“I still have moments of disbelief,” Urie said.
“I grew up in a pretty religious, strict kind of household with five kids.
“Then somehow Pete Wentz (Fall Out Boy) signed my band and we’ve travelled the world - how does that sort of thing even happen?”
Surprisingly easily, apparently.
“About six or seven years ago, I guess, I had just met the guys and we were writing a bit,” Urie said.
“We demo’d some songs, put a link online, on some fan forum for Fall Out Boy, thinking maybe someone who knew someone who knew someone might see it and like our music.
“Somehow Pete Wentz himself saw it, called us up and said, ‘I’m coming out to Vegas to check you guys out,’ and after hearing a couple of our songs at rehearsal he signed us to his label.”
Urie said the band had about three songs when they initially formed during high school.
“I don’t think we’ve ever released any of those initial tracks,” he said.
“Some demos, even some of the more recent ones, have never seen the light of day … and that’s really not a bad thing!
“We might go back and work on a few to release at some point, but we’re always writing new songs so it’s hard to say.
“If we get writer’s block there may be something to fall back on, put it that way.”
Urie said the band’s sound had changed over the years - not least because the band lost half of it’s original lineup in 2009, when Ryan Ross and Jon Walker left the band.
“At the time around Pretty. Odd we really wanted to do something different but we weren’t sure which direction to take or how it would be received by our fans,” Urie said.
“It wasn’t long after that the guys decided to leave us, for reasons of their own I guess, but Spencer (Smith) and I decided to continue writing together.”
The band’s songwriting process, Urie said, was still as varied as ever.
“It really varies from song to song,” he said.
“Sometimes the lyrics are the first part of the equation because they’re just too funny or good to not write down.
“Music is the same way, sometimes the melody is so haunting you can’t get rid of it until you’ve written it down and created a song.”
Two tracks from the band’s latest album, Vices and Virtues, particularly stood out for Urie.
“Let’s Kill Tonight and Ready to Go are probably two of my favourite songs at the moment, and both were incredibly easy to write,” he said.
“There were a couple of lines in both that kind of belched out, literally sneezed onto the page with no conscious thought processes whatsoever.”
So the obvious question remains: what are Urie’s vices and virtues these days?
“If I’m going to answer the easy way, whiskey is one of my vices,” he said.
“But you’ve got to be careful with it, it can really sneak up on you if you’re not careful!
“I guess one of my virtues would be not second-guessing myself, having confidence, especially doing what we do and being in the studio, working with other people to make an internal idea into something tangible without losing its integrity … not in an arrogant sort of way, though, there’s no reason to be an ass.”
» Panic! at the Disco will headline Counter Revolution around Australia, kicking off in Brisbane this weekend.
Forrs: townsvillebulletin.com.au
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