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mieux-de-se-taire · 4 months

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Bullets & the Demolition Lovers

Hello everyone! Welcome to my analysis of the wonderful album 'I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love' by the band My Chemical Romance. This analysis consists of my interpretation of each song on the album, as well as the relationship they have with the Demolition Lovers. This is a project I started in the summer of 2023 as a way to better understand the story of the Demolition Lovers, whom I have loved since I proclaimed myself a fan of the band in 2021. It all began with a few videos on YouTube about Revenge (which I will recommend down below if someone is interested). I already knew the story of the Demolition Lovers, but only at a surface level. The videos introduced me to a deeper and more complete version of their story. This also opened the door to all the contradictions, theories, and interpretations that came with this story. I was so captivated by all of this that I decided to delve into this deep rabbit hole and create my own interpretation of the story, and that's how this first analysis was conceived (because there's still left Revenge's). This is a way to better understand this artistic product that I adore with all my heart and also to better comprehend the masterminds behind it. I hope you all enjoy it, both fans of the band and new people interested in this whole new world ♡ ☆SPANISH VERSION: https://spellboundbat.tumblr.com/private/738189905537220608/tumblr_3qij8SfTzrPPDo1BE

Disclaimer!

Although I will be providing verifiable sources with my statements (as well as clarifying when they are not 100% reliable), I will also be discussing subjective interpretations of the majority of the songs, which may be based on interpretations commonly accepted by the fandom or the artists, but that are ultimately guided by what I consider :D

Sources can be found throughout the entire analysis in keywords related to what is been talked about.

Sorry for repeating the word "song" 86 times, really, please accept my most sincere apologies.

This analysis is quite chaotic btw.

1. Romance

There's not much to analyze in this song. It's the album's intro. It barely lasts a minute and has no lyrics. It's an instrumental with a Spanish guitar played by Ray Toro. The song is a kind of adaptation of an even older 19th-century song called "Spanish Romance" or "Romance Anónimo" (or a thousand other names, there are too many names for this song).

Allegedly, the original piece appeared in the soundtrack of the movie Dawn of the Dead, and thanks to this, they included it here (the movie is very relevant to this album and to Gerard Way; it's one of his favorite movies, and later in the analysis, we'll notice more references). Now, I say 'allegedly' because I couldn't confirm this information. I found a group of people on Reddit talking about it, and even though I searched for the movie and the supposed time-stamp, I couldn't find it. But I trust the fans :D . So, we leave this information here.

2. Honey, this mirror isn’t big enough for the two of us.

Finally, let's begin, and with a quite strong one...

The narrator (our protagonist) begins by narrating his problems with alcohol and drugs, indicating a strong dependence on these substances. He also explains other self-destructive behaviors and routines, apparently he has been hanging out with ''friends'' who are not much of a good influence, a possible reference to vampires (we will touch on this topic later). In response to all of this, he states that this has been the life he has chosen and that he doesn't care about anything else anymore.

In addition to explaining all of this, it is implied that what he is narrating is part of a discussion with his partner, who does not seem to agree with his self-destructive behavior. They have many fights, and it's possible that this has become normal in their relationship.

Throughout the entire song, the protagonist keeps repeating these verses, but that seem to be antitheses of each other:

“And well, I find it hard to stay With the words you say Oh baby, let me in Oh baby, let me in’’

and,

“And you can cry all you want to I don't care how much You invest yourself in me We're not working out (we're not working out)’’

It's strange; these are two verses that come one right after the other, but nonetheless deliver two contradictory messages, right?

In one, it explains how, despite the pain caused by what his beloved is saying, he wants to enter and continue being part of her world, to continue the relationship. While the other has a tone of indifference, apathy, and insensitivity, revealing that no matter how much she tries, their relationship is not working.

But I feel that it is precisely these contradictory feelings that make this song so unique, soul-crushing and personal.

The protagonist's feelings are NOT coherent, and neither is his relationship. It's a turbulent relationship, just like everything else in his life.

After having dived into the vast world of super abusive couples (help), I started to notice that these kinds of strong and yet contradictory feelings are often recurring patterns. These relationships are not famous for their stability and coherence but for their explosiveness and codependency. I feel that this is what is explained here.

Our protagonist's life revolves around these themes: codependency and destruction, whether in his personal relationships or with what he consumes and the decisions he makes.

I forgot to mention that his beloved is cheating on him with his friends and HIS BROTHER, fjskahfsjkdhfjsdf...

But well, after so much elaborate analysis, we have the real and simplest interpretation from the author ¯\(ツ)/¯:

“This song is about sucking dick for cocaine.” Gerard Way, 2007

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YOU'LL HAVE TO TAKE IT AS CANON, OK? ok...

3. Vampires will never hurt you

It's one of the first songs I heard from this album and one of my all-time favorites (for obvious reasons, *cough, cough* VAMPIRES *cough, cough*). And IT'S AMAZING, but kind of complex. I put a lot of effort into my draft analysis :D

ॐ ☆＊☆＊☆＊☆ ॐ

First, I would like to explain what the concept of "vampires" means in this album.

The vampires serve as a metaphor for toxic people in your life, bad influences who are only with you to take advantage of you. They are greedy and traitorous. This metaphor is not only explored in this album but in various eras of MCR (up to the present day :D !!!).

I mean, how could you not use vampires? They're very cool. According to a quote from an interview talking about 'Headfirst for Halos', Gerard says:

“That song [Headfirst for Halos] and ‘Vampires Will Never Hurt You’ both gave us a real sense of identity. They brought in the entire gothic thing. It was those songs that made people think we were a vampire band!”

And, being completely honest, that's very real. It happened to me too. That was one of the main reasons why I started liking this band djfksjdfkldsaf. LIKE, JUST LOOK AT THIS:

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THEY WERE DRESSED AS VAMPIRES FOR THE OFFICIAL VIDEO!!!!

it looks like he doesn't even get old *sus*

TAKE A LOOK AT 2022 GERARD FCKING WAY. DARE I SAY, ICONIC. DID I FORGET TO MENTION THAT THE DUDE'S 46 YRS OLD?!?!?!?!?

...

Well, I've digressed, but we're back now...

Now, what happens in this song is as follows:

The story is once again set between a protagonist and his beloved.

He starts by telling his beloved that if "they" catch them, she should pierce his heart with a stake. He then wonders if the sun will tear their skin and if he will watch as the vampires rip her apart while biting and tearing their necks with their white and sharp fangs. He then desperately asks to be taken to a doctor or a church to extract his "poison" while begging his beloved to protect her own soul and, if necessary, to drive the stake through him.

I know all of this is too much, but don't worry, I'll explain it now.

For those who don't have much knowledge about vampires, everything narrated here are classic references to the stories of these beings.

First, the stake through the heart is a way to end vampires, which suggests that our protagonist has become one or is on the verge of becoming one (MEGA IMPORTANT FACT!!!). It is also mentioned how the sun is lethal for vampires (in most cases, because there are cases where they come out like a damn shiny Twilight vampire), and if humans find them and turn them into vampires and leave them in the sun, they will die.

Among other references, it is implied that both of them will die if she does not end it with him as soon as possible, as the monsters will only harm her if she stays with the protagonist.

In theory, that's what the song is about. It's like a classic horror story, with nods to our favorite blood-sucking monsters and it seems to end in tragedy (love it tho).

However, it gets more complicated and even better...

What I just described is the literal interpretation of this beautiful song. This song, like any form of art, can be analyzed literally (through text) or metaphorically (with interpretations and analyses of subtext, among other things). As I mentioned in my disclaimer, this is my interpretation of the song, based on the data I could gather and what I feel it conveys to me specifically.

Do you remember the meaning that vampires carry? Well, this is where the concept is going to be explored.

Our protagonist (similar to the protagonist of the previous song) has been hanging out and befriending these "vampires."

This is suggested by the line:

“We're hanging out with corpses, And driving in this hearse’’

Here, we confirm that vampires are not simple enemies; the protagonist had decided to hang out with them.

And it comes with its consequences; this has caused him a lot of harm, so much that it begins to affect his beloved.

[That's just like The Lost Boys (GREAT movie btw).]

He doesn't want her to end up badly, and she wants to fight for their love. She wants to help him so that they both get out of this problem together. That's why the song says:

“They come in pairs she said, "We'll shoot back holy water Like cheap whiskey, they're always there" ”

He feels remorse for his actions, wants to be purified, thinks about his love for her, how much he loves her, but he knows it's too late. He has also become one of them—a vampire. In our metaphor, this represents a turbulent and toxic person, which is the real harm he will do to her if they don't distance themselves. She would also become a self-destructive person, and both will end up digging their own graves.

But he doesn't want that. As the final and definitive proof of his unconditional love, he decides to ask her to end him to put the stake through his heart...

(Here, it could be argued whether it's in a literal sense, like she just dies, or that they simply cut ties and dissolve their relationship).

I love the parallel with the previous song. In both, the protagonist has become an unstable and toxic person, and this begins to affect their partner. However, while in one, the relationship becomes monstrous and they are miles away from saving it, in the other, the mutual love is still there, and they decide to separate instead of destroying each other.

Anyway,

I LOVE THIS SONG WITH ALL MY BEING. THIS TRAGIC VAMPIRIC LOVE STORY IS EVERYTHING MY HEART CRAVES <3.

4. Drowning Lessons

OUR FIRST SONG RELATED TO THE DEMOLITION LOVERS!

I must be honest, this song causes me too much confusion, and I still haven't fully deciphered it.

Nevertheless, I will try to explain what I have.

The song refers to certain events that repeat day after day in the life of our protagonist.

He imagines how he kills his beloved.

Yes, how he kills her.

Also, how he remembers that he will never be able to marry her.

These are the themes of the song put in the simplest way; the complicated part begins now.

We know that the song is related to their upcoming album, "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge," thanks to the line:

"A thousand bodies piled up."

This is a direct reference to the story where the man Demolition Lover (for a lack of a better name?) has to kill 1,000 bad men to be reunited with his beloved.

But there are several problems that complicate everything:

By referencing the 1,000 men, we know that chronologically, this song has to take place after the events of the song "Demolition Lovers," but I don't know at what point in "Revenge" this song would fit in.

The song talks about how HE killed his beloved, which, if we include it in the revenge lore, changes its meaning completely. I don't know if within the lore, this should be considered as a metaphor (following the themes presented by this album so far) that he "killed" her by dragging her into the world of crime (the Demolition Lovers were a couple of criminals who supposedly died when the police caught them) or if we should take this literally and accept that the demolition lover killed his beloved, and he relives this event every day due to trauma.

I think, in the end, I will leave the analysis of the lore here and come back when I finish the one for Revenge, since I KNOW that this song is essential to understanding the true story of "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge," but until I analyze it myself, I won't draw conclusions...

SPOILERS FOR THE MANGA OF NANA AHEAD! Why Nana? Because it haunts me everywhere; this story has affected my life too much (help).

Returning to the song, it reminds me too much of Ren Honjo, one of the characters from the anime and manga Nana.

Everything goes wrong with this character since you find out that he is based on Sid Vicious, the bassist of the Sex Pistols, FAMOUS (in part) BECAUSE HE WAS ACCUSED OF MURDERING HIS GIRLFRIEND NANCY SPUNGEN!!!!!!

It's just that Ai Yazawa didn't base it subtly; just look at them:

They both play the bass, have a padlock chain, and style their hair in the same way. IN THE SERIES, THEY KEEP SAYING HOW MUCH THEY RESEMBLE EACH OTHER; IT'S VERY DELIBERATE.

Well, what happens is that Ren has a relationship with Nana. And they are very, VERY toxic. Jealousy and possessiveness mixed with the explosiveness of their love are what most characterize their relationship.

And, there's a point in the manga, a very low moment for Ren, where he confesses that sometimes he fantasizes about killing Nana. If you're a fan and follow the manga, this moment really hits hard, especially if you know EVERYTHING their relationship has gone through.

Personally, listening to this song conveys feelings similar to those with the manga. It's such a delicate, horrible, but complex issue at the same time... But it's largely thanks to this complexity of conflicting feelings that gives them the status of great works of art. Representing humans in their most beautiful moments, but also having the ability to do so with their lowest points, gives the work an incredible sense of realism. The characters cease to be mere fiction to embody the stories of flesh-and-blood people.

...

I feel like I should also mention that the members of MCR say that this song is cursed, lol. And that's why they don't play it in concerts. They say this because the few times they have tried to play it, something always goes wrong (technical failures).

End of fun facts, we'll see each other again when it's time for the analysis of Revenge :D

5. Our Lady of Sorrows

I know we just went through a somewhat confusing song, but I'm sorry to inform you that this one surpasses it in levels of confusion :(

My brain almost exploded trying to understand what this song wanted to tell me.

But I think that's the essence of the song, that nothing fits and it doesn't make sense xd (I'll elaborate more on that later).

When I first heard it, without paying much attention to the lyrics, it gave me the feeling that it was a very sad and violent song, VERY VIOLENT. In the chorus, the guitars sound like freaking chainsaws, and there's a very strong feeling of sore throat from screaming so much, very metal.

And everything got worse with lines like:

"Just because my hand's around your throat"

LIKE, HE'S CHOKING THEM, WHAT ELSE DO THEY WANT ME TO THINK?!?!?

I was absolutely sure its meaning was going to be very intense.

Until it wasn't.

Later, I find out that it's a song about friendship. But not necessarily a turbulent or dangerous one like the other songs. No. A good and unconditional friendship.

Yes, I wasn't understanding anything, and my mind exploded.

Until I took the time to look up for interpretations from fans and the band on the internet, and now I consider it 100% an anthem to friendship and a very freaking beautiful song <3

How ironic life is, right?

Now I proceed to explain:

Apparently, Gerard at concerts, when he's about to sing this song, always says something like: "You probably came with your best friend or one of your best friends... I want you to turn to that motherf--ker, grab him by the throat and say, 'You're my best f--king friend, and I would die for you!'."

