Some bands spend their whole careers just hoping
to produce an album as complex, cohesive and creative
as A Fever You Can't Sweat Out. Not Panic! At The
Disco: They managed to get it right on the first try.
Before you grab a cold washcloth, let's diagnose
what caused A Fever.
It all started in the suburbs of Las Vegas when 12-year-old
Ryan Ross asked his parents for a guitar for Christmas.
Not to be outdone, neighborhood pal Spencer Smith
begged his parents for a drum set so the duo could
start jamming. "Really, from that first year
[playing instruments], all we really did was cover
Blink 182 songs," remembers Spencer, laughing.
The band eventually matured, moved on from all the
small things and recruited classmates Brent Wilson
and Brendon Urie on bass and vocals, respectively.
With the final lineup now in place, the newly christened
Panic! At The Disco (from a line in the Name Taken
song "Panic") started practicing in Spencer's
grandmother's living room and began crafting the songs
that would eventually make their way onto A Fever
You Can't Sweat Out. With their flair for experimental
instrumentation and intimately observant lyrics, it
wasn't long before the band sparked the interest of
Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz, who brought the band to
Decaydance/Fueled By Ramen, a label with a green thumb
for new talent. "We really clicked with [Decaydance/Fueled
By Ramen] and they understood what we wanted to do
as a band," Ryan explains. "They gave us
a lot of freedom to do what would make us happy with
our music."
Soon after signing, things got serious and started
moving forward at a rapid pace. Spencer and Brent
finished high school through distance education; Brendon
was taking classes during the day, practicing at night
and barely scraping by his senior year; and Ryan decided
to leave college at the end of his freshman year,
causing a huge rift between him and his family. "When
I told my dad I wanted to drop out and write music,
he definitely flipped out. It was a battle between
me being happy and doing what would make him happy."
So minus the blessing of one father, the four friends
packed up, left home for the first time and headed
east to College Park, Maryland, to record their debut
album with famed producer Matt Squire (Thrice, Northstar,
The Receiving End Of Sirens).
"We didn't want to write a record that had 11
of the same songs on it," explains Ryan. In order
to make sure that didn't happen, the band came up
with the concept to divide the album in two halves:
the first being futuristic, complete with drum machines
and synthesizers, and the second being nostalgic,
complete with Vaudevillian piano and accordion. "It
was too extremes of influence being put next to each
other: the most electronic music we have on the record
and the most old, out-of-style music we have on the
record." The band took pointers from some of
their biggestalthough not overtinfluences:
Third Eye Blind's melodic song structures (on "But
It's Better When We Do"), Queen's theatric instrumentation
(on "Build God, Then We'll Talk") and Counting
Crows' vivid and narrative lyrics (on "There's
A Good Reason These Tables Are Numbered Honey, You
Just Haven't Thought Of It Yet"). "You wouldn't
hear our record and say, 'Hmmm, these guys are influenced
by Fleetwood Mac or Counting Crows, 'but those are
our favorite bands," insists Spencer.
It's this split-brain approach to songwriting that
has resonated with listeners young and old. The band
has scored big with PureVolume (continually being
on the site's Top 10 Signed Bands chart) and MySpace
(reaching #1 on the indie charts), and when they returned
to Las Vegas after recording, they played a hometown
show (actually, the band's first live concert ever)
and over two hundred people showed up. The boys' parents,
especially Ryan's father, realized the band was more
than just a fleeting hobby and eventually became card-carrying
members of Panic! At The Disco's fan club.
Band description courtesy of Luckymanonline.com
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