Interviewer: Give them a warm welcome: My Chemical Romance!
[Audience cheers, band members enter the room]
Frank Iero: Thank you!
Interviewer: So I don’t know if
you heard me, but we got a section over there, who literally came in
from Ar–I thought it was Brazil–they came in from Argentina.
Argentinean audience members: Here!
Gerard: Oh, wow!
Ray: Hi, guys!
Gerard: Hi!
Frank: Right on! Thank you.
Gerard: We haven’t been there in a while.
Interviewer: Well, they’re coming to you now! So anyway, welcome to the- welcome to the Grammy Museum.
Gerard: Thank you for having us.
Ray: Thank you!
Interviewer: Tonight’s gonna be
fun, and we really appreciate you being here, and I thought, you know,
we’d play that video, which is a great video, agreed?
[Audience cheers]
Interviewer: And I just—, let’s just start off by talking about how much fun that was to do.
Frank: Oh, man… It was a lot of fun.
[Audience and band laugh]
Frank: Yeah, we got to… we got to
film it out in the desert with a bunch of friends, with rayguns and fast
cars. It wasn’t the hottest day of the year. It was the day after the hottest day of the year.
[Audience laughs]
Frank: That was pretty cool. Um… I mean, did you see it, right? That’s how much fun, like, how much fun you could probably imply it was from watching the video is how much fun it was, but like how much fun times ten.
Ray and Gerard: Yeah.
Frank: It was that cool.
Gerard: You kinda-… you know one
of the things about being in a rock band that that’s amazing is you get
to have these moments where… I call them like “Bowie moments” where you
just get to kind of-… Every fantasy you had as a kid, like kind of come
to life, like if you wanted to be in a rock band you have this big kind
of “Bowie moment” where you see what was in your head realized, and, you
know, for “…Black Parade” it was walking on the set of that video, that
Sam Bayer had created this world that I had in my head and walking on
in there was the first time I had ever felt that, and I kinda always
kinda use that moment as a benchmark when describing what it feels like
to see your art created in front of you.
But doing “Na Na…” was even better than that. Like that was stuff… and I guess its because that its not only stuff that was in my head for so long, and while we were making this record together, but its also something that I wasn’t sure was ever gonna come out. I mean that’s the thing about Danger Days that is really important and special about it to me is the fact that, you know, I don’t know that we knew for sure that it was ever going to come out, or we’d ever finish, or if we‘d hit that next level, so… You know…
But doing “Na Na…” was even better than that. Like that was stuff… and I guess its because that its not only stuff that was in my head for so long, and while we were making this record together, but its also something that I wasn’t sure was ever gonna come out. I mean that’s the thing about Danger Days that is really important and special about it to me is the fact that, you know, I don’t know that we knew for sure that it was ever going to come out, or we’d ever finish, or if we‘d hit that next level, so… You know…
Interviewer: Why do you say that? What was… why was there doubt?
Frank: It kind of felt like, at
times when we were making that, like, you know when the Goonies come
into the ship, and they find like One-Eyed Willie and he’s just dead
there?
[Audience laugh]
Frank: It’s like… it kind of felt
like we were gonna, one day down the line walk into the studio and be
like “Whoa! They were trying to make this awesome record, look at all
this shit we found!” [All laugh] “Too bad they didn’t make it out!” You know what I mean?
Gerard: That’s the best way that
I’ve ever heard it described. I think that’s what we’re gonna use in
interviews from now on, that’s actually what it felt like!
Frank: Said first at the Grammies.
[Crowd laugh]
Interview: Well, lets talk about
the new record, and talk about it that, in a way that kind of describes
how that record was perhaps a little bit more different, a little bit
more… progressive, maybe? Or whatever you want to call it, from the
other 3.
Gerard: Yeah, well you know one of
the things to bring up first, maybe is that, I guess now from doing
interviews and all this stuff, like really realizing what Black Parade meant to a lot of people…
I think as a band we were touring so much we had no idea. Like, we knew that we were playing arenas, but it was quite a blur, and two-and-a-half years later you just had bunch of guys that were really fried.
And so I… its literally now, doing interviews or meeting people that were maybe, you know, little kids when Black Parade came out and talking to them about how much this record means to them, I realized that the record actually is important to people, and that was a really nice thing to hear.
But, there was such a creative burn-out after it, that it was hard to figure out what was going to come next, you know? And, you know, by the nature of this band it, whatever we do always has to be so different. It’s hard to find that after a while, and I think Black Parade was like this moment for us where we really honed everything we’d learned and we discovered that now we had to kind of reboot the band, we had to start over. And that’s why it was so hard to make it, and maybe why it sounds so different.
I think as a band we were touring so much we had no idea. Like, we knew that we were playing arenas, but it was quite a blur, and two-and-a-half years later you just had bunch of guys that were really fried.
And so I… its literally now, doing interviews or meeting people that were maybe, you know, little kids when Black Parade came out and talking to them about how much this record means to them, I realized that the record actually is important to people, and that was a really nice thing to hear.
But, there was such a creative burn-out after it, that it was hard to figure out what was going to come next, you know? And, you know, by the nature of this band it, whatever we do always has to be so different. It’s hard to find that after a while, and I think Black Parade was like this moment for us where we really honed everything we’d learned and we discovered that now we had to kind of reboot the band, we had to start over. And that’s why it was so hard to make it, and maybe why it sounds so different.
Frank: Yeah… you know, a lot of people ask if, “Is Danger Days… the reaction to The Black Parade?” And I think I’ve come to realize is the reaction to The Black Parade
was us taking time off… Like, you know? Like, that was: “All right,
we-, we’ve done this and now our reaction to it is to exhale a little
bit and to live our lives.” And then the reaction to the time off was Danger Days,
basically, you know. So… you have this band, you know, kind of trying
to re-imagine what it is to be in this band, what it is to be a rock
band. And we went through a lot of growing and, I think,
self-realization, like, in the making of the record. And it was fun to
experiment, and when you hear the final product of Danger Days… you’re hearing a band that’s just having a good time, being creative again.
Interviewer: Mm hmm… and Mikey?
Mikey: Yeah, I mean there’s things on Danger Days
that we’ve been dying to do since the beginning of the band. You know,
songs like “Planetary…,” and songs like “SING,” and songs like
“S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W.” It’s… they were all like, you know, pipe dreams to
us and we didn’t think that they were technically, you know, My Chemical
Romance songs, and, you know, through making the record, I think we
realized that, you know, we kinda get to dictate, you know. That’s the
fun part; we get to dictate what a My Chemical Romance song is.
Interviewer: Mm hmm… You know, you say, Gerard that you were, you know, you were burnt out.
Gerard: Mm…
Interviewer: You and the band had been going pretty intense, from… you know, for 5 or 6 years…
Gerard: Right.
Interview: …Pretty hardcore. The
last date of that tour, and then it stops, and then you realize there’s
nothing planned, there’s nothing going on. When you, when you actually
take the time off, you’re an artistic, you’re all artistic guys, and I
always consider when you’re that intensely artistic as you are in
particular, and the band as a whole, that you-… There’s almost a daily
need to create.
Gerard: Yeah.
Interviewer: How do you fill that then?
Gerard: You know, I started – it’s actually funny because that need came much earlier than the end of the tour actually.
Interviewer: Really?
Gerard: Yeah, because, you know,
and that’s one of the things that I’m kind of experiencing now to some
extent, is that you create this thing, you spend a lot of time on it,
you do all this art, and then you put it out, and then you just tour. So
every day isn’t kind of like making a new painting. And so I found
other ways to kind of fill that up by-… On the road like by writing
comics, or doing-
Interviewer: Right, so you’re doing the comics, Mikey, what are you doing?
Mikey: I started… I was doing some comics too, we’re actually [gestures to Gerard],
we have something that we’re working on together right now. I’ve been… I
usually like read a lot, um… yeah, uh, painting, I do some painting
too.
Ray: Yeah, I mean… for me, I was like trying – it was weird, I was trying when, after Black Parade was done, I was like trying
to write songs, or just like little pieces, bits and things here and
there. I just felt really weird, to not, you know, to not be doing it
with the rest of the guys. It was all, you know, I would like, say,
write a verse or a chorus, or just parts of a song, and I’m like “Oh,
this just doesn’t… it feels, it doesn’t feel right,” and just would
shelve it, that was kind of what was going on. There was definitely
after that time off from after Black Parade, there was the want to create… I don’t know, it just took a little while to get us there I think.
Interviewer: Well, you, did you
guys keep in touch, was it something where you hanging together, or, you
were, you know, you all had girlfriends and now wives, and you’re
thinking about other things… What’s your daily days like? You sleep in
until 1 or 2 in the afternoon, or…
Gerard: Not anymore!
Mikey: Not for a little while.
Frank: Yeah, just slept for like a month at a time… Yeah, lot of sleep.
Gerard: We did call each other
pretty quickly after the tour stopped. Um… but then almost, it almost
felt like we kind of didn’t know what to do with ourselves.
Frank: Yeah.
Gerard: But we knew we were supposed to take time off…
Ray: Yeah.