Also, when they say the lines in the chorus:

"Stand up f--king tall, don't let them see your back,"

and,

"Take my f--king hand and never be afraid again,"

It refers to the fact that there are people in the world who will want to mess with you, that life itself will mess with you; but if you have your friends there, then you'll be fine. They will be with you and do whatever it takes for you, to help you, because they love you.

This message is often repeated in MCR's overall proposal when dealing with dark themes; where one often feels abandoned, the band wants you to move forward, have a good support network, people, and things that make us happy and make us understand that life can be beautiful too (this is also linked to the creation of the band, but we'll leave that for later).

This song has been adopted by the fandom almost as an anthem, symbolizing our fraternity and unity <3.

Now, about the lines and the general violent feeling of the song, I have to say two things:

Like, now having the context about the meaning of friendship and what Gee usually says at concerts, the violent lines don't sound SOOO absurd. I mean, there are times when friends joke like that. But it's still kinda weird without context, bro.

Ray Toro, My Chemical Romance's lead guitarist, wrote the music and brought it to Gerard, who wrote the lyrics. "It fitted because it didn’t really fit," Gerard recalled in Tom Bryant's Not the Life It Seems: The True Lives of My Chemical Romance. "That was something we always wanted to do – to put songs together that shouldn’t work together but do. This song was really aggro and metal...'' Now, it makes more sense that it sounds violent, right?

Before moving on to fun facts, I would like to mention how I believe there is more meaning than I explained in the song, possibly one more related to the religious parallelism it carries. But since this has already messed up so much with my mind , I'll stick with the conclusion I brought, which is usually the meaning that comes to my mind when I think of this song.

Now, to finish, fun facts:

The name "Our Lady of Sorrows" is a devotion to the Virgin Mary. If I remember correctly, I think it comes from the fact that Gee went to a Catholic elementary school (;-;) and they had a statue of this virgin.

I saw somewhere on the internet that the song is based on an experience Gerard had with a nun also in his Catholic elementary school (religious trauma? :0).

Gerard said that his favorite lyric ever is from this exact same track:

"Oh, how wrong we were to think that immortality meant never dying."

It's just beautiful.

A POSSIBLE REFERENCE TO THE SONG IN ONE OF THEIR MOST RECENT LOGOS??

6. Headfirst for Halos

Help, this song is pure depression (or does it help you with it?)

Well, it's because it's about it.

...

Depression and contemplation of suicide. Also, drug use:

"And now these red ones make me fly And the blue ones help me fall."

One referring to antidepressants and the other to drugs...

And it contains many allegories to the story of Peter Pan (with the "pixie dust" and the thinking happy thoughts to be able to fly). This may be because Gerard played Peter Pan in a play in elementary school jdjsfjdslkf.

Random photo of Frank as Peter Pan, lol.

The song is supposed to have started as a joke. They were high and having a blast. At first, Gerard thought:

''...this is the catchiest, popiest, stupidest shit I have ever heard''.

But as Gee continued with the song, he realized the potential it had and turned it into this genius piece, by adding the really dark lyrics to it.

It's worth noting that in his early 20s, he experienced issues with alcohol and drugs, as well as struggled with depressive episodes.

There's a quote of him that I like very much talking about this song, relating it to that topic:

Gerard: Really quick, just to save you some time, it’s a song about being really depressed, on a lot of anti-depressants, and wanting to kill yourself. But instead of doing that, I just wrote a song about it, so...that’s what you should do if you ever wanna kill yourself. Interviewer: Write a song? Gerard: Write a song about it.

...♡...

I believe that the line "Think happy thoughts" is one of the most poignant in this song. There are times when our minds are infested with intrusive thoughts that don't let us live in peace. There are other times when these thoughts are not just thoughts; they are also an illness. And having to live with this can make us desperately and endlessly repeat to ourselves, "Just think happy thoughts, happy thoughts..."

7. Skylines and Turnstiles

This was the first song ever written by MCR. Here, it talks to us about 9/11 (an event that led to the creation of the band) and the widespread feeling that was experienced across the world, especially among American youth, after the attack. Feelings of despair, loneliness, abandonment...

Feelings that this track perfectly encapsulates. It is a vivid description of what the traumatic event was for many.

I also believe it tells us a lot about its author, our dear Gerard Way: his desire to do something different that can help people, which awakened in him after witnessing this heartbreaking event and led him to deeply question everything he was doing at the moment, his job, his life, and the world in general.

This is evident in the line:

"And if the world needs something better Let's give them one more reason now."

This desire founded the band, and I think it has been fulfilled, as throughout all these years, they have helped millions of people with their music <3.

8. Early Sunsets Over Monroeville

“😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭’’.

Warning: This is one of the most emotionally painful songs on the album!

As with "Vampires Will Never Hurt You," this song is related to the undead, the protagonist's dilemma and his lover, references to pop culture, and literal and possible metaphorical meanings :)

It all begins as the protagonist describes beautiful sunrises and sunsets while holding hands with his beloved, imagining together that their life is perfect, like a movie.

Then, the ZOMBIE PLOT begins!!!

[This song is heavily based on the 1978 movie 'Dawn of the Dead,' one of Gerard's favorite films. Throughout these 5:05 mins, we will notice multiple references to the plot.]

To summarize, the couple tries to survive a zombie attack in a mall in Monroeville (as in the movie), but plot twist, the girl gets bitten. And here is where the dilemma comes in; the protagonist wonders if anyone notices or even cares about what's happening. He reproaches himself for not having the guts to end what was once his beloved.

Here arises a moral dilemma similar to that in "Vampires," "Do I shoot her or not? Do I end her life? Can we even call it 'life' anymore? She's not here anymore, right?..."

I guess it could also be given a metaphorical analysis; I feel it could take on a meaning similar to "Vampires" itself, after all, I've highlighted multiple parallels between the two songs... The problem is that I think they need to represent different themes for me.

Let me explain, I wouldn't want the two songs to be exactly the same, I want the emotions they convey to be different. That's why I'm reluctant to give them the same interpretation. That's also why I was racking my brain looking for other possible metaphorical meanings until I gave up. I also didn't want it to turn into finding pretentious meanings just for the sake of having them. I wanted what I wrote here to be what I felt when listening to it. So, for this reason, it won't have (from my side) a metaphorical analysis.

(I forgot to mention that theoretically, it could also be analyzed in terms of social critique; but as I stated before, personally it'll just feel really forced if I do that, really like that feeling of tragic romance too. However, the possibility is still there, and for those interested, they can read this post idk: https://oneweekoneband.tumblr.com/post/149709926794/theres-a-corpse-in-this-bed-early-sunsets-over).

Now, for me, if this song doesn't carry another meaning that isn't so connected with everyday life without zombies, how can it be so heartbreaking? Ahhhhh, good question :D , here comes the other reason why this song is great... The interpretation.

I mean, listen to it again, now more attentively. You feel a ballad-type song with beautiful poetry, descriptions that can get personal without necessarily identifying with the need to kill your zombie girlfriend, melancholy, nostalgia, it's all there. And, what for me hits the nail on the head perfectly: Gerard Way's voice and emotion with his performance. It's simply heartbreaking.

This is what makes it one of the most emotionally painful songs without the need to explain them metaphorically. The literal explanation, the one about the 1978 zombies, works to make you burst into tears, and that's magnificent.

Time for some fun facts:

This started out as a tender ballad, but producer Geoff Rickly sensed there was something darker brewing under the surface and encouraged Gerard to tap into it. "Just go with what's inside your head. Don't even listen to the music," Rickly recalled telling him before his explosive performance. The producer told MCR biographer Tom Bryant (Not the Life It Seems: The True Lives of My Chemical Romance) the rest of the band was left shaken in the aftermath of the rage-fueled session. "Afterwards, everybody just left and went outside to smoke cigarettes because they couldn't deal with looking at him after he had sung that," he explained. "He had just ripped himself open in front of everybody. He'd taken it so far that it was uncomfortable for anyone who was friends with him. They hadn’t seen him as Gerard the singer, they still saw him as their buddy Gerard. It's a little scary to see someone do what he did."

(This song gives me vibes of a sad AU on AO3 for some reason)

9. This is the best day ever

This song is about our protagonist who is in the hospital and meets a patient, and they fall in love. They promise each other that they will escape from the hospital together, and when that day comes, it will be the best day of their lives.

Now, I have enough evidence to start suspecting the existence of the girl in question. First, we know that the protagonist is sick; we don't know the type of illness, but what we do know is that his time in the hospital has affected him mentally (whether it has worsened any mental issues he already had or if his time in the hospital has caused it). He is not mentally well, suffering a lot of stress, which may possibly lead to hallucinations 🤨. However, everything becomes even stranger when one hears the following line that are repeated a couple of times during the song:

"Well, I thought I heard you say, 'I like you, we can get out, We don't have to stay, stay inside this place.'"

CLEARLY, HE IS SO DISORIENTED THAT HE IS NOT EVEN SURE IF THE GIRL SAID THAT, but his pain and stress inside the hospital are so intense that he ends up inventing a whole story in his head, poor thing.

(Obviously, I know nothing about mental health issues, and maybe I'm completely off, but well, I think the song is more interesting this way).

10. Cubicles

oh shit. i love this fucking song so much…

Ok, in summary, it's about the protagonist's crush at work who never paid attention to him and then left the office. The protagonist talks about how he had her absolutely idealized, both her and a hypothetical relationship.

When he faces reality, where she doesn't even notice him and leaves work just like that, he collapses. He sinks into his intrusive thoughts, repeating to himself that nobody notices him, feels him, or cares about him. He's tired of the same routine, obsessing over someone, and it ultimately leading nowhere. Until he thinks he'll die alone, won't do anything with his life, and will just die someday. At a very low point, he confesses that he "prefers" to die alone, or at least to just die.

It's simply devastating. It's the fucking idealization of life and relationships, and how living with these expectations leads us to believe in a story that isn't real and drown ourselves in our own misery.

It reminds me of a VERY good video essay on YouTube that is the best thing that has happened to me, and I recommend it to everyone. It deals with the same theme, of course, in more depth. WATCH IT :D

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AND NOW, FINALLY, it's time for our last and most awaited song...

11. Demolition Lovers

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This is one of the longest and most beautiful songs (yes, I said it) in all of MCR.

It's iconic. The beginning of Revenge and the creation of one of the most relevant emo tragic love stories.

It's practically the story that the average fan of the band knows:

Two characters. They are a couple. Apparently, with no given names, only known as the Demolition Lovers. A kind of Bonnie and Clyde criminal couple on the run. In the end, a story with a tragic romantic "ending", them escaping from the police, ending their days in a hail of bullets and a pool of blood (from a shooting, in other words) where they profess how much they love each other as they gaze at one another in their last breaths.

Throughout the song, the protagonist tries to emphasize A LOT how much he loves her and that he would do EVERYTHING to prove his love to her. He recounts that after everything they went through and everything they put each other through (reference to "Drowning Lessons"?), he just wants to end up with her (the entire plot of Revenge, basically).

[Can we please take a moment to admire how beautiful this song is musically speaking? I don't know much about music like a musician does, I just mean that this song is BEAUTIFUL, and that abrupt pause in the middle with the guitar is ART>>>>>>>] *end of intermission*

I would like to highlight a couple of things and lines from this song that I think will be key or can be better understood when I do the future analysis of Revenge:

As I briefly highlighted, their relationship was also (of course, lol) turbulent; it may share certain themes with the couples from the other songs, thanks to the verse:

"I'm trying, I'm trying To let you know just how much you mean to me And after all the things we put each other through and’’

He is desperate to prove himself to his beloved, SO BAD that I don't think it's in a conventional way. It is SO prominent throughout the entire song that it raises many doubts for me. What exactly went wrong? What exactly does the Demolition Lover girl think about this? And the BIG question that "Drowning Lessons" left us with... did he kill her? dun, dun, DUN… ~*suspense*~ ...

◦ Conclusion <3

I love how this album keeps bringing up the same themes and discourses throughout its 11 songs. On the one hand, we could think of them as connected, and that it's really the same story, but I think that would be too fucking much. I believe that after so much analysis (for now), the only songs that have a direct connection to the story of the Demolition Lovers are "Drowning Lessons" and, obviously, "Demolition Lovers."

But that doesn't take away from the fact that, in MESSAGE , many are still connected. This reminds me of an anthology of different stories, like books or series. They can be told together but are not necessarily interconnected per se; their motives and meanings are.

I think this is what makes me feel this album with its interpretation, lyrics, and stories, an anthology of conceptual songs strongly based on horror stories with tragic tones and gothic romances that also let us see more about its author, understand him better, since, after all, art is a reflection of the artist and their experiences.

Bullets talks to me about idealization and disillusionment, helplessness, angst, anger, illness, loneliness, toxic people, but also about love and eternal friendship, those who genuinely appreciate you...

Bullets allows me to indulge into and experience each of these themes for myself and brings to the table a very important conversation about ourselves. We are not perfect, we are all full of flaws, and that's okay; we can all become reckless bullets that hurt our loved ones or even ourselves by piercing them with painful "truths" and destructive behaviors. This is what the main metaphor of this album, the "bullets," means to me. And as the beautiful ending reiterates to the point of exhaustion:

“all we are, all we are is bullets, I mean this’’ ♡‌

This is my take on this album: beautiful musical ( and even literary) pieces filled with stories about turbulent, passionate, chaotic, and chemical romances...

♡+:;;:+♫+:;;:+♡+:;;:+♫+:;;:+♡+:;;:+♫+:;;:+♡

My utmost respect to anyone who has read this complete analysis; it took me quite a while to do it (me and my hyperfixations ¯\(ツ)/¯). I hope it has been enjoyable and miraculously made someone love this amazing band even more <3

Any criticism or discussion you'd like to have, feel free to engage; I'd be more than happy :D

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★ Some videos and accounts that were of great help, reference, and inspiration for me to do this: @mieux-de-se-taire thanks very much for the interview transcriptions.

youtube

★ Here am tagging mutuals that might be interested in this:

@sofaaac

@infinatenoise

@inahailofbulletz

@mychemicalfaggotry

★ See you all on my next in-depth analysis on Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge! The real beginning of the story we all know and love (well, not quite like that tbh)...

