In 2003, four guys from Chicago set out to change people’s views on pop-punk – a genre plagued with stereotypical standard riffs and whiny lyrics.

Fall Out Boy’s independent release, Take This to Your Grave, buried the stereotypes of sing-along punk and accumulated a massive following of scenester kids. Two years later – and now signed to Island Records – the band is looking to jump over the sophomore slump with From Under the Cork Tree.

“There is a lot more potential for pressure, but it’s all about how you take it,” lead singer Patrick Stump said. “It would be stupid to let it bother you. If you cater to what somebody else thinks then it’s not really your thing anymore.”

Stump said the band felt the heat of making a successful album, but they decided that staying true to what got Fall Out Boy where they are was the best approach for the new record.

“If Picasso is sitting around like ‘I hope this sculpture sells’ then he’s not making a good Picasso,” Stump said. “On a much, much, much smaller scale, if Fall Out Boy is sitting around like I don’t know, is this going to sell?’ then it’s not a good Fall Out Boy record.”

The band has returned from the studio with 13 tracks that carry on their tradition of punchy-sarcasm. Song titles like “Our Lawyer Made Us Change the Name of This Song So We Wouldn’t Get Sued,” “I’ve Got a Dark Alley and a Bad Idea That Says You Should Shut Your Mouth” and “I Slept With Someone in Fall Out Boy and All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me.” Aside from the titles though, the guys did a lot of growing up over the past two years in order to get from the grave to the forest.

“It’s been a long time since we wrote [Take This to Your Grave]…we’re that much older and the kids that bought that record are that much older,” Stump said. “Their tastes have grown just as much as our tastes have and it would be stupid to make the same record again, but it would be stupid to ignore that the last record came out.”

Stump said the record is mature but much older because Fall Out Boy doesn’t try to be something they are not.

And when it comes to writing songs the band is definitely not like other artists.

“[Bassist] Pete [Wentz] writes the lyrics and I write the music,” Stump said. “You think it would be the other way around…but the two of us form the crux of the main songwriting and then the four of us [including guitarist Joe Trohman and drummer Andrew Hurley] build and form the songs.”

Stump said the writing process for From Under the Cork Tree found Fall Out Boy settling into a pattern when it came to song composition.

“[Pete’s] not giving me any melodies or any order so I have a little liberty in arrangements. He’s like my music editor and I’m like his lyrics editor,” Stump said.

Stump said he doesn’t understand why some people refer to pop music as “a four letter word,” but the band doesn’t mind. Stump has no problem following what he calls is an unofficial “pop formula.”

“You have to have a verse and you have to have a chorus,” Stump said. “Whatever is the main ‘thing’ of the song, you can change it around, but if you don’t say it more than once then you’re just lying to yourself.”

With Cork Tree finished, Fall Out Boy will pick up where they last left off and where they feel they can be most intimate with their fans – on tour. The band recently began a trek through smaller venues with friends and old label mates Midtown, The Academy Is… and Gym Class Heroes.

As the May 3 release date for the album approaches, Fall Out Boy plans on attacking fans with a sonic fury this summer on the main stage at theVans Warped Tour.

Stump said the experience his band has gone through over the past two years has only added to their confidence as they plan on influencing the rock scene once again.

The band has come out of the studio with a stronger sense of identity and a need to add to their ever-growing mob of fans by moving kids with their music.

“We know who we are and we’re not trying to be another band,” Stump said. “We’re hardcore kids that decided to do a pop and punk band. I’m not trying to figure out where to put the mosh part, but if there’s moshing…that’s just how it happens.”