Recently I discovered an interview of Brendon Urie given by Alternative Press magazine at the Musicians Institute in California. I was surprised that I hadn’t come across this sooner, mostly because of my love of Panic! at the Disco and front man (now the sole man) Brendon Urie. It’s a rather long talk that took place at the beginning of this year, each video is roughly 20 minutes in length and there are five parts. Watching it was interesting because while it was about the band and Brendon himself, he also talked about influences, the creation of the band and how he put together his most recent album Death of a Bachelor. Below I have a list of each video and the great things I learned from each one.
*Please be aware you may have to make the videos start at the beginning manually*
Part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc1NYSGIW8U
First of all, let’s just talk about Brendon’s socks. He’s wearing polka dot socks. Second, I was upset I didn’t hear about this sooner considering I bought the magazine packaged from Alternative Press when the covers got released that included both covers, a signed poster and a tote bag. I learned that Brendon’s family was very musical. The fact that he was influenced by having a large family is really cool. Brendon goes into a lot of detail about all the artists he listened to and was influenced by. Many of which I never knew about or many of which I have never heard of. Brendon’s “singing around the house” bit is fantastic. There are many other great things about this video to learn but my last thing about this is Brendon’s giggle.
Part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJcV6eu5LKg
If you haven’t already noticed from the first part, Brendon’s personality is extremely obvious in these videos which is a great component of the entire interview. This is when Brendon really goes into the story of how Panic! got started. Which involved meeting with and performing for Pete Wentz. Brendon is extremely grateful for Pete and makes sure this is known. He also goes into detail about the hard parts of getting started which included being in a band at such a young age and to not know as many things going into the business as they probably should have. Brendon’s vocal talent is complimented which is a very well deserved compliment. There is more talk about how many people that Brendon is inspired by. “Guys I can’t eat sandwiches and I can’t have a smoothie”, a funny moment that leads to the discovery of Brendon working at smoothie place and singing for customers. Which again, shows so much of Brendon’s personality and he always shows his variety of musical knowledge when talking about it.
Part 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc_CEqbCrPg
Part 3 finally gets into what Brendon is currently up to. He expressed his excitement for the tour that he went on the most recent summer with Weezer. He talks about the decision to put I Write Sins Not Tragedies on the radio. Which while not stated, I believe this is an extremely important part of why everyone knows who Panic! is. Regardless of if they are fans, the song is one of those known songs. He explained how Pete Wentz is a friend and a business man at the same time to Brendon and the band. Then Brendon is asked personal questions about himself. Some of his answers are great such as having a specific Crayola crayon color being his favorite color.
Parts 4 & 5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB3ggu2B3eI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT8-nOpzbCQ
I grouped these last two videos together because they are both filled with questions from the audience. There are too many questions for me to sum them all up. Brendon takes the time to really answer all these questions though. Some of the people are adorable when they talk to Brendon because they’re so excited to. It makes me wonder what I would be like if I got to ask Brendon Urie a question. All the questions are all over the board, some are simple and some are more thought out. It’s a great Q & A section, if I say so myself.
Overall, I found this to be a very informational conversation series. I was so excited to come across this as a Brendon fan. I feel like as a fan, I’ve learned so much more from such a unique conversation series that many artists don’t do.
