Fall Out Boy, Chicago’s pop/punk rock band spent its summer on the Vans Warped Tour thanks to its sophomore release “From Under the Cork Tree.” Bassist/singer Pete Wentz, who penned the first album “Take This to Your Grave” about a girlfriend who cheated on him twice in the same weekend, recently talked to the Weekender about MTV, MySpace and touring.

Weekender: Where are you now and what can you see?

Pete Wentz: I am in the back lounge of our tour bus at the Philadelphia Vans Warped Tour date and I can see that it’s really hot out and a bunch of stuff sitting on our table, which mostly includes empty water cans, a Polaroid camera, a couple DVD’s and a Ninja Turtle figure.

WE: Which figure?

PW: It’s one of the weird ones from the third movie. I think it’s Raphael because he’s in ancient Japanese armor or whatever.

WE: How’s the Vans Warped Tour going?

PW: It’s been very well. It’s kind of winding down and it’s a brutal tour because it’s hot and you really don’t get a lot of sleep. We’ve been really happy, having a lot of fun on it and it’s cool that we’ve graduated and been able to move on.

WE: You guys are going over to Europe in a few weeks, right?

PW: Actually, we’re not. We got an offer to play the MTV Video Music Awards so we’re going to do those and we pushed the European dates back to September.

WE: Speaking of MTV, what’s it like to be on TRL with the likes of Hilary Duff when you basically just blew up this year?

PW: It’s strange. Even before we got big, we would go out on tour before anybody knew us and play to one person or no people at all. So all the response we’ve gotten over the years has been kind of shocking and they each kind of plateau and [then] go to the next level. It’s bizarre to us because we don’t place ourselves in that category at all to be in a video countdown with Kelly Clarkson. It’s kind of weird really.

WE: Would you say MySpace helped with that?

PW: MySpace is basically a voice for people who don’t get a voice on radio and videos and pop culture, so it kind of speaks to these disenfranchised people. It’s an interactive community that facilitates bands that are downloaded in dorm rooms.

WE: What’s the Chicago music scene like for you?

PW: It’s awesome. We’re from the Chicago suburbs and we built ourselves up around a couple of other bands and some of those bands are starting to get national attention and notoriety and that’s exciting and I think they’ll be a magnifying glass on the punk rock and emo scene in Chicago over the next couple of years.

WE: Explain the process for picking song titles.

PW: The song titles are usually just working titles when we are recording them and are mainly inside jokes between the band. Most are phrases that only we would understand the true meaning of.

WE: Care to share a good, printable road story?

PW: A printable road story? No. They are all too dirty to be printed.

WE: Could you clean one up?

PW: It wouldn’t even be the same if I cleaned it up so I’m not even going to try.

WE: What advice would you give to college students?

PW: Always watch your drink, never schedule a class before noon and buy all your papers online.