One minute, Panic at the Disco bassist Jon Walker is getting sunburned after an afternoon at the beach. The next, he’s putting on a fancy suit and tie and hitting the stage, where he’ll play for hundreds of young, screaming hipsters.
Such is the life of a 22-year-old rock star. A last-minute addition to the Panic at the Disco lineup, Walker became part of an overnight pop sensation that found itself gracing the cover of national rock magazines when its members were barely out of high school.
Vocalist Brendon Urie, guitarist Ryan Ross and drummer Spencer Smith were 17-year-old buddies from Las Vegas when they suddenly had a No. 1 hit on MTV with the video for “I Write Sins Not Tragedies.” They scooped up Walker when they were in Chicago for a tour stop, replacing original bassist Brent Wilson.
Both the single and the album went platinum, the sort of breakout that’s increasingly rare these days.
“I don’t think we ever expected to make a living making music,” Walker said. “But we’re still young and still having fun, so we’re just trying to enjoy it.”
Three years after their debut album, “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out,” the band is back, its commercial success now matched by critical praise. The band’s new album “Pretty.Odd” is a blend of big hooks, steady piano rhythms and soaring vocal harmonies.
By expanding their sound, Panic at the Disco hopes to avoid the sophomore rut that often plagues quick-success bands.
“We started listening to a lot of different music, and that came out in the songwriting,” said Walker, who name-checked the Zombies, the Beach Boys and Tom Petty. “A lot of older music inspired us. It wasn’t only the quality of the musicianship back then, but people wrote about something that mattered.”
“Pretty.Odd” was recorded at the Palms Hotel in the band’s hometown, while the strings and mixing were done in the famous Abbey Road studios in London.
Having the benefit of a full orchestra was a change from the recording of their first album, when they had to call their label “Fueled By Ramen,” to approve $300 to hire a trumpet player.
The album has a definite ’60s sound. The opener, “We’re So Starving,” is a short track, acting as sort of a homage to the beginning of the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” with a live-recording texture and the lyrics, “We’re so sorry we’ve been gone/We were busy writing songs for you.”
Panic at the Disco is headlining the Honda Civic Tour, which stops in Chicago this weekend and also features Motion City Soundtrack, The Hush Sound and Phantom Planet.
“We thought [teaming with Honda] was a good idea,” Walker said. “They were able to help us put on a tour, and kids don’t have to pay a bunch of money.”
