interview with frank, mikey and bob with mychemicalromanceforum.com 2006
interview was linked on the 2006 mcr website news (home) page
“The big forum interview with My Chemical Romance!
Reporters: Imre (poison amy) and Lisette (Lica)
Bandmembers: Frank, Bob and Mikey
Place: The Melkweg (Milkyway), Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Date: Wednesday August 31st, 2005, 3.30pm
After a lot of stress and the prospect that the interview might be cancelled, it was finally time to go upstairs and meet the band. Two hours later than scheduled, but hey, they were there so we’re not complaining! Our palms were sweaty and our hearts were racing, but we managed to remain calm and behave like proper journalists instead of squealing fangirls.
L: Let’s start with our list! We’re already talking about messageboards so lets continue on that. Some people sometimes claim to be one of you when they are on forums or other websites, what do you think of that?
Frank: I don’t understand it really, to me it’s kind of like that game the Sims, they’re spending so much time leading this fake life while they could be doing their own thing, and if your dream is to be in a band you should go out and practise instead of playing a video game or pretend you’re somebody else. It gets really creepy when those people do that and put out pictures of you and say a loved one or your dog. When they do that and then talk to other people on your behalf, that really angers me because we don’t know what they’re saying to other people and they might give advise and others might believe it. Internet can be a great thing, but it can also be a really evil thing.
I: We have a rule against talking about your private life.
Frank: Thank you. I appreciate that.
Mikey: That’s a big problem with MySpace, because some of my friends actually are on MySpace and they get messages, I don’t know how they knew that my friends are on there, but these are people that aren’t even in bands and they would get messages from ‘me’ on MySpace. It’s really weird.
I: They know everything. Trust me.
Bob: That’s ridiculous.
Frank: I’m still a huge fan of music, but when I was a fan of a band I would never ever be that intrusive. You know what I mean, to go as far as walk on someone’s bus and sit down and go through someone’s things, or try to steal something…
I: There was one girl last week, she was at one of the shows in London and she was proud that she ripped something off your arm!
Frank: [sad tone] Yeah, yeah…
I: She was bragging about it all over the internet.
Frank: I know…
L: How do you feel about these things?
Frank: You know, it’s weird. *thinks* I don’t know how I feel about that. I definitely know that when I was at shows I would bring a souvenir home, but it wasn’t someone’s personal property, it was a flyer or something like that. It’s weird if you wanna go into the crowd thinking ‘am I gonna come out with everything?’
L: Are you nervous when you see a large crowd? Are you worried then?
Frank: No! Well, no, I mean, it depends. There’s a bunch of different type of fans. You know, there’s people who just wanna say I love you, love your show, and that’s awesome. They respect the music and the art form. And then there’s some people that need to have that souvenir, that need a signature or a picture and there’s some that just scream and try to pull your hair out and that’s ridiculous and then there’s the drunk fan that wants to be the one that punched you.
Unfortunately for the people that just wanna say hi or the people that just want an autograph, sometimes they get flooded because the bad apples are so loud or with so many. It sucks to make people wait outside for hours before you leave because I don’t wanna weed out the bullshit, you know what I mean, the teenie ‘oh wow the new N’Sync is an actual band’ you know that’s a terrible thing, but you try to do more good than bad.
L: How was it for you Bob, when you joined the band they were already on their way to become very successful, how was it for you to step into a band that was already on their way?
Bob: When I first started it wasn’t really sure that… Well, I don’t think anybody thought that it was gonna be this successful. When I first started it was still in the van, playing shows for like a hundred people. It wasn’t like this when I first started. As far as the kids being crazy, obviously they *nods towards Frank and Mikey* get it a lot more, but it’s just strange for me.
L: Well, you’re completely accepted on the forum, everybody loves Bob, they have it in their signatures. *grins*
Frank: How could you not love Bob?!
I: When you started out, did you ever imagine being nominated for 4 VMA’s against Green Day?
Frank: No, not at all!
I: How crazy is that?!
Frank: Pfff! It’s flattering.M: It was a great experience. The whole thing.F: I’m still reeling from it. I’m really glad it’s over.
I: Were you nervous?
Frank: Oh god, yeah. I definitely threw up before.M: You can see me biting my nails on camera. Every time they were showing Jamie Fox you can see me right behind him biting my nails a lot. I was really freaked out.F: It’s one of those things where.. Growing up I didn’t get to watch them all the time, but I saw bands like Nirvana play it and Guns’n’Roses. So just to be there and think of all the things that happened on that show and to actually play it, it was ridiculous.
I: Because of the MTV awards you had to do the two festivals in England on the same day, how was that? Were you nervous doing those shows?
Bob: It was tiring really.
Frank: It was very tiring, yeah. And again, we kept like thinking of people that played it before. You know what I mean. I’m definitely keeping the two passes and I’m gonna frame them. It was rad. To do Reading and Leeds and especially on the same day, it was crazy!