#wow! this is a really exhaustive and in-depth analysis!#great work!#i'm really happy my interview compilations were helpful for you #this is the kind of thing i hoped for when i first started making them #i think you mentioned doing an analysis for revenge as well #and i'm currently working on compiling sources for each song on the album #though progress is slow and only two are done as of now #i hope they might also be of use to you #once again kudos to you for this great analysis #my chemical romance #mcr #i brought you my bullets you brought me your love #bullets

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mieux-de-se-taire · 5 months

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Give 'Em Hell, Kid - MCR Interviews

Matt Schichter Interview - 11/30/05

6:17-7:00

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Interviewer: A lot of people don't know "Give 'Em Hell" was the first single. Was I right in saying that? Gerard: Yeah, yeah, you did your homework. It was supposed-- Interviewer: A little bit Gerard: Well, it-- at the time-- well, here's the thing, we don't write singles, so...we just write the songs. But at the time, the only thing the label and Howard had heard as a single was "Give 'Em Hell." Interviewer: Who's Howard? Gerard: Howard Benson, our producer. Interviewer: Okay Gerard: Everybody was kinda like, "Oh, 'Give 'Em Hell,' 'Give 'Em Hell's' the one." But at the time they hadn't heard what we were currently working on, and it was so many great songs, like, whereas in the end "Give 'Em Hell" ended up being like this kind of song where, it was an awesome song but they were like, "Wow, there's so many other songs that are way better as a single we'd like to use."

Rage Interview - Dec 2005

3:32-3:42

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Gerard: [Dear You by Jawbreaker] is one of the biggest influences to Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, our record, especially this track "Fireman." I kinda copped the chorus for "Give 'Em Hell, Kid."

MTV Interview - Aug-Oct 2006

3:15-3:17

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Gerard: (Drawing parallels between Dear You by Jawbreaker and Three Cheers in terms of song structure, 2:57 for context) "Give 'Em Hell, Kid" is basically "Fireman."

Two Minutes to Late Night Interview - 8/15/22

8:15-8:26

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Gwarsenio (Interviewer): And song number two on the record, start-- they both have these-- Frank: Oh, "Give 'Em Hell, Kid," yeah. Gwarsenio: "Give 'Em Hell, Kid"-- Frank: Well, "Give 'Em Hell, Kid" is us basically trying to write a Jawbreaker song, that's "Give 'Em Hell, Kid."

#mcr #my chemical romance #three cheers for sweet revenge #revenge #give em hell kid #interviews #song interviews

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mieux-de-se-taire · 5 months

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Helena - MCR Interview

Stars & Scars Interview - 4/17/04

Paragraph 8

Interviewer: What song on “Three Cheers” means the most to you and why? Gerard: “Helena” -that’s my grandmother’s name, and it’s about her. Originally, I wanted the lyrics to be more directly about her. It ended up being more of a song about her writing to me. The lyrics are very aggressive. It’s more about me ragging on myself for being away so much. After we had toured for about a year and a half straight, she died the day after I got home. She had been in the hospital, so I couldn’t see her because I was sick, too. I got home, and the next morning I woke up and she was dead. I was very angry with myself for that. I didn’t regret it, obviously, because she would have wanted me on the road. The song’s very aggressive towards myself. That’s kind of what I do. That song definitely means the most. It’s awesome. It’s one of my favorite songs on the record.

MTV Backstage Pass Interview - 10/26/04

1:10-1:34

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Gerard: I believe the next single's gonna be "Helena." Frank: I think that'd be good because it means so much to... (gestures) Mikey and Gerard. Gerard: Yeah, like, it's about-- it's about me and Mikey's grandma, who passed away, so it'll show kind of a little closer to what we're more about. Not that we're not about stuff like "Not Okay," but "Helena's" definitely more aggressive, and I think you'll find the record has more aggressive songs on it than "Not Okay."

Fuse Daily Download Interview + HD - 11/24/04

11:36-11:54 (HD 1:45-2:04)

youtube

Gerard: The next single, I think, is gonna be "Helena," right guys? Frank: Probably Gerard: Yeah, we're actually discussing a video right now. Steven Smith (Interviewer): What about the video, what kind of stuff? Gerard: Um, right now the only thing we're talking about is a funeral. Steven Smith: Yeah? Gerard: But we're also talking to Marc Webb again, who did the last video, 'cause we love-- he did such a great job. Steven Smith: It was awesome. Gerard: And he's talking about choreographed dancing.

Steven's Untitled Rock Show Interview - Feb/March 2005

0:32-0:53

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Steven Smith (Interviewer): (After cutting back from the music video for "Helena") That was My Chemical Romance with "Helena." What was your favorite part about making that video, um any fond memories of creating it? It's kind of bizarre but very cool. Gerard: Yeah, well, um, the coolest thing was seeing the dancers for the first time, I think. It was a really hard video to make 'cause it's such a personal subject, but it was a really good closure-- I think that's what I'll take away from it-- me and Mikey especially.

KROQ Interview - 5/21/05

0:35-0:40

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Gerard: (Responding to the prompt: favorite songs on the album (Three Cheers)) The most important song, to me and especially Mikey, on the record is "Helena" 'cause it's about our grandmother who passed away.

Rolling Stone Magazine Interview + alt - 6/18/05

Page 3, paragraph 11

The inspiration for much of Three Cheers came from the death of his maternal grandmother, Elena Lee Rush, in 2003. "Helena," [Gerard] says, "is an angry open letter to myself for being on the road so long and missing the last year of her life."

Kerrang #1072 - 7/23/05

Page 6

Gerard: When we did 'Helena', I knew it was going to be heavy. I was almost afraid of the song. I knew we were going to be singing it on TV, we were going to make a really expensive video; 'Helena' was going to become a thing, and I was afraid because I knew how great it was. When I showed up for the video shoot it was grim: it was set up like a funeral and it was like walking back into my grandma's funeral (the song is about her). We chose to use a young woman not so it connected with kids -- it was to make people take it more seriously. So that people could connect with it on a broader level; when somebody older dies, you kind of expect it, when somebody younger dies, it's more tragic.

Page 7, paragraph 4

Gerard: That's when 'Helena' happened. We had this song, which wasn't about anything, then all of a sudden I said, "I think I want to make this song about grandma". So from that point on, that's what the whole record became about: loss.

Galaxie Magazine Interview - Sep 2005

Page 2, paragraph 5

Interviewer: What does it feel like to suddenly be in the same league as the bands that influenced you? Do you feel like you're in competition to be heard? Gerard: It is actually flattering. You need to play the radio game (to be heard on national radio). We were worried about Helena because all these heavy-hitting records from Nine Inch Nails, Weezer, Foo Fighters, and System of a Down came out at the same time. All these major major platinum-selling bands dropped albums and, based on what had come before, we thought Helena was done. Then all of a sudden we noticed that it wasn't. Helena remained on the charts when other songs went away. Now we are not talking shit, but our song got bigger and it made us feel that we had a chance at making a career out of this. To be able to make music that is relevant for as long as possible, that's all we want.

Zero Magazine Interview - Oct-Nov 2005

Page 7, paragraph 2-4

Interviewer: Hence the record company's decision to re-release I'm Not Okay? Gerard: Re-releasing I'm Not Okay is more of a reintroduction to the band 'cause Helena has taken off. I'm Not Okay was like this very simple, direct song about multiple high school depressions, suicide attempts, alcoholism -- it's about being an outcast. So that's Not Okay. Helena was the one that really encapsulated the band so in a way I'm happy that Helena did better than Not Okay. It was a very personal song (it's about Gerard's late grandmother), and it was the song that shaped the record. It's the most important song on the record for me. It feels great to win stuff 'cause of the subject matter, but at the same time, what it's done to people is more rewarding than awards. Like I said, awards aren't always the most validating thing, so the fact that Helena touched so many lives, even in death, I think that is really what's amazing about it.

Matt Schichter Interview - 11/30/05

0:00-0:28, 13:11-13:16

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Interviewer: First "Helena" 'cause that's my favorite song on the record. Gerard: Thank you Interviewer: Why don't you tell us a bit about the song, I know you wrote it about your grandma, not many people know that. Gerard: Yeah, me and Mikey's grandma passed away, um actually after the initial writing period for Revenge, and it had a very definite concept at that point, but after she died, it all kind of changed and became about really missing her. And that's really what a lot of the record is about. Interviewer: Do you still think about that when you sing the song live? Gerard: Yeah, that song in particular.

Interviewer: Song you've written you're most proud of? Gerard: "Helena." Mikey: Yeah, I'm gonna have to go with that one as well.

Spin 2005 Readers' Poll and Interview - Dec 2005

Page 2, paragraph 17-20

Interviewer (SpinMag): "Helena" was voted Best Song of 2005 by our readers. Did you ever think a song about a grandmother would become so huge? Gerard (NotOkayHelena): I did have some sense it was going to be huge, but it almost had to be to honor a woman so amazing. When she died, I told her we would make a record so fucking loud that she would hear it all the way in heaven...ot wherever it is you go. I was worried about it being huge because it was so personal--I didn't want to exploit my pain and her death. Interviewer: Did people accuse you of that? Gerard: Not to my knowledge. I was more concerned with my own accusations. You can't be in something unique and creative if you give a fuck what people say about you.

MTV Interview - Aug-Oct 2006

3:09-3:13

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Gerard: (Drawing parallels between Jawbreaker's Dear You and Three Cheers) Like "Helena" is basically "Accident Prone," in a lot of ways.

Metal Hammer Interview - 1/11/07

Page 5, paragraph 3

Gerard: [The Black Parade is a] really personal record; this is us laying it out there. It changed things. It's not so much that as when I was doing 'Helena' though. That was a lot tougher because I wasn't really ready to deal with my grandmother's death so head-on, and then when we put the record out it was, 'OK, you're going to be dealing with this for the next eight months.' There was no death that spawned this record."

Kerrang #1142 - 1/17/07

Page 14, paragraph 4

Written in tribute to Gerard and Mikey's grandmother, the opener to 'Three Cheers...' was initially painful for Gerard to sing. "I remember one critic said something like, 'Why would you want to watch this guy run around onstage whining about his nana'. How fucking shitty a human being do you have to be to say that?

Metal Edge Magazine Interview - 3/10/07

Page 6, paragraph 6

Gerard: I was surprised, but we always knew that song had a lot of power because of what it was about. The video itself was like a time stamp. I was just excited to see something like that on MTV. It was a funeral--it was a rock band playinga funeral--you never saw anything like that on MTV before, and it was just awesome to see that. To so directly make people face death and look at death in that way--as not just a tragic thing, [but] as a celebratory thing at the same time, and have people to actually face that, I thought it was pretty incredible.

Ultimate Guitar Interview - 4/28/07

Paragraph 10

Interviewer: How would you describe the previous album musically? How did you intend to make The Black Parade different? Ray: I think in Revenge you're hearing a band that necessarily didn't find its legs yet. It didn't find what it truly was. I think that there are flashes of that in songs like Helena and Not Okay and some of the other tracks. But I think it was our first record that we had written with Frank. At that point, he had been touring with us for a while but still kind of a new member. The way that me and him kind of played together was very different from the way we play together now.

Kerrang Podcast Interview - 11/22/10

5:56-6:10

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Gerard: (Responding to the prompt: if you could put one song in a time capsule to represent the band, what would it be and why?) Probably "Helena?" (points the mic towards Mikey) Mikey: Yeah, "Helena," definitely, absolutely. Yeah, that song I think encapsulates everything about us, and, you know, sonic quality, message, everything about it, yeah.

Grammy Museum Interview - 1/26/11

4:51-4:57

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Frank: (In response to the question: what songs have been emotionally therapeutic for you, Frank specifically talking about how songs carry emotions and associations that arise during the writing process sometimes before hearing the lyrics and how the lyrical message of a song may differ from his personal connections with it, see 4:19 for more context) Like "Helena" I'm thinking about, you know, my wife, like when I play those parts.

The First Ever Podcast - 3/16/22

1:23:08-1:23:32

Frank: I remember recording with Mike Plotnikoff, who was the engineer for Howard Benson (producer of Three Cheers), and we went into "Helena," and I played my guitar parts for the chorus of that song. And I remember them hitting the space bar, and Plotnikoff like looked at me going, "Damn, that's a fucking chorus." And I remember being like "Yes!"

The Daily Beast Interview - 2022

Paragraph 18

Gerard: I lost my grandmother before we started writing ‘Revenge’ and that loss really impacted me, because she had been the person to sit with me and teach me how to draw or make me go to the piano with her. And she would play and she would make me sing along with her and stuff, so that we had a really amazing relationship. So it was that loss and wanting to get over that loss and kind of triumph over that loss to kind of make her proud that drove me in songs like ‘Helena.’

Two Minutes to Late Night Interview - 8/15/22

17:48-18:08

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Frank: There's a few songs off [Three Cheers] that we do-- have played a lot, you know. I mean, of course like "Helena" or "Not Okay." And what's funny about say like songs like that, or even "Venom," that we've done so often, you would think that they would start to get unfun or annoying, and they don't.

One Life One Chance Interview - 10/31/22

39:11-39:45

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Frank: And then "Helena" they were like "Alright, we're gonna put this as like a second single." And I remember there was a time like when the-- they put the single out, and there was like a week or 2 where like we got sat down by like the radio people, and they were like "Hey, you know, we tried really hard. We're sorry." And we were like "What? Sorry? This is amazing!" And then all of a sudden, like the next week, it took off, and it became like the bigger-- it became bigger than "Not Okay," and that was like-- I think everyone's surprised that that happened, and we were just like "Okay," like-- "hey, listen, either way is great."