Gerard: …but we didn’t-… I had
these moments where I’d feel like “Oh, I wanna make an album right now!”
And it was like 3 months after we stopped touring, like, stuff like
that would happen, you’d get these… but you just didn’t know how to kind
of face it again, it was really strange.
Ray: It felt like you were like prescribed time off or something.
Gerard: Yeah!
Ray: It’d feel like you have to take so-and-so many months off before you can start again, or-
Frank: Like The Rogue Detective.
Ray: Yeah!
[All laugh]
Interviewer: So, after the time
off was occurring, at what point do you realize, “Okay, now it’s time to
get back on the road, its time to back in the recording studio”? Is
there, is there an epiphany that any of you have, says its time, or do
you simply evolve into it?
Gerard: Well, I think with this
record and I think it’s a lot of why the first attempt got scrapped, all
it was was this feeling of “You must do an album because you have to
because, like, if you don’t what’s gonna happen to the band, and, you
know, what’s gonna happen to you guys, and…”
Interviewer: Well, you took four years off…
Gerard: Well…
Frank: That’s not true.
Gerard: Yeah, yeah, it was…
Interviewer: Well, people really-
Gerard: Oh, yeah…
Interviewer: -you were out of the public eye…
Gerard: …from record to record,
yeah, I mean, it was, I would say public eye-wise though, even two,
2-and-a-half years in, we’d get to the point where we’d be in like a
Barnes and Noble, and still see a photo on a magazine.
Interviewer: Yeah…
Gerard: To the point where we were
like, even I was like “Oh my god, like, this is crazy,” you know? But
yeah, in terms of just like a completely casual music listener, yeah, a
4-year kinda gap. But it definitely felt more like “I have to do it,”
like it almost felt like ‘Well it must be time…”
Interviewer: Yeah
Gerard: “‘cause it’s been enough time, we’ve had enough time off, but…”
Frank: I think doing the
“Watchmen” soundtrack too, like that was like the opportunity to get us
into the studio to do something that we had wanted to do ever since we
were kids, like be a part of that movie. And then, like that felt really
good, to just be in the studio and just play really loud.
And I think if we had got, like, if we had gotten into the studio to actually write a record that week, or we had stayed in that studio, we could have came out with a record, you know. I don’t know how good it would’ve been, but like we could’ve come out with a record.
But I think, you know, we had to take the time to kinda get the studios lined up and it was like “Yeah, alright, yeah, its time, like we feel like playing together again,” but I don’t think we-… we were inspired to write a record, you know. Um, we just thought, you know, “We want to get together again.”
And I think if we had got, like, if we had gotten into the studio to actually write a record that week, or we had stayed in that studio, we could have came out with a record, you know. I don’t know how good it would’ve been, but like we could’ve come out with a record.
But I think, you know, we had to take the time to kinda get the studios lined up and it was like “Yeah, alright, yeah, its time, like we feel like playing together again,” but I don’t think we-… we were inspired to write a record, you know. Um, we just thought, you know, “We want to get together again.”
Interviewer: So how does the Dylan cover come… Where does the idea come to do “Desolation Row”?
Frank: That was actually from Zack Snyder-
Gerard: Yeah, the director, yeah.
He, he’d wanted to bookend the film with, with Dylan songs, but he says
“I wanna do…” ‘cause the whole soundtrack is all these classic songs so
he says “At the end I wanna, you know, do this thing at the end though,
that, that has a modern band doing a take on, on one of these songs,”
so…
Interviewer: Did you guys know this song?
Gerard: Yeah, absolutely, yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
Frank: I mean, when he brought it up we were like “That’s a long song.”
Gerard: Yeah!
[All laugh]
Interviewer: That’s right, there’s a lot of lyrics in it, yeah.
Frank: But he was cool, he was
like “Yeah, you know, do what you wanna do with it,” and so we took a
little bit of, you know, artistic freedom with it. But it, you know,
it’s still fun to play live, its one of those songs that just… it rips.
Interviewer: Is it in the live show?
Frank: It has been, yeah.
Gerard: Yeah, we’ve been playing it.
Interviewer: Well, let’s reverse a
little bit, and go back in time. Lets go back because again this is for
the archives; so, I wanna talk about the roots, and talk about growing
up in New Jersey, and what, what that was like, and eventually we’ll get
to 2001.
But, what’s it like in, in your household, each of
you, what are your earliest musical roots, and how do you basically get
into music to say “Ooh, this is something I wanna do”? [Gestures to Ray]
Ray: Well um-
Interviewer: Go right down the line.
Ray: Yeah, I mean for, for me it
was my, my older brother Louis, he played guitar. We all, all of us
shared – me, I have two older brothers – we all shared a bedroom,
probably about the size of these two carpets put together.
[Crowd laughs]
Ray: So you know, we’re all very
close to each other, and my oldest brother, you know, he was out of high
school and, you know, working at the local ShopRite, and got enough
money together to buy like a small amp and buy his first guitar, and so
he would, you know, spend all hours playing guitar.
And I shared a room with him, and you know I just looked up to him so much. You know, and then as I got older, around like junior high, I guess around like 15 or 16, I, you know, some friends that I met, you know, were interested in like, you know like Metallica, Pantera, Anthrax, Overkill, you know kinda like metal bands, and, you know, I talked to my brother, and he was like, he had a whole stack of guitar magazines and handed me them and handed me his guitar and, you know, basically showed me how to play in that sense. He just gave me the, he gave me the keys, and you know, um… He’s been, he always been like a great influence, he’s got such a good heart. He’s like my music hero, you know.
And I shared a room with him, and you know I just looked up to him so much. You know, and then as I got older, around like junior high, I guess around like 15 or 16, I, you know, some friends that I met, you know, were interested in like, you know like Metallica, Pantera, Anthrax, Overkill, you know kinda like metal bands, and, you know, I talked to my brother, and he was like, he had a whole stack of guitar magazines and handed me them and handed me his guitar and, you know, basically showed me how to play in that sense. He just gave me the, he gave me the keys, and you know, um… He’s been, he always been like a great influence, he’s got such a good heart. He’s like my music hero, you know.
Interviewer: Mikey?
Mikey: Yeah, me and Gerard were,
we shared a bedroom growing up, so we kinda had the same musical
interests, you know, we were all, you know, we were in the same
microcosm. We really liked like Queen and Michael Jackson, and Prince
and Bruce Springsteen, and then you know as we got older, we went into
the, like The Misfits and Metallica and Danzig and The Smiths, you know,
and it kind of evolved from there.
Frank: I didn’t share a bedroom with anybody.
[Crowd laughs]
Frank: But my dad and my
grandfather are both drummers. So, they would play all the time, they
played, you know, at every weekend and, every time we’d all get together
or whatever they’d talk about gigs that they were playing, or…
Interviewer: So they were working drummers?
Frank: Oh yeah, yeah. They were
working musicians, like all the time. And I would go see them play every
weekend. So, that was a dream of mine, to play shows and you know, have
a date book, that they would always talk about like “Oh, I can’t make
it this day ‘cause I have this gig” and…
[Crowd laughs]
Frank: Like, that was so cool to
me. So, I don’t know if I ever really wanted to play music, I just
wanted a date book I think. But my dad really wanted me to play an
instrument, they started me out on drums. I wanted to kinda be able to
write songs, so I think I leaned towards other things. At some point I
got a saxophone. I don’t know what happened there…
[Crowd laughs]
Frank: I didn’t really like that,
and then he got me a guitar, so like, I really like guitars, and I
started my first band when I was 11, and ever since just wanted to be in
a band.
Interviewer: Wow, yeah.
Frank: I also like Michael Jackson. He’s cool.
[Crowd laughs]
Gerard: Yeah, um, let’s see, well…
I remember really early memories of being in the car with my dad and
he’d have like these 8-tracks, and like one of them was Queen, and I
remember being in the car—me and Mikey—my mom would take us to the
supermarket, and always, she only had pop radio on, they had a very
small collection of records. So it was mostly just pop, or just old
stuff that was pop anyway. So first, you know, experiences was with pop,
and-…
Me and Mikey’s grandma was musical, she had a piano, and she basically… you know, we had no interest in really learning how to play piano, but she taught me how to sing, and she very- she was always pushing us to… to create art.
But music had always seemed like this thing that was unattainable… and it like kinda my secret desire to be a musician even though like it seemed like nobody does that, like nobody, you know in the household it wasn’t like this thing that people could do, you know. And when I discovered punk and rock and roll that was like, it kinda made it even worse, that it was… So, I was obviously very drawn to that, like, to find something that… you could… like finding, I mean, like the Misfits, it was very pop but could aggressively express themselves, you know, and it irritated people, and that was fun too, you know…
Me and Mikey’s grandma was musical, she had a piano, and she basically… you know, we had no interest in really learning how to play piano, but she taught me how to sing, and she very- she was always pushing us to… to create art.
