Stump and Wentz reunite for writing

Stump and Wentz met up for the first time in several years in early 2012 for a writing session. Wentz reached out to Stump after he penned his letter, as he too felt he was in a dark place and needed a creative outlet. He was at first reluctant to approach Stump, likening the phone call to reconnecting with a lover after years of acrimony. “I know what you need – you need your band”, Wentz told Stump. “I think it’s kind of weird that we haven’t really seen each other this year. We paid for each other’s houses and you don’t know my kid”, Wentz remarked. The result, “three or four” new songs, were shelved with near immediacy, with the two concluding that “it just wasn’t right and didn’t feel right.” Several months later, the two reconvened and wrote tracks that they felt truly represented the band in a modern form. The band decided that if a comeback was in order, it must represent the band in its current form: “We didn’t want to come back just to bask in the glory days and, like, and collect a few checks and pretend … and do our best 2003 impersonation”, said Stump. Afterwards, the quartet held an all-day secret meeting at their manager’s home in New York City where they discussed ideas and the mechanics of getting together to record. Trohman was the last to be contacted, through a three-hour phone call from Stump. While Trohman was arguably the most excited to begin other projects, he had stipulations for rejoining the band. “If I’m not coming back to this band writing music […] then I don’t want to”, he remarked. Stump supported Trohman’s ambition, saying Trohman “needed to be writing more”.