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tothetune2013-07-23 08:48 am
ofyourdeath) wrote in tothetune2013-07-23 08:48 am
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Rock Sound Interview With Gerard
My Chemical Romance: This Is The End
With the release of the second issue of comic book series The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys last month, the world of My Chemical Romance is finally coming to an end. We talked to frontman and writer Gerard Way and his collaborators on the project about isolation, hope and what the future holds.
Interview: Ben Patashnik / Photos: Trip Fontaine / Steve Brown
How did this project start?
Gerard Way (writer): "I Can't remember the year because it was so long ago, but Shaun [Simon, writer] was working on a comic called The Killjoys, and I always thought the title was The True Life Of The Fabulous Killjoys - I don't know where that came from! He was dealing with anti-reality and I was working on the notion of the power of belief as in if it was a superpower. But theme-wise, we were working on something that was dealing with a solitary individual working against a larger system."
Shaun Simon (writer): "There's a bullying aspect in it and it's a lot about fitting in and finding out where you belong and there's an aspect of there being a generation gap."
So the story predates and inspired the My Chemical Romance Album?
Gerard>: "Absolutely - by at least two years - but it was a very different thing. It changed during the recording process. Once they were joined together, I couldn't escape making it part of the album."
Shaun: "Two months after [Gerard] and I first talked about it, he called up Becky, and she was down. Because we all come from similar backgrounds, she understood everything and added so much. From this point the stories changed, but the themes we were trying to get across didnn't."
Becky Cloonan (artist): "The first thing I did was the spider [that ended up on the cover of 'Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys'], along with some of the other characters."
Gerard: "I remember seeing the spider and thinking it was better than it ever could've been in my brain. It was such a stunning image. I was telling her this and she said, 'Oh man, if I'd known that I would've spent more time on it!' But I'm glad she didn't, because it was spewed out of her brain and it was perfect."
Becky: "It took maybe five minutes. Some things just happen!"
How did the end of My Chemical Romance affect this project?
Gerard: "There was no effect creatively, because it was finished before that had happened. I"m glad [the split] wasn't planned and I'm glad it wasn't something to think about while writing the book. The end of My Chemical Romance affects it in the sense that we're posthumously releasing a comic that deals with ending and letting go, and rebelling against what you're expected to do, and it comes out in the wake of the death of the band. That's crazy, and we didn't count on that."
The story concerns a character called The Girl, who was a fan of the now-dead Killjoys. Considering the band played the Killjoys in your videos, you could take the comic as a study in how your fans cope without the band…
Gerard: "That was weird; that was not planned. It was one of those total coincidences. What The Girl represents is many things. For me personally, she represents my daughter growing up, the rebellious streaks that I have, being told you have to do one thing but thinking, 'I don't want to do this'. That rebellious streak always lives in me, and I imagine will end up in my daughter, but beyond that I wanted the character of The Girl to feel like a lot of those girls in that crowd that I've never met, who felt rebellious or alone. I wanted someone to tell her story."
Shaun: You have her with these people in the desert, who she is supposed to get along with and be part of, but she doesn't fit in with them. It's a very personal decision of her growing up and seeing where she belongs, and it's a big part of fatherhood. You want to make sure they are on their own path."
How has the project impacted your own lives?
Gerard: "It's made me a lot more introspective and it's made me look at the band and the ending of the band. Just seeing the last covers of the comic was very emotional for me, because it marked the end of something, whether I wanted it to end of not. That was really emotional. It was heavy, and this has really affected me. But we're happy in a positive way that it's complete. It has an end, and I don't know if we'll revisit it."
Shaun: "When you're writing different characters and different points of view, it forces you to think like them and act like them. You start to appreciate other people's points of view more, and understand people a little better.
Sidebars: Gerard On…
Fatherhood
"It's been a long time since I've woken up and can't wait to play guitar while being a mentally present father. Towards the end of the band I was just… there… and when I reconcile that with myself I know you can't make up for lost time, but you can make the time you have great. Was I ready to be a dad? No, but I'm great at it. You can't be two people in your brain, one rock dude and a dad - there's something in the middle of them, and that's really what you are and that's going to make you the best dad, not when you try to be one or the other."
Writing a comic versus playing a show
"It's crazy. [With a comic] you don't get the immediate reaction, but you don't have to re-live it because it exists on paper and is perceived as either good or bad. But, being a fatalist, there is always something that appeals to me about playing an amazing show and you were either at it or you weren't. You either talk about it as a grown-up in 10 years' time at a party, or you tell your kid about it when you're 40. But a live show doesn't live forever - even though you're repeating yourself every night, you're not really. Nobody is going to get to see that again."
Writing new music
"I know the next thing that I do will be music, but I don't know what it's called and I don't know what it looks like. But I know it feels great. Am I going to work with anyone? I'm not sure yet. Right now, it's just me. Having said that, I am a good collaborator and I like to collaborate when I trust myself more than the other people. It would be shitty not to collaborate with people, but I wouldn't expect it to be a supergroup or anything."