#mcr #my chemical romance #three cheers for sweet revenge #helena #interviews #song interviews #i try to mostly include only quotes where they talk about the song specifically and not just the video #but they're often intertwined so #i do my best #once again these are meant to be as exhaustive as possible but i'm still definitely missing interviews #so feel free to add or send me anything you think should be included #or if you have any information to correct or further specify (like dates)#next up is give 'em hell kid #which is way shorter so should take much less time #revenge #Youtube

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mieux-de-se-taire · 6 months

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Demolition Lovers - MCR Interviews

89.5 WSOU FM Interview - 7/11/02

6:48-7:02, 20:33-20:57, 30:48-31:03

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Interviewer: And then it all ends with “Demolition Lovers,” which is like the climax. Gerard: Yeah, originally, the song-- um “Demolition Lovers” was supposed to be called “I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love,” but I just hate it when, like bands name-- Interviewer: (Dramatically) The title track of-- Gerard: The title track! Yeah, I just don’t like title tracks.

Ray: (After being asked his favorite songs) And the last song “Demolition Lovers” because that song took us just about 6 months to write. We had that song very ear-- like, parts of the song very early when we first started the band, and it just took 6 months to finally get it right, and to hear it...like how it sounds on the CD, was just-- is just incredible. It’s really moving, for me, and I think for all of us because it-- it took so long to get right.

Gerard: This song is called “Demolition Lovers,” and…there you go. (Laughs) It’s about uh-- you wanna know what it’s about? Interviewer: Yes Gerard: It’s about uh…a willing to dish out and receive bullets for somebody… (laughs) because you love them that much.

HardcoreNJ Interview - March/April 2003

Paragraph 14

Interviewer: What is your favorite song on your album and why? Matt: Easily “Demolition Lovers” because, it was the one song on the record that was more of a project to us than the other songs. It took like 6 months till we got it right, so the song really felt like an accomplishment when we were finished. It shows a wide perspective of what we can write.

WVAU Radio Interview - 3/26/03

13:23-14:02

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Interviewer: What is the meaning behind “Demolition Lovers”? Gerard: “Demolition Lovers” is-- the meaning behind it is-- the song’s about wanting to do something for somebody or trying to prove to somebody how much they mean to you, and I wanted it to have this very like Ro-- not so much Romeo and Juliet, but very Bonnie and Clyde type feel, like two people out on the road together, willing to take a bullet for each other, kinda very like true romance type style. And it also goes out to somebody very special, and um... Interviewer: Aww Gerard: It’s kind of a way to tie up the whole record.

89.5 WSOU FM Interview - 7/3/03

16:42-17:03

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Gerard: Bullets was more like wistful. It’s more like about Romeo and Juliet type, star-crossed lovers and stuff like that. Like “Demolition Lovers” captures like the theme of the whole record, you know, two people willing to die in a gun battle for each other and stuff like that. The next record’s stepping a little away from that kind of romanticism about it, and it’s going more into the like coming back from the dead to get revenge.

MTV Interview - 6/23/04

Paragraph 7

Gerard: We had a song called 'Demolition Lovers,' from our first record [I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love]. In the end of that, the main character and his girlfriend get gunned down in the desert. So, on this album, he's in hell looking for her, and the devil tells him she's still alive. And he says, 'I have to be with her,' and the devil says, 'Then bring me the souls of 1,000 evil men. I'll send you back to earth, and when you kill the last one, you'll find her.'

MTV Interview - August-October 2006

0:37-0:49

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Gerard: And we had been working on theme and concept songs since Bullets. “Demolition Lovers,” the last track off Bullets, basically leads you into Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, so there’s even like a thematic connection.

#mcr #my chemical romance #i brought you my bullets you brought me your love #bullets #demolition lovers #interviews #song interviews #and that's the end of bullets!!!#very proud of myself #not entirely looking forward to revenge because of how much they talk about certain songs #but still excited!#as always if you think I'm missing something #please tell me!#i like these to be as exhaustive as possible

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mieux-de-se-taire · 6 months

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Cubicles - MCR Interviews

Alternative Press #197 - 9/17-20/04

Page 6, paragraph 1

The trio recorded a demo in Pelissier’s attic. “My attic had no walls,” he says, laughing. “It was a wooden, run-down piece of crap. I had a really cheap 16-track board, and we had a bunch of crappy mics. I basically had the drums and guitars playing upstairs and ran mics down the stairs and had Gerard sing in the bathroom.” What came out of those sessions were the blueprints for “Our Lady of Sorrows” (original title: “Bring More Knives”), “Cubicles” and “Turnstiles.” “You could hear that it was something really new, and it was kind of a weird idea, but for some reason, as poorly as it was coming together, it really worked,” remembers Gerard. “And a lot of people loved the demo.”

The MCR Forum Interview - 8/31/05

Paragraph 11

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 let’s 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)... Mikey: Yeah, we’ve played it on a couple of shows. Frank: But I’ve never actually played it.

Matt Schichter Interview - 11/30/05

4:23-4:59

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Interviewer: Let’s play something off the first record: either “Cubicles” or “Headfirst for Halos.” C’mon, you choose. Mikey: “Headfirst,” definitely. Interviewer: How come? Mikey: I just like the song better. (Laughs) Interviewer: (Laughs) Fair enough. Gerard: “Cubicles” we’ll never play again. It- Interviewer: Why is that? Gerard: It makes no sense, um, musically and lyrically, it’s probably my most embarrassing lyrics. Um, it does mean something. I was working in a lot of offices as--I was like a perpetual intern for like 4 years. Um, so, you know, I thought the sterility of the office was something I wanted to write about, but ultimately did not fit into the vibe of the band.

#mcr #my chemical romance #i brought you my bullets you brought me your love #bullets #cubicles #interviews #song interviews #i love how much they dislike cubicles #it's like the only song of theirs they seem to have regrets about (except one other but you'll have to wait to find out which)#only demo lovers left!#which will probably take a bit unless i get a sudden burst of motivation #we shall see

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mieux-de-se-taire · 7 months

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This Is the Best Day Ever - MCR Interviews

Life On the Murder Scene - 2005

34:56-35:04

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Gerard: I think I wrote the lyrics for “This Is the Best Day Ever” the morning of. And I remember hopping in a car, getting Dunkin’ Donuts, still having not finished ‘em.

#mcr #my chemical romance #i brought you my bullets you brought me your love #bullets #this is the best day ever #interviews #song interviews #in my archive this is the only mention of this song i could find #which doesn't seem right #but i don't know #maybe i tagged it wrong elsewhere #or maybe they just never talk about this song

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mieux-de-se-taire · 7 months

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Early Sunsets over Monroeville - MCR Interviews

89.5 WSOU FM Interview - 7/11/02

14:12-15:33, 20:21-20:32, 21:20-21:28, 21:47-21:51

youtube

Interviewer: Do you think that added to the performance, that you had to actually get through the pain? Gerard: For Early Sunsets Over Monroeville, definitely. I was in-- It was like, I don’t know like 10-- 9:30 at night. We were just getting ready-- It was the last song we did for the day, and I was in so much pain. And I just-- you know Geoffy [Geoff Rickly] was like, “Alright, let her rip.” Interviewer: That’s the mellow song, right? Ray: Right, that’s the-- what’s awesome about that too is the last, I think it’s like the last 3 minutes of that song is just one take, no edits, no stops, no cuts. It’s just...It’s an amazing performance by-- by him and just by all of us, I think because we-- we wrote that song like a few days before we went into the studio. It wasn’t finished when we recorded it, so it was just us, you know, kinda letting all of us [unintelligible], you know? Interviewer: (Overlapping) It was your studio song. Ray: Right, we wrote it in the studio. Interviewer: Well since we’re hyping this up so much... (Ray laughs) We might as well play it ‘cause everyone out there’s going “Wow, sounds like a great song.” Ray: Hopefully Interviewer: “I wanna hear him crying.” (Ray and Gerard laugh) “I wanna hear that tooth.” (Continued laughter) So, I guess let’s go into a little bit background of the song, and then we’ll play the song for everybody, and everyone can hear. Gerard: Okay, Mikey does not want me to reveal-- Interviewer: He’s going “No! You’re out!” Gerard: (Overlapping) what the song is about, but if you-- there’s plenty of clues in it, so if you figure out, it’s-- I’ll say it’s about a film. Is that enough? Ray: Yeah, that’s good. Gerard: Okay, you can figure out-- Ray: (Interrupting) Horror film Gerard: Alright. (Pauses then laughs) You messed it up! (Arguing in background)

Interviewer: What are some of your favorite songs off this record to play live and actually-- or during the recording process? Ray: Um, I think recording process-wise, definitely “Monroeville.”

Frank: (Talking about his favorite songs) And “Monroeville” because I had no clue what I was gonna do. (Interviewer laughs) I wrote it in the van before we recorded, and I had like frostbite on my fingers so it kinda sucked.

Mikey: I like the “Monroeville” song. (To Gerard) It was fun watching you tweak out at the end. (Gerard laughs)

Noise Theory Interview - 11/13/02

Page 1, paragraph 5

Interviewer: Even though ‘My Chemical Romance’ as a band have been together only a short time, the album displays some excellent and mature song writing skills. Were the album songs written after the band became complete? Ray: We started in October 2001, and had written 5 songs by January 2002. This was when the band was still a four piece. The rest of the songs came together a few weeks before we went to record. Honey This Mirror and Early Sunsets were written about a week before we left for the studio. We asked Frank to be in the band around the same time, so to get his input on those songs really helped them become what they are.

HardcoreNJ Interview - March/April 2003

Paragraph 3

Interviewer: What was the inspiration behind "Early Sunsets Over Monroeville"? Matt: Musically there wasn't any inspiration, 2 days before the recording I happened to be strumming an acoustic guitar in our practice space, and the guys all seemed to like what I was playing (which is a rarity). Anyways, we knew we wanted something different on the record to reflect our softer side. I think it was the most magical part of recording process, seeing a 2 day old song kinda just work, we didn't even have an ending for it. We all just jammed it out improvising. Oh, and the vocals were inspired by a certain movie...

89.5 WSOU FM Interview - 7/3/03

8:25-8:31, 8:59-10:27

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Interviewer: Alright, so, we’re gonna hear “Monroeville.” Ray: It’s a slow one. Grab your girl...and then shoot her in the head. (Laughter)

Interviewer: I remember a long time ago when you were recording this record that you had a problem while you were singing this song. Gerard: Yeah, I had a hole in my tooth and an abscess in the hole, and it was pushing against all the nerves in my face, and it looked like I had Parkinson’s, and it was (a?) drag, and it-- Interviewer: And your face was droopy, and-- Gerard: It was drooping, and I looked like a-- I went to hospitals the whole time we were recording, and they thought I had facial nerve paralysis, nerve damage, so I had to do that song, like basically with, yeah like the most intense pain and half a face. (Dramatically) Half a face! Interviewer: So, alright, everyone listening out there, now you know he did this song with half a face. Gerard: (After a pause) Half a face. (Laughter) Interviewer: How did you feel about the song after you played it? I know you must have been like, you know, “This can’t be the best I can do” because you’re all messed up and stuff. (Ray protesting in background) Gerard: It felt like that, but (Unintelligible as Gerard and interviewer talk at the same time) when I was doing it, but everybody was so psyched on it when I did it-- Ray: Psyched! People were crying-- Gerard: They were crying man (Laughter) Ray: It was amazing. It was the most amazing, definitely the most amazing-- Matt: (Overlapping) Yeah, we were definitely a bunch of wusses. Frank: Alright, correction, not a bunch of wusses. Ray and Otter (Matt) cried. (Laughter) That’s what happened. Ray: No no no, I will definitely say I-- Mikey: The red sea might have been parted when my brother did that part. Ray: I cried. I think Alex [Saavedra] might have shed a singular tear. Interviewer: A singular tear? Ray: It was definitely some crying going on. (Matt talking in background) Gerard: (Overlapping) I got a hug after that one Ray: (Overlapping) It was bad. Gerard: (Overlapping) I got a hug. I got lots of hugs after that. Interviewer: (After a pause and laughter) Alright, so how’d you feel about the hugs afterwards? Gerard: The hugs were sweet. (Laughter in background) The record was sweeter.

Punk It Interview - 10/29/03

Paragraph 28

Sev (Interviewer): What are some of the biggest disagreements amongst yourselves? Gerard: We mesh really well musically and personally. We all have a good time, so there's probably not that many disagreements. The only thing I think we ever disagree upon is if we're going to play "Early Sunsets Over Monroeville" or not. We had a little thing tonight. Some guys wanted to play it tonight, but I'm not sure. It's an ad lib song - the first verse was written, but the last part of the song was freestyle. And I'm not fucking Eminem, so unless the vibe is right, I don't like to do it. I did it in Chicago because the vibe was perfect. It basically happens in the middle of the set. We feel the energy, and if they can deal with it, we can deal with it.

Life On the Murder Scene - 2005

31:24-32:01

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Ray: And Frank played on 2 of the tracks off the first record, and one of them was “Early Sunsets Over Monroeville.” (“Early Sunsets” begins to play) Ray: He just plays some great, great parts. Frank: (Cuts to different interview) When we were doing “Monroeville”, Ray was laying down his parts, and as soon as he was done, I took the parts that they had recorded into a van, that had like no heat, outside the studio and wrote what I was gonna play. Ray: (Back to first interview) A lot of the melody that he plays during the verses and the choruses is just, you know, absolutely beautiful, and I think really makes those songs work.

Barcelona Live Stream - 3/5/11

6:10-6:34

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Ray: (Reading a live chat feed) Ooh, would you ever play “Early Sunsets”? Frank: Oh, we have (turns to Ray while Mikey speaks in the background) this tour? I don’t know. Ray: I can’t even remember the last we played that. Frank: I think it was in Chicago. Ray: Yeah? Mikey: (After a pause) Oh yeah, we played it in the Metro. Gerard: (Unintelligible as multiple people speak) like “The End”? Frank: Yeah Ray: That would be a cool one to revisit. Gerard: It was a cool-- I think especially if we give it some structure at the end like, ‘cause that was the problem with playing that song. It has no definitive ending, like it kinda just keeps going and going.

