There’s no doubt about it says Pete Wentz.

The view from inside the music industry is “definitely” different then when he and his fellow bandmates in Fall Out Boy were on the outside looking in.

“As we’ve gotten to know it more, it’s been a blessing and a curse. We realize everything people say about the music industry is pretty much true, but at the same time you can use that to your advantage,” says the Chicago group’s co-founder, lyricist and bassist. “We don’t want to be part of the process. We want to be the whole process, not the hand on the clock. We want to be the clock.”

So far this rock’n’roll timepiece is running quite smoothly as the group continues to win friends and influence (high-profile) critics.

That kind of control is difficult to get, he acknowledges. “We always kicked and clawed for everything we’ve gotten. It makes it worth it once you get it. It makes it much more to your leverage,” Wentz says.

That’s thanks to a lot of kids buying the music, he says. “Once you build a following like that, you can call the head of Island/Def Jam at 1 a.m. It’s not just me on the phone. It’s 700,000 people on the phone and they answer those calls. They can’t afford not to.”

Fall Out Boy is shaping up to be one of the music stories of 2006, just as it was last year.

Rolling Stone hailed them as one of the 10 artists to watch in ‘05, even as they praised them as “the new kings of pop punk.”

The New York Daily News added: “This Boy is voted most likely to succeed.”

The Alternative Press crowned the guys as “Artist of the Year,” and Entertainment Weekly the “Breakout” band of the year. People magazine called them, “Breakthrough” band of the year by People.

The band’s Island CD debut, “From Under the Cork Tree,” released in May of ’05, surpassed gold by August as it moved into Billboard’s Top 20. The first single, “Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down,” was in the Top 10 on the Modern Rock charts by the middle of September. The video for the song received an MTV Video Award.

Now the album is platinum-plus and Fall Out Boy was nominated for the music industry’s highest honor, a Grammy for the “Best New Artist” Grammy.

Wentz admits all this attention is still “like shocking” to the group, which includes Patrick Stump (vocals and guitar), Joe Trohman (guitar) and Andy Hurley (drums).

They don’t necessarily see themselves as “cover kids,” he adds, as he ticks off some of the major music magazine covers they have graced.

By looking to the past of other bands who were in their position, he knows all too well how quickly the spotlight can move on to someone else. “I kind of think of other bands who have been in this spot and found themselves in quicksand,” he explains.

Fall Out Boy would like to be the band that makes it easier for other bands, he says, to “make things a little different and shed light on new ideas.” He is thinking now of rappers like Jay-Z and others who have accomplished that, while at the same time keeping in mind, “you’re always a train wreck from falling apart.”

The Internet has been a friend and part of the “cyber word of mouth” building process for Fall Out Boy, but Wentz says it was not a calculated “game plan.” In fact, he says, it was “unorganized and organic.” “It came from (being on) Pure Volume and our Web site and in college dorm rooms and upstairs bedrooms of a lot of disenfranchised kids who didn’t have a voice.” Those kids rallied around Fall Out Boy’s music as their voice.

The cable network Fuse also has been influential in calling attention to the group, with the show “Seventh Avenue Drop” airing the “Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down” video multiple times since its premiere in April. It also has been the most played video on Fuse.

Still more exposure came in other ways.

In addition to being a part of AOL Music's “Breaker” program, Fall Out Boy has received over one million audio and video streams on AOL, launched an AOL Sessions performance and by early September had the second most played song and video on the AOL Music Top 11 chart.

“Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down” also was one of the top tunes at iTunes, the number one most streamed song at Rhapsody, one of the premiere videos at Yahoo! Music, and a best selling Soundscan digital single. “From Under The Cork Tree” was also one of the top Soundscan digital albums.

Not too shabby for an “unorganized” effort by Fall Out Boy!

Wentz is still trying to figure out why it all resonates with people.

“I don’t know. I’m not really sure,” he says. “One of the things that doesn’t make any sense to me is when we were up for the VMA (Video Music Awards), there was no reason on the planet why we should win. There were at least two or three artists bigger than us with a bigger fan base. Our fans are just ravenous and want to be part of it. I can sit and say it’s because we don’t write fiction, that what we have going is sincerity. People are able to see the clockmaker inside the clock.”

