It’s been a little while…
Brendon Urie (Vocals) “It has been, yes. It took Spencer [Smith, drums] and I a year to figure out what we were doing after the band split [guitarist Ryan Ross and bassist Jon Walker left in 2009 to form The Young Veins]. We were confused. But we eventually realised that this band was now just the two of us and that we needed to spearhead things from now on. So I took the initiative and started writing.”

How did you feel after the band split?
“I think the split was a few months in the making: we were getting very tired of being on tour, we weren’t seeing eye to eye musically and we weren’t agreeing on the direction we should go. We had been playing with each other everyday for four or five years and we needed a break. We still talk and we’re still friends, but I think the split needed to happen. It’s been a learning experience, but it’s worked out for the best.”

Ryan was the band’s main songwriter: Did his departure put you under pressure?
On the first record [2005’s A Fever You Cant Sweat Out], Ryan wrote all the lyrics and the band wrote the music together. On the second album Ryan wanted more say in how the song should go, so he and John wrote a few songs on their own. That was a bit hard and perhaps that was the point where we should have realised that we ought not to be writing with each other. So, yes, it was very different to go from being a lead singer who had other people’ ideas to work with to not having anyone to lean on.”

Did you cope?
“The pressure was always there. I wrote a lot of music early on, but we weren’t excited about it. It was tough. But I kept at it. A friend of ours told me that I would eventually get there if I just tried to write something each day, no matter what it was. So I did that and things started to come. Writing became a huge learning experience for me; I spent a lot of time alone thinking. It was like therapy time!”

What were you writing about?
“I realised that I’m still young and that I don’t have to act as though I’m 40. We were so young when we started the band. We felt we had to be this thing that everyone else wanted us to be. But that wasn’t the case. I wrote a lot about that realisation and the fact that I don’t have to care what other people thing of me. I wanted to drop my guard and put myself out there without being ashamed of myself.”

Is this album closer to the pop-punk of your debut of the beatles-esque whimsy of the second?
“It’s a marriage between the two. We wanted to represent where we are right now, we didn’t want to copy what we’ve done before. Spencer and I got into synths and we’ve been messing around with them. We’re working with [producer] John Feldmann and we’ve got loads of different instruments on the album, some mandolins and some strings. So we’re a bit all over the place.”

Are you worried that people may have forgotten about you?
“Yes, definitely. I think that everyday. I even though that when we brought out our second record. I think it might have alienated people.”