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Gerard Ways Road To Success -AWESOME INTERVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!

Gerard Way's road to success

My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way talks about his band's success, being bottled, and why he doesn't like the word 'emo'

By Ron Brownlow
STAFF REPORTER
Thursday, Jan 31, 2008, Page 14

PHOTO: AP

Neither critical success nor the adoration of thousands of teenage girls has gone to the head of My Chemical Romance singer Gerard Way, or so it seemed when he entered the Far Eastern Hotel's Platinum Suite without personal assistants on Saturday evening, preceded by only his younger brother and the band's bass player, Mikey. My Chemical Romance - which played in front of 3,500 mostly college-age fans at National Taiwan University Athletic Stadium on Sunday - is nearing the end of a year-long tour to support The Black Parade, the platinum-selling, unabashedly over-the-top concept album about a dying cancer patient obsessed with redemption and revenge.

Sitting with his legs crossed, wearing dark Ray Bans that obscure his eyes, Way starts the interview by measuring the success of that album, which has been compared with Pink Floyd's epic The Wall. "To us Black Parade was the best record of that year," 2006. "That's how we felt about it when we were making it; we still feel that way about it. But something like The Wall is hugely ambitious. I don't know what it takes to make a record like that. I think you gotta take a sledgehammer to your life in a lot of ways and I don't think anyone in this band is prepared to do that."

Ron Brownlow: On this tour until really recently you would come out and say you were the Black Parade, at least for the first hour. And then you stopped last month.

Gerard Way: We were filming a show in Mexico, and maybe 10 minutes before we went on we just decided that it was going to be the last one. We felt like we'd done all we could as the Black Parade and we really wanted to go back to simply being My Chemical Romance. And that's just really being a great rock band.

RB: So part of it was you were on the road for so long you were just sick of doing it?

GW: Actually a small part of it was that. It caged us. But a bigger part was, I think, everything attached with being the Black Parade was something we wanted to kind of move on from.

(Way identified so much with the character in the album, known only as the Patient, that until recently he assumed the persona on stage. He cropped his black hair short and dyed it silvery blond to, he says, "appear white and deathlike." Members of My Chemical Romance wore matching black uniforms, and the band played part of each concert under the pseudonym The Black Parade.)

RB: So can we still talk about the Patient?

GW: Yeah! Of course.

RB: How is the Patient right now?

GW: (Laughing.) I always like to feel that that particular character was created so everyone could identify with the character. Most likely everyone is eventually going to become a patient, and that's going to be the last time you are a patient. You kind of lose your sense of identity; and if you don't have any family around you, you even have less of an identity. But I like to think that, at the end of that record, the character gets a second chance, which you rarely get, you know? I'd like to think whether or not the character dies, he does in fact choose to live.

RB: I was reading a New York Times story that said the Patient is the American Everyman recast as a sick, violence-scarred wreck.

GW: I'd say that's pretty close. It's definitely an Everyman. I don't think largely American, though. We had sought out to make a universal record, and just the fact that we're here today proves that we did. It's interesting. We don't really think of ourselves as a New Jersey band. And we also don't think of ourselves as an American band in a lot of ways. We felt more a band of the world or somewhere like the UK. We felt more like a British rock band than anything.

(Born on April 9, 1977, Gerard Way grew up in blue-collar Belleville, New Jersey, roughly 15km from Manhattan. When he was a teenager, he was held up at gunpoint. According to an article in Rolling Stone magazine, Way said a .357 Magnum was pointed to his head, and he was "put on the floor, execution-style." He graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York City and was working in the comic book industry there when, on Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists crashed two airliners into the World Trade Center. Twice when we're talking about Sept. 11, his voice tails off.)

RB: Did you see the planes crash into the World Trade Center?

GW: I was taking the commuter train in. I didn't see any of the planes hit. I did see the buildings go down, from I'd say fairly close. It was like being in a science fiction film or some kind of disaster film - it was exactly that kind of feeling. You didn't believe it. You felt like you were in Independence Day. It made no sense. Your brain couldn't process it. And for me it was a little different. I'm very empathetic and I'm kind of a conduit emotionally, so I pick up a lot of stuff in that way. There was about three- or four-hundred people around me - and I was right at the edge. All these people behind me, they all had friends and family in those buildings. I didn't. So when that first building went, it was like an A-bomb went off. It was like just this emotion and it made you nauseous. One of the first thoughts that went through my head when they went down was, "What does this mean?"

RB: How did that lead to the creation of the band?

