Interviews

My Chemical Romance

Interview with Frank Iero on Feb 7, 2007 by Archive Bot

I remember first hearing My Chemical Romance as a budding little scenester on Long Island four or so years back.  It was a great honor for me to catch up with Frank Iero, guitarist of My Chemical Romance.
 
By Mike Passaretti
 
I heard that “The Black Parade” is a concept album based on a cancer patient.  What is the story behind it?
 
Frank Iero: Yes, it’s really not specific to cancer but it is kind of figured that a young man is dying of internal disease.  He meets the patient on his deathbed.  As he’s dying, death comes for him in his most vivid and favorite memory, his father taking him to the parade.  This memory morphs into this “black parade,” this perception of the grim reaper or however you want to describe it but this procession takes him on a journey and basically his life passes before his eyes.  You hear his story and some people along the way in his life that he’s dealt with, decisions that he’s made, and then his life comes to a close and he realized that he didn’t live his life the way he wanted to live it.  He didn’t live it to the fullest, he didn’t take advantage of every opportunity, and he didn’t live his life in the best way possible.  As a last track, “Famous Last Words,” he starts to plead with death and beg for a second chance and thinks that “if I only had this one more shot, I would be so much different, I would really live life to the utmost.”  So you’re left with this feeling of hope.  Hopefully he does get that second chance, maybe if it’s just one more day to go on and enjoy his life, or maybe all of this was a figment of his imagination, a hallucination brought on by the chemo or by the heavy dosages of medication, and maybe he does get through it.  That’s the cool thing about the record; the ending is open for interpretation. 
 
I guess it’s safe to say that this is your deepest, most sensitive album you’ve written so far?
 
FI: Honestly, it was.  It’s really weird because when writing, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, the last record we put out, it was a loosely based concept.  A lot of the real life elements that were happening around us came into play and we wrote about them and we didn’t really mask them with concepts or a story line, we kind of just let it out.  And it’s weird that this record, the record that we mask our own feelings in a story, happens to be our most personal to-date.  I think it’s because you’re going to be more honest when wearing a mask.  That’s something that we found; it’s easier to put it all out there when you’re not being yourself.
 
This “silhouette” person you guys write about; did you [My Chemical Romance] create him, is it a person you know, is it one of you, or anyone in particular?
 
FI: Yes, it is a character but the beauty of the character is that it’s the every-man; it can be anybody.  When listening to the record, when you really sit down and lose yourself in the story, it’s easy to put yourself in that position and also what I realize now as a listener, there’s another character that isn’t mentioned much.  The character is a loved one that is left behind.  Sometimes it’s easy to put yourself in the position of that person.  It was just a figment of our imagination, an embodiment of all of us and the people that we know, things that we’ve heard about, read, or saw on TV.  It’s something that we tried to be ambiguous.  It can be anyone.
 
A lot of people are probably going to compare this album to Coheed and Cambria’s albums because those are extended stories as well.  Do you think you guys were influenced by their idea or was this something that you guys just created from experiences, learning, and being on the road?
 
FI: We’ve done a few shows with Coheed, to tell you the truth though, to be familiar with their work and also be influenced by it…I’m not.  It was always something where the songs that I have heard I thought were pretty good and pretty intelligent but I could never relate to some of the things that were sung about in their songs.  I think that they’re a good band.  I think a lot of the things we drew upon for this record were of way past records like Queen; things that we weren’t actually around for, but our parents have.  When going into writing something that’s brand new and trying to do something unique and trying not to repeat yourself, you have to really make it your mystery.  The mystery of music and drums are important of the past.  I think that’s more of what we took in for this record.
 
How was the writing and recording process for The Black Parade different from anything previous?
 
FI: Drastically different, in a great way.  For the first record, I joined pretty early on in the band, maybe about a month before we recorded that record.  It was very hectic at that time; we were writing in our practice studio in Jersey, and whatever we had is what we had and that’s what we recorded.  Go in and do it.  They were recording their parts in the studio and I was out in the van listening to a different song and writing parts to that and we would swap; it was very hectic.  So going into Three Cheers… we had more time.  We were in the studio for a month.  That was unheard of for us.  Going in there and having different sounds at our disposal like different kinds of amps and a person who was listening to our songs and giving us ideas.  As for producers, Mike, he was really only concerned about certain songs and left us to our devices for other things.  It wasn’t as hands on as we thought he would have been.  For us that was fine, it was something that we’ve never tried before.  It was amazing.  People were really into that record and the song writing and we got a lot of attention.  It was very bizarre.  But then going into this record [The Black Parade] we met Rob Cavallo (Green Day, Goo Goo Dolls, Jewel) and when talking with him, he was so passionate about music, about music in general not just certain songs.  He was so hands on with everything and so hands on with every member, that he became the part of the band that we’ve been missing.  He really supported us in everything we wanted to do.  He wanted us to take risks, take our time, and to really explore.  Another thing he added was his ability to play piano.  Whether it was like “listen, there’s this thing, it’s a really great chord progression” so he played it over and over again so we could write around it.  He would stay late, late hours with us at night and just hang out with us.  He became part of the family.  That was an amazing process.  We were in the studio for quite a long time.
 
