The second My Chemical Romance forum interview!
Frank and Ray's anwers to life's dilemma's
Note: Nothing of this interview can be reposted without permission from the reporters. Please contact us at admin@mychemicalromanceforum.com if you have any questions!
Besides running The Bullet, I also co-own the biggest ever forum for the American emo-band My Chemical Romance: www.mychemicalromanceforum.com. We did an interview with Frank, Mikey and Bob on behalf of the forum in Amsterdam on August 31st 2005. When we heard they would play our country again, we couldn't let this opportunity pass by! So here it is, the second forum interview!
Reporters: Imre [poison amy] and Lisette [Lica], forum administrators
Bandmembers: Frank Iero [guitar] and Ray Toro [guitar]
Place: Paradiso, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Date: Friday, October 13th 2006, 6.30pm
A review of the show they did that night is here!
Because we had very little time to prepare for the interview, we couldn't let the forum users send in questions to ask the band. Instead, we took topics from My General Romance and asked the boys to answer those. There was some confusion as to who would be joining Frank at the interview. It turned out to be Ray, which was great because he wasn’t there last year. Of course we introduced ourselves, and were very pleased to hear Frank still remembered who we were. Ray had no idea though.
Lisette: We run www.mychemicalromanceforum.com, have you seen it?
Ray: Oh, I don’t know. I probably have seen it.
Imre: It's red, with a coffin in the corner.
Lisette: We’re about the biggest MCR forum at the moment. We’re international, with members from all over the world. We heard that you managed the former MCR forum in the past?
Ray: The old old very very first website, yeah, I put up. Actually after a while there were so many other people like you guys that were doing such a better job with putting up a forum, I can’t do this anymore, it was getting too difficult, you know?!
Frank: Here’s the thing, you have to know. You gave us that huge book with all the questions last year, [all laugh] I answered every question in that book.
Lisette: No..!
Frank: Yeah, I swear to God. Every question. I had it with me for two and a half weeks, but I answered every question. And then I gave it to Gerard so he could answer and then it was in a suitcase that got stolen...
Imre: Oh no!
Lisette: That is such a shame!
Frank: I know, and I feel bad!
After this revelation, it was time to start the interview. We only had twenty minutes, so we needed to hurry to get every question answered. Like every new member of the boards, they had to fill out the form of the introduction thread first! Imre made poor Ray write with a bright pink pen, but for some reason he didn’t seem to mind. ;)
Imre: Has anyone ever written a poem or song for you?
Ray: I think we had some stuff submitted to me.
Lisette We mean in a romantic way.
Frank : I don’t think so... I’ve written a song for a girl but it wasn’t anything good, but I definitely did that.
Lisette: But not for you?
Frank: No, doesn't that suck?!
Ray: No-one ever liked us enough.
Imre: You're missing out!
Frank: I think so.
Lisette: What do you have as your desktop background?
Ray: At the moment I have a picture that’s gonna be at the inside of the CD book of the new album. But for a long time I had a picture of space. Because I’m into like astronomy and stuff like that.
Frank: I don’t. Stuff like that makes my eyes weird so I can’t see what’s on my desktop, so I leave it blank. There’s so much shit on my desktop! I never put stuff in folders, so there’s shit everywhere. So I need to see what’s on there and it gives me a fucking headache if there’s something in the background.
Imre: What is a stupid or funny thing you have done today?
Frank : Oh man... Erhm... I tried a diet pepsi here and it’s the worst thing in the entire world! It doesn’t taste like anything at all!
Ray: When I woke up I almost walked out of the bus in my pyjamas... They’re light blue with snowmen on them... They’re my Christmas jammies!
Lisette: What’s the last thing you bought today?
Both: I didn’t buy anything today!
Frank: *giggles* Oh, hehe, I did! I bought that thing for Gerard on eBay! A Planet of the Apes t-shirt. He’s writing fanfiction, or sequals, for Planet of the Apes and I bought a bunch of t-shirts on this website and when you buy five, the shipping is for free. I needed one more and when I saw this Planet of the Apes shirt I thought I’d buy it for Gerard and get free shipping.
Ray: I bought very boring things: contact solution and toothpaste.
Imre: What did you learn today?
*silence*
Frank: Erh...
Imre: That diet pepsi is no good!