Bob: We were supposed to fly to Leeds and we couldn’t get on a bus and go to Reading, because we wouldn’t have enough time to set up, so we were supposed to take three helicopters and I was so psyched about that! I was so excited! It would have been so awesome to fly on a helicopter! But then something happened with the weather at Reading and they wouldn’t let the helicopters get that close to so many people, so we just took a plane.
L: So the helicopter experience still has to take place.
Bob: Yeah. We’re gonna do it one of these days. I don’t care, even if it’s on a day off, we’re taking a helicopter ride!
L: Are you a thrill seeker?
Bob: I … *thinks* Kind of. I guess so.
Frank: As long as it’s got something to do with helicopters or motorcycles or black vans, that kind of stuff.
I: You wouldn’t go horse riding on the beach.
Frank: *laughs* I don’t think he’s that horseriding-on-the-beach type of guy.
Bob: No. I wanna go skydiving one of these days.
Frank: I’m not!!!
I: Why not?
Frank: If you’d asked me a couple of years ago to do it, I’d go ‘yeah, fuck it!’ but now I’m just too happy. You know what I mean?
I: You don’t need that.
Frank: Yeah! I don’t need to do that.
Then suddenly Bob exclaims: What is wrong with these people?! *reads from book* What would happen if you saw Mikey walk into the bathroom with another toaster? Signed: Bob Bryar’s official bitch.
Mikey: It wasn’t a toaster, it was a heater. I was putting a space heater in the bathroom when I was sick or something. I brought this heater into the shower so it was warm when I got out. It’s not the smartest thing in the world to do, but I was like ‘whatever, I’m fucking freezing’, but apparently they turned it into a toaster..
L: But you were fine.
Mikey: Yeah, I’m here right now.
*all laugh*
L: For the video from The Ghost of You, you guys have your hair really smooth. We understand how you get your hair like that, but we were wondering how did they get Ray’s hair totally smooth? How much stuff did they put in there?F: You’ll see it on the making of the video, he has like these two little buns.
Bob: Did they flat iron his hair too?
Frank: They did something. It was all flattened out. It was all bundled together in this little fist of a bulb, so they could only shoot him from the front and part of the side. It was crazy. He was gonna cut his hair and we were all like ‘no don’t do that!!’.
I: Did he ever tried to hide objects in his hair? To smuggle them inside?
Frank: Hide objects in it? He might.
Bob: *thinks* I don’t think so.
*All giggle*
I: Another question they asked is: if your tour bus driver got ill, who would you trust to drive it?F: Bob.
I: Yeah? Why?
Frank: Cos he’s done it before.
Bob: It happens a lot when you have to move a bus. When I used to tour with other bands, our drivers would just be like ‘hey, you wanna drive?’ and then I’d drive for like 1000 miles.
L: It’s cool to drive something that big, isn’t it.
Bob: Yeah, I like to drive and being on tour you never get to drive anywhere. If you’re not in a bus you’re in a cab or if you’re not in a cab you have somebody else driving you, so you know I take every opportunity I get to drive.
L: If you could describe your life so far in 5 words, what words would you choose?M: Tiring, wonderful…F: Surprising, uhm, definitely tiring…
Bob: Red Bull.
I: Hey, that’s two words!
Bob: Oh sorry! *laughs*
Frank: Coffee.
Bob: There you go, coffee. Fun!
(All at the same time) Proud.
Frank: Prun! *grins*M: Yeah.
Bob: How about proud-fun?
I: We’ll make that a new forum-word!
Bob: Prun.
I: Have you ever read any of the fanfictions people write about you?
*guys laugh*
Mikey: My friends sent me one once. It was creepy! My friends are interested in all that stuff, so they all sit online and send it to each other and laugh. And then one of them emailed one to me and it was something really fucking out of hand.F: I heard Mikey’s hot for me.
I: The hottest couple is you and Gerard actually.
Frank: Oh really? We’re the hottest couple?
Bob: That’s amazing.
I: That’s actually one of the most active parts of the forum, the fanfiction section.
Frank: Wow! That’s crazy. My god… (kind of unsure) Well, if that’s what gets you hot, go for it.
L: Do you have something with you when you go out on stage, like a lucky thing?
Bob: High fives.
Frank: Yeah we do, like high fives before we go on stage. I don’t think there’s any charm I have.. I think it changes like I’ll have something for a time that I feel is lucky, but then it’ll probably break or something and you get something new… Like these shoes *everyone looks at Frank’s feet* are lucky I think. None of it’s really lucky at all of course. *thinks* I have these dogtags that I wear a lot, but I can’t wear them on stage because it hurts my neck.
I: Yeah and someone might steal them!
Frank: Yeah that’s it, but I wear them all the time, except when I’m playing.
