MCR Make Arena Rock

Having reached mainstream success with Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, My Chemical Romance are one of the headliners of this year's Warped Tour. However, lead singer Gerard Way is almost ready to turn the page.

"We don't want to milk this record," the former art-school student says as he paints backstage before his band's Long Beach, California, set. "This record was a success, but we want to leave it at that and go on and do other records for our fans, who have had this record for a year now."

Way and Co. are already eight songs into the next record, and he reports that the sound is, in a word, bigger. "It's moving in more of an arena-rock direction," he says. "Revenge was a punk band, but a punk band that looked up to Smashing Pumpkins. It's now moving into a fuller arena-rock sound. They're all really beautiful songs."

He also characterizes the lyrics as more revealing. "It's real honest stuff," says Way. "There's less fiction and more about our lives. I think it's important that this band be able to relate to human beings, because our lives have just gotten crazy. There's a lot of stuff that's happening in our lives now -- it's not about eating, shitting and breathing your band. You're being a human being again."

Way's personal favorite, "This Is How You Disappear," is actually based on someone else's life . . . and death. "After Harry Houdini died, his wife would hold seances to try and contact him," Way says. "I was really inspired by that. He was this amazing escape artist, but he couldn't escape death."

My Chemical Romance may preview new material on their fall tour, a trek they eagerly anticipate. "Our fans have never had one night to experience an hour and twenty minutes of My Chemical Romance," says Way, who poses for pictures with whatever fans make it backstage and signs autographs for all askers. "We want to give them that."

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Song Stories

“Youth Knows No Pain”

Lykke Li | 2011

“Like on 'Youth Knows No Pain' — we are the ones that should demonstrate, because we can take it,” Likke Li said. “We can pierce ourselves, take Ecstasy, dance all night and still go to work at our McDonald's jobs.” Despite the hedonistic sentiment in the song, the Swedish singer also admitted in hindsight her youth had repercussions. “I remember when I was 18-19 and feeling that I know it all,” Li said. “I always feel that I know it all. But that song is about realizing you don’t, and reflecting, ‘Boy, if I only knew what would follow.’”

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