Wentz has lost his voice, but he's as loquacious as ever, something he claims is "God's way of evening out the universe," balancing his chattiness by making it hard to speak.

He's got reason to be in a good mood, though. His wildly popular band has just dropped its major label debut, From Under the Cork Tree. The album moved an impressive 85,000 units its first week in stores.

"You just want to be listened to your whole life, and now people listen to you and you have to deal with everything people say about you because people are listening to you," Wentz says.

Ah, the pressures of stardom! About two-and-a-half years ago, rock critics were championing both AFI and Thursday as the saviors of non-commercial rock. In 2005, those very same critics are elevating Chicago's Fall Out Boy, who proudly claim to be hardcore kids playing pop-punk music, to the same lofty status, expecting them to be pop-punk's most recent messiah.

Judging from the easy-going, affable attitude of 25-year-old Wentz, the pressure of such accolades isn't weighing too heavily on his heavily tattooed, black-clad shoulders. He ain't buckling under pressure, real or imagined. The bassist, who's got star quality in spades, thanks to his boyish good looks and charming, smart personality, is fully aware of the fact that his band makes transitional music for turmoil-ridden teens in transitional phases of their lives. He knows that Fall Out Boy's catchy pop-punk might is very "right now." It may not be able to withstand the ages; From Under the Cork Tree may be the type of record fans turn to in their 30s to recall the days of their youth, yet no longer relate to. And, not surprisingly, he's okay with that. It's the dark, subtly sexual vibe that he believes elevates FOB above their peers, giving the band much more of a healthy, viable shelf life.

"If I heard Minor Threat today, I would think, 'This is the worst!' But I heard it when I was 13 and it made sense in my little head," says Wentz, who lists Minor Threat, Judge, and Earth Crisis as his favorite HxCx bands of all time. "The right time and at the right place! We don't want 14-years-olds to be our only fans. We want everyone." Wentz is glad the youth of today relate to Fall Out Boy, and he loves it, but he thinks that an older demographic can link up with his band as well. "I thought about the difference between being 21 and being 25 recently," he reveals. "The difference between ages 14 and 18 is mammoth. I remember who I was, and I have become a different person, and we hope our fans will grow with us as we grow."

While much of From Under the Cork Tree is catchier than herpes from the high school slut, there's a real songwriting sensibility that flows vehemently through FOB's veins. It's pop. It's punk. It's rock. It's undeniably good. The lyrics are wink-wink smart, and full of pop culture references, as well as song titles that seem disconnected from their subject matter. Example: There's a song called "Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner" which references the cheesy '80s flick Dirty Dancing. But the song's not really about the movie or its heartthrob, Patrick Swayze.

"In my head, the [song titles] fit perfectly," Wentz says. "The titles of our songs are nostalgic or they're inside jokes, but they do bare meaning with the song. 'Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner' is about the feeling you get when that happens. Besides, who else name-checks Patrick Swayze in a song?" He's got a point ...

"There's more introspective stuff," the verby Wentz, who pens the motherload of FOB lyrics as opposed to singer/guitarist Patrick Stump, says. "If you end up in a situation over and over again, you have to point the finger at yourself. On 'Sugar, We're Going Down,' we say, 'I'm a notch in your bedpost, but you're just a line in a song.' You think about people who have achieved celebrity off being a shitty person."

Wentz says there are a couple of songs about "the state of the union of Fall Out Boy," as well.

"It's where we are, now. When you have people calling you a 'faggot' in high school and throwing a football at your head, and now they come out to your shows and cheer for you, it makes no sense and is surreal. But to say, 'Fuck you, we don't want you as fans' to those people isn't cool, either. You can't choose how cool you are or aren't, as a band."

Fall Out Boy have never been about expectations.

"I'm a weird person. I cannot sleep at night, and I put so much pressure on myself," Wentz says. "No one else factors into that. I expect things of myself. There is some 45-year-old guy in a suit, and his job rides on expectations of my music, and that guy should not be who Fall Out Boy is. This has become something it was never supposed to become, and that shocks me."

It's not too shocking that the tweeny and teenybopping Warped Tour crowd, the ones who love Alkaline Trio, Taking Back Sunday, and FOB unconditionally Ðoften screaming their heads off every time Wentz and co. speak from the stage Ð have gravitated towards Fall Out Boy's darkly themed music. The fans are young and impressionable, and everything about FOB has a darkened cast to it. That puts a lot of responsibility plum on Wentz's doorstep.

"I listened to The Misfits, and I never killed myself," Wentz reflects, indicating that he's clearly thought about this issue. "There are kids that get to our shows at like 6 a.m. and wait all day, and I think that's cool. It makes every word we say mean that much more, and you have to be careful about what comes out of your mouth. It makes me nervous about what I say. I worry about what it's going to mean to people."

Wentz clearly has a way with his words. Although he dismisses himself as a hack, he is obsessed with writing and chooses to stay in and write instead of venturing out of doors on a Friday night.

"It's boring, and it's not healthy, but I would rather write than have conversations in reality ... I need to start talking to someone about it," he says. He published his first book, the illustrated The Boy With the Thorn in His Side, which takes about 30 minutes to read and digest, shares its title with a Smiths song, and is about nightmares. Wentz had 80 pages of lyrics, and came up with the idea to write a book and have his tattoo artist illustrate it. The book is youth directed with, of course, a dark edge.

"It's like Harry Potter," he reasons. "A 10-year-old can read it and there are other things in there that you can't grasp when you're 10. It's not a PG-13 book. I have another one that's 250 pages and there's an illustration every other page, and it will still be the same character. We're going to put out another book called Radiate Kids." That book is closer to a diary, without illustrations, and it'll be about the past three years.

"It'll be closer to my true voice as writer," Wentz says.

From Under the Cork Tree has a voice rooted in FOB's current state of being and their past three years on the road, as well.

"Being on the road changes who you are and how you see yourself and your perspective on the world. We wrote only about jaded dude ideas on the other record, but now, we have seen the other side," he says.

"We're ordinary people in an extraordinary position," Wentz continues. "Every time we play, we always high-five each other beforehand. Anything you hear about Fall Out Boy is either one percent true or zero percent true. This rumor about me peeing my pants during skydiving with Benjy from Good Charlotte ... No, I didn't pee my pants!"

Well, when your public profile is increased, of course people are going to talk. The conversations are only going to get louder and more voluminous, since Fall Out Boy fever is spreading across the nation, especially with this summer's Warped Tour. Fall Out Boy might not save rock, but they certainly will help it continue to take deep, invigorated, healthy breaths.

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