9 years and a day... [Posted by Frank]

"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....


...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"

Source: Frank's Blog

My Chemical Romance: 'Estamos escribiendo música nueva todos los días'

En una entrevista exclusiva con Gigwise, el líder de la banda de Gerard Way dijo que volverá al estudio a finales de este año para trabajar en la continuación de 'Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys.'

Cuando se le pregunto si pensaba tomarse un tiempo antes de grabar, Way respondió: "No, yo no creo que sea así. La cosa es que la banda estaba en un lugar muy insalubre cuando "Black Parade" terminó y ahora la banda está en un lugar tan sano que ya no hay más "Quiero escapar" o "Se trata de mí".

"Ahora es como esto es lo que hago y lo que quiero hacer por el resto de mi vida. Todo el mundo está tan feliz. "

Y agregó: "Por el momento estamos escribiendo música todos los días, era algo que no sucedía en "Black Parade".

Mikey acordó en que la banda esta en un buen lugar en el momento.

"Si alguien en la banda tiene un problema o si alguien tiene una idea para una canción ahora puede convertirse en una canción en cinco o diez minutos", dijo.

"Cosas como esas están sucediendo en el momento lo que es realmente emocionante ver en que se convierte para el próximo álbum."

Fuente: GIGWISE

Gerard and Mikey Way - Previous Interview @ Reading Festival 2011

Kerrang! Podcast: My Chemical Romance

My Chemical Romance Bring 'Danger Days' To Leeds Festival 2011

My Chemical Romance brought 'Danger Days' to Leeds festival as they closed the second night at Bramham park (August 27).

The New Jersey band, fronted Gerard Way, played a hit-packed set with tracks from from their latest album 'Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys'.

Opening their set with 'Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)'; followed by 'I'm Not Okay (I Promise)' 'Planetary (Go!)', My Chemical Romance seemed delighted to be back in front of the UK festival audience.

Speaking to Gigwise, earlier in the day, Gerard Way called the Reading and Leeds festival headline slots: ''the greatest of our lives''.

He added: It's great to be back now after what happened in 2006. We said we would never play again unless we were headlining in style. And it's so amazing''.

The band's stage set brought 'Danger Days' to life with fire displays and characters from the album theme.

Other tracks in the set included hits from their 2006 album 'The Black Parade'; 'Mama', 'Cancer' and 'Teenagers'.

My Chemical Romance came back on stage for encore 'Welcome To The Black Parade'.

Source: GIGWISE

Live @ Leeds Festival - Leeds, UK - 27/08 [Photos]

Source: Drowned in Sound 
              RockSound

Live @ Reading Festival - Reading, UK - 26/08 [Photos]

Source: Gigwise

My Chemical Romance se unió a Brian May de Queen en el Reading Festival

My Chemical Romance encabezo por primera vez el Reading Festival y se unió en el escenario con el guitarrista de Queen, Brian May.

 
May se unió a la banda en el inicio de su encore para tocar una versión de 'We Will Rock You' de Queen y luego se quedo para cerrar el set con 'Welcome To The Black Parade'.

 
Antes de la llegada del guitarrista, la banda habia tocado un grupo de canciones en gran medida de su cuarto álbum 'Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys'. Se produjo un show espectacular, con fuegos artificiales, rayos láser, una vídeo pared con multipantallas y confeti.

 
Way hizo alusión a los recientes disturbios en el Reino Unido durante el show. Dijo a la multitud:

"Se que algunas personas han hablado de los recientes acontecimientos de aquí, pero solo quiero decir esto. Es increíble estar aquí con gente que ama la música de una manera no violenta. Si estas enojado, no lances un golpe, no enciendas fuego sobre eso, no grites al respecto. Canta, es el arma mas poderosa que puedes tener."

Cuando tocaron en el festival en 2006 la banda fue víctima de botellazos de parte de la multitud. Pero este año, la respuesta fue bastante mas positiva, un miembro de la audiencia, Pete Smith, dijo: "Fue muy bueno, no esperaba tanto, pero me sorprendió lo buenos que estuvieron."

Otro miembro de la multitud, Andy Lilleshall, dijo: "Me sorprendió cuantas canciones de ellos sabia, fue muy bueno." Emma Grant también elogio al grupo y al invitado especial de la banda diciendo: "Me encanto y no puedo creer que he visto a uno de Queen en vivo, lo mejor de la noche."