But music had always seemed like this thing that was unattainable… and it like kinda my secret desire to be a musician even though like it seemed like nobody does that, like nobody, you know in the household it wasn’t like this thing that people could do, you know. And when I discovered punk and rock and roll that was like, it kinda made it even worse, that it was… So, I was obviously very drawn to that, like, to find something that… you could… like finding, I mean, like the Misfits, it was very pop but could aggressively express themselves, you know, and it irritated people, and that was fun too, you know…
[Crowd laughs]
Gerard: I was always drawn to stuff like that.
Interviewer: Growing up in New
Jersey, you mentioned Bruce Springsteen, you know he’s… You guys are
from New Jersey, I’m from New Jersey; we know that that… he carries a
special cachet in New Jersey, almost saint-like.
Band: [general sounds of agreements]
Interview: And, you know, you guys
probably can’t be not influenced by him in some way, but then I’m sure
there’s a certain time where you have to break from it, and you all
obviously do. At what point do you become sophisticated enough –you keep
mentioning some of the names that you’re starting to deal with Smiths,
you’re dealing with Bowie, et cetera. Is this happening in high school,
where your musical sophistication is growing…?
Gerard: Middle school.
Interviewer: Middle school so it’s something…
Gerard: And I had, its ‘cause I had a cool friend. That’s really-
[Crowd laughs]
Gerard: Its always that cool friend, or like that older friend, but like, this dude named Dan [Depasc?],
he was my age and he was, he was watching specials on channel 13 about
Sonic Youth, like in middle school, he was bringing me like records like
Daydream Nation, and we’d go to Pier Platters and Hoboken together and buy really
weird records, so, almost already bypassing like, like, even modern
rock and like any even like cool punk, this was like even weirder stuff,
like Sonic Youth were super weird.
Interviewer: And that’s pretty sophisticated music.
Gerard: Yeah, and in middle school? So yeah, I had a cool friend.
[Crowd laughs]
Interviewer: Where do you grow- what towns are you guys from?
Frank: Belleville.
Mikey and Gerard: Belleville.
Frank: Belleville and Kearny.
Ray: Yeah I’m from Kearny.
Interviewer: Kearny and Belleville, so all around the Newark area.
Band: Yeah.
Interviewer: So, when you
mentioned Hoboken, which is, what, 5 or 6 miles due east close to New
York City, there’s a great club where I know you guys played, Maxwell’s,
right?
Band: [general sounds of agreement]
Interviewer: So, you go from
playing—at some point these small clubs—and then all of a sudden you
into arenas, but there’s some stories that we wanna tell before that,
and one of them is, being from New Jersey, September 11, 2001. A
monumental time for America, for everybody on the planet was touched by
that. But people in Jersey who actually could see the smoke and what
actually was happening, and you guys from Belleville and Newark, I don’t
know if you could, but certainly on the shore we could see what was
going on there. Describe that and how that impacts the band, if you
will.
Frank: That was, that was a
surreal day. Um, I remember waking up and, you know, turning on the T.V.
and seeing that the first plane had already hit and being like “Oh man,
this is… what a weird, you know…”
Ray: Accident…
Frank: Yeah, “what a weird
accident,” yeah. And then, you know, you’re watching and then all of a
sudden you see the second plane hit. And I remember like it was like a
movie, like seeing it on TV and then running outside and looking to see
the skyline and just seeing all this smoke, and it was just like… You
felt like you’re in that “Independence Day” movie or something, like
under attack, and… it was horrible. I mean, I remember my mum just
crying, and not understanding really like… “I don’t understand what’s
happening right now.” You just felt helpless.
Gerard: Yeah it affected the band
in a giant way. I mean, you know… I just remember I was in Hoboken and I
was on my way into the city, and a lot of people that are fans of the
band know this story, but I remember kind of—… it was like watching a
horror movie, and I remember really… I didn’t understand at the time,
but what I ended up processing in my head was “This isn’t a game,” like
“Life isn’t a game, this isn’t something you can just waste.”
Like, I was doing some thing, like really irrelevant at the time, you know, that I feel was important, and I remember just thinking that to myself that “This is not a waste, I can’t waste this.” It was literally like two weeks later when we had our first rehearsal, you know. And I think – I mean obviously there’s a lot of, you know, by-products of 9/11– I think we’re interesting because we’re one of the most direct byproducts of an incident happening. You know, like so instantly in 2 weeks we’re a ba- kinda started the band? In a weird way.
Like, I was doing some thing, like really irrelevant at the time, you know, that I feel was important, and I remember just thinking that to myself that “This is not a waste, I can’t waste this.” It was literally like two weeks later when we had our first rehearsal, you know. And I think – I mean obviously there’s a lot of, you know, by-products of 9/11– I think we’re interesting because we’re one of the most direct byproducts of an incident happening. You know, like so instantly in 2 weeks we’re a ba- kinda started the band? In a weird way.
Interviewer: What are the first rehearsals like? Anybody remember them?
Gerard: I remember them really
vividly, there was like, it was me, and Otter, at first, and we’d gotten
together and we’d rented rooms, ‘cause it like we’d get money together.
And I’d play guitar and I would sing and he’d play the drums and that’s
all it was; it was just us. And then I remember that the stuff I was
trying to sing was so complicated that I couldn’t – ‘cause I’m not a
good guitar player – so I couldn’t do it, you know. I realized that I
wanted something more than 3-chord punk or somebody was just singing
over it, I didn’t want that sound. So I, you know, I remember seeing Ray
in a band that played locally called the Rodneys and I remember feeling
like when I saw him play I felt like, “wow, this is like the best
guitar player I’ve ever seen.” So, I called him up and he was doing
something totally different with his life at the time, you were like a
drummer.
Ray: Yeah I think I was playing
drums in a, you know, just like a local band with some friends, yeah and
you know he had given me a call, I was… you know, we had met I think
through a friend of ours, mutual friend [Shaun?] Dylan that he
had gone to art school with, and I knew Mikey, and… Yeah he just gave me
the call and you know said that they were working on some, some… a new
band some songs and would you wanna come over and you know just hang out
and play, really.
Gerard: and I remember I had like a
good feeling about it? I had like this weird feeling - I think like I
even said that, I remember even saying that on the phone to him, like, [makes phone sign with hand] “I think I have a good feeling about this.”
Ray: I definitely remember you, you… yeah, he was right obviously, right?
[Crowd laugh]
Ray: Yeah, whenever Gerard says he’s got a good feeling, go with it.
Um, No, I definitely remember in, I think that’s something for all of us, I think it definitely felt like we were fulfilling some kind of destiny, or like, you know, doing what we were really meant to do, you know?
Um, No, I definitely remember in, I think that’s something for all of us, I think it definitely felt like we were fulfilling some kind of destiny, or like, you know, doing what we were really meant to do, you know?
Frank: When you, when you picked up the guitar for the first time did like air, like wind blow and you get lit up. [makes gesture like an angel with a harp]
Ray: Yeah there was a light from the heavens, come on.
Gerard: It felt like that when we
played our first almost full band before, this was before Frank was in
the band, when we played our first actual rehearsal with Mikey playing
bass, it kinda felt like that.
[Frank makes like a ‘whatever’ hand gesture, crowd laughs]
Ray: Well it felt really special,
and we had all… You know, we had all played, you know, Gerard and Mikey
had played in bands together, I’d played, but… It never felt like that,
there was something really special about just the music, and you know
with his voice combined with everything, and yeah, you knew you were
playing-
Mikey: Magical.
Ray: Yeah, you knew you were party of something different.
Frank: But then a couple of months later it felt real good.
Ray: It got even better!
[All laugh]
Ray: It really felt complete.
Interviewer: So, the band starts to play around-…
Gerard: Yeah.
Interviewer: You’re playing ‘Jersey, you’re playing New York…
Frank: First show was in Hamilton, New Jersey. Down in Trenton.
Interviewer: By Trenton? Sure. What was that like?
Frank: Awesome.
Gerard: It was [inaudible], right?
Frank: Yeah.
Gerard: The same thing?
Interviewer: Are you playing original stuff, or… what are you playing, are you playing original stuff?
Gerard: Original stuff. We only had like 4 songs. Frank got us the gig. Frank’s band was headlining the show, and-
Frank: I did the merch for them when they played…
Gerard: He did merch, and he watched our first show.
Frank: It was awesome, it was really good.
Gerard: He was, he was definitely,
like, the first person to be into us and really believe- and always
play-… In the Pencey Prep band, he was always playing our demo. So he
was the first person that really appreciated what we did, you know. So
when we needed somebody else it was natural that like we turned to the
only person we felt really got us, you know?
Frank: That’s funny, ‘cause like when all you guys say “Oh, I’m your biggest fan,” that’s not true.
[Crowd laugh]
Frank: I was actually first, so…
[Crowd applause]
Frank: I know you’re full of shit when you say it.
Ray: Yeah, I mean it definitely…
it has to be known like how… you know before you joined the band how
integral you were to getting the band going I mean…
Frank: [inaudible]
Ray: Yeah, you know, keep going, keep… no, it’s totally true! This guy, he didn’t even really know us, but he just loved-
Gerard: He didn’t know us at all!
