A Rock Star and His Cartoonist Alter Ego
MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE is a cartoony kind of band, and that suits the frontman, Gerard Way. Since the group - including the guitarists Ray Toro and Frank Iero and Mr. Way’s younger brother, the bassist Mikey Way - formed in 2001, it has developed a glam-emo aesthetic that seems sprung from a dark and glossy comic book. Its new album, “Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys” (Reprise), is full of anthemic tracks that imagine a postapocalyptic future. Gerard Way, 33, created “Umbrella Academy,” a comic book published by Dark Horse about a family of atypical superheroes. Melena Ryzik spoke by phone with Mr. Way at a tour stop in Detroit about discovering his favorite album of the year, “Treats,” by the Brooklyn band Sleigh Bells, and how he was influenced by Brit pop growing up in New Jersey. “At the time, everything in America was so macho,” he said. “The British stuff was the opposite of macho. I heard the Smiths, and that really changed everything for me.” This is an edited version of their conversation.
Q. What are you listening to on the road?
A. I haven’t been really listening to anything. When we make a record, I don’t listen to anything.
Q. So your band mates get to control the iPod. Do you have similar tastes?
A. We all have different tastes. Me and Mike’s tastes are similar, we both grew up on [Iron] Maiden and then punk and then Brit pop. Frank listens to a ton of new music, bands that are obscure, and Ray is into stuff that comes from Puerto Rico and classical music. The way I found “Treats,” I found that from Rob Cavallo [who produced “Danger Days”]. He had a demo that they had done, and he knew I was looking for a lot of digital sounds. He said, “I don’t think this is exactly what you’re looking for, but it’s a new sound, and I think you should hear this.” That was one of the pieces of music that I actually did listen to when making “Danger Days,” aside from M.I.A.
Q. What did you think about the controversy over her video for “Born Free”?
A: I only watched the video once, and I listened to the song a million times. I like that she sampled a band like Suicide. I like that it’s extremely challenging to listen to, it’s very free form, the chorus is super-intense. I identified with it in some way. I don’t think she was talking about her past or anything political or where she grew up, it definitely sounded like what she was going through right now. After her last record there was a lot of hype on her, it was like she was going to be the next big pop act, and I think her response was basically “Born Free.”
Q. Did you make comic books as a kid?
A. I was reading them and drawing them, and I was writing short stories a lot. “Umbrella Academy” was made because I missed comic books. I went to school at S.V.A. [the School of Visual Arts in New York]. I got a degree in cartooning and illustration. That’s where I thought I would end up, and the band just kind of happened. I love it. It’s definitely a dream job. It’s definitely a lot of people’s first dream. So I couldn’t ignore that. But many years later I still felt like a lot of my identity was lost. By the time I got to “Danger Days,” I couldn’t make another album without bringing that part of myself to the band. A lot of it was about reclaiming my identity.
Q. Even the music you like - like “Diamond Dogs,” David Bowie’s album about “1984” - is full of alter egos and secret identities. Is that part of being a rock star?
A. There are a lot of secret identities that happen with it. “Black Parade” was a secret identity, even the guy who was onstage during “Bullets,” whether I was realizing it or not, that was a persona I was creating to hide who I was. I kept getting further and further away from the guy I really was, creating this superhero identity. And the guy I really was was a guy who likes writing and drawing and comic books and stuff.
Q. “The Filth,” a comic you like, is about a sad sack guy with a sick cat who morphs into a puerile superhero.
A. If you read it like it’s about a guy who’s just sad that his cat’s dying of cancer, it makes sense. A lot of the themes in “The Filth” was stuff I had brought to “Danger Days,” just the notion of filth and cleanup.
Q. Is that dirtiness why you like “A Clockwork Orange” too?
A. As a teenager, when you’re first discovering punk music, the first movie that you also discover is “Clockwork Orange.” At the time it was the first movie that I saw that did not have a hero in it. Period, there was nobody likable in this film. I had never seen a film like that.
One of the things I liked about the book is the language. I came up with a lot of terms for “Danger Days” that didn’t necessarily exist; I wanted it to feel exactly like the first pages of “Clockwork Orange.”
Q: So you reread it?
A: I have the audio book. It’s a weird book, just like “Naked Lunch,” that I constantly go to. “Naked Lunch,” that I’ve never finished. I find it to be one of those books that is really inspiring. You read it for 10 to 20 pages, and you get what you want out of it, and you come back to it later.
