Good times for My Chemical Romance

The once-emo band is happier than ever after CD release

By Alan Sculley

In a way, the huge achievement that was The Black Parade CD and tour almost caused the guys in My Chemical Romance to forget who they are as a band.

Released in 2006, The Black Parade CD itself was one of the most ambitious albums of recent vintage, a full-blown theatrical concept album that essentially centered around a journey through death as told from the perspective of a character called “the patient.” Despite that subject matter, it was a musically compelling and highly entertaining work.

The real topper, though, was the marathon tour, in which My Chemical Romance donned black outfits and essentially became the band The Black Parade. During that set, the group performed the album from front to back, before returning to the stage for a second set as My Chemical Romance and playing a selection of songs from earlier albums.

Having been immersed in such a lavish production for months on end, the group reacted sharply to The Black Parade by teaming up with super-producer Brendan O’Brien and recording a back-to-basics, non-thematic album that was essentially the polar opposite of The Black Parade.

It was only after finishing that CD that the guys in My Chemical Romance — singer Gerard Way, his brother, bassist Mikey Way, guitarists Ray Toro and Frank Iero, and recently departed drummer Bob Bryar — realized they had lost their way and began the process of rediscovering and reclaiming the group’s musical identity.

“I think we accomplished what we set out to do,” Mikey Way says of the disc produced by O’Brien (known for his work with Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam). “But there was nothing; there was no high arc to it. There were no, like, left turns where you saw a right turn ahead. There were no sudden drops or sudden spikes. It was very much a middle-of-the-road rock album, which isn’t like us. That’s not something that we would normally do.”

So the band shelved the O’Brien tracks, reunited with the producer of The Black Parade, Rob Cavallo, and returned to writing and recording new songs.

“We were about five songs in and we realized we were tracking a new album. We didn’t quite realize it at the time,” Mikey Way says. “We thought we were just making more songs for our [O’Brien-produced] album. But there was something in those songs that was so special and undeniable that we were like, this is the route we have to go.”

The CD that finally emerged from the second round of writing and recording — 2010’s Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys — sounds much more like a My Chemical Romance CD. Yet at the same time it’s something different for the band.

On the one hand, Danger Days once again has a story line — this time it’s a futuristic tale in which America is ruled by a devious corporation called Better Living Industries, and a group of rogue artists called the “Killjoys” come to the rescue to try to destroy Better Living Industries and save society. As one might expect, the CD has its share of elaborately produced songs with plenty of instrumental bells and whistles and undeniable melodic hooks.

But it is also an upbeat CD — a first for a band that previously had stuck to dark themes with plenty of emotional turmoil. This shift in mood reflects the improved outlook of the band.

“It’s a complete 180,” Mikey Way says. “There were a lot of growing pains that we probably went through in the time during The Black Parade. We were a relatively young band, and we saw a lot of crazy things that transpired. The band got extremely big and the workload was extremely big. But I think we’re all very comfortable in our own skin now. Yeah, everybody’s just really happy.”

Not surprisingly, the shows in support of Danger Days — both as headliners and now opening for Blink-182 — have a very different vibe from The Black Parade extravaganza.

“It’s kind of a less-is-more approach,” Mikey Way said, noting that the group has scaled back the stage set and pyrotechnics of The Black Parade concerts and ditched its black costumes. “We really wanted to give people the band. We wanted to showcase just the guys playing the instruments this time and show people, because some people haven’t gotten the chance to see a proper My Chemical Romance show. Maybe they only saw a ‘Black Parade’ show. It’s almost like a reboot of sorts.”

Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com

On the Bill

My Chemical Romance opens for Blink-182 at Comfort Dental Amphitheatre on Sunday, Sept. 4. Gates open at 5:30 p.m. Tickets start at $33.50.6350 Greenwood Plaza Blvd., Greenwood Village, 303-220-7000.

Photos from Vancouver 31.08.11

More photos: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.256824434348257.66726.140475849316450&type=1

Recent interview

New post by Gerard

Once more unto the breach, dear friends...