Ray: He liked the music so much he
was just like “Hey, you gotta join us, come in our practice space, use
our rehearsal room” and… I mean, it was inspiring to watch you know
Pencey Prep and just kinda their work ethic and how much they practiced,
and-
Gerard: Yeah, they had their stuff together man, they were always practicing!
Ray: And they cared about-… They had their shit together.
Gerard: They rehearsed like 6 hours at a time.
Mikey: That’s kinda where we learned our work ethic.
Gerard: We would be tired after one run-through.
[Crowd laugh]
Ray: Yeah, “We gotta keep going, Frank’s watching!”
[All laugh]
Ray: “Play that one more song!”
Interviewer: So, Frank, what do
you bring to the band? Other than this great sense of discipline and
this ability to practice for hours on end?
Frank: Yeah, I’m like the Splinter for the band. I’m basically, I’m the Mr. Miyagi.
[Crowd laugh]
Frank: Um… I don’t know… what do I bring to the band? I guess, um…
Gerard: I felt… well I remember
first seeing–… so this is before, you know, this is when I first saw
Pencey Prep – and it was in this bar, and there was something like… I
think there was like 3 people there, me, Mikey and Alex from Eyeball
were like the 4th or something… There was like nobody there, but I
remember watching and basically Pencey Prep played this show like it was
full of people. And I remember just feeling like “Wow, this dude is,
you know, a great singer, he’s a great guitar player, but he’s a born
performer.” Like, this is somebody that is totally meant to be on stage
and in front of people, like thrashing around. And it was always
something that we felt like we were missing, like we were missing this,
you know… Like, everybody brings their own kind of heart to the band,
and he brought this kind of reckless kinda passion that I think really
expressed our music. Like he was almost kind of like this physical
whirling blender, like flipping and destroying everything around the
stage that was kind of an extension of exactly what we were trying to
do, you know? So, that, and he’s a great guitar player.
Interviewer: And then the process of writing songs and the creative process: Early on how does it work?
Gerard: Early on it was, it was
like somebody had something – start working on it. And it was this
collaborative thing where everybody’s just kinda spitting out ideas,
really free-form back then. Really like, you know, I was still trying to
figure out how to sing and all this stuff, like didn’t really
understand lyric-writing or any of that yet, I just kinda did… it was
all gut instinct for us.
We had thrown out everything we had learned from any band and we’d- everything was gut instinct, like, “Well, you shouldn’t jam these 2 parts together,” but we’re gonna do it anyway. And it was a lot of our sound was based off that.
We had thrown out everything we had learned from any band and we’d- everything was gut instinct, like, “Well, you shouldn’t jam these 2 parts together,” but we’re gonna do it anyway. And it was a lot of our sound was based off that.
Frank: I remember being a fly on
the wall when they finished “Vampires Will Never Hurt You.” And that was
the first song that you guys actually like really recorded. And it was
like… you guys were so excited about it, you were like ‘Oh my god, we
got… you gotta hear this song!’ and they would play it over and over
again and then after they played it they would all high-five each other
like ‘That was awesome!’
[Crowd laugh]
Frank: Yeah, it was really cool.
Gerard: We still do that!
Ray: Yeah, that’s true.
Frank: Now, I get it though.
Gerard: Yeah, now he’s high-fiving
with us, and we’re… We brought him into that and now he totally gets
it, yeah. We’re doing… That stuff happened during Danger Days, still to
this day we’re still high-fiving each other like “This is the coolest
song ever!”
[Crowd laugh]
Interviewer: Well, the passion is there, and that keeps the band going, there’s no question about that. You lose that; you lose a lot.
Band: [general sounds of agreement]
Interviewer: Okay, so, the band’s
staying together, its starting to gel… When does the idea that… “We can
do something with this; we’re going to put all of our energy, put all of
our creative spirit into this entity, and make a run for this”?
Gerard: Oh it was right away, it was very…
Interviewer: It was?
Frank: All right so, “Vampires
Will Never Hurt” You was the first song that was ever actually really
really recorded – they did like, three songs in an attic, but like, they
went to a studio to record “Vampires…,” and as soon as you guys
recorded it, I think it got played on pirate radio, which is like Scene
Hall in New Jersey, and then we put it up on the Internet.
And within month after that, there was A&R people from major labels calling the studio. Which was… it was ridiculous, ‘cause like at that point, Thursday had all the heat on them, which is another amazing band from Jersey. Midtown was getting signed, Saves The Day was getting signed. And so, there was this crazy thing going on, and, you know, My Chem was kinda getting pushed into the circle. And there was a lot of attention, and we were playing shows and kids were going off, you know? And, it was immediate that like… in that circle–I wasn’t even in the band at that point–but when you heard that song you knew something amazing was going to happen. I don’t know how to pinpoint it, but like there was something really special. And we’d just start playing shows, you know?
And within month after that, there was A&R people from major labels calling the studio. Which was… it was ridiculous, ‘cause like at that point, Thursday had all the heat on them, which is another amazing band from Jersey. Midtown was getting signed, Saves The Day was getting signed. And so, there was this crazy thing going on, and, you know, My Chem was kinda getting pushed into the circle. And there was a lot of attention, and we were playing shows and kids were going off, you know? And, it was immediate that like… in that circle–I wasn’t even in the band at that point–but when you heard that song you knew something amazing was going to happen. I don’t know how to pinpoint it, but like there was something really special. And we’d just start playing shows, you know?
Gerard: Yeah, we immediately
didn’t look back at all. We just, we all quit our jobs, we borrowed
vans, and then we just kept do- ‘cause it didn’t matter, kind of, what
was gonna happen. There’s this thing that’s almost hard to describe, to
put into words: the way you felt when this was going on in the
beginning, when you’re playing a 5 song set, you’re hardly had a full
length album yet, but something kind of magical was happening, there was
something new happening, and you-… It was almost like we all like had
the keys to it, and nobody else, like we had a secret, like we had a
secret formula we were figuring out, and you didn’t… We didn’t hang out
with other bands except for Pencey Prep; we didn’t talk to anybody, and
we were very standoffish, we were very much like a street gang or
something.
[Crowd laugh]
Gerard: And you just kind of blow
into these towns and you do your mascara in truck stops and… You know,
doing that stuff to even further kind of polarize or irritate or get a
reaction out of people ‘cause there was nobody that looked like that at
the time. But there was something just so magical at that time that you
just got in a van and you didn’t care about what was gonna happen to
you. ‘Cause at the time, like–this isn’t in a negative way–you didn’t
think about being 30. Like, to me, that didn’t exist, like it was never…
I wasn’t ever gonna hit 30; it didn’t matter, like you know?
And that… but that was a lot of initial power of the band, and the engine behind it was this kinda “Live fast, die young.” And it didn’t matter, like; even if you ended up living it didn’t matter.
And that… but that was a lot of initial power of the band, and the engine behind it was this kinda “Live fast, die young.” And it didn’t matter, like; even if you ended up living it didn’t matter.
Interviewer: You know, when going
back and just reading about the band, its incredible how many rock
genres your name, My Chem, is associated with. Emo, glam certainly,
progressive rock, punk, metal… I mean, some of the gambits are pretty
wild. It’s a long way from glam to, you know, punk–punk was the
antithesis of that, you know, it was just 3 chords, a lotta attitude,
and just go. Glam was very theatrical. And you had… This is the thing
that I really always thought “wow” how you guys pulled this off – you
were able to very carefully balance all of those, and weave all those
forms into your music, and at the same–call them roots–but at the same
time come up with something completely different. So, you did a hybrid
of hybrids, and it became your own. I don’t know whether that was
intentional, or you simply let it go and it happened, but I think it’s a
fair assessment of what your sound ultimately became.
Ray: Yeah, I mean I think a lot
of… I mean really all of that to me has to do with the guys who are in
it. Like, we all have, you know we all, you know, love metal. And love,
you know, great songs obviously, but we all come from such different
backgrounds, musically. You know I think a lot of bands come together
its like alright you have a lot of dudes who are into this style who
wanna start this kinda band, or country artists wanna-… Dudes who are
into country wanna start a country… We just started, really just started
a band. And started- you know we picked up instruments and started
making noise.
You know for me like yeah, I come a little bit for metal background, so maybe that’s where that stuff comes in, you know. Gerard and Mikey with the Bowie, and The Smiths, The Cure, and, you know, and Frank more from punk, like… We just played how we-… what was in us, you know, and that’s really how the sound was formed. And yeah, you’re right, I think we do have a unique sound and a unique take on music, and that take is “Anything goes,” you know, we just create what feels good.
Interviewer: You know, I’m gonna
let you in on a little secret. At the time when you guys were being
looked at by Warner, Tom Whalley, who was basically the head of Warner
Music Group at the time, who I told you backstage was a real good friend
of mine, and he…
At the time, I was living up in Seattle, I’d just
moved up to Seattle and he had passed through and he came by. And we
went out for dinner, and we were talking, I said “So, you know, what are
you listening to?” and he says “I found this band, this band from
Jersey,” and right away I think, you know, because we’re from New Jersey
I’m thinking “Okay, its in the Bon Jovi mold, its in the Bruce mold.” I
hadn’t paid attention, I’d been away from Jersey long enough not to
know many of the bands that you just mentioned, I just didn’t keep up.
