My Chemical Romance guitarist Frank Iero was in Los Angeles recovering from a huge infection after having his wisdom teeth removed, but he still took the time to speak to college newspapers across the country for a conference call. Some highlights:
Q: Music listener's habits are moving from purchasing albums and listening to CDs to more focus on singles, downloading and shuffling or randomizing songs on iPods. Do you think this effects the ability of the average rock fan to process a unified album such as The Black Parade?
A: That's a good question. I hope not. I've always been a big fan of records in the past where you couldn't just listen to it in the background, you had to sit down for a portion of time and listen to that record. It was just so impressive and so in-depth it took up every sense you had... you're totally right, in this day and age, the iPod and MP3 society, you just wanna hear the single and throw it away. The thing that stinks about that is that computer speakers are really the worst in the world to listen to music on. I still have faith in people that are true fans of the music. When something really important comes, like American Idiot, or hopefully like The Black Parade, people see it's not like everything else, "I want to go home and put this on the stereo and listen to it."
Q: Why do you think so many rock bands are going for more thematic album, from concept albums by bands like Green Day to the Killers. You guys have had signs of this before, but especially so on The Black Parade. How does My Chemical Romance, especially the new record, fit into this resurgence?
A: Geez, I actually had this conversation with a friend of mine the other day. You'd think the bands of the world got together in a roundtable, you've got this resurgence of people starting to give a shit again. I think everyone kind of took notice of this. "I'm over this single-driven market, I don't care about anything but that one hook that everyone likes, I don't care about that other shit, or the artwork." And you're seeing this resurgence of real bands, real artists and real musicians that do care and take pride in their craft and take pride in the art behind it.
Q: What was it like making the "Famous Last Words" video inside of a fiery inferno?
A: It was hot! It was dangerous. It was one of those things where we had just filmed the video for "Welcome to the Black Parade" the day before... I remember, even early on, if we had two shows, and were doing a double header, we'd go "we have to take it easy to save up some energy." But as soon as the set would start, maybe out of spite, maybe just because we're dumb, but we'd give it so much we'd have a bloody nose, guitars were broken, and then we'd have to drive two hours to do another show... So going into "Famous Last Words," they had these blowtorches and pyro explosions behind us, and I don't know what happened, but as soon as they said "action!" we just went nuts. We walked away with third degree burns, Gerard Way had a broken ankle, I think everyone walked away bleeding somewhere, except for Mikey because he kind of just stayed on the side.
Q: Has your approach to performing live changed at all?
A: The hardest thing about playing the shows now is that it's a totally different thing connecting with, say 10,000 people as opposed to playing with 100 people...It's something that takes a long time, I think, to perfect, and it's definitely something that we've had a chance to be fortunate enough to try a bunch of times. I think that we're definitely on our way to being able to do that. It's an incredible feeling getting up there and seeing this sea of people, and not just seeing a sea of heads, but seeing individuals and looking at them and doing something. Walking away not just saying "Oh, that was a good show," but walking away with an experience.
Q: I wanted you to talk a little about the theme in the song "Welcome to the Black Parade" and the key and tempo changes and how they allow listeners to connect to the song?
A: The story behind the song is really the introduction of the theme of the record. It's the cornerstone of the concept, really. We knew going into it that that song needed to be just right in everything, whether it was just key changes and tempo changes, it needed to grab you. It was the anthem of the record, if that was wrong, the record wasn't gonna work. The funny thing about that song is it started out about 5 years ago, just an arpeggiated guitar part and this haunting melody over it that really sounded like "My Way" by Sinatra... We tried really hard to get it ready for Bullets, but it wasn't working... It came up again when writing for Revenge, and it was like "Hey, remember that song that we had?"... For some reason, we couldn't make it work, and maybe it just wasn't the right time. I'd like to think that everything kind of happens for a reason like that. If we had put it on Revenge, it wouldn't have meant what it means now. When going into The Black Parade, we started writing in New York, and the riff came up again, and we finally finished it. It was a really slow ballady thing, it reminded me of "Oh! Darling" by the Beatles, a mid-tempo thing, like it was dragging you towards something... The key to the song was those tempo changes, and the way it made your body feel when it hit.
Q: You obviously have admirers, but you also have haters, for example the recent attack by Kasabian. In Kerrang! you won best and worst honors in most categories... [in festivals and concert with a mixed crowd] do you feel successful like you win over the crowd by the end of your set?
A: To me, it's an amazing feat. Anytime you conjure feelings in a person, creating art that causes this mixed emotion, so much that they feel the need to go vote whether it's good or bad, that's what art is... it fuels people in a certain way. One person's genius is another person's trash...
As far as other bands talking trash, I don't know, I can't listen to that stuff. I'm sure there's hundreds of bands out there that don't like what we're doing, and there's a hundred bands out there that I don't like. So as far as that goes, whatever. I'm in my favorite band, and that's all that really matters to me.
Q: You're all very artistically motivated, but do you get pissed when you get looked over, for example, by the Grammys?
A: There's a part of you that goes "Aww, man, I think our song was really good and we should be nominated for this thing." And you're pissed off for like 2 days... When you started this, it wasn't about a fucking trophy... It's about helping kids and creating something that you're gonna be proud of for the rest of your life, that's what it's about. It's about going out there and having a positive message for people around the world, and being the band that you always were and wanted to be, and fulfilling your potential.