Kerrang #1376 (alt) - 8/10/11

Page 3, paragraph 11

Interviewer: I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love” was released in July 2002. What do you think of it now? Ray: You can hear the nervousness and excitement. Every song speeds up which gives them a lot of character. I like the rawness, especially in the vocals. It sounds very true. I get emotional, too. Early Sunsets Over Monroeville is unlike anything we’ve ever done since -- it’s amazing.

Where Are Your Boys Tonight? (Chris Payne) - 2020-2022

Chapter 9, page 113

Geoff Rickly: When we were in the studio, Gerard’s wisdom teeth were really hurting him, and he wasn’t able to sing, so he went to the dentist to have them out and afterwards they gave him a bunch of painkillers. He didn’t sing with the fire or the venom, so Alex took the painkillers away from him. Like, “You gotta sing in pain, fuck you! You gotta feel it!” I was taking the painkillers, watching him sing the record. I remember lying on the floor and coaching him through how to sing “Early Sunsets Over Monroeville,” the ballad on the record. I was saying, “You’re following the music, make the music follow you. More intense! The music will catch up to you.”

#mcr #my chemical romance #i brought you my bullets you brought me your love #bullets #early sunsets over monroeville #interviews #song interviews #i didn't mean for this one to take this long #whoops!#i'm nearing the end of bullets now #so hopefully i can get the next few done quickly #but i'm so happy to have finished this!#early sunsets is my favorite song #so it's just super interesting to see what they say about it #sorry if anything is wrong or missing for the video transcriptions!#sometimes it's so hard to tell what they're saying #especially mikey

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mieux-de-se-taire · 8 months

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Skylines and Turnstiles - MCR Interviews

Snagglezine Interview - 4/9/02

Gerard: We saw the plane hit right from the train and when we got there we were all just standing on the pier in Hoboken like right on the edge. There’s like 300 people that were friend and family and we all saw it go down. That’s when I realized that doing this cartoon was bullshit, I love to draw and make art but it was so commercial, it was just that I felt like having meetings with people in suits, it just made me realize what the hell I’m doing with my life. That’s what our 1st song that we always open with “Skylines and Turnstiles” is about. It’s about the Trade Center.

Dot Alt Interview - 8/30/02

Paragraph 3

Interviewer: So how did it all begin with MCR? Gerard: Matt and I got together around October/November and I had this song, Skylines and Turnstiles, that we worked out together. We liked where it was going so we asked the best guitarist we knew to play, Ray Toro.

Recroom Magazine Interview - 8/12/03

Jessica (Interviewer): What was the first song you wrote as a band? Gerard: "Skylines and Turnstiles.”

Alternative Press #197 - 9/17-20/04

Page 5, paragraph 9

“I ran into Matt [Pelissier] at a bar and said, ‘You know what? I’ve been writing songs. You’re not doing anything, and I’m not doing anything, so let’s get together and give it a shot.’” With a no-pressure commitment, Gerard played Pelissier a rough version of “Skylines And Turnstiles,” and he liked what he heard.

Page 6, paragraph 1

Blender Magazine Interview - April 2005

Page 3, paragraph 20 to page 4, paragraph 1

After September 11, Gerard wrote his first song, “Skylines and Turnstiles,” and played it to an old friend, drummer Matt Pelissier. Pelissier knew a guitarist called Ray Toro. “They played me their one song and I was jumping around the attic and headbanging,” says Toro.

VMA Virgins Interview - 8/28/05

0:12-0:36

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Gerard: The first song was “Skylines and Turnstiles.” I believe I had this blue guitar that I bought because Billie Joe [Armstrong] had like a greenish blue guitar, and I had it from when I was 15 or 16, so I used that guitar to write it in my mom’s basement, and I mean that was it. It was a very direct song about what happened during 9/11 and how I felt about it, and it was what started the band.

Life On the Murder Scene - 2004/2005

19:32-19:47

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Gerard: (As “Skylines and Turnstiles” plays in the background) You know I had that song, about September 11th, kind of my way of getting over it. Gerard: (Cuts to another interview) This was kind of like therapy for us when it started, and it still is. Gerard: (Cuts back to the first interview) And I said, “Just, you know, just listen to it,” and so I played it for [Matt Pelissier] and sang it, we played it together, and we just loved the way it sounded.

Kerrang #1142 - 1/17/07

Page 9, paragraph 12

Gerard: From then on, I was in my parent’s basement with a small practice amp and a very old Fender guitar. That’s when I wrote ‘Skylines And Turnstiles’ [as a reaction to what he saw on 9/11] and some of the earlier material. I wrote those songs sitting in my pyjamas with notebooks all around me. It was me going, ‘All this stuff has been inside me for years and I want to get it out.’ I wasn’t depressed at that time exactly but I was certainly a hermit.”

Barcelona Live Stream - 3/5/11

7:43-8:04

*Audio Warning for loud booming in the background*

youtube

Gerard: (Reading off chat) “Skylines and Turnstiles,” maybe making a comeback Frank: Ah Gerard: We talked about that a lot. Frank: Yeah Gerard: (Pointing at Frank) You always really want it. I think we should try it really soon. Frank: I’d like to rework that song Gerard: Yeah Frank: I think it’d be really good one. But hey, that’d be kinda cool for our 10 year, to do the song that started it all Gerard: Yeah, I would love that. (Everyone starts talking at once for a moment) Maybe for our anniversary we’ll bust that out.

Kevin Smith SModcast Interview - 12/5/12

1:32:52-1:33:11

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Kevin Smith (Interviewer): Is that the day? Or night? Or, when do you write what is considered to be the first song? Gerard: Oh right, I guess it’s like a week later. Kevin Smith: After that, and it was all predicated on September 11th? Gerard: Mm hmm, with that same Stratocaster, with the same little crappy amp that I had from when I was a kid. I just pulled it out and said, “Alright, I’m gonna do something else.” Kevin Smith: (Overlapping) Where are you? Are you home? Gerard: I’m living at my parent’s house, yeah

Where Are Your Boys Tonight? (Chris Payne) - 2020-2022

Chapter 8, page 107

Mikey: The demos got made shortly after 9/11. I was like, “I need to be in this band,” and they were like, “We need a bass player.” The first song I heard was “Skylines and Turnstiles.” It’s a heavy song, you know? I was like, ��I want to be a part of this.”

Two Minutes To Late Night Interview - 8/15/22

23:13-23:40

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Frank: When they started, the first song I think was like “Skylines and Turnstiles,” and it was just like, something happened. Gwarsenio Hall (Interviewer): Right Frank: These guys that I knew, that, you know, were the geekiest, nerdiest, like nicest, kindest, most interesting kids that you wouldn’t even stop and look twice at, like, turned into these-- they were rockstars. It was like-- it was undeniable, and it was unfathomable, like, it was crazy.

#mcr #my chemical romance #i brought you my bullets you brought me your love #bullets #skylines and turnstiles #interviews #song interviews #almost got it in time for the anniversary #next up is my favorite bullets song!#early sunsets!

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mieux-de-se-taire · 8 months

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Headfirst For Halos - MCR Interviews

89.5 WSOU FM Interview - 7/11/02

22:28-22:31, 32:22-32:43

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Gerard: (After being asked his favorite song) That’s my favorite and “Headfirst”, because I get to dance a lot, “Headfirst For Halos.”

Interviewer: Alright, so we’re gonna get into the final song of My Chemical Romance tonight, and that’s “Headfirst For Halos.” Did you wanna get into that? Gerard: Really quick, just to save you some time, it’s a song about being really depressed, on a lot of anti-depressants, and wanting to kill yourself. But instead of doing that, I just wrote a song about it, so...that’s what you should do if you ever wanna kill yourself. Interviewer: Write a song? Gerard: Write a song about it.

Punk News Interview - 4/11/03

Paragraph 10

Interviewer: What were your inspirations during the beginning guitar in “Headfirst for Halos?” ALL: Van Halen, Queen. Ray: Queen was a big one. Background: (there were certain other influences too. . . ha-ha) Ray: Ohhh well that influence was for the rest of the music in this song. We were fuckin’ zoinked out of our heads when we wrote that song. It seems like it is really against what everything sounds like on the record. It’s really major. Gerard: We wrote it literally on the spot. I mean that song wrote itself. In like 10 minutes, lyrics, everything. We were just joking around and I was like this is the catchiest, popiest, stupidest shit I have ever heard, and I was like how can I make lyrics make it not. And then I figured a way to do that. At first we were like no, this in not a My Chemical Romance song, but we just kept fighting it until it was.

Recroom Magazine Interview - 8/12/03

Jessica (Interviewer): I like that song. My favorite song on the album is number six; I'm sorry, you know I'm really bad with the titles. Matt: “Headfirst for Halos” Jessica: That's the one. Just cause that's my favorite song, I'm curious as to what the songwriting process was like for it. Gerard: It started as a joke. It was really funny. Ray: We were stoned and we were jamming. Matt: And we thought it was obnoxious and funny. We were just like, "Oh my god, this is so stupid." And Gerard's like, "No! This is great!" Gerard: Yeah; it was brilliant. So I put really dark lyrics to it and it worked. Jessica: That's what I like about it. Cause the music is all upbeat and it sounds like it would be a happy song and then the lyrics are all dark and contrast with it.

NME Interview - Late 2003

Paragraph 3

In ‘Headfirst For Halos’ (which [Gerard] Way considers “very similar to Blur”), he sings, “I think I’ll blow my brains against the ceiling / And as the fragments of my skull begin to fall / Fall on your tongue like pixie dust / Just think happy thoughts.”

Warped Tour 2004 Retrospective - May/June 2005

3:46-4:06

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Ray: [Heath Saraceno from Midtown] would actually come up on stage and play an older song from our first record, “Headfirst For Halos,” ‘cause he wanted to play with us so band that he wrote like a harmonized guitar solo thing for something that I did. And he would play with us, and it was just awesome having 3 guitar players up there, and hopefully we can do that again sometime.

Alternative Press - June 2005

Page 7, paragraph 1

Frank: [The other most unforgettable Warped moment was when we were in Calgary, and] the power went out while we were playing “Headfirst For Halos.” The kids kept it going. I’d never been a part of something like that; a place where we had never been before carried us through that song. I think it was the best time we ever played it, because we didn’t play it at all! [Laughs]

Matt Schichter Interview - 11/30/05

4:23-4:30

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Interviewer: Let’s play something off the first record: either “Cubicles” or “Headfirst For Halos.” C’mon, you choose. Mikey: “Headfirst,” definitely. Interviewer: How come? Mikey: I just like the song better. (Laughs)

Life on the Murder Scene - 2005

35:39-36:09

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Gerard: The most important song is “Headfirst For Halos.” (clip of band playing “Headfirst For Halos”) Gerard: Why it’s important is that it’s a song that kinda started as a joke (“Headfirst” continues to be played) Gerard: But, it’s the song that-- I had said to the guys “if we can pull this song off, if we can accomplish this, and do it believably, like, if we believe this song could work for this band, it’ll-- we won’t ever be pigeonholed.”

Kerrang #1143 - 1/17/07

Page 3, paragraph 2

Gerard: There’s a song on every record that allows us to push ourselves further. On ‘Bullets’ it was [Headfirst For Halos] and on ‘Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge’ it was ‘You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison.’ This actually started out as a joke. Then we realised that, if we could pull it off, it would allow us to do so much more because it would prevent us from getting pigeonholed. We worked on it to the point that it wasn’t a joke at all which, in turn, allowed us to do a song like ‘...Prison.’

It happened naturally because it was only after we finished writing it that we realised where it might take us. We had a thrashy pop song in our laps and we thought, ‘This doesn’t sound like anything.’ Maybe it was a bit of a Beatles rip-off, maybe it was a bit Britpop but that was all I could think of.

Again, it had a visual quality. That song and ‘Vampires Will Never Hurt You’ both gave us a real sense of identity. They brought in the entire gothic thing. It was those songs that made people think we were a vampire band!

#mcr #my chemical romance #i brought you my bullets you brought me your love #bullets #headfirst for halos #interviews #song interviews #yay headfirst!#probably my least favorite song on bullets #but super interesting in its significance to the band #next up is skylines!

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mieux-de-se-taire · 8 months

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Where Are Your Boys Tonight? (Chris Payne) - 2020-2022

Chapter 9, page 116

Mikey Way: Back in that era, we played everything really fast live. Especially a song like “Honey, This Mirror Isn’t Big Enough for the Two of Us.” I’m riffing, and it was a trial by fire. I got thrown in the ocean and it was like, “Swim.” Ray and Frank are two of the greatest guitar players and I had to keep up with them. And that’s where that came from—rigorous practice and the relentless need to get better.

Honey, This Mirror Isn’t Big Enough for the Two of Us - MCR Interviews

89.5 WSOU FM Interview - 7/11/02

7:10-8:50

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Interviewer: One of my favorite tracks is actually the second track. It’s the first full song: “Honey, This Mirror Isn’t Big Enough for the Two of Us.” Wanna get into that? I’m guessing, Gerard, you write most of the lyrics for it? Gerard: Uh, yeah. Do you got an edit button for that song then? Interviewer: Yeah, I known where it is. I’m all good. (Band laughs in the background) Gerard: We talked about that on the way up. We were like “I don’t think he’s gonna be able to play that,” but… … Interviewer: Alright, so, let’s get into a little bit of the background. Gerard: Okay Interviewer: (Overlapping) This is the– it’s not the opening track but it’s the first track where you actually get introduced to the whole album. And, you know, what was the reasoning for making this track the first full track? Gerard: This was the last song we wrote, I think, before recording the record. And, honestly, like, I had run out of stuff to talk about, so I asked everybody. I was like, “Does anybody else have a story they can talk about?” And, turns out Mikey did, so. Mikey goes, “write this about an ex-girlfriend.” So I did. And I wrote it for Mikey. Interviewer: For his ex-girlfriend or your ex-girlfriend? Gerard: Well, for Mikey’s ex, but like– (Interviewer and Ray(?) laugh) I wrote it for Mikey. It’s for Mikey. Interviewer: Did he have any input on how the lyrics should be? (To Mikey) Did you have any involvement in the writing? Gerard: Mikey, did you? Mikey: (Very faintly in the background) Not really (Everyone laughs) Ray: He said no. Gerard: I think Mikey– Mikey pretty much just lived it, and like, there’s lines in there like… (Band laughs). There’s lines in there like “You can’t keep my brother” and stuff like that. So that’s kind of like me talking about him, and then it switches from like me to him.

