Panic At The Disco have returned with their second album Pretty. Odd. that's garnered rave reviews for its ambitious Beatles-esque pop. We asked Jon from the band to tell us all about it, and what it was like to record in the legendary Abbey Road studios.
For anyone who hasn't heard your album, how would you describe it?
I don't know. My parents like it. But they like everything. No matter what we did, they'd probably like it. It's probably not the best opinion to take. As far as words go... if I could tell you in words, I would've written a book. But we're all really happy with it. Even more so than the last album, we just wrote the best album that we could.
That suggests there are things you weren't happy about with the first album.
There's just a factor, when you're 17 years old and graduating high school, and working to try and pay for car insurance, and writing songs... For us, that experience ended up being our first album and it was really successful and most bands usually have a bit more time. Not to discredit it, we love those songs, but this just feels like the natural progression forward for us. But I guarantee we'll be saying that when we release the next album too!
So is there a chance fans of the first record might not like the new one?
No, I don't think so. It's more that we just think this is a better group of songs. If people like the first album more, they can still listen to it!
You recorded the string parts in Abbey Road, was there magic in the air?
Hopefully! Half the album doesn't have any strings or orchestra on it, the other half we went a little overboard! Luckily the producer Rob Mathes is a world class musician and he wrote the best parts that he possibly could. It turned out really well. We had the same trumpet player who played on 'Penny Lane' playing on 'Nine In The Afternoon'.
It was definitely a magical experience. We didn't know what to expect because we'd only seen videos and pictures of the studio before. It was great. We were all like, "Wow this is the roof they all went on... Everything has that kind of feeling. You're playing the piano that 'Lady Madonna' was recorded with. You just can't explain it.
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