One day last August, Gerard Way boarded a plane to Japan with the gnawing conviction that he might not be coming back. Over the past year, the 27-year-old singer for the rock group My Chemical Romance had got it into his head that he had to be drunk to perform, and then needed Xanax to switch off his brain afterwards, and the combination was making him suicidally depressed. Way didn’t like being suicidally depressed, so he’d often add cocaine to the mix. That’s when his mood really got black. He spent the days before the flight saying goodbye to friends in New Jersey, just in case.

In Japan, Way spent all his time drunk. Before the final Tokyo show, he got so trashed on Heinekens and vodka tonics that he realized, even as he was performing, that he wouldn’t be able to remember anything about it the next day. After he came off-stage he spent half an hour throwing up in a garbage can, until there was nothing coming up except bile. Tonight, he thought to himself, his hair caked with vomit, I’ve drunk my last drink.

“It was a vicious circle,” he says matter-of-factly. “I needed it to function but it made me want to kill myself. It made me extremely unpredictable and dangerous to myself. I didn’t want it to get to the point where it became like a VH1 Behind the Music where they show this really bad picture of me 30 pounds overweight, throwing up on the floor in Berlin. I didn’t want that to happen to this band.”

Way’s cold-turkey flight back to the band’s home of Belleville, New Jersey, was excruciating — almost 7,000 miles of skin-crawling, sweat-soaked willies. “I got really emotional outside the airport when we landed. I didn’t know if I was going to see these guys again.” He went straight to his therapist and booked into Alcoholics Anonymous, knowing that in the same week My Chemical Romance had to replace their drummer, film a video and start their tour. And you thought you’d had a hard week at work.

“We got through the hard shit,” says Way. “This is the easy part.” Any fears last summer that My Chemical Romance were going to implode into obscurity were knocked flat by their swaggering teen-dysfunction anthem “I’m Not Okay (I Promise).” Inspired by the high school experiences of Way and his friends, it delivers angst-rock verities with a knowing wink, not to mention the kind of melody that ignites careers. The tongue-in-cheek video, filmed in the same L.A. high school as Donnie Darko, depicted MCR as proudly geeky misfits. It was a role that didn’t require much rehearsal.

Way calls My Chemical Romance’s music “death rock.” Others have tagged it goth punk or emo. Some endearing individuals have overcome genre confusion by simply calling MCR faggots. “Our guitarist Frank met somebody who said, ‘How do you feel when people stop liking your band because they find out you’re gay?’” says Way, curling his lip with pointed amusement.

To the more meat-headed members of the Warped tour fraternity, some eyeliner and the occasional ambivalent lyric (in “You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison,” Gerard sings “I’ll kiss your lips again” to a male character) are too much to process, but Way hopes MCR can change a few minds.

“We’ve always tried to switch the way people think about rock bands,” he says. “That [lyric] puts a dividing line between people. Are you on our side and you want to be different or are you on that side and you want to throw a football at my head?”

Gerard Way

http://www.mychemicalromance.net/

Gerard Way - Vocals
Ray Toro - Guitar
Mikey Way - Bass
Frank Iero - Guitar
Bob Bryar - Drums

Lifting their name from the cult description of Irvine Welsh's novels, My Chemical Romance is emerging as one of the most promising young bands in recent musical memory. Their sound, distinct and fresh, pledges allegiance to everyone from Iron Maiden and The Misfits to Morrissey and At The Gates. Having a live show that explodes with energy and leaves a footprint in the face of all things in it's way, My Chemical Romance has spent 2003 trekking around the United States numerous times and traveled to Europe to do a string of dates in the UK, Germany, Holland, & Spain. This has given the five lads a chance to further hone their skills and craft, all the while connecting with fans on an international level. It all seems like quite a feat for a little band from Newark, NJ.

The chronicle of My Chemical Romance is a twisted voyage through many years of grimy New Jersey suburbs. The five members have been very loose-knit friends since their high school years. There were many incarnations of local bands throughout that time, but never the combination that left that feeling of satisfaction they were striving for. As high school ended, the band members were scattered in all different directions in a search to find out what they would become. This left some attending school, while others went instantly into full time jobs. Over the years, the guys stayed in contact with each other. "I was doing animation in New York City, living in my mother's basement," states Gerard, "and I was really starting to question the direction of my life. So I called Matt, who'd been asking himself a lot of the same questions. We decided we would get together and play some music." After writing a song, and getting together with Matt, Gerard decided it was time to move forward. "The song, 'Skylines And Turnstiles,' came out pretty good. So I decided to call Ray, who is the best guitarist I know." The three of them spent the next few months in what was considered "a constant state of seeing what would happen." The result of this was another demo, recorded in an attic in the winter of 2001. "Things started moving rather quickly after that," explains Gerard. "Mikey heard about what we were up to and wanted to be a part of it. My brother didn't really know much about being a bassist, but he knew that was what we needed, so he learned to play almost overnight. We are all very impressed."

After being picked up by the New Jersey independent Eyeball Records, My Chemical Romance marched into a studio in upstate New York to record their debut album in May of 2002. Still feeling incomplete, the band recruited Frank to fill out their sound. Tracking the record in just over two week's time, My Chemical Romance was all ready to go. What they never saw coming was that their ability to write songs would touch the hearts and souls of nearly everyone they came across.

I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love was released in July of 2003. With this album came an avalanche of interest in the band. Constant regional touring created a fan base that is loyal to no end. The next evolutional step was to expand the touring to a national level. Securing opening spots on high profile tours, they set out in a van for the next 14 months of their lives.

My Chemical Romance did not take these opportunities to appeal to more fans than they expected very lightly. From swaggering to leaping, the band set out to grab people by the throat, scream until they listened, than explode in their face with unprecedented energy and performance that would not be ignored. They have something to say and want you to listen. The cool darkness of Gerard's lyrics & vocals may leave you to think of Nick Cave, Greg Dulli, or a young Reznor, while the wall of sound behind him will seal the coffin of what was. From "Demolition Lovers" and "Early Sunsets Over Monroeville," to the big rock of "Headfirst For Halos" and "Vampires Will Never Hurt You," My Chemical Romance really does have something to say. They will prove that in music, is life. And this life is darker than any New Jersey shore could ever be. Just listen for yourself.

Orlando Florida Guide Reader Comments about My Chemical Romance:
"My Chemical Romance is awesome in concert. I've seen them three times and all three times they have blown me away. Once they stopped in the middle of a song to tell people if their here to start a fight to get out is just amazing. At one of their shows somebody asked me what was the name of the band playing. If someone goes to a concert not knowing all the bands that are playing, but likes one of them enough to ask a total stranger the name of the band is Incredible. My Chemical Romance has so much energy with their shows and they sound amazing, too. You can tell they have real talent and didn't have to do much editing on their album to make it sound the way it does. They are great guys too. I met them all and they are very nice and willing to talk to fans even when they are packing up their instruments. I'm a My Chemical Romance fan forever."