GW: One of the other things I thought about when the first building went down was, "Everything's kind of pointless that you're doing right now." I was involved in commercial art in New York, trying to pitch a show to the Cartoon Network that was extremely frustrating because I was dealing with a company that had optioned the cartoon show that didn't quite get it. I think they were more interested in turning it into toys and pillowcases and shit like that, and it was really disheartening. That was my first ever taste of creating something and seeing it take off a little bit - and it didn't feel good. At that moment I was like, "This doesn't mean anything. This is all garbage. This is all bullshit. I need to do something that actually means something, or my life's gonna mean nothing. Just like this cartoon means nothing."

RB: Do you think you've found meaning through this?

GW: I think we created something special together. I think it means something. It meant something when it started, it said what it kind of had to say, and so that's an interesting position to be in because I don't necessarily think that the next album we make, I don't necessarily think that it needs to mean something. I think we're kind of finished in that regard. So it's gonna be interesting to see what we do next because, quote unquote "the mission" or "the goal," I feel very complete about that.

(Way and My Chemical Romance are polarizing figures. In a Kerrang! magazine poll, the band was voted both best and worst band of 2006. Appearing with the band at that year's Reading Festival in England, Way, known for his onstage histrionics, was pelted with a bottle of urine and other objects thrown from the audience. That same year, Welcome to the Black Parade reached number one on the UK Singles Chart, as it did in the US. The album has gone platinum in both countries.)

RB: Getting bottled. What did that feel like?

GW: It was exhilarating and extremely challenging. There's nothing like that to humble you more and let you know that there's still something to fight for.

RB: You felt exhilarated?

GW: Yeah! I think when all is said and done people will look at that very specific show and say that was the most important show of this band's career, because they got up there facing a tremendous amount of opposition and won an entire crowd over and did it with the camera on them and everybody facing them. I think that's why it's important because it really sums up the band in one 40-minute set. It was not easy. It was a volley at first and then just it stopped and there was cheering and there was excitement and there was positivity. A current through the audience. It's amazing to watch footage BBC captured.

RB: You've said the band started as your therapy, and then it became the band's therapy, and then we became other people's therapy.

GW: It was kind of a therapy for me at first because of 9/11, and then the band because, in some way, we, in our own lives, had been the people that did not fit in or weren't built like other people - just not prone to violence. Not survivors in that regard. Survivors in a different way. And so then when we'd go to these shows we started meeting these kids just like us. And so that was almost like a group therapy session. That was really exciting. We're just all working it out. Since we're very non-violent people in our everyday lives and our fans are very much the same. They're very much like shy, quiet loners. You have to have some place you need to kind of get that out. Our shows were the place to do it. One of the things that's a common misconception about the punk rock scene is that what's cool about it is you could go and fit in because it's punk rock. But in actuality you can't. I don't think enough people say this about it. It was the same as being in high school with jocks. I would go to punk clubs and get shoved by skinheads because I wasn't like them, which was just like getting shoved by jocks wearing a Ramones shirt.

RB: You've talked about failure. You said, "I have failed a great deal in my life with everything I've tried to do. I was a failed artist. I was a failed animator-this-that-and they other thing â�¦ I was always very close but I was always not quite there."

GW: Maybe it's not so much failure so much as it is not following through and giving up. I think I was more of a person that gave up, rather than a failure. I didn't have what it took at the time, because I was very prone to get discouraged very quickly and stop doing what I was doing. With this band I was never one to give up.

(Although My Chemical Romance cites as influences everything from Queen, Thursday and Iron Maiden and to Morrissey, Black Flag and the Smashing Pumpkins, it is often referred to as an emo band, a label the band vigorously protests. Originally used as shorthand for the "emotional hardcore" subgenre of punk that originated with Washington, DC, it now refers to a vaguely defined genre of punky, goth-leaning indie-rock whose adolescent followers are stereotypically shy, angst-ridden and prone to depression and self-injury. Way has called emo "a pile of shit," but My Chemical Romance's dramatic style connects with a very teenage intensity of emotion. In interviews, Way and other band members have openly discussed their mental-health issues, and their penchant for tight jeans and eyeliner makes them look very much the part.)

RB: You really hate being called an "emo" band. Why do you despise that term so much?

GW: I don't like any term that to me seems lazy or an easy term for something that's not easy to describe. I also think it's frustrating. We were so the opposite of the emo band that we couldn't get booked playing shows, because there was this budding emo scene, and we literally were touring with Christian-metal bands, or other bands that were very off-kilter as well. We were almost created in opposition to that. We were like the answer to what was happening.

We didn't fit in with this dungareed, moppy-haired, whining-about-girl type of nonsense. I just wish people would realize that what happens with My Chemical Romance is completely exclusive from any other kind of genre of music. What we have is extremely special. And we've worked very hard to get it there. So it's an insulting term in the fact that we're lumped in with bands that didn't create that. They didn't put in the work and they didn't slug it out to create something that was unique for us and our fans. It's just for us and the fans, it's not for anybody else. If the fan base is huge, that's awesome. If it's small, same thing.