Frank: Yes! Diet pepsi is awful here. Also, I learned that if you see that ice tea, the lipton one, don’t drink it because it’s sparkling here! I didn’t know that either and I had it and..
Ray: *interrupts* I got so excited for you when I saw it in the refrigerator, but..
Imre: We have flat ice tea as well.
Frank: They don’t have it here. *looks sad* So I was shaking my fist and stuff. Hehe.
Ray: I as well learned not to drink the ice tea.
Lisette: What things do you carry with you?
Frank: Right now? I’ve got my wallet and my side-kick and a key to the bus.
Ray: Usually for me: side-kick, wallet, and I usually carry my laptop and iPod pretty much everywhere.
Lisette: Do you surf the internet a lot when you’re on tour?
Ray: Definitely!
Imre: But not our site.
Frank: No, just porno.
*all laugh*
Imre: What do you do in your spare time?
Frank: Oh man... When we have spare time?! *thinks* Honestly, when I’m home all I do is read, watch movies, play with my dog and hang out with my girlfriend. That’s it! I don’t do anything else really.
Ray: Whenever I have time to do stuff I’m either like grocery shopping, or buying furniture for my apartment, normal things.
Frank: Don’t grocery shop! You just order in, that way you have more time to just veg out and do nothing!
Ray: *ignores Frank* I like to cook every once in a while though. I’m trying to learn myself how to cook.
Lisette: What’s your favourite dish to cook?
Ray: Chicken pot pie.
Lisette: How would you describe your first kiss?
Frank: Awkward. Sloppy and awkward. I went in for the closed-mouth little kiss, and she went for the full out lick your face kiss and it didn’t match! It was like *demonstrates* and I think she kissed my top lip.
*all giggle*
Imre: She stuck her tongue in your nose.
Frank: Yeah!
Imre: What do you do when you’re bored?
Frank: I used to smoke, now I don’t...
Imre: We have something to relieve the boredom, actually!
Frank: Oooh! *gets excited* You didn’t have to do that!
Ray: Ooh, how nice!
*Imre hands out presents*
Ray: (immediately, before even opening it) It’s a deck of cards!
Frank: Is it really?!
Ray: This fucking rules, thank you very much! We have this magician friend of ours that’s coming today and we have to get him to teach us...
Lisette: *points at Frank* You know a little trick too, don’t you.
Frank: I do actually. I don’t know how that got all over the internet, but it did. I learned that magic trick the other day, when the interview is over I’ll show you. *points* Worm, no giving it away! *looks stern* Worm used to go like *puts on heavy voice* ‘I saw what you did! I saw that card turned over! It’s not hard to do when there’s cards all messed up!’
Lisette: Which things can you do at the same time?
Frank: Oh man, what can we do at the same time? We can say ‘uhm’ at the same time...
*both think*
Frank: This is a hard one!
They’re clearly confused, so Lisette explains: like this girl who is doing her knitting work and watches tv at the same time.
Both: OH!!!
Ray: Ok, alright, I got ya! Uhm.. It’s like being on the computer, listening to music, being on the phone and playing a video game all at once.
Imre: Do you keep a diary?
Ray: Yeah we do.
Frank: I used to... I used to keep journals on every tour! But I was a really like negative person.
Ray: You need some way to get rid of the stress.
Frank: Exactly.
Lisette: A bit of a weird question: ever wished you were a girl?
Ray: Ever wished I was a g... *shuts up* Erhm... I have never. It’s hard to be a girl man!
Frank: Yeah, that’s the thing! There’s a lot of shitty things about being a girl.
Imre: Tell me about it! *rolls eyes*
*All laugh*
Frank: Yeah, all of a sudden you have no personality if you’re a girl...
*Laugh more* *Imre glares at Frank*
Frank: (defensive) No, I mean like, there are definitely positive sides to being a girl, like when I get a ticket and I want to be a girl so I can try to talk myself out of it, but other than that, no. It’s really hard! Menstrual cycle alone!
Imre: Oh I know, don’t go there!
Imre: How do you feel about girls with tattoos?
Frank: It’s weird, like I have a [i]lot[/i] of tattoos, I even have a few new ones, but, you know when a girl that is excessively tattooed it depends, I don’t know, it’s a little too much. It depends on placement. *Imre flashes her wrist to show off her subtle tattoo* Yeah, that’s good. But like a girl with one tattoo on her bicep, I think that’s just weird!
