My Chemical Romance's Gerard Way: 'I Think We Needed To Be Away For A While'

Last month, MTV News broke the news that New Jersey's own My Chemical Romance would be recording a cover of Bob Dylan's "Desolation Row" for Zack Snyder's forthcoming "Watchmen" film and that the song would be the soundtrack's first single when it hits stores this winter. That's cool and all, but what about the band's next studio effort? When can we expect that gem?

Well, not for a long while. See, My Chemical Romance have spent much of the last few years in promotional mode — touring, doing press interviews, shooting videos, etc. At the moment, they're in what frontman Gerard Way dubbed "go live" mode: They've all put MCR on the backburner as they pursue outside interests.Of course, Way's been working on his comic book series, "The Umbrella Academy," and is penning a top-secret project for DC Comics. Meanwhile, his brother, Mikey Way, is also working on a comic book, Frank Iero is starting a new band called Leathermouth, Ray Toro is busy getting married and helming his Weezer cover band, and Bob Bryar, well, he's in Chicago for some unspecified reason. The point is, My Chemical Romance need to live like the rest of us for a bit before they return to the studio."We can't make any more music unless we live," Way explained. "But I'm already starting to get the ideas and the aesthetics and everything, and it's very different from [2006's] The Black Parade."How so, Gerry?"It's hard to say at this point, but musically, how Black Parade tapped into the glam, classic rock of Queen and Ziggy Stardust, this taps into something different — not punk, but maybe in its proto sense. The aesthetic — it is extremely different, and it is more stripped-down too. When we get a chance, we're going to get together and do some demos and start rolling. But we're going to take it slow. I feel like we needed to be away for a while. People need to kind of miss us because there was a point in the last two-and-a-half years where you could have seen us at least once a month if you wanted." Way elaborated on the album's sound, contradicting recent reports that the band is moving in a more punk direction. "It's weird — sometimes you give interviews, and they catch you in a weird mood on the road, and you're like, 'Nah, I didn't say it was going to be a more punk-rock record, I just thought it would be more stripped of the bells and whistles,' " he explained. "But I think the concepts will always be progressive. "It will be more direct, more about life, and have more social commentary in there," Way continued. "That's where it's kind of heading now. It won't be a 'boohoo' record about 'Oh, we got famous,' but a commentary on how the world is now."

My Chemical Romance's Mikey Way Pens Batman Comic While Band Is 'Taking A Long Break'

Bassist says MCR are always writing new songs but haven't been in the studio for new album.


My Chemical Romance's Mikey Way knows a thing or two about comics — and not just because his brother, Gerard, is an acclaimed artist and an avowed comic book fanatic with an Eisner Award-winning series, "The Umbrella Academy" under his belt

"Nah, it's not just my brother — all my buddies are really into comics, including [famed artist] Jim Lee, who I talk to all the time," Way said. "I have, like, this council of comic book geeks — kids I knew growing up, everyone — and we're always having these conversations about books and stuff, these conversations where we go, 'Man, if people could hear what we're saying right now, what would they think?' "So, it seems only natural that Way would dabble in the industry himself, and though it took him a while — "I had lots of meetings," he said — he's finally penned an eight-page story that will appear in DC Comics' special "Halloween '08" book, which hits stores Wednesday.Way's story, featuring art by Mateus Santoluoco, is based on the "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" but stars none other than Batman and Scarecrow (it is a DC comic, after all) in a bit of role reversal."The story follows the Scarecrow as Ichabod Crane and Batman as the Headless Horseman. I took the character of Jonathan Crane and put him in Tarrytown, New York, in the 1700s," Way explained. "They gave me the option to write a story about any character in the DC Universe, and I was like, 'Well, I'm gonna do Batman. I've got to do Batman.' Then I had the idea for my story, and it seemed pretty straightforward, and I was sure someone else had done it already. So I had to go to all my friends — my council — and to Jim Lee, and be like, 'Has anyone done a Batman story like this before?' And we were all amazed that no one has."Then I just got down to writing it," he continued, "and it turned out that there wasn't that much pressure, because the whole book is artists and writers doing Halloween-based storylines. I ended up with something like 20 pages of dialogue, so the big problem was that I just had too much, and we had to cut some of it."Way says that he still hasn't even seen the finished book, but that he plans on picking it up tomorrow. And he's planning on doing even more comic book work in the near future: He mentioned collaborating with his brother and says he's bounced a few ideas off of Lee, too. That's probably a good thing, because it seems like he's going to have a whole lot of free time on the horizon. After all, things are pretty slow right now in his other job, playing bass for My Chem."The thing with us is that we're always in the process of writing. You know, everyone is sitting around, working on riffs, and everyone's got their own stuff going on," Way said. "Personally, I've just been diddling around with songs, and if I come up with something good, I'll call Gerard or [guitarist] Frank [Iero]. But what it really boils down to is this band really needed some time off, and that's what we're doing right now. We're getting great time off."Way said that he and his MCR bandmates have "hung out a bunch," but that the only time they've played together was when they entered a studio to record a version of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" for director Zack Snyder's much-anticipated film version of "Watchmen." Other than that, the band appears to be miles away from beginning work on the follow-up to Welcome to the Black Parade, and though Way knows that news may disappoint fans, he promises that the wait will be worth it. Eventually."We're taking a long break, so we can come back fully recharged. The great thing about this band is that you never know what's going to happen next," he said. "We may write a bunch of stuff, and then a month later switch gears and do it all again. So if, say, we wrote some songs that sound like Rick Springfield, a week later they've all turned into Children of Bodom songs. I know it's going to be great; I just don't know what it's going to sound like. We're going to be just as surprised as everyone else, believe me."

Linkin Park Hit the Road with My Chem

It was like the Rock U.N. yesterday afternoon, with members of Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance and Taking Back Sunday converging on midtown to announce the Projekt Revolution bill and tour dates. Eschewing "the printed up stuff from management," Linkin Park members Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda quickly invited My Chemical Romance lead singer Gerard Way and Taking Back Sunday members Adam Lazzara and Matt Rubano up on stage, uniting the three bands who will form the main stage of Projekt Revolution. "We can’t wait to get out there and destroy everything in our path," said Bennington. Ironically, in the midst of all that destruction, the band announced PR will be a "green" tour. Also, My Chemical Romance will reunite with recently departed guitarist Mikey Way, and for the first time they’ll be switching up their set and playing more than just their latest The Black Parade in its entirety, though MCR do promise to bring as much of their arena show to the tour as possible. "Maybe we’ll get new uniforms," Way said.

My Chemical Romance Get Some Awful Food Poisoning

My Chemical Romance and Muse were forced to cancel their world tour after a violent bout with food poisoning effected several members of the crew and both bands. The tour, which is booked through July and spans three continents, came to a screeching halt after a show at William and Mary College in Virginia left crew members scattered in hospitals "between State College, PA and Columbus, OH." Immune to fears of death and despair, only to be brought low by craft services. This comes on the heels of MCR lead singer Gerard Way announcing he’s "the happiest brother alive" after his brother Mikey decided to temporarily leave the band to spend more time with his wife and "do all of the things a newlywed couple should do." This is the second time Way has taken a break, the first during the recording process of The Black Parade due to severe depression and drug and alcohol problems.