The whole phenomena of the band has nothing to do with what people are calling emo. It's not at all like that. It wasn't founded on the same things. The blood that went into it was different. [Emo] didn't have the spit, it doesn't have the grit of it. It's not unique. It's just pop-punk all over again. Now it's pop-punk with eyeliner. All of it's boring and really redundant. That's why it's frustrating, because it was difficult for us starting out because we were nothing like that.

RB: What do you see on the horizon after this tour?

GW: I see our first kind of lengthy break. We're gonna commit to trying to have at least six months off before we even talk about making something else. And then at that point, hopefully, we will have done enough living to make something.

FRANKIE LEATHERMOUTH N MCR

PROJECT GOTHAM 4 HAS MCR HOUSE OF WOLVES SOUND TRACK N SOME OTHER COOL TUNES.
FRANKIE HAS SIMPLICITLY STATED ON AN INTERVIEW HE THINKS EMO IS BULLSHIT.
OH YH N WUD LIKE ALL MCR FANS TO TOTALLY CHEK OUT LEATHERMOUTH NOT COS FRANKIE IS SINGING (YH THAT ATTRACTED ME TOO) BUT COS THE MUSIC ROKS PLZ ADD THEIR FANS ON THAT PIC ON THE SIDE OF MY SITE. (SCROLL DOWN)
LEATHERMOUTH RULE!
AS FOR SOME MCR NEWS THE KEYBOARDIST WE SEE OBN LIVE SHOWS MIGHT BECOME A FULL TIME MEMBER OF THE BAND N MCR HAVE ALREADY BEGAN WRITING SOME NEW MATERIAL.
PEACE.

DEAD!

in the dark thru the cold it seeps thru my heart a chilling dread a anxiety that is ready to overwhelm me. my smiles are stolen as the thought of the future pierces my soul, the thought of what will happen to me of what i will eventually become. i am a monster inside abruptly hungry for seeing hurt inflicted on others i am glad for wen i suffer they can too. i will salute them to their grave i will not shed a tear wen they grow old and die for while i am bathed in darkness i will remeber the days oh yes those days wen they hurt me wen they tore away my good sweet hope and killed the innocence inside of me. they think i am a slow sentimental fool but i know better. only one knows of the impatience inside of me and she is silent and cold too, so cold i fear she will hate the world as long as she lives. others have suffered worse and who am i to complain. i am ME. i do not yet know me but one day i will and en that day comes ah THREE CHEERS FOR SWEET REVENGE

paramour 7

frank iero lays asleep at night. he is dreaming. frank is walking along the skool corridor when someone grabs him and pulls him to the wall. frank starts and tries to get away but he is too weak. the boy glares at him. frank trembles. "please" his words are choked and he stammers like an invalid. the boy sniggers. "aww poor franke! come on u loser"

he drags franks helpless body to a deserted corridor. "come on slash i need to take my pills!" frank cried. he already felt dizzy because of his ear ache. slash giggles. "where r they?" he demands with sudden authority. frank flinches. "in my pocket" he stutters already regretting the answer. slash grabs the pills and throws them to the floor, frank gapes as the precious tablets decorate the grey floorboards. slash smirks. tears sting franks eyes. fury lends him strength but its too late. without a warning slash throws frank in an empty locker. frank screams. his claustrophobia kicks in and he desperately punches the locker door. "let ,me out" but his attempts are futile. slash has gone. at 3 o clock the janitor opens a locker to find a small boy in a corner, his arms around his limp body for protection. "god almighty" the janotor whispers.

paramour 6

bob alone in his room.bob bryar is feeling empty as usual. no feeling, no hurt no joy just a familiar emptiness which hurts. sometimes he is unsure of what he is feeling like joy for instance. bob has never felt true pure emotion apart frm revenge. ah sweet sweet revenge. beatiful in its simplicity. iif u ask bob u must always have ur chin up n be ready to pounce to destroy the enemy and stand up fukin tall. but now sorrow is bobs enemy and u cannot fight a feeling its impossible. the only way to do that is to hurt. without hesitating bob stands up n like a astro-zombie dumbly walks with glazed eyes to the kitchen n piks up a knife. he feels the cold hard metal and instictively recoils. but its too late to back out now n he knows what he must do. he puts the knife to his skin and forces it down. and then he sees the blood. " oh fuk!" bob drops the knife horror written all over his shocked features. what the hek was he doing? he had always known self-harming was bad then y was he doing it? he shivers as the blood trikles down his arm. tears rise in his eyes and his shoulders tremble. it has been a long time since bob bryar cried. and goddamnit he never imagined to be spilling in a small kitchen with a knife before him n pain numbing his senses. all alone.poor bobby

