Panic! at the Disco Talk "Jennifer's Body" Song, Plans for New LP

When Panic! at the Disco wrote "New Perspective," they had no idea it'd wind up on the soundtrack for the Diablo Cody-penned horror flick Jennifer's Body starring current RS cover girl Megan Fox. "I had this really lucid dream — it was so vivid I wanted to write it down before I forgot about it," lead singer Brendon Urie tells Rolling Stone. "I was never the best at explaining anything, so it wound up being random [lines] that ended up as the first verse." (Check out Urie playing the song in the clip above.)

America's Sexiest Bad Girl: Photos and behind-the-scenes video from Megan Fox's steamy RS cover shoot.

Urie and drummer Spencer Smith — the remains of Panic after the quartet split in two earlier this summer — hammered out the rest of the song in a few days at home in Las Vegas. Then Fox approached the band about being on the Jennifer's Body soundtrack and the band agreed — but with some hesitation: would their song actually work in the film?

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"They basically told us it's about a possessed girl that eats boys. We didn't know if the song was going to fit since it's so happy-sounding," Urie says. But after catching a screening, the duo was impressed at how well "New Perspective" fit. (Spoiler: the song plays during a scene where the male protagonist is getting ready to take his girlfriend to the prom.)

In addition to this tune, Urie and Smith have been prepping demos with hopes to record later this fall and have a new album out early next year. They've been talking to producer candidates, including the Bird and the Bee's Greg Kurstin, and they're also still working out the details of who will fill in on bass and guitar.

Rumors that Blink-182's Mark Hoppus will be producing some track may have been exaggerated — though the band is hopeful the collaboration will come to fruition once Blink's tour ends next month. Says Smith, "Mark brought it up on tour because he's been doing a lot of producing, but a lot of ideas end up like that, where you're like "oh, we'll start that tomorrow" and then tomorrow comes and you're hitting golf balls into a lake in Wisconsin. We've sent him some demos and we think he has a few favorites."

Smith describes the sound of their demos as fitting in somewhere in between Panic's prior releases: "We want to get back into some of the things from the first record — the theatrical stuff and electronic instruments we went away from on Pretty. Odd. — but we're still really into the late '60s-sounding stuff." Urie says one track in particular recalls a Frank Sinatra lounge vibe, and acknowledges they're embracing many different ideas. Jokes Smith, "Maybe we'll throw some Flo Rida in there!"

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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