Gerard Way can ‘never leave or escape’ My Chemical Romance.

The musician is the lead vocalist and co-founder of the alternative rock band from New Jersey. The group are currently in the process of writing material for a new album following the success of their fourth studio record, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys.

Gerard says My Chemical Romance are more motivated than ever.

‘Fantastic,’ he exclaimed when asked to sum up the feeling in the group.

‘Going on ten years now we love being in the band. It’s something you can never leave or escape or get away from, and that’s a great thing.’

Gerard has enjoyed penning ideas for tracks while touring. The star has felt more creative as he’s learnt to cope with stress better.

‘The cool thing is we’ve spent a lot of time writing new material on the road this time. We didn’t do that before Danger Days…’ he said.

‘I think [it's down to] just not being burnt out. Really enjoying and reconnecting with making music again, just being inspired, whereas after [third album] Black Parade we weren’t inspired to do much at all besides disappear.’

My Chemical Romance guitarist: ‘The emo tag doesn’t bother us as much as it did in the past’

With their theatrical stage shows and neo-goth appearance, My Chemical Romance went from the East coast underground scene to the vanguard of alternative rock in the 2000s. From the get-go, the band took on the “emo” label, but guitarist Ray Toro says that wasn’t in the plan.

“The emo tag doesn’t really bother us as much as it did in the past,” Toro told TheMusic.com. “As we’ve developed as a band that charge has really gone away to the point where it only creeps up now and then. I think what was really frustrating though was that the tag itself was really indefinable – we kept getting called something that to us made no sense whatsoever… “

His playful “revenge” on the critics who wanted to slap My Chemical Romance with the “emo” stigma is the band’s longevity. “Our revenge on all those journalists and commentators who wanted to call us ‘emo’ as if to suggest we were a band that teenagers liked for a couple of months, was to survive and carry on making good records and playing good shows,” he said. “And in doing that we’ve not only kept fans who have been with us from the beginning, but we’ve made new fans with each record; fans that appreciate us for a range of different reasons.”

If Toro were to coin My Chemical Romance one particular genre, would it be punk revival, alternative indie, post-hardcore or punk-pop? His answer: None of the above. “This is going to sound so clichéd and I don’t want to offer up platitudes, but I’ve always felt that we are one of those bands that doesn’t fit into the traditional categories that people use to describe heavy music,” he explained. “When we first started writing songs, we decided that we didn’t want to have boundaries and that’s why you’ll hear everything from a straight punk rock song right through to big emotional ballads like ‘Sing’… If a song sounds good we’ll use it and think about what genre it fits into later.”

My Chemical Romance are in the process of building a studio in Los Angeles where they’re going to begin working on their fifth album.

Speaking to Noise11, the band outlined plans for their impending fifth album and how they’re going to approach it.

“Back in L.A. we just got a studio so we’re kind of building that out and basically trying to make a compound where we can be creative and be there whenever we want to be,” guitarist Ray Toro told Noise11.com. “That’s the tough thing doing records in a cycle and you have three or four months where you have to write and record a record and sometimes that’s tough. You can take longer, but you always feel like there’s something over your head like a time constraint and now we’ll have our own place where we can go and make music 24 hours a day. It’s gonna be great!”

The band won’t be doing the production on their own though. They have the help of engineer Doug McKean who has worked on both Welcome to the Black Parade and Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys.

“Doug McKean, we’ve done our past two records with him,” Toro continued. “He’s an awesome engineer, so he’s going to be working with us. He knows everything. He’s a genius. He definitely, while we’re in the studio with us, helps shape the sound of songs. He does funny stuff like play back stuff in a different way or change arrangements and trick our ears and we’ll be like “That was awesome! Look at what we did!”

With their last two records being bombastic concept albums designed to be listened to in their entirety, does that leave them room for creativity in the future? What is it about the concept album that attracts them? Will the next record be another concept album? So many questions!

“It can’t just be a collection of songs,” the band’s other guitarist Frank Iero explains. “It’s never going to be ‘Oh, we had these twelve songs so record it real quick and we’ll put them out!’. I don’t think anyone can really do that these days anymore without some sort of thought or vision behind it. I think the days of just filling the time and putting out a disc is over, and I’m glad, because those are some of my least favourite records.

“I think [iTunes] is cool. Write a song and then just put it out, I like the immediacy of that, but I’m talking about full albums, it’s no longer a mixtape mentality. There needs to be a reason why there’s twelve songs, or thirteen songs. It’s not like ‘Oh, we have a single so we need ten more fillers to put it out there,’ but for us, we’re fans of the album. We grew up listening to full records and having an A-side and a B-side. There’s something magical about taking that record and flipping it over, or a tape. Remember when you had to hit the two buttons to flip the tape? I like that. I like hearing what a band is up to when it’s not just writing a single. That’s when you get to really know what a band is all about. That’s when you love a band and not just music.

“There’s a big difference between being just a music fan or a popular music fan and you’re a fan of a band. When you’re a fan of a band you don’t have to like everything, but you have to follow them because they know better than you do what their band is supposed to be doing and when you do follow and you do give it as many listens as it needs to like it or to appreciate it, then that band has opened your mind a little bit and you’re a better person because of that band and that’s why you’re a fan of that band.”

[The full video interview with Frank Iero and Ray Toro of My Chemical Romance]

Source: Killjoys HQ

There’s no denying that My Chemical Romance brought the crowd-surfing, moshing and fist-pumping out in force when they hit Oz for ‘Big Day Out 2012!’

But pulling out all the stops with their highly energetic live performance wasn’t just for their loyal Aussie fans – but a chance to impress one of their favourite music idols too!

Revealing hopes to work with fellow BDO act Noel Gallagher, bass guitarist Mikey Way told MTV,

“It would be a pipedream to collaborate with Noel Gallagher.

“He’s been a hero since as far back as I can remember…He’s written some of my favourite songs of all time.”

And his brother and lead singer Gerard agrees.

“He’s a legendary songwriter [and] legendary performer.”

And while we’re keeping our fingers firmly crossed for a hot new duet – the New Jersey quartet say they’re focused on dropping a new album as soon as possible!

“We’re building our studio right now to start the next record,” said Gerard.

“Yeah, we’re going to start making new tunes sooner [rather] then later,” added Mikey.

“We’re excited, very excited.”

And so are we guys!

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Related article about MCR 5th album on kerrangradio.co.uk