L: Yeah, you go crazy on stage and sometimes you’re lying on the floor, how are you able to play like that?F: You get used to it, like with anything. When we’re playing a new song, like right now we’re playing a new song. Well, not new new, but new for us because we haven’t played it in so long, so ah, we’ll play eh *looks at Bob* should we tell them? *Bob nods* Alright, we’re playing Jetset tonight and I’m not used to playing that song, so I’ll just stand there and make sure I hit every chord.
L: So you’re not going crazy.
Frank: *laughs* No, but you know what I mean like it’s hard because I get into it and I would do it, but at the same time if it’s so new I can’t. Once I’m comfortable with it I can do whatever I want.
I: Is there a favourite song when you play?
All: Prison!
Frank: Yeah, Prison is like a band favourite.
Bob: Yeah we like to play that. It’s become the song that when we need to play something for a soundcheck we pick that. I really like playing Jetset too though.
I: Why didn’t you put it in the set before?
Frank: We’ve never played certain songs, I mean like never ever played them. I think Jetset was one of those until we were like ‘yeah lets finally get this out’. We had about five songs to pick from for the headline tour, some older stuff that we haven’t played in a really long time and there’s this song called Cubicles that we’ve never played. I think you guys played it (to Mikey)…M: Yeah we’ve played it on a couple of shows.F: But I’ve never actually played it.
I: It must be nice to do a different set.
Frank: Yeah! You know it’s fun to be doing something that you haven’t played in a really long time because it puts a spin on things and it kind of challenges you.
L: Most places have a very active local music scene, do you ever go to a band of the local music scene when you’re in a city?
Frank: I would love to if we had a second off, but we never do.
L: And back home in New Jersey, do you go there to local shows?
Frank: Yeah, if we’re home for a while and there’s a show going on, I’ll go see it. But it’s hard because we do this for a living and I mean we love what we do and we love music, but sometimes the last thing we wanna do is go to a show. It has to be a really good show, you know what I mean.
I: Yah, but it must also be part of your job to keep up to date about new bands.
Frank: Yeah, well we tour so much and we hear so many things from different people, I mean I found out about a lot of different bands from just kids. It kind of keeps you in your favourite scene, you know. And we get demos all the time.
I: A few weeks ago I interviewed the singer from HIM, Ville, and he told me he had been talking to you guys about maybe touring together.F: That would be cool. Yeah. He’s a great guy. He’s really nice.
I: I know! *grins*
Frank: I think that would rule. To me, HIM are kind of like the European Bon Jovi. That’s what I get when I listen to them.
Sadly the girl from the record company interrupted us by saying it was nearly time and we could ask one last question. Lica asked it.
L: About the second I’m Not Okay video; it starts off with Ray and Gerard sitting there and Gerard says: I don’t wanna make it, I just wanna… What does he wanna do?
frank: Ok, the original line was: I don’t wanna make it, I just wanna rock! And we didn’t like it. If you keep an open end you can make it whatever you want it to be, you know. The rest of that, the whole opening scene, was written out. It was scripted and we were like ‘this isn’t really working’ so Ray actually re-wrote everything. Everything you hear in the video, other then ‘I just wanna’ is something that Ray wrote maybe ten minutes before we shot it!
Then the girl from the record company came back inside to tell us we really needed to wrap it up and Frank practically begged her to do two more from the book, like he suggested when we started out. Bob flips through the book.
Bob: Bam! *points* All time favourite sad song?
Mikey: the Smiths – Asleep. That’s the fucking saddest song ever.
Bob: That Jimmy Eat World song off of that show..
Frank: Angel song?
Bob: Yeah.
Frank: Oh yeah. Ah, geez, Angel Angel. Oh, right, ready?
*flips through book again*
Frank: When you guys stop and think about how you ended up where you are now, do you feel really lucky and jump for joy, or do you don’t give a damn at all? *laughs* I think we are the luckiest people in the whole fucking world.
Bob: We’re very proud of ourselves!
Frank: To be able to say that, you know, you’ve accomplished goals, that you set for yourself so long ago and this is awesome you know, like to be on tv or on the radio – fuck the radio and tv! To hear kids in different countries or different states sing along to songs that you wrote in your basement is the most surreal experience that you’ll ever have. And to have it mean something to people you never thought you would ever meet. That right there is the most amazing thing.“
We had a minute to go on a picture with them and say goodbye. Frank told us that he really appreciated what we are doing for the band and thanked us for everything by giving us both a very tight hug. As you can probably imagine, we high oaforum members, and thanks My Chemical Romance for making this all happen!
Saying goodbye and packing our stuff
Frank telling us how much he appreciate the work we’re doing on here”
08/31/2005 3:30pm the melkweg amsterdam the netherlands with frank, mikey and bob. interviewed by irme and lisetta of mychemicalromanceforum.com
interview with frank, mikey and bob with mychemicalromanceforum.com 2006