paramour 5

gerard is swimming in memories. awful cruel memories of his childhood. its his first day at high skool n hes really nervous. kids glare at his black clothes n his gothic hairstyle. he sits at the bak of the class n sumbody sniggers. he ignores it and takes a deep breath. first lesson is science. gerard gazes out of the window at the drooping grass and wilted trees. its making him depressed. he remembers the smashing pumkins gig he went to and savours the feeling he had as he roked with his brother. he fliks thru a spiderma comic while the teacher drones on about atoms n elements. he grabs a pencil n begins drawing a pic of a hero. god how he luvs drawing but the drink n drugs he had yesterday have taken effect n his eyes close. slowly n without noticing he slips off his chair only to be kiked by another student. "get up weirdo!" the whole class is staring n giggling. gerard wishes for death. to die n to be in peace.

he awakes in Paramour. he rubs his forehead. god hes gotta stop smoking n hallucinating. wens it all gonna stop. he remembers his fans out there dependent on him their idol. wot if they saw him like this? gerard sighs suumtimes thinking hurts.

paramour 4

gerards feeling awful, he shouted at frank for no reason at all. "wots wrong with me?" he mutters wiping his eyes n angrily thumping his fist on the wall. its the that his mobile wrings. angrily gerard puts it to his ear. "yh?" he barks.

"hey gerard how r u?"

gerard closes his eyes oh man he thinks. its his girlfriend frm new jersey. gerard sighs. hes gettin kinda sik of her phoning everytime hes at a gig or feeling personal. he doesn't think he can take any more crap frm anybody anymore. controling his anger he cuts her off. abruptly he feels guilty but kinda satified, memories of his skooldays come into his head. gerard as a small kid at a funeral. gerard at a park staring at a dead junkie. gerard alone. gerard scared.

he tries to cry but the tears won't cum, but the memories don't stop. eventually he drops to his knees still clutching the mobile. pain sears his lungs n hurt making it hard to breathe. finally he chokes n then the tears come. sudden;y hes not a 29 year old guy anymores hes a 7 year old kid depressed n alone. he wants frank n more than ever he wants his mother

paramour3

frank had an okay nite he wakes up kinda excited cos hes got a new tune n wants to check it out with the guys. but wen he gets to the kitchen its deserted. allittle worried frank makes himself sum coffee and goes up to gerards bedroom. as he enters he sees the floor littered with clothes n cds. he switches the light on and approaches the bed. gerards hair is just visisible. frank shakes him n gerard jumps up. frank can see hes been crying. gerard gets up. hes wearing cool spiderman pajamas n his hair is matted with sweat.

u okay frank asks. gerard doesnt answer n hurries out of the room.frank follows. abruptly gerard grabs frank n pushes him to the wall.

was it u that made those weird noises last nite gerard asks. frank shakes him off. no man whats wrong with u? frank cries. gerard shrugs i dunno he mutters n leaves. frank stares at the floor.

paramour 2

its gerards first nite at at paramour . its dark so he gets into bed and pulls up the covers. as he closes his eyes he immediately begins dreaming. gerard sees his mum n mikey writhing and screaming on the floor shocked he realises their burning and he cant do anything to help. he awakes sweating his hair matted to his forehead. "omg" he mutters. he looks around the room, feelind watched by some1 no something. gerard closes his eyes ans tries praying but he can't remeber the words. its then that he wonders if God has abandoned him but in the first pace did he even believe in a God? gerard punches himself thinking what the hecks wrong with me he never used to think about these things before. the feeling of being watched grows n so does gerards fear. he remains paralysed in bed as if locked by chains. the last thing on his mind is the record.

Paramour

My chem have just arrived at paramour where they are gonna record their 3rd album. Gerards feeling alittle weird as he looks up at the strange house n he wonders if its haunted but frank has already bounded in leaving ray fiddling with the suitcases and mikey in the car. Gerard throws back his hair and lets the wind carress his face. He waits for his bro. Mikey reluctantly gets out of the car and glares at his feet.

Gerard turns to his smaller brother. "hey u ok?" he asks alittle worried. mikey doesn't answer and shrugs as areply. gerard is about to speak when ray appears.

"u guys gonna cum in?" he inquirs impatiently. gerard sighs n nods. already miserable they enter the house. frank is in the kitchem munching on a peanut butter n jelly sandwich. his thoughts go out to his girlfriend jamia n he realises he misses her alot. trying to not think of her he finds mikey in his room.

"hey mikey" says frank. mikey is silent. he is staring at ashining blue light on the wall and is muttering to himself alittle disconcertted frank leaves he feels another prescence around him and skakes it off