My Chemical Romance Interview [ARTROCKER!]

Not necessarily our usual fare, but when My Chemical Romance hit Glasgow last week, Chelsea Cochrane

caught up with them for an exclusive interview.

Whilst thousands of eager teenage fans coil round the interior of Glasgow SECC we are brought past the manic group that started the queue almost 48 hours previously, and into the empty Hall 4. Once we;ve passed through four different security points and up numerous hallways, we were seated in a small but homely room, sparsely lit and scented with several candles. After a momentary wait Gerard Way and his younger brother Mikey enter the room, emanating a calm cool despite outer appearances of nervousness. And after brief introductions our interview gets underway.
Chelsea: The last time you guys were in the UK playing arenas with The Black Parade tour you had a massive stage production, various pyrotechnics and grandeur costumes but when you returned last October, for Danger Days, you’d stripped it right down. What is this tour going to be like?
Gerard:  I’d say it’s somewhere maybe right in the middle. It is stripped down in that it is mainly about the band performing and playing but there are a lot of lights. We’ve brought a lot of really amazing lights, I think we’ve got 6 semi’s full! But it is just us playing, there are no props really or anything, no settings, there’s just the band. That’s new for us really. 
Mikey: Yeah, it’s like a less is more kinda thing. We stripped everything back but it seems like more, you know. The lights seem even more impactful.
Chelsea: You took Glasgow-based band Twin Atlantic out support you last time around, why is it you chose them?
Gerard: When we listened to their EP (A Guidance From Colour) we just thought they were great.
Mikey: They reminded us of this great thing they shared with bands coming up from New Jersey in the early 2000’s.
Gerard: Their all really nice guys.
Mikey: Yeah, they kicked ass on that tour!
Chelsea: Also at your last show in Scotland you played the track ‘DESTROYA’ for the first time live, which was dedicated to Grant Morrison. How much of an influence is he on the new album? 
Gerard: Huge. He is a huge influence personally to me, too. I guess more importantly he is just a really close friend, he and his wife. I look up to them; I ask them for a lot of advice. He was a big influence on taking a chance with this record and kinda saying “Fuck it!”, but in a really good way. We are playing ‘DESTROYA’ again tonight. It’s gotten, I think, much bigger sounding.
Mikey: ‘DESTROYA’ is actually my favourite lightshow set! Grant’s one of the great thinkers and philosophers of his generation, he is one of the greats and just such a warm hearted and caring person and a huge influence on me and Gee and one of our closest friends.
Chelsea: How is it you actually became friends?
Gerard: During Black Parade I had done an interview somewhere, in Rolling Stone or Spin I believe, where I just talked about all the influences since Revenge and then on The Black Parade and I just talked a lot about his work. So he got wind of it and he was a big fan of ours. He is into a lot of great older music and older stuff but also he is into contemporary music, he is into modern younger bands too which you don’t find a lot. So we met in Glasgow at the Barrowlands, and I remember being really nervous.
Mikey: But we hit it off right away, there was a rapport right away and it was like we had known each other a long time.
Chelsea: So does ‘DESTROYA’ have anything to do with him or is it just his favourite song?
Gerard: It’s interesting, it was their favourite when we played them [Grant and his wife Kristan] the finished album. They hop over to LA sometimes too and we had them over at the studio and before we even played it for them I kinda had a feeling they were gonna love it. I remember Kristan saying “Wow that is the fucking greatest”, she loved it and they both loved it!
Mikey: They loved ‘DESTROYA’ and ‘Planetary (GO!’), those are the key jams.
Chelsea: Yeah they really stand out, ‘Party Poison’ as well.
Mikey and Gerard: Yeah, yeah!
Chelsea: Why is it you have a song named solely after Gerard’s character, Party Poison?
Gerard: It’s just a good title really. “Death before Disco”, the original title of the song, just didn’t feel right anymore. It didn’t feel like it was current.
Chelsea: Is Grant Morrison or his character (Morrison potrays Korse, the head of the fictional corporation MCR’s alter-egos The Killjoys are attempting to take down) going to be involved in the Danger Days comics?
Gerard: No, none of the characters, even our characters, are in it. It is a completely separate thing, even almost a separate setting. It shares all the ideals behind the record and the theories and the commentary but it is nothing like the videos you have seen. I think the car is probably the only thing that’s the same!
Chelsea: Gerard, you have said before that around the time a new album is released you already have ideas for the follow up; do you have any for the next one yet?