But he said “You gotta hear this, this is the most incredible thing;
you’ll never believe it’s from ‘Jersey.”
And he played me, I forget what it was, and he played me… “It’s just really really different. I don’t know how-what to do with them yet, but it’s really really interesting.”
Of course you ultimately would sign, and of course, you know, the rest is history so to speak. But that was my first introduction, just a little clip, played in a Seattle restaurant, and it was really interesting, and here I am, you know, talking to you today.
And he played me, I forget what it was, and he played me… “It’s just really really different. I don’t know how-what to do with them yet, but it’s really really interesting.”
Of course you ultimately would sign, and of course, you know, the rest is history so to speak. But that was my first introduction, just a little clip, played in a Seattle restaurant, and it was really interesting, and here I am, you know, talking to you today.
Frank: Small world.
Interviewer: Yeah, it is a small
world. But I think when an A&R guy or a record head says that “I’m
really intrigued by them but I’m not sure how it fits or what we do with
it,” that’s a good thing–it’s a challenging thing, but its also a good
thing, because basically it means that there’s nobody else sounding like
you and doing what you’re doing.
Gerard: That’s awesome. Yeah,
Tom’s amazing. Like, Tom signed us, he, you know, he was one of the
first people to find us, and… Yeah, I think there’s something about us
that shouldn’t work.
Interviewer: Yeah, that’s a good point.
Gerard: And I think- that’s kind
of what does. And I think what it is is even though we do come from
different musical backgrounds we all love and appreciate all of them,
‘cause I have a lot of metal records in my collection as well as punk
records, as well as everything.
I think its that genuine love for all of them that, like, Ray was mentioning these guys that would already say ‘Well, I’m gonna start a “this” band. That was where they were making the mistake, where we, like Ray said, just started a band. And I think that’s why we do sound so unique, it’s that genuine love for…
You know, I remember when it was like glam kids hated the punk kids, rockers hated the mods. I hated that, I hated the fact that I would go to like the Pipeline and get shoved ‘cause I looked like a Britpop rock kid, you know? And I would be like “Why can’t I like this? Why can’t I like this, too?” I think that’s kind of what shaped also the personality and identity of the band, was that inclusion of everybody and every type of music.
I think its that genuine love for all of them that, like, Ray was mentioning these guys that would already say ‘Well, I’m gonna start a “this” band. That was where they were making the mistake, where we, like Ray said, just started a band. And I think that’s why we do sound so unique, it’s that genuine love for…
You know, I remember when it was like glam kids hated the punk kids, rockers hated the mods. I hated that, I hated the fact that I would go to like the Pipeline and get shoved ‘cause I looked like a Britpop rock kid, you know? And I would be like “Why can’t I like this? Why can’t I like this, too?” I think that’s kind of what shaped also the personality and identity of the band, was that inclusion of everybody and every type of music.
Interview: Yeah. But, your band is
also been very theatrical, I mean just looking at the video, I mean
it’s all over that, and of course your shows. The theatricality… the
naysayers would say “You know what? That takes away from the music,” you
know? And therefore “If you’re gonna play the music, if the songs are
good enough let them ride on their own.” You could say, “Yeah but by
embellishing them with the theatricality, you bring it to a whole
‘nother level, a whole new aspect of the song that we’re going to
interpret for you, right now, on this stage.” Tell me, basically how you
deal with the theatrics of the music, and how do you go about creating
it?
Gerard: Well to me, one of the
things that also irritates naysayers is to say not only are the
theatrics important and visuals, to me art is just as important as the
music. And that will probably really bother them, but that’s just how I
feel, that the art is just as important. Like, there’s just as much
thought that goes into that as the music, and they’re both supporting
each other, so…
Frank: Absolutely. And that’s the thing, I think… yeah, I mean, we all know our songs are great.
[Crowd laughs]
Frank: So that aside, from
anything else, its like, why would you tie your arms behind your back
and not go above and beyond and do all these other things, like, where
else do you have the opportunity to do that kinda stuff, to dabble, in
film, and art, and even down to like designing like merchandise for the
band, like, you know, give it 100% to everything, and see what happens,
you know?
I think naysayers that you know are like “Oh, its just about this,” its just [lowers voice as if giving away a secret] because they’re not good at anything else. That’s the thing, and you know you have to have, you have to be fearless to at least try, and be like “You know what, maybe I’m not good at this, but I’m gonna try.”
I think naysayers that you know are like “Oh, its just about this,” its just [lowers voice as if giving away a secret] because they’re not good at anything else. That’s the thing, and you know you have to have, you have to be fearless to at least try, and be like “You know what, maybe I’m not good at this, but I’m gonna try.”
Interviewer: In a recent New York
Times, I don’t know if you saw this, I think a Q&A, I think the
first line was that ‘My Chem is a cartoony kind of band’ literally I
think that’s almost a verbatim quote, “Cartoon-y.” Is that- do you take
that as a compliment, or…?
Gerard: I think it might have meant “Comic book-y.”
[Crowd laughs]
Interviewer: Well I was gonna get to that, but she said “Cartoon-y”
Gerard: Yeah, yeah, well
cartoon-y’s an easier line to the average casual I guess. I mean yeah,
for those purposes cartoony I guess is accurate, but… I don’t know,
maybe right now ‘cause of the colors, but I always say it’s artistic.
Interviewer: Yeah, yeah. You use,
you in particular, you use the word art in a lot of interviews. I mean I
see that word pop up. You take it very seriously, as you just said, and
you discuss it and you’re eloquent when you talk about it. At what
point, if any, does the art take over from the music, do you have to
separate the two, do they compete in your mind.
Gerard: I did before. That’s what was happening during ..Parade,
and I think that’s what, you know, what this record really represents
to me is kind of not separating it anymore, ‘cause there’s no reason to,
you know? If I’m gonna think about something and be passionate about
something it should be everything that I do. I shouldn’t try to divide
it up.
Interviewer: When you guys are
playing, you play clubs and then all of a sudden you’re playing arenas,
you know, you’re opening for Green Day, on the …Idiot tour, and
that is, that’s huge. What does that mean in terms of your performance?
Is it the same as playing Maxwell’s, a club of 300 people? When you’re
playing, you know, 18,000 do you have to change the way in which you
approach the music and the theatricality?
Frank: You just get more room, you know. There’s a lot more room.
Interviewer: A little bit more room, yeah, a bigger stage.
Frank: I think when we got to
those bigger venues, there was a little bit of like, or at least for me,
like a lot more stage fright. You know, kinda going up there and being
like “Whoa, there’s a lot of you here.” You kinda feel like you’re a
little bit-… Its weird, you feel like you’re more under a microscope. It
feels like little clubs and with kids like kinda falling on you and
stuff like that, it was a security blanket. Like that was… that stuffs
not work, that’s not hard, that’s just, that’s… what I feel like we were
put here to do. But when you get up on those bigger venues, it’s a
little bit more… I don’t know, a little bit more thought is put into it.
Gerard: Yeah, there’s definitely a difference.
Ray: Yeah. I mean you definitely …
I mean, one thing I think was a learning curve was, you know, how to,
going from like connecting with 200 people in a room to you know 2,000
and then you know 10,000 like … how do you make the person all the way
in the bleachers feel part of the gig, you know part of the show, and…
You know Gerard’s like amazing at that.
Its funny, though, too, because, you know we do have intimate moments, like when we do Cancer its… I mean for me the only people in that arena are Gerard and Dewees who plays you know piano and keyboards for us, so…
I think that’s another thing with the band, you know, we have songs I think that work on a bigger level and then we can take it down to smaller and make everybody feel like they’re in a club too.
Its funny, though, too, because, you know we do have intimate moments, like when we do Cancer its… I mean for me the only people in that arena are Gerard and Dewees who plays you know piano and keyboards for us, so…
I think that’s another thing with the band, you know, we have songs I think that work on a bigger level and then we can take it down to smaller and make everybody feel like they’re in a club too.
Interviewer: Yeah, yeah. You know,
some of the great artists, I think Springsteen, we talked about him,
could, you know, concentrate on just one person. You find one face in
the crowd early on and you focus on that person with the hope that the
rest of the arena picks up the intimacy that you’re creating between you
and that person.
Ray: Is it Courtney Cox?
[Band and audience laugh]
Interviewer: In 1984, that’s who
it was, you bet! So do you-… I mean how do you approach that? You see a
sea of faces out there. What’s the strategy?
Gerard: Well, Jay Jay French from Twisted Sister had come out to a concert of ours in, ah, we played, what’s that arena in Long Island?
Frank: Nassau.
Gerard: Nassau, Nassau Coliseum. You know, we’re doing our own arena tour with Black Parade,
its big, pyro, it’s the full production, so we think we got this on
lock, you know, and we’re like ‘Alright, we’re really good at this arena
thing now’. ‘cause…
Ray: We have stuff with us.
