Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump credits Batman as the reason he's a musician

Fall Out Boy frontman Patrick Stump says that Tom Burton's 1989 Batman film is "almost exclusively" the reason why he embarked upon a life in music. 

Speaking to NME about the influence of film composer Danny Elfman on the song I Am My Own Muse on his band's recently-released So Much (For) Stardust album, Stump says, "He’s been an influence forever. I’m a musician almost exclusively because of 1989’s Batman, because it’s Danny Elfman and Prince I watched that movie a billion times, and I soaked up that score. That was a huge, huge influence on me, and I feel like everything branches off from that. Now it’s more overt in that it’s orchestra, but it’s always been there."

Asked by NME what the band wanted to achieve with their new record, bassist Pete Wentz says, "We wanted to make an album that felt like it made it worthwhile to go and tour it. A ‘whatever’ album from Fall Out Boy 20 years in is probably not worth making."

Stump adds, "There’s also a real tangibility to it. In the middle of the pandemic all of a sudden everything was a Zoom meeting, or you had NFTs and all this other stuff, and there was this moment where nothing existed. We wanted to make a record that was very tangible, that was very live in terms of instruments."

Stump's hero Danny Elfman spoke recently to Metal Hammer about his own career and his inspirations and aspirations.

Talking about his work with Tim Burton on classic films such as Batman, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Edward Scissorhands and more, Elfman says: "I think we were both kinda maybe odd kids. I understand Tim’s characters. They’re all alienated. And I grew up feeling like that. So I think that’s part of what breeds a kinship.

"I used to feel when I was younger that I came from some other planet, and was still watching and learning human behavioural interaction. So it was easy for me to understand Pee-wee Herman, and Edward Scissorhands, and Jack Skellington, and both Batman and the Joker. I’m Lydia and I’m Beetlejuice, somewhere in my character. I’m Lydia when I’m going through life, and then when I’m onstage, I’m Beetlejuice."