He hopes that sincerity is the reason. “It’s like Bob Marley or Morrissey. They write and wrote intelligent pop music. It’s cool, but at the same time they are actually saying something.”

Fall Out Boy is a contingent with a deep respect for their fans. “As much as they are obsessed with me, I’m obsessed with them,” he says. “I like to know they are tucked away in their beds being sung to sleep by us (he laughs). The day it’s not like that anymore is the day we play a state fair or a funeral (he laughs again).”

The strength of the band comes from the fans, he believes. “Honestly, we are not that good of a band and honestly we are barely scraping by on a lot of things we do. But people take part and turn it into a thing that is larger than life. This thing that is so big and so amazing, I just feel happy to be part of it.”

So, what is this entity called Fall Out Boy all about?

Wentz: “The press tells you we are all about guys who don’t party, come from Middle America and have anxiety problems. What I would say is we are not a spectator sport for people wearing ties at a bar. We play because we believe in it.”

As for the group’s “sound,” he says, “I always considered us a soft core kind of hard core band that couldn’t cut it. On a spectrum from Green Day to Slipknot, we are a little closer to Green Day. It’s kind of a matter of perspective.”

Though they often are referred to as such, one thing Fall Out Boy is not, he insists, is “emo.” “I consider us a rock band. People always say, ‘pop, punk or emo.’ Emo is the dumbest thing ever. All music should be emotional. Artists spend a lot of time shaking off a tag.”

Artists don’t need to be compartmentalized, Wentz adds. “We don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it. Whatever category someone puts us in, we’ll do something to take us out of it.”

He senses that the public perception is “very polarized” about Fall Out Boy. “You love to hate us or hate to love us,” he says, laughing. “That’s very much how it goes right now and it’s awesome.”

Whether loved or hated, he wants to be a band that forces people to have emotions.

His candor includes assessing “From Under The Cork Tree,” the follow-up to their 2003 debut, “Take This To Your Grave,” on the Florida-based indie label Fueled By Ramen.

“I guess I’m supposed to say we achieved all our goals on this album, but the real answer is ‘no,’ ” Wentz says. “We tried to and we came pretty close. But, as it has been said, satisfaction, once you achieve it, is the death of desire.”

He is satisfied that the CD does represent growth. “Yes, absolutely,” he says. It was produced, recorded and mixed by Neal Avron, whose credits include the Wallflowers, New Found Glory and Everclear.

“Our approach to the creative process is very Rick Rubin-like. We don’t have a lot of technical capability. At the same time we know what we like and that’s how the songs are built,” he explains.

Fall Out Boy is not shy about employing humor in those songs, starting with some of the titles.

“There are artists who want to be seen in a certain light and always taken seriously. For other artists, they like the fart jokes. Fall Out Boy lies in the middle,” he explains. “No one has a patent on how to deal with it. Some artists paint themselves into a corner. But human beings aren’t like that.” There’s both seriousness and humor in real life, he reminds.

Wentz previously has said there is something really honorable about following your own path and not doing what is expected of you. “That definitely is something honorable and cool. At the same time writing something is, in a sense, impersonating someone else,” he says. “Whatever anyone is, they want to be something else. On my best day as a writer, I’m still a hack compared to people I look up to. I can’t assume I’m doing something new.”

He also is in awe of writers like Bob Dylan (“He can write the most universal thing”) and the late Johnny Cash (“He was one man, but everyman in his writing.”). “I want to be able to sum up everybody’s life in 34 lines. I’m a long way off.”

Wentz, who has self-published an illustrated book called “The Boy With the Thorn in His Side,” a fairy tale based on a recurring nightmare he had as a child, says he is drawn to “everything” for lyrical subject matter.

“Love is the easiest thing to write about. The first record was very reactionary. This record is a little more introspective, and kind of understanding that ‘you are part of this and you are one of the reasons this is happening,’ ” he says. “When we were kids, my friend and I sold books we wrote about robots in the neighborhood. Fall Out Boy is not far from that idea: going door to door and selling those ideas that you hope can reach people and touch people.”