Sound Check: Fall Out Boy feels rooted in perpetual change

if you go

The 98.7 Kringle Jingle featuring Fall Out Boy, Tori Kelly, Kygo and Nathan Sykes

Tuesday, Dec. 8. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

The Fillmore Detroit, 2115 Woodward Ave.

Tickets are $45-$65.

Call 313-961-5451 or visit thefillmoredetroit.com.

We can safely say that any fears about Fall Out Boys demise were greatly exaggerated.

It was back in the fall of 2009 that the Chicago-formed quartet announced an open-ended hiatus that many took as a de facto break-up. But it was actually a breaking, lasting less than three years, and since then the group has released two albums — 2013s Save Rock and Roll and this years American Beauty/American Psycho, both of which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 — and won a few prizes, including Favorite Alternative Band at this years American Music Awards.

So at the end of the day, much ado about nothing, right?

I think there was a honeymoon period after (Save Rock and Roll) for sure, but that goes away quickly, bassist Pete Wentz says by phone from Los Angeles, where he now resides. You quickly realize you do it because you love doing the thing, not just because its fun. I think we got some good perspective on being lucky enough to do this thing a second time around, and everybody kind of appreciates it.

Nearly 11 months after American Beautys… release Wentz says he and his bandmates are still pleased with the eclectic set, which is less guitar-oriented than most of its predecessors and filled with plenty of sonic curve balls — including The Munsters theme-sampling Uma Thurman and bits of Suzanne Vega`s Toms Diner in the hit Centuries.

This is a record that we made as an experiment, to see whether rock bands could make records the way rappers and DJs do, Wentz, 36, explains. We made this record on the road, basically. WE made it in hotel rooms, backstage at festivals. Its a travel record, and in that way its an experiment that we needed. People are onto the next thing so fast these days, we needed to see if we could do a record that reflected that, and I think we did.

Now Fall Out Boy is thinking about what its next thing will be. The group has covered quite a bit of stylistic ground on its two comeback albums, and Wentz says that thanks to that he and his mates feel like the doors wide open for anything at this point.

I think were an anything but return-to-our-roots kind of band, but that doesnt mean there wont be a return to form at some piont — Itll just be, like, a stranger version of it if we do, Wentz says. Weve always looked to bands like Metallica and the (Rolling) Stones as examples of, like, how to make a record and when you move on to the next thing you kind of leave that other thing behind.

As much as it keeps informing your new music, thats how you stick around, it seems to me. You dont want to repeat yourself. I used to think that was, like, a cliche, but now I get it.