“Your past doesn’t matter- what happened five years ago doesn’t matter- the only thing that matters is your friends on stage- and what you do tonight. That will last forever.”

Reading and Leeds-

Frank said this seconds before we killed the house-lights on stage at Reading- in a group hug, and in near darkness. And not to misquote him but this is what I heard in my head- maybe he said it more poetically, but he has a talent for being direct- which is what I love about him.

And we were very direct.

Our past with the festival is often misconstrued, seen through the lens of “revisionist history” depending on who writes about it. “2006 was a triumph!”. “2006 was a bloodbath!”. It is surely sensational but to me it was simply boring to talk about- or was my boredom masking fear?

No matter what it was- it was the exact recipe for a life-or-death rock and roll show- and that happens to be our specialty.

You see, the thing about My Chemical Romance is that we never wanted to be cool. We never wanted anything dropped in our palms- we wanted to take it. We wanted to be US- and we wanted the same thing for the fans. And because of that- we faced adversity- and started to get really good at it.

So when we got the call to headline the festival it didn’t matter how afraid I was, how reserved, paranoid, nauseous- terrified. We had to do it- in fact we congratulated each other.

I got up there for one reason- US. Every member of the band, and every kid that believed- all of US. And I will never forget the smiles on all of our faces. That was my favorite part.

So I wanted to drop this note and thank every one of you in the crowd that made those nights spectacular. Also the crew, who works very hard, and Brian May, for giving us inspiration, courage, and honoring us by sharing the stage.

Reading and Leeds were the best shows of my life. Period.

Let’s do it again some time.

In other news and rumors:
It has come to my attention that certain things recently said have been misquoted-
Most specifically the bit about Danger Days not being our best work.

It was our best work, my favorite album we’ve done, and the one I’m most proud of.

It’s very easy to accidentally take bits from other interviews and make stories out of them. The bit I have read involves me talking about the “scrapped” or “lost” album- not Danger Days, and then talking about a “new” album.
It would be a discredit to every fan who showed their colors, fucked their hair up, embraced their artistic side, pointed their raygun squarely at the sun, and stood by the band to discount anything we put our name on and released. We gave this album our everything and so did the fans- we will never forget that. We’re also not done with it yet- and have some exciting news coming-

On a “new album”: I’ve actually been very careful/cagey about this subject. All I’ve admitted to was writing songs, because that’s what a band is supposed to do- write songs you want to play in front of people.
Do I think it’s going to be another 5 years before a new album? No. But I can’t say when it will come- we spent the last 3 years of our lives trying to do that and it wasn’t healthy. The band will do what it always does- search. Into the dark, with just the four of us, and come out with something we’ve discovered. A new art. A new perspective. A new sound.
But I really do appreciate the genuine excitement for whatever we do next- that means a lot. So just a bit of clarification then-
I feel a song coming on…

Xo
g

New post by Frank

9 years and a day...

hell (oh) friends,
It's been a little while...I'm having a good yet sappy night off in the land they call Vancouver and I'm feeling compelled to drop you all a public love note. Nine years ago tomorrow our band played its biggest show of our young yet saucy career. It was the proverbial "big break" moment that every kid in a band, in a movie, in a sitcom, in a real-ass life waits and drools for.

A band (Coheed and Cambria in our story) can't make it to the hugest most awesomest show (which will be played by The Allentown Fair , Allentown Pennsylvania 8/31/02, possible attendance approx 10k - 12k... feels like a million) opening up for a band you love, listen to, have every record by (in our story, Jimmy Eat World)....and goddamn it you and your best friends get a magical phone call asking you to fill in. The sky opens up, Angels start to sing, women swoon (just kidding there were absolutely no women) and somehow with little time to prepare you rent a van with no money and shitty credit, and show up to a dream sequence. Now for reality's sake i must say this wasn't "IT". There was a lot of hard work leading up to the 'dream show' opportunity, and god knows a ton more of hard work after it, but it was a glimpse. A little sliver of what could be...and sometimes that is all your lucky enough to get.
Anyway maybe I'm getting all 'emo' in my old age, or maybe i just spent an amazing weekend playing some of the biggest most memorable shows of my life, but for whatever reason these past few days I've been getting nostalgic and thinking back....