Gerard: It’s weird because I don’t like talking much about what I think it will be anymore because I usually find that I am wrong. I mean, I had gut instincts at least visually about Danger Days and I was right about it and that’s what we ended up doing. I’m forming some stuff now but… I would love to just go record but being on tour makes that difficult. If we could get in a studio now I would just love to make some music.
Mikey: Yeah, the new sound just kind of finds you. You can’t plan it or guess what it’s going to be because you’ll usually be wrong, but you’ll always be pleasantly surprised. You can never formulate what you’re going to sell you will just end up where you are supposed to be.
Chelsea: Music videos have always been a very important part of My Chemical Romance’s visual element and often carry on a story with each album’s singles, but your characters died at the end of the last video; are you planning a come back for them now or doing something different?
Gerard: Well we are going to take a break from the story for a bit until it feels like we got to the song that makes the most sense to do the last part. To me it feels like ‘Only Hope (For Me Is You)’ is the best one to do for the last part of the video so when we get there…I have lots of ideas but I like to keep it loose and I don’t over think it. I like to finalize things a week before, sometimes day of.
Chelsea: So ‘Planetary (GO!)’ is your next single, what is the plan for the music video?
Gerard: We are going to try and do something that we have never done before, I think we are going to perform with a real audience and make something visually cool looking-  like it needs to be shot on all kinds of crazy different cameras. A live video but I think it’s going to look more artistic than that, I see big LED’s in my head, lot’s of lights and colours and sweat and audience but kinda more like a party!
Chelsea: Kind of reflecting your new tour set up then?
Gerard: I think so yeah. We are making it right now so obviously a lot of who we are right now is going to be in that.
Chelsea: Over the years you have all changed as a band and a lot as people since ‘Life on the Murder Scene’ came out, have you got any plans for another documentary?
Mikey: We have been talking about that actually because the 10 years is coming up and we have been talking about putting together a documentary of sorts. That’d be really cool we think.
Gerard: Yeah it would be nice to do a follow up to that. I feel like what’s great about “Murder Scene” is to me it’s more than a biography about a band and I think it would be nice to catch up, so to speak, to what things are like now because that was about 7 years ago.
Mikey: Yeah a new version of that would be pretty great!
Chelsea: As you mentioned there the 10th Anniversary of your first album “I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love” is coming up, do you have a special release or gig or tour planned?
Gerard: We are talking about all those things yeah. We want to do something really nice for the fans like some kind of cool package. Frank and Mikey have kept a lot of the original materials and show fliers and stuff so we are hoping to do a lot with that.
Chelsea: Like replicate them and put them in a pack or something?
Gerard:  Something, yeah. I have every single scrap of paper I’ve ever written lyrics on and like a giant thing just sitting in my office.
Mikey: I have one of those photo books filled with show fliers and old set lists and day sheets, I have a bunch of those and then Frank has absolutely everything. My stuff is kind of scattered but his is complete, he has everything ever. 
Fraser: There are a few bands, such as Coheed and Cambria, who play through their entire albums. For their tenth anniversary they are touring America with just their first album, is that something you guys are considering?
Gerard: Yeah, we are talking about it. I know Thursday is doing the ‘Full Collapse’ tour right now.
Mikey: Yeah, we missed by like a couple of days, I was so bummed!
Chelsea: You recently recruited a new drummer, Mike Pedicone from The Bled. How is it playing with him and has he fitted in well with MCR?
Gerard: He is a fantastic rock drummer and I think that is really why he is very much like us. The Bled is obviously a heavier band in some ways but if you listen to Bullets that’s a pretty heavy record with elements of post-hardcore and metal on it. We fit together super great, it just gelled instantly and we love playing with him live.
Mikey: We are having a great time with him, just having a ball up there.
Chelsea: Will he be sticking around for festivals?
Gerard: Yeah!
Mikey: There is no… It’s like (James) Dewees is one of our best friends, Pedicone is one of our best friends, and we are all friends playing so there is no titles or this or that.
Fraser: You guys definately look like you’re having fun playing together, especially in Edinburgh last year.
Mikey: That was my favourite show on that tour!
Chelsea: We asked a fan for a question and they wanted to know is Party Poison’s jacket influenced by Akira?
Gerard: Definitely! The iconography as well, I try and make it my own but it is definitely inspired by Akira.
Source: Artrocker!