Gerard: Yeah, now we have
zeppelins, so now we know what we’re doing. So, we do this meet and
greet at the end of the night, right? And Jay Jay French, who’s the
guitar player of Twisted Sister, come up to me, he says “Man, you guys
are awesome!” And he’d brought his daughters ‘cause they were really
into the band, but you could tell that this dude was also really into
the band. He’s a really intense guy and he had sunglasses on indoors,
and it was like…
[Crowd laughs]
Gerard: And he was really awesome,
but then he goes ‘But man I kept saying, “Look at me, look at me;
‘cause, I’m up in the 110s dude. You didn’t look at me once.” And I was
like- and I think you were next to me right? [Gestures to Ray] I
was like “Wow.” Nobody ever says that to you right? And I was like
‘Wow, I think this guy’s right, I gotta look more in the 110s and the
200s and the-’ So after that show I was acting more mindful to make sure
everybody in that arena got… some of this face.
[Audience laugh]
Ray: That’s actually funny, ‘cause that’s where me and my brother were. You know, when we were go see like at [Brendan Byrne] that’s- we were in the 200s, we were in the nosebleeds.
Gerard: Yeah, it was a cool thing [inaudible].
Frank: Did Molly Hatchet ever actually look at the 110s?
Ray: No! [Laughs] Well, I never saw them live.
Interviewer: So what was Green Day like, touring with Green Day?
Gerard: They were awesome.
Frank: Yeah.
Gerard: Yeah, and they pulled
major pranks on us at the end, though. They did-… I’m really, I have an
aversion to loud bangs. Like if you guys all had balloons right now I
wouldn’t be able to do this, ‘cause I’d be nervous about when they’re
going to pop. So they would, um, so basically we’re on stage and they’re
setting off all these concussions. And I was jumping probably like 8
feet off the ground…
[Audience laugh]
Gerard: It was pretty amazing.
Frank: At some point they dumped popcorn on us, too.
Mikey: They had a stream of popcorn that was raining on me for a couple of songs.
[All laugh]
Ray: They were great to us out there, yeah. [All laugh]. No, they were awesome, they made us feel so welcome on that tour.
Frank: Yeah.
Ray: That was big for us.
Frank: We also got to watch them every night, that was really cool.
Interviewer: Yeah, that’s right. And are you surprised by their success, I mean I hear American Idiot’s on Broadway…
Gerard: No, I think it’s so
awesome. They work really hard, they love what they do, you know.
They’re definitely a band that, like, a young band looks up to because
you’re like “Wow, these guys really care about what they do.” And you
actually- sometimes you don’t run into bands like that. Like, they
really, they’re very protective of what Green Day is. And I think we’re
very protective of what MCR is.
Interviewer: Yeah. I want you each
to pick a song, one song, and basically tell me something about it.
Just pick a song that you feel is particularly representative of the
band, or maybe it’s your personal favorite, or one that didn’t work the
way it should have. I don’t care what story, just pick a song and give
us something about it.
[Silence]
[Crowd laughs]
Interviewer: Who wants to go first? Oh Mikey, you go…
Mikey: Is it off the new record?
Interviewer: I don’t care. Any record.
[Silence]
[Crowd laughs]
Interviewer: That’s right, would you all do that for me? [Briefly ings “Jeopardy” theme.]
[Crowd laughs and starts going doo-doo-doo-doo]
Interviewer: This isn’t a hard question, I mean come on!
Ray: I mean, you know, for ah… I
think off the new record I think “Vampire Money”’s really special. You
know it was, what was it, the second song we recorded, or third song we
recorded for the record?
Frank: I say 3rd.
Ray: I mean it was awesome, you
know, we wrote the song, you know, maybe like an hour-and-a-half before
we recorded it. And the whole thing’s tracked live. I think its maybe
like the 3rd or 4th take of the song is what you hear on the record.
And it was, I mean, there’s a video somewhere of us tracking that song, and it looks like a gig inside this studio, you know, like where we recorded the record really, again, really small space, like, you know from here [gestures to his left] maybe to the end of that stage, like that’s where we recorded this record. And, you know, just bodies flying all over the place, and, you know, it felt like playing a live show, and that’s, I think that’s why there’s-… that track is so energetic and you can kinda feel that coming off it.
And it was, I mean, there’s a video somewhere of us tracking that song, and it looks like a gig inside this studio, you know, like where we recorded the record really, again, really small space, like, you know from here [gestures to his left] maybe to the end of that stage, like that’s where we recorded this record. And, you know, just bodies flying all over the place, and, you know, it felt like playing a live show, and that’s, I think that’s why there’s-… that track is so energetic and you can kinda feel that coming off it.
Frank: I remember Gerard like running all over the couch, and… in the studio-
Ray: What was- with the magazines?
Frank: Yeah this was what I…
Alright, so everything in the studio, like after like we were done
tracking it, was fine, but all the magazines had been destroyed.
[All laugh]
Frank: It was… it was so weird! It was like, nothing else was out of place, but every fucking magazine was just… annihilated! [Sweeps arm out]. So we had nothing to read.
Gerard: I don’t know… ‘cause even
if I get really wound-… swept up in something I still have this element
of self-control, I don’t know what that is. So, I didn’t grab the vase, I
grabbed the magazine.
[All laugh]
Gerard: It wasn’t as important.
[All laugh]
Interviewer: That’s good!
Gerard: I think the more- it happens to me on a subconscious level.
Mikey: On this new record, I’m super proud of the song “Planetary…”
[Crowd cheers and claps]
Mikey: On each of our albums we’d
always come a centimeter closer to writing a full-on dance song. Even
back to like “Vampire Will Never Hurt You”’s kind of…
Ray: Yeah, it has that vibe for sure.
Mikey: Dance vibe to it. Ah,
“…Sharpest Lives,” um, “To The End,” yeah, so I think with Planetary, I
think we’ve finally reached that point you know, we wrote a… it just
wants to have fun, you know, that song just wants to… dance and have
fun.
Frank: Hmm… Umm… I was gonna talk about that song, so…
[Crowd laugh]
Mikey: Sorry.
Frank: It’s alright.
Interviewer: You can add your two cents.
Frank: I’ll talk about “Mama.”
[Crowd cheers and claps]
Ray: That’s a cool song.
Frank: What can I say?
[Crowd laughs]
Frank: There was a… You know, it
was a really fun song to do, and to finish it, and then, and know that
there was a spot for another vocalist, a duet, if you will. And to be
like “Oh, who would go really well here?” And, we were like “Well, you
know who would go really good here? Liza Minnelli.” And then there was
like a snicker, like “Ahahaha.” And Rob was like “Oh, oh really? ‘cause I
think I can call her.” But like…
[Crowd laugh]
Frank: “You… shut up, you can’t
call her.” and he called her, and like, what, maybe 2 weeks later we
were in the studio, she did it via satellite kinda thing, and… she
called us “babies”…
[Crowd laugh]
Frank: Yeah, like [Liza Minnelli voice] “Aw, hey my babies!” like that kinda.
[Audience laugh]
Frank: It was really great, it was awesome, she was so nice, and she killed it!
Ray: The best- the spontaneous crying at the end…
Frank: Oh yeah!
Ray: Like she really got into the role of the mom.
Gerard: It was- everything in there was her. Nobody told her to do anything, it was really cool.
Interviewer: Really?
Gerard: You know, there’s always
something about “Vampires Will Never Hurt You” that, it’s a, I know we
talked about it, but it’s a really special song to me. We had done 2
songs before that, I think we had done, first was “Skylines…,” then was
“Our Lady of Sorrows,” it was…
Ray: Yeah.
Gerard: And maybe “Cubicles” came…
Ray: Mm hmm.
Gerard: And then “Vampires Will
Never Hurt You.” To me that is the real, it feels like the first My Chem
song that really captured everything in. I remember standing outside
this diner, and me and Mikey were hanging out with this kid, and I’d
just started to write this song a couple of days before. And I remember,
we were talking about some stuff and he’s like “What are you working
on?” and I said “Well, I’m working on this song,” he goes “What’s it
called?” I said, “It’s called ‘Vampires Will Never Hurt You.’” And he
goes, “That’s the dumbest song title I’ve ever heard.”
[Crowd laughs]
Mikey: I totally remember that!
Gerard: You remember that?
Mikey: I totally remember that.
Gerard: I go, yeah, ‘cause I even
prompted him, I was like “Yeah, what do you think of that?” and he goes,
“I think it’s the dumbest song title I’ve ever heard.”
Mikey: He said it was the dumbest song he’d ever heard.
Gerard: And I was like-
Mikey: That’s when we knew we were on the right track.
Gerard: Yeah, and I was like “Nah,
you see,”I was thinking to myself: “There’s something next-level about
it, I just think… Nah, ‘cause it’s real long and it doesn’t make any
sense.”
And so we went and did that song, and I remember hearing my voice back on the recording, and just… just like… and just hearing the whole recording and feeling how… how terrified at how fucking awesome it was, it was like, “This is so good! This is so good!” And I remember hearing my voice and thinking to myself, I am, you know… I feel like – I have recorded a lot of songs since then, I never… and I’m really proud of the stuff that we’ve done since then – I never felt that way as hearing that first time, I still feel like my favorite performance that I ever did was that one take that I did on that first song.
