MCR and Magazines

Here's an interview thing with Bob from The New Zealand Herald. Enjoy!

My Chemical Romance can't wait to get down under

My Chemical Romance have already achieved plenty in a relatively short career and filling a top slot on the 2007 Big Day Out tour will count as another highlight.

"It's one of those legendary festivals that everybody wants to do and we've wanted to do it forever so we're really excited," says drummer Bob Bryar. "It's gonna be so much fun."

The visit to New Zealand will be a first for Gerard Way (vocals), Ray Toro (guitar), Frank Iero (guitar), Mikey Way (bass) and Bryar.

The band has generally been put in the "emo" category, and the younger Big Day Out revellers will no doubt flock to see them, but My Chemical Romance regards itself as simply a rock band.

Emo was originally an emotive sub-genre of hardcore, but now is an often negative label attached to the black-clad, make-up wearing, fringe-toting teenagers with lip-piercings who make up a large part of the band's fanbase.

"We like to just describe ourselves as a rock band, everything about us is just a rock band," Bryar says. "If what people have to do is to put us into a category, that's fine you know, but if you think of a traditional emo band, that's not what this band's about."

My Chemical Romance has been accused in internet chatrooms of encouraging youth to self-harm, but Bryar says people have the wrong idea and there are plenty of positive songs on the new album.

"You know, there are a bunch of things that go around about kids that like this band are in a death cult and people harm themselves -- and for somebody who doesn't take the time to really understand what this band is about, that's what they think, and that's a very, very ignorant way to think about this band," Bryar says.

He says the music has in some instances given fans something to identify with and had positive effects.

"And that's one of our goals - to help people get through really rough things.

"Any hard times that we've had have all gone away when we get to perform our songs live on stage, and that's what we live to do. If we can pass that on to other people by listening to the music, that's a great goal to have," Bryar says.

"If anybody, even one person, will listen to us and go get help for anything they're thinking of doing by harming themselves, then we achieved our goal."

Since its release in October, The Black Parade has received rave reviews, described in Rolling Stone magazine as "the best mid-seventies record of 2006".

It's a compliment the band are pleased to accept after the work that went into making the album.

"It's just something that we had all dreamed of for our whole lives, having the opportunity to make a record like this and finding the people that can make it happen for us," Bryar says.

"We had enough time to experiment with stuff and do everything that we wanted to, and everything that we had inside of us came out, and we didn't hold anything back.

"It just feels really good to be able do something and be done with it and be so proud of it."

The album's first single, Welcome to the Black Parade, went to No 2 on the New Zealand singles chart in its second week, a success Bryar attributes to the effort and emotion the band poured into the record.

"It's amazing, you know, when you kind of put yourself out there on a limb and you take a chance - and we really did take a chance - and this is something that really wasn't expected by anybody."

Bryar says the hit single is one of his favourite songs on the album.

"That's just a personal thing, because we went through changing that song a million times in the studio. It was really hard to finish ... and when we finally did it was just amazing."

Although the band's previous album, Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, sold over two million copies worldwide, Bryar considers The Black Parade is musically stronger and better defines the band.

There was also greater creative freedom and less commercial pressure during the making of it.

"The only pressure that came was from ourselves internally to put out something great that we really wanted to put out, and just through having all the time and all the experiences that we've had - it's just a grand, kind of epic record."

Despite their fame, Bryar says the band are "pretty low-key people" off-stage.

"The rockstarish thing is very strange - like sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll, you know, we really don't do it. We don't really party - we let everything out when we perform."

- NZPA

* My Chemical Romance play the Big Day Out in Auckland on January 19

^^ thanks for posting

^ They printed that article in my local paper and I freaked out. XD
It's hanging on my closet now.

Boombox Generation:

Jenni has a life:

BAHH Im sorry I didn't see this.

My Chemical Romance was in Entertainment Weekly. Their new album got an A+ and they are on the EW pick list. They got an amazing review

there was also this little thing on armaggedon that said the wttbp video was a sign of the end of the world O.O

Wow. Lawls how cool would that be? MCR ending the world.
That'd be a nice way to go I think xDD

Fear_Regret_Romance:

well MCR is on the cover of amp this month

Yeah I got that

I didn't really like the artical
Just another watered down talk about the album...as usual
Lawls oh well it's MCR *plans on taking the cover off and taping it inside her locker*

Bess:

^ Yeah, you do have to make up a photobucket account but it only takes a few moments and it's totally worth having anyway because then you can upload all your pictures easily. Photobucket/other image hosting sites are the only way you can upload pictures on here.

Thanks il make one now then and il put it on here as soon as possible for everyone to see how they spelt franks name wrong lol......

it's ok im trying to do it now so it may even be done tonight

"Exclusive" interview with Mikey Way in todays Kerrang! Magazine (1141).

"I had a mental breakdown" - MIKEY WAY'S PRIVATE HELL says a small picture on the cover of the magazine.



There was a very nice picture on the opposite page, but i thought scanning it would be pointless. I'll put it on my wall later

Poor Mikey xxx

^very. When i read the thing in the LE booklet about what Mikey went through, I cried..A LOT.

I stood and read that article in Tesco and almost cried!
poor Mikey but I'm just glad he's getting better now

Aww that Mikey one was so touching x

^^ wow, i never realised mikey had had it so bad. i knew he'd been going through depression while they made the third album, but i didn't know the extent of it, or that he had a problem with drugs and alcohol too, when gerard got clean. =(. but it really is great that he's getting over it.
thanks to the peep who uploaded that =].

I t's to hard to buy some magazines about MCR in China.

I only buy one magazine~ on the top of book is MCR~

how cool they are ~

I will cherish the book forever

I found a few small article's in J-14 (January 2007).

-"BEFORE: Growing up, My Chemical Romance was labeled as "weird" because of their hobbies. In high school Gerard had many "bizarre" obsessions, like death, horror films and comic books.
AFTER: Today, it is their creativity as well as their obscure interests that make MCR stand out. Gerard's childhood obsessions influenced MCR's music, lyrics and image. If they didn't incorporate horror and fantasy into their act, they might not be as popular as they are. MCR confesses that they were outcasts in high school." (pg. 48 )

-"My Chemical Romance rocked you right this month, pulling just ahead of Panic! at the Disco and taking first!" (pg. 95)