My Chemical Freak: My Chemical Romance All The Time

Here is a picture I hadn’t seen.

If this is your photo let me know and I will credit you for it.

Thanks Carito!

Thanks to Francesca for typing all this out for us!

My Chemical Romance After a much-needed holiday, the emo heroes are ready to work.
Title: TBC
Due: TBC
Album Number: FOUR Follow up to: 2006’s The Black Parade.

Do you have any plans for the new album at this stage and have you started writing yet? Frank Iero (guitar): “We got together recently in October to finish up a song for the soundtrack to the film Watchmen. That happened in New York, where we mixed and mastered the song. All we want to do now is get together and write again. Really, right now, it’s a waiting game to see if Bob [Bryar, drummer who has suffered ongoing wrist injuries] is 100 per cent.”

Has he fully recovered from his wrist problems yet? “The thing you have to know about Bob is that, even if he wasn’t 100 per cent, he’d say he was just so that he could get back to playing. It’s very important to us to start playing again and it get back into it, but it’s not any more important than one member’s health. So we want to make sure he doesn’t injure himself- or do something worse- again.”

A year ago, Gerard Way promised a more punk-sounding, live-feeling album. Are there any thoughts as to which direction you might be taking at this point? “I haven’t got a clue, man. It’s too early to tell. I do know this: at home, we all have cassette recorders and different computer programmes that we’re been recording on. Ray [Toro, guitar] has a ton of tapes and I have a ton of tapes too, so we’ve got lots of ideas.

Do you tend go plan in advance or does the music take its own direction once you start writing together? “It’s so weird. If I had told you what I thought The Black Parade would have sounded like when we first started working on it, then what I would have said would be something completely different from the way it turned out. Basically, anything that I say now means that the exact opposite will actually happen!”

Going into The Black Parade, Mikey Way had various problems and there were some bleak periods during recording. How’s the mood in My Chemical Romance at the moment? “Everyone’s very positive and relaxed from some time off. The traveling is the hard work to us but as far as playing shows and writing music is concerned, then that’s the icing on the cake. So getting back to that is very exciting to us. We’re thrilled about the possibilities of what might happened.”

How necessary was the break you took for much of 2008? “We definitely needed it. If nobody had told us to go on that break, then we probably wouldn’t have taken it. We’d have carried on driving right into the sun because we love playing so much. But it’s good to take a step back and evaluate both what you’ve done and to work out what you want to accomplish. Also, you can look at the problems of what happened on the last record cycle- which was especially important for us because we had such bad luck on it wit health problems,injuries and family members passing away. That record was just cursed!”

Did that experience help tighten the bonds in the band? “Getting thought all that together was a great thing. It bought us closer together as musicians and friends. You can only become stronger because of it. Your personal lives have changed a lot away from the band- you’re married now, as are Ray and Mikey, while Gerard is having a baby. Does that change things? “We’re still as close. The only thing now is that we’re spread out across the country. That kind of sucks. We can’t just drive to each other’s houses and go get coffee or something anymore. But we talk everyday. I see Mikey and Ray a lot, and I’ve flown out to see Gerard and Bob. We’re around each other a lot, we’re just not in each other’s face so much!”

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LeATHERMOUTH

Despite his superstar status as MCR’s guitarist, Frank Iero and is four leathermouth bandmates recorded their debut completely unassisted, in a variety of basement in New York and New Jersey “to capture the band the way it should be heard”.”We recorded over the past two years whenever I was off tour.” Iero explains. “When doing the vocals, it was just me alone, hitting record and running to the mic.” The hardcore 10-tracker includes the songs 5th Period Massacre, Sunsets Are For Muggings, and Your Friends Are Full Of Shit. “I expect all the cool kids will hate it before they even hear it,” the frontman laughs. We doubt it!”

TITLE: XO DUE: January 26