completely recorded.

“I don’t have like an exact release date for the album, I think early spring,” Wentz said. “I guess I kind of tend to be trigger-happy as far as like putting songs out and videos out, because I get so excited about them myself.”

Now the next step: transferring that excitement to the masses – as Wentz can only hope people will look forward to hearing more music from Black Cards like its December 25.