My Chemical Romance

It's quite incredible how much success New Jersey-based quintet My Chemical Romance have had since the release of their debut album 'I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love' in 2002. With only one single off the album entering into the UK charts [Honey, This Mirror Isn't Big Enough For The Two Of Us] it seemed that this goth/punk/screamo act would not exactly be the band to 'take over the world', so to speak.

However, within two years of the release of the debut My Chemical Romance achieved heights which most bands could only dream of...Signing a deal with a major label? Check. Releasing a platinum album? Check. Playing the Taste Of Chaos and Van's Warped tours? Check. Supporting Green Day on a world-wide tour that included Australia? Check. Playing the Reading and Leeds festivals in the UK last year? Check...And the list just continues to grow.

Taking the above into consideration, one could then understand my slight nervousness before speaking with guitarist Ray Toro.

"I'm just hanging out in our hotel room in Los Angeles at the moment, eating my fruit salad; it's pretty exciting stuff," he laughs.

Slightly surprised by Toro's modesty, considering the aforementioned successes, I ask about the release of his band's third album, 'The Black Parade'.

"With our most recent record we spent a lot of time exploring the ideas we wanted to. On the last record ['Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge'] we didn't have as much time to let our imagination and creativity run wild. There're a couple of tracks on that record that we didn't have a lot of time to write so we just put it on the record because it was all we had. With 'The Black Parade', however, we had the time and we could put the best songs we had on in it. And I think our level of creativity went up a lot too, because every new song we wrote we tried to outdo with the next. And if you listen to a song like Mama, that song came about because our ideas just got crazier. We used all sorts of influences like Broadway musicals, Black Sabbath, Metallica, Muse and many more - nothing was too crazy of an idea, we really pushed ourselves."

There's no doubting that MCR pushed themselves creatively on 'The Black Parade' - at times the album shows similarities to rock icons Queen, though with a punk makeover, while at other times an obvious indie-rock influence is present. The creativity is actually quite outstanding when considering the concept behind the whole record.

"It's about the main character called the Patient and the record starts out with him in his hospital bed as he passes away and goes into the after-life. The concept revolves around the idea that when someone dies, death comes for them in a form which is comforting to the individual and which will make them feel at ease. For example, as a best friend, mother, father or whatever the case may be. For the Patient it comes for him as the Black Parade, which is a parade his father took him to and which is his fondest memory of when he was younger. After he passes he goes through the journey of the after-life and meets some other characters who discuss his life. Then ultimately, the Patient discovers he didn't live life to the fullest and wants another chance to go back and change that. I guess the message is for everyone to live their life to the fullest, don't take moments for granted and never regret choices you make."

It's no secret that My Chemical Romance are coming back to our shores to play at the 2007 Big Day Out and, after informing Toro that the Sydney leg of the festival has sold out in record time, he appears quite shocked.

"You hear so much about that tour [the Big Day Out] all over the world so we are really happy to be a part of it. We'll be playing material from both of the last records and we have a great time playing shows so we hope you enjoy that. Basically, the way we work live is the more energetic the crowd is, the more energetic we get. We're going to give it all we have and have a blast, but you guys can definitely push us further."

Will Oakeshott

My Chemical Romance play at the Big Day Out on Fri 2 February 2007. 'The Black Parade' is out now through Warner.