Read the rest of the entry

...back to the beginning sitting at my grandmother's kitchen table looking through my Dad and my Grandfather's date books, seeing all their gigs penciled in...
....back to when i was old enough to travel with my dad to his weekend gigs, helping out with load in and setting up his drums on stage. The feel of people's eyes staring at me, knowing i had no business being in that fucking bar. That smell of old cigarettes and stale beer that hung on the microphones and the foam in his cases.....from those early experiences i knew what i wanted to do....i day dreamt about being in a band and playing shows for a living nonstop.
....thinking back to when my dad first bought me a guitar, an off-white Fernandes Strat copy he got from the guitar player in his band. i learned 3 chords and then wrote a horrible little song with them...I played it and tortured my poor mom with it until my fingers bled. (yeah that's right, that fucking Bryan Adams song was real to me dammit!)
...back to peanut league baseball when a kid asked me what kind of music i liked. We both agreed that Nirvana was, and i quote, "the fucking coolest" and so my first band was started. But he played guitar, i had never been in a band before, and his hair was longer therefore i had to play the drums...at least until we found a replacement, i begrudgingly agreed. (we never found a drummer)...
....back to high school when i met a funny kid who wore a bow tie everyday. He had a car and would give me punk rock mixtapes. We became good friends and went to local shows together. We decided to start a band and played our first show together a month later at a dance i wasn't old enough to attend...(we covered a Nirvana song)...
....back to working part-time at a Pathmark in Belleville NJ, located conveniently in between the KFC and the 'rape tunnel'. i was payed a surely minimum wage and used every penny i saved to buy the 100 tickets my band needed to sell in order to play a battle of the bands. Top prize, opening slot on the NJ date of warped tour. We lost to a ska band who's singer was fucking one of the judges, later my girlfriend dumped me for our drummer....
....thinking back to meeting, getting to know, and eventually being lucky enough to call family some of the weirdest, kindest, most talented people i have ever encountered in my entire life....and finding out they wanted me to join their band and then months later jumping in a van together and learning everything i know about life and the world by their side....
I must say its been a strange ride so far. But y'know i think it maybe human nature to forget how good you have it while the going is good. But if you're really lucky (and i mean really reeeeeeeeally fucking lucky), every now and then life nudges you and reminds you of where you came from. I know what it's like to be young and have dreams...I've had my heart broken and cursed the heavens when things didn't go my way...but i also know what it's like to be lucky enough to have those same hopes and dreams full filled. I wouldn't be the person I am today without the good and the bad and I am thankful for every second of it. Tomorrow is an anniversary...and life was nice enough to remind me of it.
so thank you to all the people that were nice enough to help us out along the way. From my family and my friends who always listened to whatever shitty song i wrote and thought was the fucking greatest at the time... to everyone who at some point over the years took the time to watch me play, maybe bought a record i made, or just fucking got it .... I would like to say thank you, a million, trillion times, it truly means the world to me. xofrank

My Chemical Romance: 'We're Writing New Music Everyday'

In an exclusive interview with Gigwise, the band's frontman Gerard Way said they will return to the studio later this year to work on the follow-up to 2010's 'Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys'.

Asked whether he felt it would take a while to record, Way replied: “No I don’t think it will. The thing is that the band was in a really unhealthy place when ‘Black Parade’ ended and now the band is in such a healthy place that there’s no more ‘I want to run away’ or ‘It’s about me’.

“Now it’s like this is what I do and I want to do this for the rest of my life. Everybody’s so happy.”

He added: “We’re writing music every day at the moment, which was something that wasn’t happening on ‘Black Parade’.”

Link: http://www.gigwise.com/news/66315/My-Chemical-Romance-%27We%27re-Writing-New-Music-Everyday%27

Last Resort does Reading 2011