Noise Theory Interview - 11/13/02

Paragraph 5

Rocksound #67 - April 2004

Paragraph 1

Gerard: Vanity is a big subject in our songs. I think without vanity - the band, to a degree, doesn’t work. There’s an arrogance and vanity to it, but it’s almost like a commentary on human behavior. The song “Honey, This Mirror Isn’t Big Enough for the Two of Us” was strictly about vanity. It’s about being vain enough to live your life and do what you want. Maybe I’m misconstrued, maybe it’s just confidence, but it’s always fun to dabble in vanity or arrogance. It kind of gives you the power that you have as a band but we’re, at the same time, keeping level-headed.

Kerrang #1476 - 7/23/13

Page 6, paragraph 1

On revisting Honey… recently, Gerard Way said, “My voice sounds so raw, untrained on this… all of us do and it’s great – really fun to listen to.”

#where are your boys tonight #i finally read where are your boys tonight!#so i'm adding all the song mentions from it now #and i'm almost done with headfirst and skylines!

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mieux-de-se-taire · 8 months

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Our Lady of Sorrows - MCR Interviews

89.5 WSOU FM Interview - 7/11/02

7:32-7:46, 21:09-21:14, 22:20-22:28

youtube

Interviewer: I don't think I’ll be able to play track 5. Gerard: Oh yeah, 5 (Interviewer laughs) Ray: Probably not that one. Interviewer: That’s alright ‘cause that’s gonna be one of those that uh, you know, kids are gonna hear this, and they’re gonna get the record, and then, track 5 is gonna be like the track that everyone loves (Gerard laughs) ‘cause it’s the one they didn’t hear. Frank: (After being asked his favorite song) I like “Knives” a lot to play, and “Vampires” is always fun. Gerard: My favorite song to play live is “Knives,” um, “Our Lady of Sorrows,” sorry. We’re using the old titles for songs, sorry. Interviewer: (Overlapping) Another name change? Gerard: Yeah, it’s called “Our Lady of Sorrows”. That’s my favorite.

Noise Theory Interview - 11/13/02

Page 2, paragraph 1

Interviewer: MCR’s music can be pretty varied, do you have a particular favorite song that you like to play live? Ray: Hmm…live I think my favorite songs to play are Our Lady of Sorrows, just because of the pure energy in the song, and Vampires, because it has quiet parts that gradually explode and it’s fun to see kids whig out when that happens.

Alternative Press #197 - 9/17-20/04

Page 6, paragraph 1

Kerrang #1045 - 2/16/05

Page 6, paragraph 2

Gerard: We always turn the houselights up during ‘Our Lady Of Sorrows’ because it’s a special song to us.

FUSE Q&A with Bert McCracken and Gerard Way - 2/26/05

4:27-4:38

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Gerard: My favorite lyric has always been my favorite lyric, and it is “oh, how wrong we were to think that immortality meant never dying” from ‘Our Lady of Sorrows,’ our first record. I don’t think I’ll ever top that line. It’s my favorite.

Zero Magazine Interview - December 2005

Page 5, paragraph 10 and page 7, paragraph 1

Gerard: There’s always a fear that people might overlook “I Brought You My Bullets…” Occasionally, when we play on this tour, with the exception of Vampires and Our Lady of Sorrows, we play 4 or 5 old songs, usually when the venue’s quietest - but then again, when we play the UK, those are some of their favorite songs. The UK was very accepting of Bullets, whereas America didn’t know about it. They like hearing it, they’re just not familiar with it.

Not the Life It Seems: The True Story of MCR / Kerrang #1142 - 1/17/07

Page 33, paragraphs 3-4

“We met once a week for the next four weeks to practise,” said Gerard. “It seemed that anything was possible at that point. Ray wrote “Our Lady of Sorrows” – which was the second complete song we had. It fitted because it didn’t really fit. That was something we always wanted to do – to put songs together that shouldn’t work together but do. This song was really aggro and metal – there were bits we cribbed off Helloween in it. There were a lot of bizarre references around that time.

“The genesis of the sound came from sitting in Ray’s room in his Mom and Dad’s apartment that he shared with his brothers and sitting at his computer with two guitars and just talking about the sound a lot. We were completely on the same page about it, 100 per cent.”

Page 14, paragraph 3

Initially called ‘Bring More Knives’, this was written by Ray Toro and was the second song MCR ever completed. “There were bits we cribbed off (old school metallers) Helloween in it,” says Gerard. “It came from sitting in Ray’s room in his mom and dad’s apartment, sitting at his computer with two guitars and just talking about the sound a lot.”

Kerrang #1350 - 2/9/11

Page 7, paragraph 8

Frida (Sweden): What are your favourite lyrics you have written? Are they still from ‘Our Lady of Sorrows’? Gerard: Yeah, I think so.

#mcr #my chemical romance #i brought you my bullets you brought me your love #bullets #our lady of sorrows #interviews #song interviews #not the life it seems #i usually try to find the interviews that not the life it seems draws from but i couldn't find the full quote for the kerrang 1142 one #it's probably another kerrang magazine #but i have no idea #next up is headfirst!#which is mentioned a lot #so it'll probably take a bit

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mieux-de-se-taire · 9 months

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Drowning Lessons - MCR Interviews

89.5 WSOU FM Interview - 7/11/02

21:31-21:45

youtube

Matt: (After everyone is asked their favorite song) Um, I don’t know, I pretty much liked, liked um, “Wish You Away” best. I mean, that’s always been my favorite. Ray: (Faintly) It’s called “Drowning Lessons”. (Frank and interviewer laugh) Matt: “Drowning Lessons”. That’s right, sorry. We had a, we had a late name change on that one. But uh, “Drowning Lessons” definitely was my favorite.

Q&A at the 98.7 Penthouse - 1/21/11

4:18-5:13

youtube

Interviewer: What is your least favorite song to play live? Frank: (After short pause) I was gonna say it’s, uh, it’s “Drowning Lessons,” ‘cause we played it twice. Ray and Mikey: (Overlapping) Oh, yeah Frank: (Crowd talking) Wait, hold on. (Crowd laughs) We have a reason. We played it twice, only twice live. Interviewer: You don’t like it because Mike’s good at it? Frank: (Pauses and then laughs) Uh, it just -- there was a -- there was a curse on that song. It’s like, it’s a haunted song, so it’s like no matter- Mikey: (Interrupts) Anytime we played it something bad happened. So we can’t play it. Ray: I don't know if we ever even finished the song. Frank: (Mikey and crowd overlapping) No, we haven’t. Gerard: Not properly Interviewer: It's not that you go back to your hotel room and there’s a dead bat under your sheets. (Band and crowd laughs) It’s like, you play the song and an old lady drops of a heart attack in the first row. Mikey: Something happened every time. Frank: (Overlapping) Something happened. Gerard: (Overlapping) Yeah no, I think something happened. Mikey: So we, we made a solemn oath to never play it. Interviewer: Alright, who wants them to play it right now? (Crowd cheers and band laughs) Frank: We are on a haunted house Ray: (Overlapping) Who’s ready to die then, yeah? Frank: Everyone just falls to the floor.

#mcr #my chemical romance #i brought you my bullets you brought me your love #bullets #drowning lessons #interviews #song interviews #yay another one!#and an easy one!#i can't guarantee my transcriptions are perfect #especially since mikey is so quiet and talks so fucking weird #once again if anyone knows of any interviews they think i'm missing please send them to me!#i like my posts to be as definitive as possible

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mieux-de-se-taire · 10 months

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As much as I hate to be a miserable downer, as far as I know this isn't actually a reliable source, and according to all available information, Gerard only wore drag in college, not high school.

The magazine (src) this is from is called Sugar Lad Mag, which almost certainly never actually interviewed Gerard. The entire "interview" is composed of real quotes from Gerard pulled from various interviews and divorced from their original contexts. These quotes were then spliced together to form a specific narrative. Presumably they thought it would sound more exciting if Gerard wore drag in high school. You can see this happen multiple times:

Metal Underground Interview - 6/11/04

Sugar Lad Mag - Oct 2006

Alternative Press 197 (src) - 9/17-20/04

Sugar Lad Mag

Alternative Press 197

Sugar Lad Mag

NME Interview (src) - 10/15/05

Sugar Lad Mag

NME Interview

Sugar Lad Mag

Another suspicious thing about the "interview" is the narrative that it creates. It states that bullying led Gerard to having suicidal thoughts, but, while they've mentioned being bullied in school, they've always attributed their suicidal thoughts as as result of addiction and lack of purpose in their 20s. Moreover, the article strongly implies that Gerard quit drinking after his grandmother's death (see above), but their grandmother died in November of 2003 while Gerard didn't become sober until August/September 2004.

I'm assuming the quote about drag comes from this interview:

Trouble Bunch Music - July/August 2004

But I wasn't able to find the quote about high school ("I always wanted to be an artist, so I was this loner kid who got drunk all the time...") or the one that follows the line about drag ("People call you names because of what you look like...").

Nevertheless, it's unlikely that this section of the interview is actually genuine considering the rest of it.

Sorry to disappoint anyone who was excited, but there's nothing that reliably supports the idea that Gerard publicly wore drag while in high school.

How did you find high school? Gerard Way: "Hard. I always wanted to be an artist, so I was this loner kid who just got drunk all the time. I only had one real friend." In what ways were you a loner? "I went to school in drag. People call you names because of what you look like, because they don't accept who you are."

(October 2006)

#mcr #my chemical romance #mcr interviews #gerard way drag #sorry everyone!#as soon as I looked at the source I knew it couldn't be true because I had read this interview before #I'm not at all trying to insinuate that op is trying to spread misinformation here #there's lots of unreliable sources out there and a lot of them are hard to spot

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mieux-de-se-taire · 10 months

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Kerrang Radio Interview - 2/15/11

7:52-8:10

youtube

Gerard: What I’m really excited about now is we’ve been playing ‘Vampires Will Never Hurt You,’ which we haven’t played in 7 years, and that is fun to play. I mean, I got off stage last night-- we did it as the very last song-- and it really made me feel like a kid again. Like, I felt like a kid in a basement, and we were playing it, and we kind of played it like that. It was interesting.

Examiner Interview - 3/30/11

Paragraph 11

Ray: We have even been playing a couple of songs off our basement record Bullets (I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love) which is pretty cool. I don’t even know where we got the idea from, but we started playing the second or third song the band wrote, which was the first song we recorded for real called "Vampires Will Never Hurt You.” That is a super fan favorite, and if you are a super fan of My Chem then you will know that song, and know it was almost our first introduction to the fans. That was when we were a little bit darker. We brought that song out, and I cannot remember which city we did it in, but the hardcore fans flipped out. We play that song every once in a while depending on how the night goes, and if it is a really good show, we will probably play it.

Kerrang #1425 - 7/25/12

Page 1, paragraph 1 to 11

Outside, there was a storm brewing. Dark inky swirls were forming above the small New Jersey studio, the sky bruised and ominous. Inside Nada Recording Studio, Gerard Way was bitching and moaning.

An abscess in a tooth had meant emergency dental work earlier in the day, and the singer had returned delirious on painkillers. Mumbling, slurring, and woozy, he came back to Nada with a mouth full of blood and a temper. He certainly wasn’t interested in singing.

But the clock was ticking. His band, My Chemical Romance, and producer Geoff Rickly knew work had to be done. So they hid his painkillers. Which is why Gerard was bawling at them.

The singer stomped around the studio, angry, upset, and in no mood to be in front of a mic. And so the boss of My Chemical Romance’s then label, Eyeball Records’ Alex Saavedra, took matters into his own hands. He punched Gerard in the face. Hard. Then said, simply: “Now go sing.”

It worked.

“Gerard was red in the face, he wanted to kill because he was so mad,” said Geoff. “He went and sang and it was so intense. He was on fire. He did it in one take and it sounded like venom. It sounded like someone wanting to tear himself apart.”

“The punch was motivational. It was an act of love, I think,” Gerard said. “I was very jittery and real nervous, there was a really crazy atmosphere and I knew I only had about an hour to do the song. He came up and gave me a hug, then he punched me in the mouth. I was fucking riled. I went up to the mic and nailed it the first time.”

Howling, angry, furious, and cathartic - he delivered all the pain he was feeling into that performance. Pissed off at being punched, fuming about his hidden painkillers, and incensed about the pain in his mouth, hw went crazy - a performance building to a frenzy as he screamed, whispered, and yelled the brutal poetry of lyrics like ‘Someone save my soul tonight.’ But then…

“…Then John [Naclerio], the engineer, goes, ‘Fuck, that was amazing. Could you do it again? I was just setting the levels,’” added Gerard. “I was like, ‘Fuck!’”

Straight off the bat, he went there again, unleashing the pain again at the mic. The results were Vampires Will Never Hurt You, the first song MCR ever properly recorded. It would form the centre-piece to their debut I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love - 10 years old this month - the birth of which began their journey from New Jersey “scumbags”, as they called themselves, to stars. That punch was responsible for a lot.