What’s the most important thing you’ve learned from being on the road?
 
FI: I think you start to realize that the people that are with you are your best friends, that’s part of your family.  You learn how to compromise with people, live with each other, and really take care of each other.  I know some bands that don’t get along or don’t have that kind of relationship or don’t really know about each other and don’t really hang out.  That’s amazing to me because we’ve always felt like it was us versus the world.  Especially early on, when we were on the bad tours and going to these shows where no one gave a shit about us.  You go into this show and people want to hate you.  We would go in there and we knew it was us versus everyone in that room; that was just the mentality that we had going into it.  I think that you learn most that you cherish that family.  The most important thing is each other. 
 
Who is your biggest influence that made you want to perform?
 
FI: Actually, there were two people that made me know early on that music was it for me and that was my father and my grandfather.  My father played drums and he still does.  He teaches drums at local clinics and at schools and also plays in these bands all over the NJ/PA area.  My grandfather is 85 and in a Dixie Land band.  I just remember growing up, listening to them talk about gigs that they had played or people that they played with or where they’re playing next.  It was amazing.  It was the main thing at the dinner table and at holidays.  I just knew early on that that was what I needed to do; it was part of my family, it was in my blood.  Growing up, my father would get me interested in his music - blues, old rock, and stuff like that.  It’s weird, this stuff that you listen to was this independent stuff of his day, all these old time blues guys that played from the heart because that’s what they wanted to do.  Because of that, I think that’s what got me into local bands and local punk rock and hardcore because there was such a passion about it.  That’s where I drew my influences from, that’s what got me started.  I still look back and think like that. 
 
If you could put together your own tour with My Chemical Romance, who would you put on?
 
FI: You definitely have to go with, I know everyone says it, but The Beatles.  We’re definitely opening this by the way (laughter).  Black Flag of course, but their first four years with Keith Morris singing.  Otis Redding would be second on that bill.  To open, let’s see, I’ll do The Bouncing Souls.  And yeah we’ll open for all of that.  Yeah I’d like that show, I’d go to that show (laughter).
 
Do you feel that the fame you’ve gained over the past 2-3 years has changed you, your lifestyle, or writing style?
 
FI: Yes, absolutely.  We joke around this but in the past just two years, we’ve lived probably about two lifetimes.  There’s been so much done and we’re so fortunate to be able to do what we love, something that we’re so passionate about and actually be able to do it on such a grand level and see the world, reaching large amounts of people.  We’re very busy, always doing something that we love.  Unfortunately that keeps us away from our loved ones a great deal but that’s the great thing about it all, they understand and are so supportive of what we do.  We’ve really found out who our friends are and who is our family, we can pretty much count them on two hands.  I think we’ve really learned how to be great brothers of each other, supporting each other in a friendship sense, and really know what’s important to us and know that we’re doing it.
 
If you weren’t in My Chemical Romance, what would you be doing right now?
 
FI: I hope this doesn’t sound cliché, but it’s true.  Being in this band and playing in this band and things that I’m so passionate about is what has kept me alive.  I know all-to-well the sickening feel of wasting my time, not being productive, wondering what my purpose was and hating myself for taking up space and not making a change, not being able to make a difference.  So what would I be doing if I weren’t in this band?  I would do anything that I could to work in conjunction with this band.  I would be booking them shows or doing guitar tech for them.  When this band started I wasn’t in it, I joined a couple months after they started it and when I heard the demo, I knew there was something so important about them, I knew I had to be involved.  I was lucky to be asked to join the band.  If they hadn’t asked me to join, then in some way I would be helping out.  It’s something more important than any one member, it’s something bigger than any of us.
 
Thank you very much, Frank, for your time.  Good luck with everything!
 
Thank you Mike and punkbands.com.