“We just have no reason to be sad anymore” [State Interview]

By Dave Donnelly

State: What was your inspiration for the record?

Frank: Well after the last record, we toured two… two and a half years straight, and we decided to take an extended break, just living our lives again. And about eight months into that break…

Mikey: Yeah, that’s when the itch started.

Frank: …we got it together and did a song [a cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘Desolation Row’] for theWatchmen movie soundtrack and it felt good just to be making noise and playing together again. So we decided to get together again. About two or three months after that we convened out in LA, started picking up guitars and playing, and we wrote about 20 or 30 songs. We started to record them, kind of ran out of time, got the mix in the studio and we were kind of unhappy with how it was finally coming about. So we put it all on hold and went back into another studio, met up with Rob Cavallo who did our last record and wrote four brand new songs and liked them way better than the 20 or 30 that we had written before.

We just kept going, and slowly but surely this concept started coming about, like a setting kind of thing. Picture it: an apocalyptic event occurs and it’s 2019 – what would the band sound like? There would still be music, there would still be shows – if there were kids still alive – but what would that band be like? We started to pick up instruments that we weren’t really familiar with and never really experimented with before – didn’t really know how to play – and what you’re hearing is a band sort of excited and, I think, psyched to be creating.

Mikey: It was definitely a period of exploration and it was exciting for all of us. We were doing things that we never thought we could do. That was very exciting and very fulfilling.

You all inhabit different characters on the album, or at least that’s the presentation, was that a conscious thing?

Mikey: We kept any character elements strictly to the video. It’s not supposed to be anything more than that.

The idea of the radio broadcast – was that central to how you wrote the songs? Were you writing “radio songs,” the sort of songs that could sound like they were coming out of your radio one after another?
Frank: I think the idea of having a narrator to bring you through the world… the idea is to have a pirate radio station emerging from this apocalyptic world. But definitely, I think, at least some of them are crafted pop songs. That’s what we do – take the formula for a pop song and kind of twist it and make something ugly beautiful.
Mikey: The DJ was kind of a nod to some of our favourite films – there’s a radio DJ who comes in and guides the viewer/listener in a few different things: The Warriors and Vantage Point and Reservoir Dogs did that really well. It’s kind of like a tiny bit of the inspiration for that was from that.

There’s more of a power pop vibe than on the last album, sort of a bit more carefree, less serious topics…

Mikey: We’re at a more positive point in our lives. We’re more happy people, have amazing, supportive family and friends around us and we just have no reason to be sad anymore. We’re just very much into having an amazing time. That kind of carries through in the songs.
No plans to go on another two-year tour…
Frank: Nah, I fucking hope not.
Mikey: Hahahahaha.
Frank: I think we’ll have to be more smart about it.
Mikey: Yeah we’ll be wiser when it comes to that. We won’t drive ourselves to the point of exhaustion and mental anguish. We’ll do everything smarter this time.

Last question: ‘Vampire Money’ is a rip on Twilight, right?

Mikey: Sort of! It’s a rip on anyone repeatedly telling you to do what you don’t want to do. It just so happens that that can be the context that people pull out of it. It’s not necessarily a dig atTwilight, it’s just a dig at a nagging. It’s a dig at someone nagging at you

Source: State

My Chemical Romance charla con I Like Music

Un laberinto detrás del escenario conduce a Mikey y Frank. I Like Music se sentó en una habitación limpia que lucia increíblemente tranquila, para una charla sobre música – nuevo instrumento Epiphone de Mikey, momentos de claridad en el escenario, haciéndose pasar por Bruce Dickinson y su aprecio genuino por los seguidores mas dedicados de MCR…

«Me gusta la música porque… es mi todo» Frank, My Chemical Romance.

ILM: Hemos estado hablando con algunos muy bonitos, muy dedicados fans. Ellos estaban acampando fuera la noche anterior y luego ustedes los invitaron a la prueba de sonido en Wembley Arena! Muy cool…

Mikey: Si. Nuestros muchachos de gira salieron a fumar un cigarrillo y un descanso y regresaron diciendo «tenemos una idea genial!».

ILM: De todas las cosas que tu banda favorita podría hacer por ti, una invitacion a una prueba de sonido en Wembley Arena esta a la altura…

Mikey: Oh, si. Hay bandas en las cuales yo estaba super envuelto cuando yo estaba creciendo y si hubieran hecho lo mismo por mi, hubiera sido algo increíble.

ILM: No habíamos hablado antes con una banda a tan poco tiempo de un gran espectáculo. Son las 18:00 estamos sentados detrás del escenario en Wembley… Como se sienten acerca de esta noche? Ha comenzado la adrenalina?

Mikey: Oh si, hay una sensacion en el estomago, literalmente, desde el momento de despertar ese día. Cualquier show en realidad,  no importa lo grande que sea. Hay una intensidad en el pecho que es como, bueno… nunca se va. Da miedo y es genial al mismo tiempo! Yo no lo cambiaria por nada del mundo…
Frank: No creo que haya existido alguna vez un show en el cual ese día no amanezca enfermo!

