Last month I missed a world exclusive interview with Fall Out Boy's bassist Pete Wentz and Mark Hoppus.

Both have massive twitter fanbases, both with followers that place them well inside the Top 100 users of the site, each with over 1,000,000 followers. That's what this section of the interview was about:


You're both prolific twitterers, which is obviously part of staying in touch with your audiences. However, at the same time, you remain at the top of your respective fiefdoms. Do you think there are some social distances that can't be bridged, no matter how often you send your fans a message?

Hoppus: “It’s a great way to involve people who are interested in what’s going on with me or with Blink or the other projects I’m working on – or even just sharing a thought that pops into your head… all without having to deal with real human beings. I like that part of it, in the best possible way. I love posting a picture of what’s going on here in the studio and having people feel like they’re a part of it. It’s a great way to let people into your head and your life without having 600,000 people sitting in the room with you.”

Wentz: “I feel the same way. Y’know, 140 characters – it’s hard to fuck that up! It’s like a club where you choose your level of interaction. On one day I’ll reply to a bunch of people, on the next day I won’t have anything to say at all, and then the day after that I’ll be like, ‘Oh, I’m just eating a breakfast burrito’. Other days I do actually have something to say.”

Hoppus: “I have to say, I have no idea what Pete’s talking about on his posts most of the time. I don’t know if you’ve read them at all, but they’re more like song lyrics than cohesive thoughts.”

Wentz: “I don’t understand them either. I’ll be like, ‘What the fuck am I saying?’”

Do you find the 140-character format limiting?

Hoppus: “I love it. Brevity is the soul of wit, you know? As a songwriter, that’s how I approach songs anyway. It’s like, ‘Get to the point, get to the chorus’. Most Blink songs are under three minutes and the entire ‘Enema Of The State’ record was like 32 minutes long, or something. I also like it because I can follow a bunch of people without having to sift through all the stuff. Like, I’m not going to go to everyone’s blog and read their opinions on stuff, but I love the comedians who are Twitter – they post some of the most amazing one-liners I’ve ever heard.”

Wentz: “Time magazine did a really good cover story about this. I mean, you think that you don’t want to know what one of your buddies is doing. It seems so narcissistic, but it’s actually kind of interesting. There are definitely people who overdo it, but you can choose not to follow them. It’s interesting. For me it’s good, because I tend to not be very concise when I write.”

You mentioned the narcissistic aspect. Do either of you feel that Twittering is just another part of that Myspace / Facebook culture that's become a catalogues of virtual monuments to the self?

Hoppus: “No, because I think most of our stuff is so self-deprecating in the first place. I see some people who use it as, ‘Hey, look at me’, but I use it more like, ‘Check out how funny life is’. I let people in on jokes.”

Wentz: “He has good ego-check ones.”

Hoppus: “The other day, Travis’ daughter was having a birthday party. I walked through the front door, dressed just like I am right now [jeans and a T-shirt] with my wife and my kid, Pete with his wife and his kid, and the party planner took one look at me and said, ‘Oh, you must be the magician’.”

Wentz: “And then Mark had to learn a bunch of tricks.”

Hoppus: “The best part of the story is that there was no magician planned for the party. As cool as you might think you are – and I don’t think I’m that cool – life keeps you in check. I was walking the red carpet at a movie premiere the other day, and an interviewer was like, ‘I’m here with Alex from Blink-182’. Alex?”