Q. Your aesthetic is so theatrical, have you ever considered doing theater?
A. I had this wacky idea that in L.A. that you’d re-enact two episodes of “Twilight Zone” once a week. I wanted to rent this little theater that was all painted black, and I thought over time you’d get really cool actors into it. It would be really fun to get somebody like Bruce Willis to do “Steel” [a “Twilight Zone” episode]. I would go to that. I love watching “Twilight Zone.” New Year’s Eve they do the marathon, I watch it every year.
Q. That’s a rock star’s New Year’s Eve?
A. That’s totally the alter ego in full effect.
[SOURCE]
Q. What are you listening to on the road?
A. I haven’t been really listening to anything. When we make a record, I don’t listen to anything.
Q. So your band mates get to control the iPod. Do you have similar tastes?
A. We all have different tastes. Me and Mike’s tastes are similar, we both grew up on [Iron] Maiden and then punk and then Brit pop. Frank listens to a ton of new music, bands that are obscure, and Ray is into stuff that comes from Puerto Rico and classical music. The way I found “Treats,” I found that from Rob Cavallo [who produced “Danger Days”]. He had a demo that they had done, and he knew I was looking for a lot of digital sounds. He said, “I don’t think this is exactly what you’re looking for, but it’s a new sound, and I think you should hear this.” That was one of the pieces of music that I actually did listen to when making “Danger Days,” aside from M.I.A.
Q. What did you think about the controversy over her video for “Born Free”?
A: I only watched the video once, and I listened to the song a million times. I like that she sampled a band like Suicide. I like that it’s extremely challenging to listen to, it’s very free form, the chorus is super-intense. I identified with it in some way. I don’t think she was talking about her past or anything political or where she grew up, it definitely sounded like what she was going through right now. After her last record there was a lot of hype on her, it was like she was going to be the next big pop act, and I think her response was basically “Born Free.”
Q. Did you make comic books as a kid?
A. I was reading them and drawing them, and I was writing short stories a lot. “Umbrella Academy” was made because I missed comic books. I went to school at S.V.A. [the School of Visual Arts in New York]. I got a degree in cartooning and illustration. That’s where I thought I would end up, and the band just kind of happened. I love it. It’s definitely a dream job. It’s definitely a lot of people’s first dream. So I couldn’t ignore that. But many years later I still felt like a lot of my identity was lost. By the time I got to “Danger Days,” I couldn’t make another album without bringing that part of myself to the band. A lot of it was about reclaiming my identity.
Q. Even the music you like - like “Diamond Dogs,” David Bowie’s album about “1984” - is full of alter egos and secret identities. Is that part of being a rock star?
A. There are a lot of secret identities that happen with it. “Black Parade” was a secret identity, even the guy who was onstage during “Bullets,” whether I was realizing it or not, that was a persona I was creating to hide who I was. I kept getting further and further away from the guy I really was, creating this superhero identity. And the guy I really was was a guy who likes writing and drawing and comic books and stuff.
Q. “The Filth,” a comic you like, is about a sad sack guy with a sick cat who morphs into a puerile superhero.
A. If you read it like it’s about a guy who’s just sad that his cat’s dying of cancer, it makes sense. A lot of the themes in “The Filth” was stuff I had brought to “Danger Days,” just the notion of filth and cleanup.
Q. Is that dirtiness why you like “A Clockwork Orange” too?
A. As a teenager, when you’re first discovering punk music, the first movie that you also discover is “Clockwork Orange.” At the time it was the first movie that I saw that did not have a hero in it. Period, there was nobody likable in this film. I had never seen a film like that.
One of the things I liked about the book is the language. I came up with a lot of terms for “Danger Days” that didn’t necessarily exist; I wanted it to feel exactly like the first pages of “Clockwork Orange.”
Q: So you reread it?
A: I have the audio book. It’s a weird book, just like “Naked Lunch,” that I constantly go to. “Naked Lunch,” that I’ve never finished. I find it to be one of those books that is really inspiring. You read it for 10 to 20 pages, and you get what you want out of it, and you come back to it later.
Q. Your aesthetic is so theatrical, have you ever considered doing theater?
A. I had this wacky idea that in L.A. that you’d re-enact two episodes of “Twilight Zone” once a week. I wanted to rent this little theater that was all painted black, and I thought over time you’d get really cool actors into it. It would be really fun to get somebody like Bruce Willis to do “Steel” [a “Twilight Zone” episode]. I would go to that. I love watching “Twilight Zone.” New Year’s Eve they do the marathon, I watch it every year.
Q. That’s a rock star’s New Year’s Eve?
A. That’s totally the alter ego in full effect.
[SOURCE]