Mikey: Si! Ja ja ja! Te pones tan nervioso!

Frank: Si, sabiendo que tienes que tocar esa noche. Ayer tuvimos ensayos y me sentía increíble, estamos en Wembley, y luego los chicos entraron y fue genial. Todo lo que podía pensar era «mañana sera impresionante!» Entonces hoy desperté como… oh, mierda. Todo esta en la mente, estoy seguro.

Mikey: Lo mismo me pasa a mi. Tenemos un día de producción y estoy como «hombre, esto es impresionante! Tenemos esto!»Luego, al dia siguiente es como «oh, Dios mio, estoy tan asustado! Oh, Dios mio!» Siempre te lleva de vuelta al punto de partida.

Frank: 12 horas de puta tortura. Y entonces las luces se apagan. Estás ahí arriba. Y es jodidamente increíble. Pero previo a ese momento, ese es el peor momento de mi vida!

Mikey: En el momento en que las luces caen.

ILM: No hay vuelta atrás…

Mikey: Si, solo puedo relacionarlo con ser astronauta, señalando el espacio y es el despegue… Se siente como un despegue. Es una sensacion indescriptible.
Fuente: I Like Music

Entrevista con Mikey Way [AMP Magazine]

AMP Magazine realizó una entrevista a Mikey Way y las preguntas mas interesantes las citamos a continuación:
  • Bueno tengo que preguntarte algo, antes de la gran explosión del trailer de su nuevo álbum. Ustedes se promocionaron con los fans en cuentas secretas con nombres de caracteres diferentes. ¿Quien era quien, quien pensó en esa idea y se entretuvieron con las teorías que los fans les daban?
Es un álbum multi-capa y el proyecto, en realidad era algo complicado pensar en cómo presentarlo y como la gente lo vería por primera vez. Queríamos empezar muy sutilmente, hicimos un par de cosas que les movió el tapete a las personas. Todo era diversión y los fans estaban emocionados y queríamos ir sobre ello de una manera diferente como nunca antes. Realmente queríamos usar un poquito de cada medio que teníamos a nuestro favor. Este es en realidad un proyecto fantástico de arte pop para todos nosotros. Desde el principio todo tiene que hacerse con muy alto nivel de calidad.
  • Esta vez el viaje es un poco diferente al no tener un baterista permanente. De aquí en adelante serán solo los cuatro o tendrán un baterista oficial en un futuro?
Sabes, por el momento y para un futuro previsible, My Chemical Romance solo seremos los cuatro. Quiero decir, tocaremos con un montón de amigos en vivo y no nos gusta marcar las cosas con etiquetas y dar títulos a la gente. James Dewees ha estado saliendo con nosotros desde hace 4 años tocando el teclado y Mike Pedicone esta ahora tocando la batería, por lo que solo queremos pasar un buen rato. Nos limitaremos a mantener las cosas como han estado.
  • Siempre han sido el centro de atención, es difícil ser visto en ocasiones hasta como héroes?
Siempre y cuando no pienses en ello. Digo, no tratamos de pensar en nada de eso, porque solo te enredara la cabeza. En el momento de éxito de una persona llega un punto en el que te superas. Es decir, nosotros superamos eso hace mucho tiempo. Estamos en esto por diversión, estamos en esto para crear. estamos en esto para los fans, nuestros amigos, nuestras familias. Estamos en esto por un bien mayor, no estamos en esto por los malditos premios. Si eso llega, esta bien, pero tan solo estamos para divertirnos, tratamos de nunca pensar, «Oh, esta canción sera un enorme éxito», no es nuestra forma de hacer las cosas. Solo crearemos lo que queramos crear. Si a la gente le encanta, les encanta, si no te gusta , entonces bueno, no te gustó.
Fuente: AMP Magazine

Gerard y Mikey Way – Musique Mag [Entrevista]

Gerard y Mikey respondieron varias preguntas al azar sacadas al azar de un recipiente. La entrevista fue realizada para Musique Mag, una web francesa.
Las preguntas consistían en escoger entre 2 opciones por ejemplo: Robocop o Iron Man, Xmen o Watchmen, Chuck Norris o Jean-Claude Van Damme, etc. Mira el vídeo para que sepas que escogieron..

Entrevista a Gerard, Mikey y Ray – Nova 93.7

En entrevista para Nova 93.7 de Australia, los chicos se sentaron para conversar de detalles del nuevo álbum. Mas información después del salto….

Gerard Way, Mikey Way y Ray Toro conversaron acerca de las diferencias entre The Black Parade y Danger Days. Toro por ejemplo, dijo que se comprometieron tanto en asegurarse que todo salga bien en cambio para lo que fue The Black Parade dice que la banda se sometió a una «tortura emocional».