My Chemical Romance tocó:
 
'Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)'
'I'm Not Okay (I Promise)'
'Planetary (Go!)'
'The Only Hope For Me Is You'
'DESTROYA'
'Mama'
'Sing'
'Vampire Money'
'The Kids From Yesterday'
'Famous Last Words'
'Teenagers'
'Dead!'
'S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W'
'Helena'
'We Will Rock You'
'Welcome To The Black Parade'

Fuente: NME Magazine

Live @ Reading Festival, Reading, UK - 26/08 [Videos]

Na Na Na



I'm Not OK



The Kids From Yesterday



S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W



Helena



Dead



Teenagers



Famous Last Words



Planetary(GO!)



The Only Hope For Me Is You



We Will Rock You / Welcome To The Black Parade Feat. Brian May (Queen)

MY CHEM HAVE IT ALL TO PROVE

ROCKERS My Chemical Romance have good reason to be chuffed at headlining the Reading and Leeds Festivals.

They want to wipe the memory of getting pelted with bottles of pee the last time they played.

The US stars were met with a hail of boos and bottles when they performed in 2006.

But they insist they will win over fans this weekend.

Speaking before their Reading slot tonight, singer Gerard Way, 34, told me: “We haven’t felt like we’ve had anything to prove in a long time, so maybe this is the right time to do that. We’re closing a festival where not everyone has approved of us in the past.”

He insisted “playing everyone’s favourite songs and putting on a show” will be enough of a way of closing the festival rather than trying to match the fireworks of fellow headliners Muse.

Gerard added: “We don’t grow up with these kind of festivals in the States so this amazing event that goes on for days where you discover amazing new bands all day and night long means a lot.”

Gerard said My Chem would not take as long between albums as they did in the four years between The Black Parade and Danger Days.

He promised: “We’ve got a lot of new songs already.

“When we finished Danger Days we were sad in a weird way because we felt like we were just getting started.”

And he revealed the album they scrapped before Danger Days was finished may get a release.

He said: “Those songs might yet see the light of day.”

Sounds good to me, sir.

Source: Dayly Star

Absolute Punk: Entrevista a Mikey Way [Traducción]

Alcance el Honda Civic Tour en Boston la otra noche. Gran Trabajo

Oh, genial. ¡Gracias! Ha sido muy divertido hasta ahora. Es decir, solo hemos estado durante un par de días, pero parece ser uno de nuestros tours favoritos. No quiero decirlo antes ni nada, pero parece que podría ser uno de nuestros tours favoritos.

Como ha sido la reacción hasta el momento?

Ha sido increíble! Hay una gran mezcla de personas en la multitud, y todo el mundo que está ahí quiere divertirse. Ese ha sido el ambiente en la multitud. La gente esta aceptando a todas las bandas en el show. he visto tocas a cada banda hasta ahora, y la audiencia es muy receptiva e impresionante.

Que se siente compartir el escenario con Blink 182?

Es muy, muy, muy grande. Son una banda que hemos respetado y hemos tenido una mutua adoración por mucho tiempo. En realidad, este es un tour del que habíamos hablado de hacer hace mucho tiempo. Solo que nunca se concretó, y ellos tomaron un pequeño descanso. Cuando volvían, Tom [DeLonge] fue a uno de nuestros shows y nos preguntó si nos gustaría hacer una gira juntos. Fue realmente emocionante. Pensamos que seria algo con lo que la gente se emocionaria. Nos juntamos, agarramos un montón de bandas que a ambos nos gusta y propusimos el plan. Empezamos hace cinco días, y todo va increíble.

Que hay de Manchester Orchesta, quienes abren para esta parte de la gira?

Son increíbles. Tienen una energía intensa en vivo. Son realmente buenos. Es algo que la gente no suele esperar en un tour como este, pero esta funcionando muy bien. Son algo interesante en este tour.

Se que solo han estado en gira por una semana, pero, tienes alguna historia hasta ahora? Debe ser emocionante estar en la carretera con Blink.

Si, son chicos geniales. Los hemos conocido por mucho tiempo. Estuvimos juntos en el Warped Tour en el 2005 con The Transplants y llegamos a conocer a Travis [Barker]. Angels and Airwaves, hicimos una tonelada de presentaciones con ellos y llegamos a conocer a Tom a traves de los años. Y Mark [Hoppus] lo conocí a traves de amigos mutuos. El ambiente es increíble. Es un grupo de amigos en gira. Todos perdemos el tiempo y salimos. Es como un tour de rock gigantesco y divertido. Es realmente genial.

Diseñaron una motocicleta para el tour. Puedes hablarnos un poco de eso?