And I’ll never – it’s like the drug, and the rush that you will never get back no matter how much you chase it. It’s that first recording. And, I still feel that way to this day, I hear “Vampires…” to this day, and it like, I think it’s the best singing I’ve ever done, was on that song. So that’s kinda how I feel about it.
And so we went and did that song, and I remember hearing my voice back on the recording, and just… just like… and just hearing the whole recording and feeling how… how terrified at how fucking awesome it was, it was like, “This is so good! This is so good!” And I remember hearing my voice and thinking to myself, I am, you know… I feel like – I have recorded a lot of songs since then, I never… and I’m really proud of the stuff that we’ve done since then – I never felt that way as hearing that first time, I still feel like my favorite performance that I ever did was that one take that I did on that first song.
And I’ll never – it’s like the drug, and the rush that you will never get back no matter how much you chase it. It’s that first recording. And, I still feel that way to this day, I hear “Vampires…” to this day, and it like, I think it’s the best singing I’ve ever done, was on that song. So that’s kinda how I feel about it.
Interviewer: You guys agree?
[Crowd cheers and claps]
Interviewer: Before I turn it over
to these guys, ‘cause there are a lot of people here who I’m sure wanna
ask a few questions and I don’t wanna run out of time, but did I read
correctly where you guys, you know, you’ve booked your tour and then you
promptly cancelled the tour in Arizona? Is that true? A gig in Arizona
in protest of…
Gerard: Yes we did.
Interviewer: Talk about that, that’s…
[Crowd clap]
Interviewer: Was that deliberate, that you did that and then cancelled?
Gerard: No, no, actually probably…
you know what Ray had mentioned that when it happened, or who said
like, “I’m actually glad it happened that way because then it brought
more attention to it, because people had just forgotten about it,” you
know?
For, real quick, and I just feel like, you know, our fanbase that we feel that that affected, we feel is like a really big part of My Chemical Romance, from Arizona to South America to Mexico to everywhere, its like very important to this band. And we’ve always felt that way. And so that’s why we’re – it’s so important for us.
For, real quick, and I just feel like, you know, our fanbase that we feel that that affected, we feel is like a really big part of My Chemical Romance, from Arizona to South America to Mexico to everywhere, its like very important to this band. And we’ve always felt that way. And so that’s why we’re – it’s so important for us.
Frank: Yeah, I mean, it’s one of
those things where it… it’s unfortunate ‘cause, you know, you don’t want
to punish fans by not being able to play for them there and stuff like
that, but the “inconvenience” [finger quotes] of not getting to see a show is nothing compared to living in a police state, or living in fear.
And I really, you know, I encourage the fans and
the people that live in Arizona to, you know, to express themselves by
writing their local congresspeople who represent them. Maybe we can
change the laws together as opposed to just kinda being angry on a blog,
or anything like that. I think, you know, and I think it’s easy to say,
“Oh, you know, I’m young and people don’t listen to me,” but there’s
ways to have your voice heard, you know, you don’t have to be 18 to hold
a picket sign.
[Crowd claps]
Interviewer: Well, I thought it was a really courageous thing to do and I applaud you as well.
Frank: Thank you.
Interviewer: I thought it was a
really great act, and I agree with you. I think fans understand that, I
think they would think even more of you for doing it, quite honestly,
despite the inconvenience.
Okay, let me turn this a little bit around and let’s go out here [gestures to crowd]. I’ll call on you, raise your hand, stand up, speak loudly so that we can hear you and get you on tape, okay, and ask only one question. [Points out into crowd] You have a nice smile, go ahead, you go first.
Okay, let me turn this a little bit around and let’s go out here [gestures to crowd]. I’ll call on you, raise your hand, stand up, speak loudly so that we can hear you and get you on tape, okay, and ask only one question. [Points out into crowd] You have a nice smile, go ahead, you go first.
Person 1: This is for Gerard. You had mentioned making a comic book of The Killjoys.
Gerard: Oh, right.
Person 1: And are you still gonna go along with that? Will you kinda tune it in to the album, or…?
Gerard: Yeah, I start, I actually,
we get to Japan on Saturday and I start writing when I get to Japan,
so. It’ll be out this year, I hope [Emily’s Note: Ahahahaha].
So we just, it shares all the same ideas that that record is trying to
express, but I’m really excited to actually show everybody how different
it is from what you maybe saw in the videos.
Interviewer: Yes, right here.
Person 2: What was the first song you guys felt like My Chemical Romance was like something, that you guys were gonna get somewhere?
Frank: Oh man.
Gerard: That practice.
Mikey: Yeah, the first practice, yeah.
Gerard: You know the first kinda… When we had a lotta components… That’s kinda when I – I mean I has a gut feeling, you know?
Frank: I think, for me, like I
think like going on those first tours, and ending up in places like the
Dakotas or like Minnesota, and having like five kids there that were
like, “Whoa, I love your band, I’m so excited that you guys are here,
I’ve been waiting for like, you know, months for you guys, for this
show!” and I was like “Really? Like, how do you even know… how do you know who we are?” So, I mean that was, that was huge.
Interviewer: Where are the people from Argentina?
Argentineans: Right here.
Interviewer: Ok, you can ask two questions, you came real far, go ahead.
Argentineans: This is for Ray and
Frank. When you guys write the guitar part for a song, do you guys do it
together, like isolated from people, or do you guys do it separately
and then talk about ideas?
Ray: Different for each song, right?
Frank: Yeah, depends on the song.
Ray: Yeah.
Frank: There’s been a couple of songs where, I remember where even on Black Parade,
where we would–… ‘cause we were all in this big house called The
Paramour that was supposedly haunted, but that’s, that has nothing to do
with it.
[All laugh]
Frank: So, we were sitting and we
were writing “…Disappear,” and I remember like alright, well this is the
chorus part, and I remember I was like “Oh, I think this part should be
here” and I played a melody, and he was like “Oh, that’s cool, I heard
this part” and then he played it and we actually just-
Ray: Kinda merged the two, yeah.
Frank: Yeah, took the first half of like mine, and the last half of his and then that was the part.
Ray: Yeah.
Frank: That was really fun.
Ray: Yeah, its cool, you know,
like, I guess it’s different, it depends on the song. Sometimes, I like,
you know, just on the spot live while we’re, you know, first learning
the song, we’re writing our parts individually, but I think at some
point in every song we always get together, like I remember “Ghost…,”
“Ghost Of You,” like on Revenge, like you know he’d come over
to my apartment and we’d just go over stuff, so. Usually it starts out
what we hear in our heads first, each other, and then we always kinda
get with each other.
Frank: Just to make sure we’re complimenting each other, not fighting, basically.
Interviewer: Competing, yeah. You have a second one, you got one?
Argentineans: Yeah
Interviewer: I thought so
Argentineans: I saw at the
performance you did just the other day, and I wanted to know if you guys
would ever consider making an acoustic album?
Interviewer: Good question.
Frank: Yeah. We never thought we would ever do anything like that.
Ray: That was a lot of fun.
Frank: We were actually against it for a while. But, yeah, it was really fun. Um… I don’t know…
Mikey: I’d like to do it again though.
Frank: Yeah. You know, I wish they- Do they still do those “Unplugged” things?
Ray: That’s kinda, more-
[Crowd laughs]
Ray: That’s more, like yeah what I would wanna do, like I don’t know if an acoustic album per se-
Frank: Yeah.
Ray: But I guess they release it
anyway, but more like a kinda like an intimate performance, like if we
were to play here now. Which would be great, man, we should have brought
guitars, that would have been nice.
Frank: [to crowd] No, sorry, we don’t have anything.
Ray: I’m sorry, there’s no surprise! Hide from the tomatoes! [Hides face in jacket].
But, no I mean, what was great about it was it you know it allowed us
to- a chance to kind of revisit older material and look at it in a
different way. Like the last thing we wanted to do was play, you know,
say “…Not Okay…,” how you’ve heard it but just playing with acoustic
guitars, we really tried hard to change the arrangements and change the
instrumentation. And, you know, it’s a lot of fun, it’s yet another
challenge, we love challenges.
Interviewer: You have an open invitation, any time you wanna come back, bring the acoustics-
Ray: Aw, that’s nice.
[Crowd claps and cheers]
Interviewer: We’ll call all these people up.
Ray: You guys will be here right?
Gerard: Thank you.
Interviewer: Okay, yes, go ahead, ma’am.
Person 3: Gerard, you talked a lot in your lyrics about rescuing people, rescuing yourself.
Gerard: Okay…
Person 3: Rescuing the whole world. What are you needing rescuing from, or what are you protecting the world from?
Gerard: I don’t know!
[All laugh]
Interviewer: That’s deep, isn’t it?
Gerard: No, I think there was definitely a point in my life, where I felt like I needed to be
rescued, and I think any time… any time I was a kid, like, you know,
just disappeared into comic books or things like that, there was always
somebody rescuing somebody else, and I guess I always thought somebody
was gonna rescue me too. And I think any time I was talking about that
in a song it was really just kind of a… maybe just this weird angry kind
of cry for help. ‘Cause I never thought I was gonna rescue anybody
else.
