The right chemistry

>> Are My Chemical Romance over the top, over your head or just plain overcooked?

HIT PARADERS: Gerard Way (centre) and My Chemical Romance

by ERIK LEIJON

New Jersey’s bombastic emo-rockers My Chemical Romance are so grandiose in everything they do that only an event as monumental as Sept. 11 could bring them together. Lead singer Gerard Way was working in the comic book industry in New York City on that fateful day, and felt that was the right time to drop everything and form a rock band. My Chemical Romance’s third full-length, The Black Parade, is their attempt at a concept album, which Way describes as “a giant metaphor for and a celebration of life.”

Mirror: Is The Black Parade more than just an album?

Gerard Way: We’ve always seen The Black Parade as something that was written for us and for the fans. We see them as The Black Parade, and it’s why we started a band called The Black Parade [MCR’s on-stage alter egos in marching-band garb]. We worked hard on the production to make it aesthetically work with the music. It would be great to see it as a film, and we’ve talked about it but we haven’t done anything yet.

M: Do you understand why people either seem to really love you or really hate you?

GW: Absolutely. We understood why it was happening when we were playing basements, so it’s nothing new to us. My Chem was either your cup of tea or it wasn’t, and that’s the band we would rather be. I don’t want to be considered part of some mild band everyone has a moderate opinion about, because the devotion we get from diehard fans is priceless. I’ll take that and the negative as opposed to an audience of 1,200 people who couldn’t care less. You know, the type of people who go to a concert because they have nothing better to do.

M: How about all the new fans you have? Are they just as passionate as the older fans?

GW: We’re used to getting our fans from word of mouth. I don’t really see a lot of people coming to the show just because it’s cool, because it’s actually in some ways quite uncool and I think that’s what’s great about it. There’s really nothing cool about this band and we’ve never fit in. In order to see a My Chem show, you probably have to really want it.

Conceptual art

M: Is the concept album uncool?

GW: Not that I think it’s uncool, but I think most people don’t want to take the risk of making one. A lot of bands just want to write songs and that’s all they are to them—just songs. The songs aren’t relevant to each other. They write 14 songs and record 14 songs. I’m sure a lot of bands put thought into those, but it takes a lot more work to make a concept record. It takes every ounce out of you to make one and I don’t know if a lot of musicians see the value in that.

M: Is the album format even important anymore?

GW: It’s as important as the artists make it. Really, it’s the musicians and the artists that dictate what’s in style, and if you have enough artists saying the album is important, then people will listen to albums, but if you only have a handful of them, it’s going to be a struggle. Right now we’re in a struggle because we’re amongst a handful of artists that think an entire album is important, as opposed to just the singles. You have a lot of pop artists who have no desire to make an album right now, so it makes us feel more isolated, but unique.

M: But your new single, “I Don’t Love You,” is a lot more direct than the rest of the album.

GW: It’s strange because that song is a contrast to the rest of The Black Parade because it is so blunt. For some reason, a lot of people ask what the song is about, but it’s the one song on the album that’s very obvious in its subject matter. I think any great love song or ballad needs to be very blunt and honest.

M: Is it a very personal song for you, then?

GW: The funny thing is it’s probably one of the least personal songs on the record. It’s not personal for me, it was me looking at other people’s lives. I’m a total people watcher, I look at other people’s lives as well as my own and this was an extremely personal record, but a lot of it was based on what I’ve seen in the world, and the people I’ve met.

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