Claro! Por lo general en el Civic Tour, las bandas diseñan un Civic. Queríamos hacer algo un poco diferente, porque Blink hizo un impresionante Civic y no queríamos estar como "Oh, tenemos que superar el Civic de ellos." Dijimos, "Hagamos una motocicleta. Eso podría ser genial." Lo bueno de esto es que el tipo de bicicleta se ajusta a la estética del álbum. En cierto modo nos recuerda una de nuestras películas favoritas, Akira; las motos que conducen ahí. Resulto perfecto. Mezclamos las imagenes de nuestro álbum con la moto y nos fue de maravilla.

Prefieres un tour grande como este o una lugar en la cabeza del cartel?

Es extraño. Como banda, simplemente nos gusta estar frente a tanta gente como sea posible. Creo que esas son situaciones en las que realmente brillas. Al comienzo del ciclo del disco hicimos algunos shows pequeños, y son los que habitualmente me ponen mas nervioso. Cuando tocas en un lugar mas grande, es mas fácil de olvidar que la gente te esta viendo porque están mas lejos. Es mas fácil desprenderse y sacarte el miedo en el escenario. Pero me encantan los tours como este. Todo es muy marcado y reglamentado. Todo funciona como un reloj, todo es atendido. Es muy divertido.

Aun sientes esos nervios antes del show?

Oh, absolutamente! Todas las noches. Nunca se van. Creo que es algo bueno, no creo que alguna vez se vayan. No estas en la profesión correcta si se van, supongo.

Danger Days recién salió el año pasado, pero han empezado a trabajar en material nuevo?

Si, lo hemos hecho. Casi que escribimos todos los días y no nos damos cuenta que lo estamos haciendo. A veces vamos a las pruebas de sonido y alguien tiene un riff y todos empezamos a tocar con el riff, o Gerard tiene una melodía vocal y todos empezamos a tocar al son de esa melodía. Hemos sacado un montón de cosas. No estamos seguros de donde terminaran las canciones o como serán, solo vamos a seguir escribiendo y escribiendo. Después de esta gira,vamos a sacar demos con bastante rapidez y llegar allí tan pronto como sea posible para hacer un nuevo álbum.

Como suena el nuevo material?
Lo extraño es, cada vez que tenemos un nuevo lote de canciones pop durante o después de un ciclo de grabacion, por lo general es alguna cosa que nos lleva al siguiente sonido. Cada vez que tratamos de adivinar donde vamos a estar o donde vamos a ir, por lo general nos equivocamos, pero siempre estamos gratamente sorprendidos de donde terminamos. Es difícil para nosotros adivinar como terminará sonando. En este momento, definitivamente es una mezcla de Danger Days y algunas cosas que hicimos antes.


Me parece bien. Hablando de aquellos días, este año se conmemora su 10mo aniversario como banda. Tienen planeado algo especial?

Si! De hecho, tenemos un montón de sorpresas. No puedo hablar mucho de eso, pero lo que si puedo decir es que vamos a estar tocando cerca del aniversario  algunas canciones que no hemos tocado durante mucho tiempo. Hemos estado practicando algunas de nuestras cosas viejas.

Revisa la entrevista original aquí: Absolute Punk

Absolute Punk: Mikey Way Interview

Interviewed by: Alex DiVincenzo

I caught the Honda Civic Tour in Boston the other night. Great job.

Oh, awesome. Thank you! It's been a lot of fun so far. I mean, we've only been out for a couple of days, but it seems to be one of our favorite tours. I don't want to jump the gun or anything, but it seems like it could be one of our favorite tours.

How has the reaction been so far?

It's been awesome! There's a great mix of people in the crowds, and everyone that's there wants to have fun. That's been the vibe in the crowd. People are really accepting of every band on the show. I've watch every band so far play, and the crowd is really receptive and awesome.

 

What's it like to share the stage with Blink 182?

It's really, really, really great. They're a band that we've respected and had a mutual adoration for for a long time. Actually, this is a tour we talked about doing a long time ago. It just never worked out, and then they went on a little bit of a break. When they were coming back, Tom [DeLonge] came out to one of our shows and asked us if we'd want to do a tour together. It was really exciting. We thought it would be something that people would be really excited about. We got together, we picked a bunch of bands that we both really like and we came up with production. We started about five days ago, and it's all going amazing.

How about Manchester Orchestra, who are opening for this leg of the tour?

They're amazing. They have an intense live energy. They're really good. It's something that people wouldn't usually expect on a tour like this, but it's working really well. They're turning a lot of heads on this tour.