Gerard dijo que para ellos cada canción en el nuevo algo representa lo que siempre han querido hacer y que ninguna canción esta ahí para rellenar un espacio. Mikey dijo que hay canciones en el álbum que desde el primer día que la banda se formó querían hacerlas y ahora finalmente pueden hacerlo. 
Para este álbum, menciona Toro, han experimentado nuevos sonidos, un nuevo territorio muy diferente al que estaban acostumbrados. Todo es nuevo y mas emocionante.. xD

Si quieres ver la entrevista completa y en vídeo puedes ir al siguiente enlace: entrevista

P.D.: No agregué el vídeo aquí, porque no pude jeje xD

Entrevista a Gerard y Mikey en Absolute Radio

1

Gerard y Mikey estuvieron en Absolute Radio en Inglaterra. Comparto la entrevista en la que hablan del nuevo disco, de cómo ha cambiado su sonido, la actuación en la NFL, etc, lo que quiere decir que este vídeo es de hace mas o menos 2 semanas… Sorry recién lo encuentro xD:

Me olvido de algo? oh si si.. la traducción. Esta vez mas que una traducción literal veamos el lado real, coherente y cuerdo del asunto. En esta entrevista como ya dije, se habla de varias cosas, lo que mas resalta es lo siguiente: 
Primero Gerard comienza diciendo que esta usando ese sombrerito porque se le esta congelando el cerebro y hace mucho frío afuera, ok eso no es nada resaltable pero si lo que continua, el entrevistador los nombra como la banda que «forcing kids to commit suicide«, es decir que es la banda que «obliga a los niños a cometer suicidio», retomando el tema de una niña que se suicidó hace un tiempo atrás y que si no mal recuerdo escribió «Nos veremos en el Black Parade» o algo así, es ahí cuando nuestras caras, al igual que la de Gerard toman una ligera expresión de WTF? mezclada con un poquito de coraje. Como recuerdan la prensa satanizo a My Chemical Romance culpándolos de la muerte de esta niña, los padres de ella expresaron que la lírica de las canciones del álbum The Black Parade instaron a la menor a suicidarse, lamentablemente lo que ellos hicieron fue leer, nada mas eso, LEER, mas no entendieron el significado de las frases, como por ejemplo «I’m not afraid to keep on living, I’m not afraid to walk this world alone«, para los que tomamos atención eso significa «Ok, el mundo no se ha acabado, sigue, camina, todo depende de ti», o al menos eso es lo que significa para mi. Por su parte la prensa, poco investigativa para variar, no se fijo que la chica que se suicidó era víctima del llamado «Bullying«, es decir acoso, quizás la chica se vestía de negro, usaba delineador de ojos, su actitud no era igual que el resto y para agrabar las cosas, pobre criatura, cometió el error de escuchar My Chemical Romance, ahí empieza el acoso, cuando te ves diferente del resto. Este seria un tema aparte muy debatido, los niños que sufren este tipo de acoso tienden a la depresión y buscan apoyo, a su modo, pero lo buscan. Y esta niña lo encontró a través de las letras de las canciones de MyChem, pero quien sabe, no aguanto mas y tomo esa cruel decisión. Lo que nos queda claro es, que mucha gente tiende a juzgarte por lo que ve y no se toman la molestia de conocerte mejor. Eso es un error y como dijo Gerard: «… a horrible thing».
Habiendome desahogado pasemos a otro tema mas sweet, el entrevistador le pregunta por su hija, Bandit, a Gerard le cambia totalmente la expresión, y a pesar de estar con aparentes síntomas de resfriado, se lo toma lo mas cool del caso y se le nota a leguas el amor de padre, menciona que es una responsabilidad enorme ser padre y que ahora ha crecido como persona, también cuenta que su hija es genial y que a veces es difícil entenderla porque habla muchos idiomas (agu agu). A Bandit le gusta el piano y la guitarra y Gerard dice: «Hasta ahora se parece mucho al papa y a la mama». (Tiempo para un «oohhhhh tan lindo»).
Luego la entrevista se torna monótona, hablan de Danger Days, preguntas van respuestas vienen, en fin, eso si, a lo largo de la entrevista se ve a un par de hermanos muy tiernos y cariñosos. Se nota el amor y el respeto que se tienen el uno del otro… y oh si, Mikey habló, medio mudito el chico por eso la sorpresa jeje.
Recuerden Killjoys, 22 de Noviembre, el día se acerca, preparen sus ray guns….
Keep running!