[SOURCE - Please view the scans at the source. Photobucket resized them when I uploaded and they were too small to read.]
With the release of the second issue of comic book series The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys last month, the world of My Chemical Romance is finally coming to an end. We talked to frontman and writer Gerard Way and his collaborators on the project about isolation, hope and what the future holds.
Interview: Ben Patashnik / Photos: Trip Fontaine / Steve Brown
How did this project start?
Gerard Way (writer): "I Can't remember the year because it was so long ago, but Shaun [Simon, writer] was working on a comic called The Killjoys, and I always thought the title was The True Life Of The Fabulous Killjoys - I don't know where that came from! He was dealing with anti-reality and I was working on the notion of the power of belief as in if it was a superpower. But theme-wise, we were working on something that was dealing with a solitary individual working against a larger system."
Shaun Simon (writer): "There's a bullying aspect in it and it's a lot about fitting in and finding out where you belong and there's an aspect of there being a generation gap."
So the story predates and inspired the My Chemical Romance Album?
Gerard>: "Absolutely - by at least two years - but it was a very different thing. It changed during the recording process. Once they were joined together, I couldn't escape making it part of the album."
Shaun: "Two months after [Gerard] and I first talked about it, he called up Becky, and she was down. Because we all come from similar backgrounds, she understood everything and added so much. From this point the stories changed, but the themes we were trying to get across didnn't."
Becky Cloonan (artist): "The first thing I did was the spider [that ended up on the cover of 'Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys'], along with some of the other characters."
Gerard: "I remember seeing the spider and thinking it was better than it ever could've been in my brain. It was such a stunning image. I was telling her this and she said, 'Oh man, if I'd known that I would've spent more time on it!' But I'm glad she didn't, because it was spewed out of her brain and it was perfect."
Becky: "It took maybe five minutes. Some things just happen!"
How did the end of My Chemical Romance affect this project?
Gerard: "There was no effect creatively, because it was finished before that had happened. I"m glad [the split] wasn't planned and I'm glad it wasn't something to think about while writing the book. The end of My Chemical Romance affects it in the sense that we're posthumously releasing a comic that deals with ending and letting go, and rebelling against what you're expected to do, and it comes out in the wake of the death of the band. That's crazy, and we didn't count on that."
The story concerns a character called The Girl, who was a fan of the now-dead Killjoys. Considering the band played the Killjoys in your videos, you could take the comic as a study in how your fans cope without the band…
Gerard: "That was weird; that was not planned. It was one of those total coincidences. What The Girl represents is many things. For me personally, she represents my daughter growing up, the rebellious streaks that I have, being told you have to do one thing but thinking, 'I don't want to do this'. That rebellious streak always lives in me, and I imagine will end up in my daughter, but beyond that I wanted the character of The Girl to feel like a lot of those girls in that crowd that I've never met, who felt rebellious or alone. I wanted someone to tell her story."
Shaun: You have her with these people in the desert, who she is supposed to get along with and be part of, but she doesn't fit in with them. It's a very personal decision of her growing up and seeing where she belongs, and it's a big part of fatherhood. You want to make sure they are on their own path."
How has the project impacted your own lives?
Gerard: "It's made me a lot more introspective and it's made me look at the band and the ending of the band. Just seeing the last covers of the comic was very emotional for me, because it marked the end of something, whether I wanted it to end of not. That was really emotional. It was heavy, and this has really affected me. But we're happy in a positive way that it's complete. It has an end, and I don't know if we'll revisit it."
Shaun: "When you're writing different characters and different points of view, it forces you to think like them and act like them. You start to appreciate other people's points of view more, and understand people a little better.
Sidebars: Gerard On…
Fatherhood
"It's been a long time since I've woken up and can't wait to play guitar while being a mentally present father. Towards the end of the band I was just… there… and when I reconcile that with myself I know you can't make up for lost time, but you can make the time you have great. Was I ready to be a dad? No, but I'm great at it. You can't be two people in your brain, one rock dude and a dad - there's something in the middle of them, and that's really what you are and that's going to make you the best dad, not when you try to be one or the other."
Writing a comic versus playing a show
"It's crazy. [With a comic] you don't get the immediate reaction, but you don't have to re-live it because it exists on paper and is perceived as either good or bad. But, being a fatalist, there is always something that appeals to me about playing an amazing show and you were either at it or you weren't. You either talk about it as a grown-up in 10 years' time at a party, or you tell your kid about it when you're 40. But a live show doesn't live forever - even though you're repeating yourself every night, you're not really. Nobody is going to get to see that again."
Writing new music
"I know the next thing that I do will be music, but I don't know what it's called and I don't know what it looks like. But I know it feels great. Am I going to work with anyone? I'm not sure yet. Right now, it's just me. Having said that, I am a good collaborator and I like to collaborate when I trust myself more than the other people. It would be shitty not to collaborate with people, but I wouldn't expect it to be a supergroup or anything."
[SOURCE - Please view the scans at the source. Photobucket resized them when I uploaded and they were too small to read.]
