It’s never easy for any band when creative differences cause the group to split in half; it’s even harder when one of the people leaving the band is the principal songwriter and lyricist. Welcome to the world of Panic! At the Disco (yes, the exclamation point is back), now a duo of singer Brendon Urie and drummer Spencer Smith after guitarist Ryan Ross and bassist Jon Walker left the band soon after the release of the band’s retrotastic sophomore album Pretty. Odd. Urie and Smith circled the wagons – and brought in pop mastermind Butch Walker to flesh things out – and last month they released Vices and Virtues, which synthesized ideas from the band’s first two albums but sports a decidedly contemporary feel. Bullz-Eye chatted with Urie about suddenly being The Man when it comes to songwriting, and how Trey Parker PWND his religious upbringing.
I was quite excited to chat to Brendon from Panic! At The Disco. Having been a fan of the band from their debut album A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, there was something about their pop driven rock songs that mixed elements of baroque and cabaret and sixties classics such as The Beatles and The Beach Boys. The new album Vices & Virtues, the groups third and first since the band split in two. Brendon and Spencer have taken things back to the original foundation of Fever and expanded on it to a new level for the group. I spoke to Brendon about the writing process for this album, how their recent trip to SXSW went and tried to coax out of him if they are coming to play Soundwave Revolution.