KANSAS CITY, Mo. (May 8, 2006 06:22 PM EDT) - Emo music probably isn't the first genre that come to mind when you think of wannabe moguls.

You think skinny boys. You think sad boys. You think skinny boys playing sad songs.

Fall Out Boy

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the emo-pop phenom of the moment (a bazillion records sold!) - has those things. But it also has a secret weapon of sorts: bassist Pete Wentz.

Wentz is the entrepreneur staring out from behind those saucer eyes lined with black. He doesn't just feign the stance of the shy and wounded artist other boys in his genre wear proudly.

Since Fall Out Boy's meteoric rise last year, Wentz has written a children's book and launched a fashion line and a record label. He's got a lot to sell, and as a self-proclaimed control freak, it's in his best interest to sell it his way.

If anyone's going to be emo's brand champion, Wentz is a great contender. He comes up with good sound bites for the media. He drops words like "merch" (for merchandise) easily. He's friendly and open to talk with and knows how to pose for the photographer. In the industry it's called savvy.

"Our band is definitely in the position where there's a lot of people who want to sponsor different things," Wentz says, sitting on a folding chair backstage before one of Fall Out Boy's arena tour dates. "Why do I need to have some corporation that I don't really believe in get behind me just because they could line our pockets, when we could be that corporation and we could have the ideals that we want?"

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THE JAY-Z OF EMO

Wentz is a totally unique figure at the moment in music, says Andy Greenwald, a music journalist who specializes in punk and emo and is the author of "Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock Teenagers and Emo."

"He's the public face and the business guy," Greenwald said. "It's rare to see someone in the punk world embrace it and take control of it himself."

So rare that Greenwald says Wentz has emerged as the first emo-pop rocker to go full-service media mogul, with his clothing line Clandestine Industries and record label Decaydance. It seems as though Wentz has taken his lessons at the knee of the master: his label president Jay-Z.

"My scope and my perspective is no way limited to a band," Wentz says. "I'm very interested in doing things that are really challenging. It's inspired originally by Jay-Z and then like old Def-Jam. They created this entire counterculture. You buy the record, then this comes along with it. You fell so in love with this idea that you ate, slept and breathed it."

Wentz understands the big picture and how to sell it, Greenwald said.

"He's branded himself," Greenwald said. "And not in a bad way; he's selling himself. He's creative in ways other than music, in art and fashion."

Clandestine Industries markets Wentz's clothing designs online and at shows. The fashion line's hoodies, T-shirts and accessories retail for $20 to $60, but regularly sell for more on eBay. Wentz said he was looking for a way to expand beyond the idea that a Fall Out Boy T-shirt had to be sold at a concert.

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SELLING 'TRAIN WRECK' FASHION

Wentz is no regular at the fashion shows in New York, although he does say he's a fan of Santino Rice on "Project Runway" and the Japanese line Bathing Ape. Wentz is more into lifestyle fashion. And the red carpets?

"The way when we walk down the red carpet, it's more like this train wreck coming down," he said. "We went down the Grammy red carpet and we went down the VMA red carpet and both times a homeless guy made a Clandestine jacket for me. I don't really think there's anybody else walking down the red carpet in something that some homeless man made probably."

But the band's punk-emo-prepster sartorial stance is marketable.

"They look good in it," says Sharon Haver, style director at focusonstyle.com. "He knew how to put it together and he owned that look. It's not that he sat down and paid someone thousands of dollars to design it for him. He came up with it on his own."

Wentz says his favorite piece from the line isn't out yet. It's a black-and-gold Kanye West hoodie with bats running up the sleeves. The best seller is a gray and purple hoodie. (There's that savvy again - Wentz wore it to the interview.) He only had 3,000 of them made. It's that exclusivity and the availability of the clothes and the books and the DVDs that make fans feel friendly with Fall Out Boy.

"More than any other band, Fall Out Boy understands what it means to be a fan of a band these days," Greenwald said. "When young people align themselves with a band they need more than just music. They're buying into a whole lifestyle."

But what about the music?

None of this sideline stuff would carry much weight if the music didn't hit the sweet spot in listeners. Fall Out Boy's calling card is a peppy brand of rock that rests on pop culture-crunching lyrics with a literary twist.

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Click here for Pete's assessment of the band's stand-out song titles: http://asap.ap.org/stories/568496.s

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asap Midwest writer Caryn Rousseau got to the interview early and saw Pete Wentz leaning against a backstage door, signing autographs and chatting with fans.

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