“To this day, nothing beats the recording of Vampires. Even the stuff that we’ve spent a lot of money on,” Gerard has said. “We listened to it in the van ride back. It was just the loudest, gnarliest, darkest, most melodic song I’d ever heard. It was fucking amazing.”

Page 2, paragraph 5 to 6

Geoff listened to an early demo of Vampires Will Never Hurt You and was very impressed.

“It blew my mind,” he said. “I called them right away and said, ‘This is really cool. I’ve never heard anything like it.’ I heard some other things in there but it was unique enough -- especially for a band only a month old. When I got home from tour they asked me to produce their record. So between two three-month-long tours I had 10 days off, and had to go into the studio with them for seven of them.”

Page 4, paragraph 4

“I had all these weird notebooks full of writing about how disassociated I felt in my early 20s,” [Gerard] added. “Vampires…, for example, is about the early signs of my alcoholism and how I felt I was wasting my life. It was about feeling generally like a scumbag. I was really dissatisfied with where I -- and everyone I knew -- was destined to end up. We were all going to end up as nothing. That’s what a lot of the band was born out of.”

Kerrang #1476 - 7/23/13

Page 11, paragraph 2

In April this year, Gerard Way tweeted, “Vampires is still my favorite song of all time. Ever.” … Frank: I was present for the recording, however I was not in the band yet. Vampires… solidified MCR as my favorite band I’d ever heard.”

ID10T with Chris Hardwick Interview - 8/12/13

~22:03-22:45 (time stamp varies with ad lengths)

Gerard: I remember being in the parking lot of our shit hole studio and hearing [Vampires] on college radio for the first time, WSOU pirate radio, Seton Hall. It was amazing. That was the most-- it never got better than that, like, even hearing it on commercial radio wasn’t as cool as that. Interviewer: Was the album for that already out or was it like a 7” or what? Gerard: It was the song. Interviewer: It was just a song? Gerard: It only existed digitally too. It wasn’t even a 7”. (Interviewer laughs) That’s how poor we were. We just had a digital file we sent over. Interviewer: Oh, you just sent it to the station? Gerard: Yeah, ‘cause we had started to play local, and one of the DJs really liked us, and he said, “Do you have anything?” And we said, “Well, we’ll go record something.” So we recorded one song, called ‘Vampires Will Never Hurt You.’ And then, it just started to build up, inch by inch though, you know, momentum.

Oral History of Myspace Music - 3/20/20

2nd Frank paragraph

Frank: I think the first time we really recognized the power of social media was right around the time Thursday was being signed, Midtown was signed. Basically, all our friends from Jersey and Long Island were getting record deals. And My Chem had really just started. We recorded one song because that’s all we had the money for at that point. And we put it up on Myspace immediately and were like, “Hey listen, we’re gonna do a record soon once we get the money. But this is like a sneak preview kind of thing,” and once we put that up, there were literally major label A&Rs calling the practice studio. How they got the number for the practice studio, I have no idea.

Two Minutes To Late Night Interview - 8/15/22

12:29-12:56

youtube

Frank: The first song we ever, like, wrote and put out on the internet, our first single, was a song called ‘Vampires Will Never Hurt You.’ And it was a song that we, you know, wrote in the practice studio, and recorded and put it out, and we were like, “Well, if people like it, then they’ll let us know through this song, and then we’ll get enough money to record a record, right?” So that’s what we did. That song was 6 minutes long, and the last song we put out is 6 minutes long. Kinda crazy.

One Life One Chance with Toby Morse Interview - 10/31/22

1:01:17-1:01:30

youtube

Frank: The first song we ever put out was ‘Vampires Will Never Hurt You,’ and-- I mean the first song that was recorded in an actual studio not just in an attic somewhere-- and that’s a 6 minute song. And so we-- the last song is a 6 minute song, so it’s like kinda mirrored.

Vampires Will Never Hurt You - MCR Interviews

Anemic Magazine Interview - 7/1/02

Paragraph 24

Interviewer: Some rumours I have heard is that you guys like bats. What’s the fascination with them? Is it the Will Haven song BATS, or you just like the species? Gerard: Haha…the whole bat thing came about at an early practice when Mikey joined and we finally gelled. Our energy just came together and a giant heavy metal vortex opened up and out flew a swarm of bats. We all saw it. It was like an awakening. After that we accepted bats into our lives. It was also while we were playing “Vampires Will Never Hurt You” so it probably had a lot to do with that.

89.5 WSOU FM Interview - 7/11/02

20:58-21:02, 21:10-21:14, 22:03-22:19, 26:28-27:12

youtube

Ray: (After being asked his favorite song to play live (20:20)) As far as live, Vampires is always incredible Interviewer: Right Ray: ‘Cause it’s just so fun to play … Frank: I like Knives a lot to play, and…Vampires is always fun … Gerard: My favorite to record, um, that’s a tough one. Vampires, even though it was done before the whole album. I was– that was awesome because there like was this huge storm that rolled in when we recorded it, and it was so cool. And everybody thought like I (I’ll?) let some bats go and stuff, and that was really cool … Interviewer: But let’s talk about Vampires, and then we’re gonna play it for everybody Gerard: Okay, um, it’s obviously this metaphor for something that, you know, had happened, not just to me but like a lot of people in real life. It’s kinda– I don’t know if I should give away too much ‘cause a lot of people take away their own things from it, you know, but um Interviewer: Right.That’s what’s also good, I think, about the record, that you can interpret it your own way, apply it to your own life, and it may not mean the same thing but… Gerard: Yeah, I mean like I get emails from people saying like how the song helped them get through a situation that– and like what their meaning of the song meant to them and it helped them, and I thought that was awesome, so I don’t want ever, on this one especially, to divulge too much of what it’s about ‘cause it’s pretty personal, but (laughs)… but um, it’s like, you know, it’s about vampires. (Everyone laughs)

Sucker Newspaper Interview + src - July 2002

Paragraph 2

Interviewer: You got Geoff [Rickly] of Thursday to produce your record. How did you hook up with him? Gerard: Mikey and I met the talented Mr. Rickly when Thursday first signed to Eyeball Records. We played him the rough of “Vampires Will Never Hurt You” which he liked so much we asked him to produce the record. He accepted.

Dot Alt Interview - 8/30/02

Paragraph 7

Gerard: We take a semi-autobiographical approach to things, with some roots in fiction. We try and connect with people in a more abstract way, to get more meaning out of what we’re trying to say. Interviewer: Like using cult imagery on Vampires Will Never Hurt You? Gerard: Yeah, obviously we use vampires as a metaphor for something else, something deeper than just the supernatural. But there’s just something about the bloodsucking walking dead, that can say so much to people. There are really so many people trying to get control over you on a daily basis and steal your soul in some way, take a part of you…

Noise Theory Interview - 11/13/02

Page 1, paragraph 6

Interviewer: ‘Vampires Will Never Hurt You’ is a truly amazing song. How did it come about? Ray: The writing process for most of our songs starts out with one band member having an idea of what the song should be, usually its already written in his head and its just a matter of getting it out. Gerard had this idea for a 6 minute song that had multiple changes, guitar breaks, a slow breakdown at the end, pretty much everything was in his head before we ever played a single note. The song was still tough to write though, because we were having trouble writing the chorus for it. Matt really helped on this one because what he plays on drums can sometimes just totally inspire you to try something different, and that’s what happened with this one. Somewhere there Is a version of us playing Vampires with the old chorus…it sucks. No pun intended. As for the lyrics, I know Gerard was inspired by a trip to a seedy bar. I’m not sure what the hell was going on there, but it made for a great song!

Page 2, paragraph 1

Interviewer: MCR’s music can be pretty varied, do you have a particular favorite song that you like to play live?

Ray: Hmm…live I think my favorite songs to play are Our Lady of Sorrows, just because of the pure energy in the song, and Vampires, because it has quiet parts that gradually explode and it’s fun to see kids whig out when that happens.

Radio Takeover Interview - 6/17/03

Paragraph 9

Interviewer: Well, is there even a message or is it the kind of message that people realize for themselves, a subjective one? Frank: It’s both. Gerard: There are some things that we say directly to people and there are the things that we want people to get out of it. When you get the message out of something yourself. Matt: It means a lot more. Gerard: It’s more rewarding. A song like “Vampires” is probably our most metaphorical song. Matt: It’s not about vampires at all. Gerard: Because vampires don’t exist and I’m not even going to fucking talk about them anymore. You get what you want out of that though. Frank: It is about something though. Gerard: Yeah, it is about something that happened to me and we have a lot of different messages and hopefully we have a lot of time to tell them all. Frank: I think the best line in that song, is “I’ll never let them hurt you.” That is the best line. Gerard: That is the most important line in the song because that is the line where nothing else matters in the set. When I say that line, sometimes I am completely spent and it’s funny because it’s a breather line and it means the most.

Paragraph 11

Interviewer: The lyric, “It’s hard to say I’m shakin’ by the choices that I make, I choose this life I’ve taken.” What is the hardest choice you’ve had to make to get to this life that you’ve taken? Gerard: Sacrificing being with our loved ones and our family and all the people who have made us who we are. Sacrificing spending time with them. Frank: when we were in Jersey our friends and our family were the only people who gave a shit about anything that we did and what we were putting out and no one else cared, and we have made a choice to get out to as many people as we can and to meet the people we reach. It’s hard for us and it will continue to be hard for us for as long as we do this to be away from those people though.

89.5 WSOU FM Interview - 7/3/03

21:58-23:10

youtube

Interviewer: (Unintelligible) wants to know what Vampires Will Never Hurt You is about. Gerard: (Frank laughing in the background) Vampires Will Never Hurt You, obviously vampires don’t exist, it’s obviously metaphorical, just so everybody knows I don’t believe in vampires. (More laughter in the background) It’s about basically seedy bars and seedy people you meet at those seedy bars that will have nothing better to do than keep you from growing up and/or being responsible and not drinking and not being an alcoholic and just sucking you into their world. (Unintelligible comment from Mikey that Gerard repeats) No, it’s about– it’s about that. It’s, you know– there’s no such thing as vampires, and I know that (band laughs). Ray: You just broke a lot of kids’ hearts. Frank: Whoa, whoa, whoa. What about glampires? Gerard: And, uh– and you should know that too! Wise up dude! (band laughs) Like it’s just movies, c’mon, and– seriously it’s a metaphor for other things in life, be it drug addiction, heroin addiction, stuff like that, and being– Matt: (Interrupts) Coca cola Gerard: Coca cola and being involved with really crappy people, you know what I mean, people that just have nothing better to do with their lives than drink with you and drag you down with them.

Equal Music Interview - 10/31/03

Paragraph 16

Interviewer: There are a couple theories circulating about your repeated mention of vampires in your lyrics. Can you clear that up? Gerard: It’s a metaphor for being in your twenties and getting sucked into that singles alcoholic nightlife culture, ya know what I mean? It’s interesting, because you’ll find that a lot of bands use the supernatural as a gimmick, and that’s really all it is, it’s just like horror punk, and that’s all it is. We’re not really into vampires. I like to wear black, but…

Alternative Press #197 - 9/17-20/04

Page 3, paragraph 10 to page 4, paragraph 1

“As soon as it came time for Gerard to do vocals for ‘Vampires [Will Never Hurt You],’ this insane storm hit,” Saavedra remembers. “Gerard was getting very frustrated because it was his first time recording, decently, in an actual studio. He was overwhelmed and he was over-thinking it… So I punched him in the face!” The blow loosened Gerard’s jaw and somehow gave him the motivation to take to the mic and rip a bite out of the track.

Gerard laughs triumphantly, “I remember it hurting a lot, and going, ‘All right, I hope I can do this.’ I remember singing, and something clicked. I remember Alex’s face was just amazed that the song was finally coming together. I think it was the second take that we ended up using.”

Blaring Out Show Interview - 9/28/04

2:26-3:17

youtube

Gerard: The coolest thing that ever happened was the first time it ever happened was the head of our street team, Carlos, who we love very very much– he was really our first fan. He was our first big fan, and he IM’ed me one day on the computer, and I didn’t know who he was, and he said that Vampires Will Never Hurt You off the first record, to him, it was helping him get through high school because he saw all these people that were, you know, kind of, I guess, not so much jocks and stuff, but just people that were picking on him and stuff. And it actually kind of scared me when I first heard it, and I was like ‘Oh man, people are going to start thinking people are vampires, and they’re gonna to try to shoot them with shotguns,’ and I got kinda scared about all of that, but you know, it ended up– it just helped him get through a really bad relationship where a girl was jerking him around in high school and all the people had picked on him, so, you know, that– obviously, the song is about being an alcoholic, but, not to him, you know, and that’s the coolest part.

Circus Magazine Interview - July 2005

Page 2, paragraph 8 to page 3, paragraph 1

Gerard: We were in the studio 3 months later to record our debut album ‘I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love’ for the New Jersey label Eyeball and we were trying to record the song Vampires - all of a sudden I was frozen, I simply couldn’t sing, I couldn’t talk, I just stood there like a piece of wood, I know I was terribly nervous and there was thunderstorm brewing outside, all I could hear was the sound of the rain and the thunder, I really thought that’s it, I’m never going to make it, then the label boss Alex walked up to me and he just hit me right in the face. I snapped out of my state and everything worked out fine!

Zero Magazine Interview - December 2005

Page 5, paragraph 10 and page 7, paragraph 1

Kerrang #1142 - 1/17/07

Page 10, paragraph 5 to paragraph 7

“I was about to sing ‘Vampires Will Never Hurt You’,” remembers Gerard. “There was a storm forming outside, my teeth were hurting, and then Alex came up to me, gave me a hug, then punched me right in the mouth. I think he did the right thing, to tell you the truth. It was an act of love, but I was fucking riled. I went up to the mic and nailed it first time. We listened to it in the van ride back. It was just the loudest, gnarliest, darkest, most melodic song I’d ever heard. It was fucking amazing.”

Forcing himself into character is a trick Gerard has repeated ever since.

