Recording its fourth album was a frustrating yet liberating venture for My Chemical Romance. Riding high on the critical and commercial success of its 2006 concept record, "The Black Parade," the New Jersey-bred band prepared to make its next statement with producer Brendan O'Brien. But, according to rhythm guitarist Frank Iero, those sessions just didn't feel right.
"We kind of defined what we thought it was going to be before we made it," Iero told SoundSpike. "That record was a little bit more straightforward. We were wearing our influences on our sleeve. It didn't feel like we had meshed those influences in with what we do well."
So the band -- which also includes vocalist Gerard Way, bassist Mikey Way and guitarist Ray Toro -- jettisoned those sessions and gave it a go with "The Black Parade" knob turner, new Warner Bros. Records Chairman Rob Cavallo. Those songs would amount to My Chemical Romance's latest concept opus, "Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys."
"Looking back, when we went back and re-imagined this record, those influences found their way in," Iero said. "It's our take on those influences, rather than, 'I want a song that feels this way,' and making that song."
The first official single from "Danger Days," "Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)," was released to digital retailers Sept. 28. The album was released two months later, on Nov. 22, and claimed the No.1 spot on Soundscan's Rock and Alternative Album charts. It also debuted at No. 3 on the Digital Albums chart and No. 7 on the Internet Albums chart. In addition, "Danger Days" landed at No. 8 on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart, selling 112,460 units in its first week of release. That compares to "The Black Parade's" bow at 240,000 copies.
Iero spoke to SoundSpike about My Chemical Romance's current radio station-sponsored concert tour, its official jaunt that begins next year, the making of "Danger Days" and Mikey Way's love of professional wrestling.
SoundSpike: You decided to play smaller venues than you did on "The Black Parade" tour. Was that a purposeful decision?
Right now we're on a radio show tour. As for the shows coming up next year, it's been a couple years since we went on a proper tour. To get back into the swing of things, it feels better in smaller venue, sometimes to kind of get your tour legs back and get reacquainted with fans, and also with playing shows every night. It's one of those things where you can always build back up to bigger venues, but sometimes doing smaller shows or two shows in the same city in a smaller venue is a little bit more fun to do in the beginning.
Tell me about the concept behind "Danger Days."
That's the great thing about the record. It's a high concept-pirate radio transmission from the year 2019 after this event that happens in a post-apocalyptic world. As far as a full story line, that only kind of comes through in the videos. What you're hearing is, basically, you get introduced to this DJ, Dr. Death Defying. He introduces you to the world a little bit, holds your hand and releases you into it. We'll check back in halfway through the record, and at the end again when he signs off. For the most part, you're just kind of released into this world. Characters are introduced, but there's no true storyline. I like to think of it as a roller coaster ride. Like one of those Disney-themed rides. There are elements of a world that we've created, but you're kind of picking up as you go along.
How many videos have you filmed for it so far?
We finished the second one about two months ago, the video for "SING." Right now we're just working on the live show. Another video will probably be completed around January, February. But we're actually thinking about taking a break from the storyline and doing a video for a song -- I'm not sure what the next single's going to be. Probably just a video to take a break and cut our teeth on a different kind of concept and then kind of come back to the storyline at a later date.
How was it to work with Rob Cavallo?
You know, that was really great. That was one of the best parts about making this album. We set up these rules where in order to reinvent the band every time -- "Oh we're going to use a different producer;" "Oh, we're going to use different video guys;" "Oh, we're going to use different artwork." This time, going through the record, we found our way back to Rob because when we finished the first attempt with the record, we weren't happy with it. We still had a couple more songs we wanted to write to see what they were. We weren't sure if they were going to make the record or what they were going to be. But we knew that we didn't want to just shut down the creative process at that point. Rob was available. He said, "Why don't you guys just come in and do a couple of songs and see what it is." And we went into his home studio and started to do these songs. Once we got four songs in, we were like, "Oh my God. This is what the record needs to be." Everything that we did before this led up to this point. It's good that we did that, but we weren't done yet. It just so happened that we ended up at the right place at the right time with the right guy making the record. It was a homecoming-type thing and it was a very natural and organic way to find our way back.
Was it frustrating to have to give up after the first try?
I think it would have been had we not written these four songs. The four songs we wrote were "Na Na, Na," "Vampire Money" and then we did "Planetary (GO!)" and then we did "SING." I was like, "Whoa, I think we found something really important here." We thought we finished the record. There were no rules at that point like, "We can't do this or we can't include that on our album. We're a rock band. We can't do this. There are certain things that rock bands shouldn't do." I think those rules hold you back. So when we were writing those songs, there were no stipulations. There were no rules, because we didn't think we were writing a record. So when we got to that fourth song, it was like, "Wait a minute. We're on the right track. So let's scrap everything and do this again." It was energizing, and of course there's this little sense of, "Oh my God. What's going on? What are we going to do?" If we hadn't gotten those four songs -- which we consider gems of the record -- we would have been really scared. [Laughs]
I saw that "Na Na Na" is being used as the theme for the upcoming "TLC" WWE pay-per-view. Are you guys big wrestling fans?
That's awesome. We all were back in the '80s. Our dads had all taken us to WWF wrestling events and stuff. But Mikey [Way] tries to follow it. He gets back into it here and there. He's the dude, like if you mention, "Who's that guy?" -- he'll totally know. It came up last night, as a matter of fact. We were talking to our friend, and his father is friends with a guy that wrestled in the '80s. I guess one of his characters was called "The Genius." Mikey was like, "Oh my God. He used to be this guy ... He used to wear this graduation hat." It's crazy, the amount of wrestling knowledge that Mikey Way has.
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