[Crowd laugh]
Gerard: But then, I stopped
needing to be rescued. And that was a really cool thing, you know? And I
think that that’s why maybe I write about the things I write today.
Person 3: Rescuing people? Like Hold Them Back And Save Yourself?
Gerard: Yeah, yeah that’s one of my favorite song titles that I had written sometime right after Black Parade,
or the touring had ended, ‘cause it was kinda like… you know, it wasn’t
saying like, “I’m not gonna help you out;” its saying “You got this,
I’ll, you know, I’ll go fall on this sword, but go ahead, just get outta
here, like, shit’s gonna get ugly.”
[Crowd laugh]
Gerard: It was more like… it’s more like that.
Interviewer: Over here, yes, right there.
Person 4: I have a question for
all of you. If My Chemical Romance wasn’t a band, where do you guys
think you would be right now? Do you think that you would be comic book
writers, or musicians, or something completely different?
Interviewer: Good question.
Ray: I don’t know. I mean,
honestly, I don’t know. Like you know we all talk about… you know I mean
for me I really feel like the band did save us in a way, you know, like I have actually no idea what I would be doing. I know I’d be miserable!
[Crowd laugh]
Ray: You know, I definitely wouldn’t be as happy as I am today, so… I don’t know what I’d be doing.
Mikey: Probably be trying to start a band, you know.
Ray: Yeah!
Frank: Yeah, I’d definitely be in
another band but I probably- I definitely wouldn’t be as happy as I am,
you know. This is the best band I’ve ever been in.
Gerard: Yeah. I mean I like to
think that I would be doing comics or something, but I don’t know that I
would’ve achieved that, you know. I definitely think I’d have some
kind of job that I probably didn’t like.
[Crowd laugh]
Gerard: And feeling like something was missing.
Interviewer: Way in the back, yes ma’am.
Person 5: Hi! Okay, so just real quick: You rock the red hair better than Rhianna.
[Crowd laugh]
Gerard: Oh thanks! It’s like a very similar color, though.
Person 5: And my question kinda is
similar to the one that was asked before. I would like to
know–personally I’m emotionally attached to a lot of your songs. They’ve
got me through a lot of really hard times in my personal life. How–and
this is for everybody–how, or what songs have been emotionally… I guess
therapeutic for you, and like which songs are they if you wanna get [unintelligible]. How do you feel when fans come up to you and say that you saved their lives, ‘cause I’m kinda one of those people, too.
[Crowd claps]
Gerard: I think, well Frank has a
really good answer for the second part of that question, but…For the 1st
part as to which song, I think for- oddly the most emotional for me is
“…Black Parade.” It, and its often kinda- these days I kinda feel a
little disconnected from at least playing the song live, because… I
don’t know, there’s, that song does something to me, like its definitely
talking about my dad and things like that, its just, you know, the
inevitability of people getting ill… fulfilling potential… it’s just
like about life, that song to me. And it’s about like “What are you
gonna be? Are you gonna be something or are you gonna be nothing?”
Destiny. Things like that, that stuff really emotionally hits me, like I
guess that fear of becoming nothing was so great to me that… that
getting to make art with my friends was like a gift, you know? And I
think that that’s why that song is so emotional to me.
Frank: Oh man. Yeah. It’s weird,
you know, like every song we write has… has a special place in your
heart you know. It’s like each one of your kids, kinda thing. And some
of them mean something completely different than like, even like with
the lyrics mean like ‘cause you know you’re writing your parts and you
have your own emotions that you’re drawing upon, you know. And then when
you finally hear what the lyrics actually are, it’s like “Oh wow,
that’s so cool,” like…
Ray: It’s somehow connected
Frank: Yeah, it’s somehow connects
or sometimes it’s like “Oh wow, he’s singing about this and it means
that, but at the same time like this.” Like, you know, like “Helena” I’m
thinking about, you know, my wife, like when I play those parts it’s
like… its really crazy, you know. But the emotions are different, but
they’re at the same level.
So, I would have to say like, you know, the creative processes themselves were things that got me through a lot of stuff.
But the second part, you know, as far as like the band being a… you know, saving you or helping you get through some times, I mean… its one of those things where… I can never express the gravity of that statement.
We never thought we would reach as many people as we possibly have reached, or that we’d mean that much to so many people, or even to one person, you know? All we did was we wrote these songs that meant something to us, and put them out there in the world. And, it chokes you up how universal music is and how much that can change everybody’s life.
So, that’s really great, but the way I feel is that, you know, when you guys say that, or when some of you say that, I feel like you’re not giving yourself enough credit. You know, I think that the people that love this band are so strong, and they’re such amazing people. And we were there as a soundtrack, and maybe you know we provided you some comfort, but you’re the ones that have actually saved your own lives. I mean, the applause and all that is for you, like, you guys are the best. So thank you for saying that, but you know, it’s you guys.
So, I would have to say like, you know, the creative processes themselves were things that got me through a lot of stuff.
But the second part, you know, as far as like the band being a… you know, saving you or helping you get through some times, I mean… its one of those things where… I can never express the gravity of that statement.
We never thought we would reach as many people as we possibly have reached, or that we’d mean that much to so many people, or even to one person, you know? All we did was we wrote these songs that meant something to us, and put them out there in the world. And, it chokes you up how universal music is and how much that can change everybody’s life.
So, that’s really great, but the way I feel is that, you know, when you guys say that, or when some of you say that, I feel like you’re not giving yourself enough credit. You know, I think that the people that love this band are so strong, and they’re such amazing people. And we were there as a soundtrack, and maybe you know we provided you some comfort, but you’re the ones that have actually saved your own lives. I mean, the applause and all that is for you, like, you guys are the best. So thank you for saying that, but you know, it’s you guys.
[Crowd claps]
Interviewer: I’m going to take one more question, so we can do the meet and greet, so where, you pick ‘em, right there.
Frank: [points into crowd] Right there.
Interviewer: There you go
Frank: Hi, how’re you doing?
[Crowd “aww”s]
Person 6: I’m a survivor of cancer, and I was just wondering where you got your inspiration to write the song “Cancer.”
[Crowd awws a bit more]
Frank: Oh, man.
[Crowd laughs]
Interviewer: It’s getting harder, isn’t it?
Frank: Yeah!
[Crowd laugh]
Frank: You know, um…
Gerard: We had met a lot of kids…
One of the things about, you know, you’re in a band, and then like the
thing he was just talking about, like you start affecting people. But
then you start realizing that your band is gotten to a point where
people are now going to organizations like Make-A-Wish to get in touch
with your band because their wish is to hang out with you. Like, and
that’s a crazy thing, when that starts happening to your band. That
started happening right around Revenge, right?
Frank: Yeah
Gerard: And it was a really trippy
thing for us, and we really loved it right away, like we… we kinda got
good at it. I don’t know, like we just enjoyed it we were like “Wow this
is something that actually makes us feel good, we’re getting… this is
like, all this person wants to do is hang out with us.” So, but then we
realized like we started to meet all these people, and do all these Make
A Wish things, and that’s who we’re meeting backstage, you know, and on
the road.
And I said “Well, yeah, people have like songs for cancer survivors and they have these kind of ballads or anthems or something, but there’s nothing that talks about maybe how ugly it is.” And it’s never happened to me, but I can only imagine from the kids that I met how horrible or how tough it was to be, you know. And I wanted to make something that was so brutally honest that it became beautiful, like something so totally ugly that it became relatable and pretty. And so that’s the inspiration from me, from, for writing that song.
And I said “Well, yeah, people have like songs for cancer survivors and they have these kind of ballads or anthems or something, but there’s nothing that talks about maybe how ugly it is.” And it’s never happened to me, but I can only imagine from the kids that I met how horrible or how tough it was to be, you know. And I wanted to make something that was so brutally honest that it became beautiful, like something so totally ugly that it became relatable and pretty. And so that’s the inspiration from me, from, for writing that song.
Frank: We started to realize to, I
mean, as, when we do these Make-A-Wish things, like how great it made
those kids feel, like… like you were saying, it made us feel, like, 10
times better. Like you know you guys wanted to hang out with us, but we
were just psyched that you guys made the time to hang out with us.
Like, we got so much more out of it than I think anybody else did.
Like, it was just so amazing to… to be in the presence of so much
strength. It’s really inspiring, so, um… you know, I hope you liked the
song.
Person 6: Yes.
Frank: Thank you.
[Crowd claps]
Interviewer: Well thank you, thank
you very much. I have to say, and I mean this, I’m up on stage here I
said over eighty times. Tonight’s questions from these guys were some of
the best, maybe the best, you have ever- anyone has ever asked any of the artists up here, so congratulations to you.
[Audience clap and cheer, band clap the audience]
Interviewer: Guys, thank you so much for coming, this was terrific. [Shakes Gerard’s hand]. My Chemical Romance!
Source: My Chemical Transcripts
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