My Chemical Romance
Masters of Their Universe
A false start inspired My Chemical Romance’s Danger Days

By Emily Zemler

My Chemical Romance originally meant to released its fourth studio album over a year ago. The New Jersey band had written and recorded the disc but just before its release, called it off. No one really knew what was going on and the move left everyone wondering if MCR planned to release another album at all. Last month, however, MCR offered up a brand new record, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys. It’s a rollicking collection of rock songs that not only open a whole new chapter in the band’s career but also reveal a universe the group has constructed around the songs. Bassist Mikey Way discusses how MCR’s false start led to this new album. He also talks about whether there’s a concept behind the tracks.

How long has this album been in the works?
It’s been close to two years. We had previously recorded the album. It was untitled. It was with Brendan O’Brien, and it was a very different album than the one everyone is hearing. It was very raw, stripped down. When we went to start writing songs, we went to set up all these parameters and rules for ourselves. We were pretty much setting it up as the polar opposite of The Black Parade. We didn’t realize that was limiting us. It was like fighting with an arm tied behind your back. We stripped everything away, but then I think we stripped away some of the things that were really special about the band. So we recorded that and in the 11th hour — it was ready to go, we were doing photo shoots, booking tour dates, the album was ready to go — we had a few days off and we said, “Something doesn’t feel right.” And we learned on this record, more than ever, to really go with your gut. If you’re thinking it, then it’s probably true.

How long ago did you scrap that first album?
I think it was winter of last year. Album was done, mixed and ready to go. Then sometime in January or February we reconnected with our old friend Rob Cavallo and we got to talking. We decided to get together to write some songs. We didn’t know exactly what we were doing yet. We went in and we wrote “Na Na Na” and “Vampire Money.” Those two songs obliterated anything we’d done before. It was a big discovery for us—because both those songs were huge departures from what we’d done. “Na Na Na” was kind of like the Big Bang that created the universe of Danger Days. The songs became the planets that were revolving around it.

How hard is it to have something finished and then just toss it?
That’s what the title of the album is in reference to. That’s the most dangerous thing you can do. We had a finished album and people were excited about it and radio stations had heard it and were selecting singles. It was ready to go. And to pull the plug on all the hard work everyone had done and all the time everyone had put in was a little hard to swallow. We didn’t quite know we were remaking the album when we went in with Rob, either. We went in and thought we’d just write some songs. About four or five songs in we realized we were remaking the album. At that point the five songs we’d written were so different from anything we’d ever done and so powerful we were kind of psyched about it.

Does anything from the first album appear on the record that’s actually coming out?
Yeah, a couple songs do, but they don’t sound anything like they did on the previous attempt. “The Only Hope For Me Is You,” “Save Yourself, I’ll Hold Them Back,” “Bulletproof Heart” and “Party Poison” all existed on the previous attempt. They sounded worlds different.

Why did you want to take things in the opposite direction from The Black Parade?
The Black Parade was a very difficult album to make and a very difficult album to tour on. It’s maybe a bunch of bad experiences that affected us and we wanted to make sure that would never happen again. So our solution was to make something that was the polar opposite and do everything the polar opposite. That wasn’t the right answer either. It was somewhere in between that was the right answer.

And you feel like you eventually found that right answer?
Yeah this feels like the middle ground. It’s not a concept album but there’s still a bit of a concept in it. We’re not playing characters onstage. There’s characters in the video, but that’s a whole different animal. We’ve been really pumped just being My Chemical Romance again. It feels really great. 

At what point did the narrative that’s threaded through Danger Days come about?
The story is something [singer] Gerard [Way] and one of our friends were working on for a comic entitled “True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys.” Their story was being formulated while we were writing the album and as time went on the two started to coincide. It was almost like a similar vibe was happening. It was like it was almost destined to happened — that his story was going to seep into the music. The imagery was so powerful and the story was so powerful and it was a perfect fit. Then we saw the spider and we thought, “That’s My Chemical Romance, too.” It was cool. It’s cool to be able to have all your art go full circle like that.

Does someone need to listen to the album straight through to get the full experience?
That’s the cool thing: It’s only a high concept, not a narrative concept. Everything lives in a universe but the songs aren’t exactly tied to a narrative, which works to their benefit I think. The songs have some of the most powerful and direct lyrics and the songs are all just immediate and direct. I think not having it specifically tied to a story helped it immensely.

How far do you think you will take this universe you’ve created around the album?
We’re not too sure. We’re kind of writing as we go. We’re not sure how long we’re going to keep the story going. But it’s kind of as exciting for us as it is for anyone who’s paying attention because things are changing day to day. The story is just amalgamating. It’s a lot of fun. It’s just a big crazy art project.

Did you get to choose your alter ego’s name?
Basically what happened is when Gerard was doing some of the art for the record he would come up and ask us these questions. From that the personas or gun names came about. He came up to me and asked me what my favorite color was, what my favorite animals were. Different things. Before long everything came together and each gun has very specific image and very specific colors. It’s patterned after designer drugs. Or like something you can get out of a vending machine in Japan. A mix of the two cultures.

How have fans been responding so far?
I try not to look at feedback too much. That’s the point of it all. The aftermath is secondary. You have to ignore the public perception of things as much as you possibly can because it will ultimately taint whatever you plan to do. But it seems like everything’s been overwhelming positive, which is great. We wanted to play music that we love and we wanted to play it like we meant it. This is the time to go that direction. I want to just thank the fans for waiting as long as they have and being very patient. It was all for a good reason.