“It’s almost like method acting,” he says. “‘Vampires’ was definitely the first instance of that.”

Kerrang #1143 - 1/17/07

Paragraph 5

Gerard: Again, it had a visual quality. That song [Headfirst for Halos] and ‘Vampires Will Never Hurt You’ both gave us a real sense of identity. They brought in the entire gothic thing. It was those songs that made people think we were a vampire band!

BBC Radio 1 Audio Documentary - 2007

15:06-15:56

youtube

Gerard: We went to do ‘Vampires,’ and it was, still to this day, like, the most magical, incredible recording experience I’ve ever been a part of next to, really, making The Black Parade. But nothing beats your first time on a mic. (‘Vampires’ plays for a few seconds) Gerard: There was an energy. It wasn’t that I was nervous or anything, there was just this energy. There was this storm building outside, everybody had tracked the instruments, and it was sounding incredible, you know. (’Vampires’ continues to play) Gerard: And it was very inspired, and I was outside with Alex [Saavedra], and he just clocked me in the face. Alex: He was getting really hard on himself, and you could tell, and he was really losing it, so…I helped him focus, and I punched him.

MCR Forum Interview - 10/30/10

Paragraph 4

Ray: And after we wrote Na Na Na we really felt ‘wow the sky is the limit, we can try so many different things!’ So the song that we ended up writing after Na Na Na was Vampire Money, which has the same energy. And then the song after that that we wrote was Planetary (GO), which has a different energy, but it’s something that we’ve always tried to write, but we never did one hundred percent. If you look at a song like Vampires Will Never Hurt You, it has a little bit of that. It doesn’t have the electronics in it, but it easily could.

Grammy Museum Interview - 1/26/11

25:15-25:34, 26:16-27:12

youtube

Frank: I remember being a fly on the wall when they finished ‘Vampires Will Never Hurt You,’ and that was the first song that you guys really recorded, and it was like…you guys were so excited about it. You were like “Oh my god, this– you gotta hear this song!” And they would play it over and over again, and then, after they played it, they would all high-five each other. (Crowd and interviewer laugh) And they were like “That was awesome!” And I’m just like “Yeah, that was really cool.” … Frank: So ‘Vampires Will Never Hurt You’ was the first song that was actually really really recorded. They did like 3 songs in an attic, but like, they went to a studio to record ‘Vampires.’ And as soon as you guys recorded it, I think– it got played on pirate radio, which is like Seton Hall in New Jersey, and then we put it up on the internet. And, within a month after that, there was A&R people from major labels calling the studio, which was– it was ridiculous ‘cause like, at that point, Thursday had a lot of heat on them, which is another amazing band from Jersey, Midtown was getting signed, Saves the Day was getting signed, and so there was this crazy thing going on, and, you know, My Chem was kind of getting pushed into this circle. And there was a lot of attention, and we were playing shows and kids were going off. It was immediate though, like, in that circle– I wasn’t even in the band at that point, but when you heard that song, you knew something amazing was going to happen. I don’t know how to pinpoint it, but, like, there was something really special.

#that's every mention of vampires i've been able to find #i have no doubt i'm missing some from danger days era because i don't have a lot of magazines from then #but i think this is a pretty thorough list #the rest of bullets is going to be so much easier because they basically never talk about any other song #i'm just dreading when i reach really big ones like helena and wttbp #it's all really interesting!#but they say a lot of the same things #many many times #if anyone knows of an interview they think i'm missing #please send it to me!

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mieux-de-se-taire · 10 months

Text

Vampires Will Never Hurt You - MCR Interviews

Anemic Magazine Interview - 7/1/02

Paragraph 24

Interviewer: Some rumours I have heard is that you guys like bats. What's the fascination with them? Is it the Will Haven song BATS, or you just like the species? Gerard: Haha...the whole bat thing came about at an early practice when Mikey joined and we finally gelled. Our energy just came together and a giant heavy metal vortex opened up and out flew a swarm of bats. We all saw it. It was like an awakening. After that we accepted bats into our lives. It was also while we were playing "Vampires Will Never Hurt You" so it probably had a lot to do with that.

89.5 WSOU FM Interview - 7/11/02

20:58-21:02, 21:10-21:14, 22:03-22:19, 26:28-27:12

youtube

Ray: (After being asked his favorite song to play live (20:20)) As far as live, Vampires is always incredible Interviewer: Right Ray: ‘Cause it’s just so fun to play ... Frank: I like Knives a lot to play, and...Vampires is always fun ... Gerard: My favorite to record, um, that’s a tough one. Vampires, even though it was done before the whole album. I was-- that was awesome because there like was this huge storm that rolled in when we recorded it, and it was so cool. And everybody thought like I (I’ll?) let some bats go and stuff, and that was really cool ... Interviewer: But let’s talk about Vampires, and then we’re gonna play it for everybody Gerard: Okay, um, it’s obviously this metaphor for something that, you know, had happened, not just to me but like a lot of people in real life. It’s kinda-- I don’t know if I should give away too much ‘cause a lot of people take away their own things from it, you know, but um Interviewer: Right.That’s what’s also good, I think, about the record, that you can interpret it your own way, apply it to your own life, and it may not mean the same thing but... Gerard: Yeah, I mean like I get emails from people saying like how the song helped them get through a situation that-- and like what their meaning of the song meant to them and it helped them, and I thought that was awesome, so I don’t want ever, on this one especially, to divulge too much of what it’s about ‘cause it’s pretty personal, but (laughs)... but um, it’s like, you know, it’s about vampires. (Everyone laughs)

Sucker Newspaper Interview + src - July 2002

Paragraph 2

Dot Alt Interview - 8/30/02

Paragraph 7

Gerard: We take a semi-autobiographical approach to things, with some roots in fiction. We try and connect with people in a more abstract way, to get more meaning out of what we’re trying to say. Interviewer: Like using cult imagery on Vampires Will Never Hurt You? Gerard: Yeah, obviously we use vampires as a metaphor for something else, something deeper than just the supernatural. But there's just something about the bloodsucking walking dead, that can say so much to people. There are really so many people trying to get control over you on a daily basis and steal your soul in some way, take a part of you...

Noise Theory Interview - 11/13/02

Page 1, paragraph 6

Interviewer: ‘Vampires Will Never Hurt You' is a truly amazing song. How did it come about? Ray: The writing process for most of our songs starts out with one band member having an idea of what the song should be, usually its already written in his head and its just a matter of getting it out. Gerard had this idea for a 6 minute song that had multiple changes, guitar breaks, a slow breakdown at the end, pretty much everything was in his head before we ever played a single note. The song was still tough to write though, because we were having trouble writing the chorus for it. Matt really helped on this one because what he plays on drums can sometimes just totally inspire you to try something different, and that’s what happened with this one. Somewhere there Is a version of us playing Vampires with the old chorus...it sucks. No pun intended. As for the lyrics, I know Gerard was inspired by a trip to a seedy bar. I'm not sure what the hell was going on there, but it made for a great song!

Page 2, paragraph 1

Interviewer: MCR’s music can be pretty varied, do you have a particular favorite song that you like to play live?

Ray: Hmm...live I think my favorite songs to play are Our Lady of Sorrows, just because of the pure energy in the song, and Vampires, because it has quiet parts that gradually explode and it’s fun to see kids whig out when that happens.

Radio Takeover Interview - 6/17/03

Paragraph 9

Interviewer: Well, is there even a message or is it the kind of message that people realize for themselves, a subjective one? Frank: It's both. Gerard: There are some things that we say directly to people and there are the things that we want people to get out of it. When you get the message out of something yourself. Matt: It means a lot more. Gerard: It's more rewarding. A song like "Vampires" is probably our most metaphorical song. Matt: It's not about vampires at all. Gerard: Because vampires don't exist and I'm not even going to fucking talk about them anymore. You get what you want out of that though. Frank: It is about something though. Gerard: Yeah, it is about something that happened to me and we have a lot of different messages and hopefully we have a lot of time to tell them all. Frank: I think the best line in that song, is "I'll never let them hurt you." That is the best line. Gerard: That is the most important line in the song because that is the line where nothing else matters in the set. When I say that line, sometimes I am completely spent and it's funny because it's a breather line and it means the most.

Paragraph 11

Interviewer: The lyric, "It's hard to say I'm shakin’ by the choices that I make, I choose this life I've taken." What is the hardest choice you've had to make to get to this life that you've taken? Gerard: Sacrificing being with our loved ones and our family and all the people who have made us who we are. Sacrificing spending time with them. Frank: when we were in Jersey our friends and our family were the only people who gave a shit about anything that we did and what we were putting out and no one else cared, and we have made a choice to get out to as many people as we can and to meet the people we reach. It's hard for us and it will continue to be hard for us for as long as we do this to be away from those people though.

89.5 WSOU FM Interview - 7/3/03

21:58-23:10

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Interviewer: (Unintelligible) wants to know what Vampires Will Never Hurt You is about. Gerard: (Frank laughing in the background) Vampires Will Never Hurt You, obviously vampires don’t exist, it’s obviously metaphorical, just so everybody knows I don’t believe in vampires. (More laughter in the background) It’s about basically seedy bars and seedy people you meet at those seedy bars that will have nothing better to do than keep you from growing up and/or being responsible and not drinking and not being an alcoholic and just sucking you into their world. (Unintelligible comment from Mikey that Gerard repeats) No, it’s about-- it’s about that. It’s, you know-- there’s no such thing as vampires, and I know that (band laughs). Ray: You just broke a lot of kids’ hearts. Frank: Whoa, whoa, whoa. What about glampires? Gerard: And, uh-- and you should know that too! Wise up dude! (band laughs) Like it’s just movies, c’mon, and-- seriously it’s a metaphor for other things in life, be it drug addiction, heroin addiction, stuff like that, and being-- Matt: (Interrupts) Coca cola Gerard: Coca cola and being involved with really crappy people, you know what I mean, people that just have nothing better to do with their lives than drink with you and drag you down with them.

Equal Music Interview - 10/31/03

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Alternative Press #197 - 9/17-20/04

Page 3, paragraph 10 to page 4, paragraph 1

“As soon as it came time for Gerard to do vocals for ‘Vampires [Will Never Hurt You],’ this insane storm hit,” Saavedra remembers. “Gerard was getting very frustrated because it was his first time recording, decently, in an actual studio. He was overwhelmed and he was over-thinking it... So I punched him in the face!” The blow loosened Gerard’s jaw and somehow gave him the motivation to take to the mic and rip a bite out of the track.

Blaring Out Show Interview - 9/28/04

2:26-3:17

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Gerard: The coolest thing that ever happened was the first time it ever happened was the head of our street team, Carlos, who we love very very much-- he was really our first fan. He was our first big fan, and he IM’ed me one day on the computer, and I didn’t know who he was, and he said that Vampires Will Never Hurt You off the first record, to him, it was helping him get through high school because he saw all these people that were, you know, kind of, I guess, not so much jocks and stuff, but just people that were picking on him and stuff. And it actually kind of scared me when I first heard it, and I was like ‘Oh man, people are going to start thinking people are vampires, and they’re gonna to try to shoot them with shotguns,’ and I got kinda scared about all of that, but you know, it ended up-- it just helped him get through a really bad relationship where a girl was jerking him around in high school and all the people had picked on him, so, you know, that-- obviously, the song is about being an alcoholic, but, not to him, you know, and that’s the coolest part.

Circus Magazine Interview - July 2005

Page 2, paragraph 8 to page 3, paragraph 1

Zero Magazine Interview - December 2005

Page 5, paragraph 10 and page 7, paragraph 1

Gerard: There’s always a fear that people might overlook “I Brought You My Bullets...” Occasionally, when we play on this tour, with the exception of Vampires and Our Lady of Sorrows, we play 4 or 5 old songs, usually when the venue’s quietest - but then again, when we play the UK, those are some of their favorite songs. The UK was very accepting of Bullets, whereas America didn’t know about it. They like hearing it, they’re just not familiar with it.

Kerrang #1142 - 1/17/07

Page 10, paragraph 5 to paragraph 7

Forcing himself into character is a trick Gerard has repeated ever since.

“It’s almost like method acting,” he says. “‘Vampires’ was definitely the first instance of that.”

Kerrang #1143 - 1/17/07

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BBC Radio 1 Audio Documentary - 2007

15:06-15:56

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MCR Forum Interview - 10/30/10

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Grammy Museum Interview - 1/26/11

25:15-25:34, 26:16-27:12

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Frank: I remember being a fly on the wall when they finished ‘Vampires Will Never Hurt You,’ and that was the first song that you guys really recorded, and it was like...you guys were so excited about it. You were like “Oh my god, this-- you gotta hear this song!” And they would play it over and over again, and then, after they played it, they would all high-five each other. (Crowd and interviewer laugh) And they were like “That was awesome!” And I’m just like “Yeah, that was really cool.” ... Frank: So ‘Vampires Will Never Hurt You’ was the first song that was actually really really recorded. They did like 3 songs in an attic, but like, they went to a studio to record ‘Vampires.’ And as soon as you guys recorded it, I think-- it got played on pirate radio, which is like Seton Hall in New Jersey, and then we put it up on the internet. And, within a month after that, there was A&R people from major labels calling the studio, which was-- it was ridiculous ‘cause like, at that point, Thursday had a lot of heat on them, which is another amazing band from Jersey, Midtown was getting signed, Saves the Day was getting signed, and so there was this crazy thing going on, and, you know, My Chem was kind of getting pushed into this circle. And there was a lot of attention, and we were playing shows and kids were going off. It was immediate though, like, in that circle-- I wasn’t even in the band at that point, but when you heard that song, you knew something amazing was going to happen. I don’t know how to pinpoint it, but, like, there was something really special.

#mcr #my chemical romance #i brought you my bullets you brought me your love #bullets #vampires will never hurt you #mcr interviews #song interviews #this is most of them #there's a few more #but they didn't fit #i'll add the rest later

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