Gerard Way Explains How Writing Solo Songs Compares To My Chemical Romance

Since March, The Umbrella Academy star Aidan Gallagher has been sharing an interview with Gerard Way in bite-sized pieces. During the most recent part of their chat, the singer-songwriter discussed the similarities and differences between writing for My Chemical Romance and his solo project.

“You know what was cool?” he said of writing Welcome To The Black Parade.​ “I felt perfectly comfortable in My Chemical Romance just winging it; I felt very comfortable around the guys. There was almost this understanding that we had that,​ ‘None of us really know what we’re doing right now, so don’t judge each other.’"

“So it was very cool, because we’d all set up and write songs, and we’d start playing, and then I would just kind of garble my way through whatever I started to hear in my head – literally trying things, just experimenting," he continued. "They really gave me the space to do that, so I never felt embarrassed saying a weird word or missing my mark, you know?” 

These days, Way feels that same level of comfort with his collaborator Doug McKean (who engineered The Black Parade and Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys, as well as his solo album Hesitant Alien).“I’m also very comfortable with Doug, so we have done things – although we don’t like to do it this way so much – in the past where I will just do some fake lyrics over something and I’ll just get those word shapes in there," he explained. “But what’s been working lately is sitting with Doug, working on the music, and then I’ll just go over to my office – which used to be Marion Peck’s painting studio, and I love that room – and I will sit while Doug mixes, tweaks, edits, programmes more drums… I’ll literally sit there and I will write as close as possible to what I think are gonna be either the final lyrics, or at least what I’m comfortable singing at that moment.”

My Chem plan to embark on their long-awaited reunion tour next year, but perhaps in the meantime we'll get some new solo music from Way? Watch Part 9 of Gallagher and Way's discussion above.


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