UNIVERSAL CITY, California – My Chemical Romance have already given the new year a new name: “Tour thousand and seven.”
After spending much of 2006 recording the ambitious concept album The Black Parade, MCR are dedicating the upcoming year to the road. “We’re going to try to bring the music on the record to life with a really good live show,” frontman Gerard Way said. “Something special, something big.”
The singer actually predicted they’d be touring “for the next two years.” The band will get started January 19 in New Zealand before launching a North American headlining trek that kicks off February 22 in Manchester, New Hampshire .
Until then, MCR are finalizing the Samuel Bayer-directed video for their next single, “Famous Last Words.” “It was filmed the day after we finished filming ‘[Welcome to] the Black Parade,’ ” said bassist Mikey Way. (Bayer directed that clip as well, and two members of the band sustained injuries during the shoot – see “My Chemical Romance Explain Injuries, Missed Street Scene Gig”. ) “It’s just us in full destruction. We were out in the desert and there was a lot of fire.”
“It’s our first all-performance video,” Gerard added. “No extras. No actors. You knew all you had to rely on was your performance.” The singer described “Famous Last Words,” the last track on The Black Parade, as one of the most important songs on the album. “It leaves you with a sense of redemption and hope, which the record sorely needed,” he explained.
Even as My Chemical Romance look forward to their tour-heavy ’07, the guys are remembering the lessons learned from 2006.
“We learned even more how to become a family and how to look out for each other in a musical sense and an emotional sense,” Mickey said. “We’re more brothers now that we ever thought we were.”
“And we learned that taking a risk – sometimes a very large risk, even with your own livelihood – can pay off,” Gerard added. “We’ve made the record and have been rewarded with it. You have to have faith in the people who listen to it.”