I know you've only been out for about a week, but do you have any tour stories so far? It must be exciting being on the road with Blink.

Yeah, they're such great guys. We've known them for a long time. We toured Warped Tour in 2005 with The Transplants and we got to meet Travis [Barker]. Angels and Airwaves, we've done shows with them a ton and got to know Tom through the years. And Mark [Hoppus] I met through mutual friends. The vibe is just amazing. It's a bunch of friends on tour. Everybody goofs around and hangs out. It's like a giant, fun rock tour. It's really cool.

You designed a motorcycle for the tour. Could you tell us a bit about that?

Sure! Usually on the Civic Tour, the bands design a Civic. We wanted to do something a little different, because Blink did an awesome Civic and we didn't want to be like, "Oh, we've got to outdo their Civic." So we like, "Let's do a motorcycle. That could be cool." What's cool about it is the bike kind of fits the aesthetic of the album. It kind of reminded us of one of our favorite movies, Akira; the bikes that they ride in that. It turned out perfect. We mixed the visuals of our album with the bike, and it came out great.

Do you prefer a bigger tour like this or a headlining slot?

It's weird. As a band, we just really like to get in front of as many people as possible. I think those are situations where we really shine. At the beginning of the album cycle we did some underplays, and those usually make me more nervous. When you play a bigger place, it's easier to just forget people are watching you because they're farther away. It's easier to detach yourself from getting scared on stage. But I love tours like this. Everything gets really dialed in and regimented. Everything works like clockwork; everything is taken care of. It's a lot of fun.

So you still find yourself getting those pre-show jitters?

Oh, absolutely! Every night. It never goes away. I think that's a good thing; I don't think it's supposed to ever go away. You're not in the right profession if it goes away, I guess.

Danger Days just came out last year, but have you started working on any new material?

Yeah, we have actually. We kind of write every day and we don't even realize we're doing it. Sometimes we'll be at soundcheck and someone will have a riff and everyone starts playing off the riff, or Gerard [Way] has a vocal melody and everyone starts playing off the vocal melody. We've had tons of stuff come from that. We're not really sure where the songs are going to end up or what they're going to be yet, but we're just going to keep writing and writing. After this tour, we're going to pretty quickly continue demoing and then get in there as soon as possible to make a new album.

What's the new stuff sounding like?

The weird thing is, whenever we have a new batch of songs pop up during a record cycle or after a record cycle, it's usually some kind of kind of thing that gets us to the next sound. Any time we try to guess where we're going to be or where we're going to go, we're usually wrong but we're always very pleasantly surprised at where we ended up. It's hard for us to guess what it's going to end up sounding like. Right now, it's definitely a mix of Danger Days and some of the stuff we did back in the day.

Sounds good to me. Speaking of back in the day, this year marks the band's 10th anniversary. Do you have anything special planned?

Yeah! We actually have a bunch of surprises. I'm not able to talk about many of them, but what I can talk about is that we're going to be playing some songs closer to the anniversary that we haven't played in a very long time. We've been going through and practicing some of the older stuff.

On a related note, how do you come up with your setlists?

For the past couple of tours, Frank [Iero] has been doing it. Here's really good at it. Like backstage before the show, he comes up with a pre-show psych up mix. He's just really good at making mix CDs and mix tapes, and it lends itself to the setlist. He's been really good at making the setlist like a journey. You don't know what's gonna come next. It's kind of like something old, something new and something you didn't expect us to play.

Do you plan to continue your foray into graphic novels?

Yeah. Actually, me and G are working on something for DC [Comics] right now. It would have been out quite a time ago, but we had some stuff come up that we had to take care of so it got pushed back. We're in the thick of it now. We're planning and plotting and coming up with designs and sketches. There should be some kind of announcement very soon.

What are you plans for after the tour wraps up? I know you mentioned demoing...

Yeah, we're going to continue demoing. I can foresee us recording sooner than later and putting something out. We're in a real prolific spot creatively, and we want to harness it. We want to come out with something soon and not leave a giant gap between albums.

Do you have any closing remarks?

Thank you to your website for supporting us through the years. If anyone wants to come check out the Civic Tour, we're five days in and it's incredible. It feels like it's going to be one of the best tours we've ever been on.

Source: Absolute Punk

Set It Off cover My Chemical Romance

Cody Carson, frontman for Set It Off, has posted an acoustic cover video of My Chemical Romance's track, "Helena". Fans can check out the video below.

Live @ Riverbend Music Center - Cincinnati, OH, USA - 21/08 [Photos]

 

Source: Buzznet