Lisette: Lower back is good?
Frank: (very carefully) Lower back is kind of a prostitute thing...
Imre: You know what we call them? Butt-antlers.
Both: *blink* Butt-antlers?
Frank: *giggles* I like that! There is definitely a saying that you should never date a girl with a lower back tattoo.
Lisette: And what do you think about girls with tattoos?
Ray: I like them, because my girlfriend *swallows then speaks very fast* has-a-tattoo-on-her-lower-back. *grins*
Then we’re interrupted by the record company girl telling us we need to finish in a few minutes. Ray and Frank both start protesting and when she admits they don’t have anything after the interview, we’re allowed to finish our entire list. Imre had been ill all week and was feeling a little funny, so Lisette continued with the questions.
Lisette: What are your favourite places to visit?
Frank: Definitely Japan!
Ray: Yeah, Japan is one of our favourite places.
Frank: And New Jersey...
Ray: Yeah! We live there, but we feel we’re visiting.
Imre: It doesn’t feel like home anymore.
Frank: Yeah, isn’t that weird?! It feels like home when we’re there for a while, but it definitely feels like we’re visiting.
*gets distracted by a picture of last year’s interview*
Frank: Oh wow, look at Bob!
Ray: That looks like it was after the Ghost of You video...
Imre: He hadn’t been awake for long.
Lisette: *pointing at Frank* You were standing on your toes!
Frank: I’m sure I was.
Ray: Trying to get some extra height. *giggles*
Lisette: But Japan, why Japan?
Frank: Japan is amazing. It’s like a whole country inside a mall. Everything there rules! It’s very cool! The only thing that doesn’t rule is that I can’t eat there at all. It’s so hard to find like any kind of vegetarian food. Everything’s made with fish.
Imre: And you don’t eat fish either? Because a lot of vegetarians do.
Frank: I don’t. They might not be very smart, but they’re animals too.
Lisette: How far is too obsessed, when it comes to bands?
Frank: I guess when it starts to get creepy is when people go online and pretend to be that person, that’s weird.
Ray: Finding out where people live, driving by their house. You get to a point where you’re invading on people’s privacy.
Lisette: Ok, next one. We have this thread on the forum saying My ... Romance.
Ray: My Video-Game Romance.
Frank: Erhm... My Graphic Novel Romance.
Lisette: How do you guys feel about gay marriage?
Ray: Well we support it! You know, if two people are in love they should be able to be together.
Frank: I don’t understand how people can make such a fuss about people that are happy and in love, when there’s people dying of hunger and war and they don’t even notice that. I really don’t understand that. That makes me so angry!
Lisette: There’s a topic on the forum that’s related to this and that’s about allowing gay couples to adopt children. How do you feel about that?
Frank: Oh absolutely! As long as it’s a happy and loving environment for the kid. It could be a man and a woman together and not be a right environment for a kid, I mean it’s not… If they’re a stable couple and able to support a child, then why not?
Lisette: Who would play you in the story of your life?
Frank: Christopher Walken. That would be amazing!
Ray: I want someone cool like Robert de Niro.
Lisette: The last question that we picked out on the forum is about superstition. Are you superstitious? Because today it’s Friday the 13th!
Frank: It is? Oh yeah!
Ray: I’m very superstitious. When we were recording the new album the song Welcome To The Black Parade used to be called The Five Of Us Are Dying, and it ended up to be the last song that we were tracking before we flew overseas to Give It A Name festival in the UK. I was super nervous about getting on the plane because of the title of the song. I hate flying, and I was having all these like weird dreams about plane crashes, and the record was so important for me to finish that I didn’t want to fly until it was done! So I’m kinda superstitious.
Frank: I used to be very superstitious, especially with flying, but I’ve given it all up. You know when people touch the side of the plane when they’re boarding, I used to do that.
So then it was over. We had a few minutes to go on a picture with the guys and let them sign our stuff. We were also given wristbands so we could go to the afterparty, which turned out to be a signing session with the entire band! So in the end we managed to talk to all five of them. They wanted to thank all of you for your support and they’re looking forward to seeing you on tour!
