Interview: Gerard Way on Britpop, The Crow, and writing Spider-Man

As the frontman and primary architect behind beloved emo band My Chemical Romance, Gerard Way has often opted for high-concept ideas, from the sprawling scope of 2006’s The Black Parade, to his Eisner-winning comic series The Umbrella Academy.

Yet, for Hesitant Alien, his first solo album since the dissolution of My Chemical Romance in 2013, Way has gone back to his 90’s roots, embracing the low-concept but high-energy sound of early Britpop. Citing Blur and Pulp as his primary influences, Hesitant Alien pulses with a contagious buzz-pop sound that brings to mind the glory days of the mid-90’s Alternative radio era, when Britpop was just beginning to take hold.

We got Way on the phone just before the start of this current tour to discuss his fascination with the UK, the making of Hesitant Alien, and what it was like to write Spider-Man (sort of). For all upcoming tour dates visit gerardway.com.

When did the idea for Hesitant Alien take hold? Were you still in My Chemical Romance at the time?

It was really just one of these things where I was making music, because it’s just what I did, and I wasn’t thinking about an album. I was just kind of going into the studio, whatever studio I could find, and I just kept making what was inside. I just kept making music with [producer Doug Mckean] and he was definitely helping me, in this kind of semi-depressed state, get out of bed and go to the studio. He was definitely encouraging me to do that. So it was actually quite some time before I realized, “Oh hey, I’m making an album.” I was just kind of making music.

A lot of your writing for My Chemical Romance was very high concept—did you approach the writing of what turned into Hesitant Alien differently?

Yeah, I totally approached it differently. I was not overthinking. I wasn’t sitting there being this kind of major architect of something, I was letting it kind of spill out. And I wasn’t thinking about context or anything, I was just thinking about this music and this sound—this kind of fuzz pop, this kind of drone.

Everything you read about this record mentions how it was inspired by Britpop—what about Britpop excited you?

It was the music that always stayed with me. Basically, 90’s alternative and Britpop just stayed with me over the years, and resonate with me in a big way still. And it wasn’t like nostalgia when I listened to it. It’s just always the music that I kept listening to. As a kid in New Jersey, I really connected with it, as opposed to grunge.

I didn’t connect with grunge at all, I felt that Britpop was speaking more to a place where I was coming from, about being from this kind of working class town, where you’re kind of expected to grow up there and die there and work there, you know? And I felt like Britpop was singing about that.

What were some of the bands that really spoke to you from that era?

I’d say the most important ones to me were Lush—even though I consider Lush very 90’s Alternative, but they’re sometimes lumped in with Britpop—and Pulp, Blur. Those are the really big ones.

Was there ever the idea of trying to incorporate that sound into My Chemical Romance? Do you think it would have worked?

I think it pops in here and there. I mean, if you listen to Danger Days, there’s a song called “Planetary (Go!)”, that’s basically “Boys and Girls” from Blur. So there’s little bits here and there. There’s definitely bits of [Pulp’s] This is Hardcore buried on Black Parade in various places. So it is in there. It’s just difficult to find.

Is it more freeing when you’re producing under your own name as opposed to working with a full band?

It’s a lot more freeing. Besides from the filtering process being different, you also have the feeling that the art you make isn’t going to affect four other people’s lives. Which is a big lifting of the burden. So it falls on you. If it works it falls on you, and if it doesn’t work it falls on you, which alleviates some of the pressure, so you can just make the art you want.

Are you more influenced by British culture in general?

Yeah, I took a trip after art school to England, to visit my buddy who was in the military, and I knew even before I got there that it was a place that spoke to me, and that the culture was something that I was interested in. So when I got there, it confirmed it. It was one of those places where very early on, it was like, “Oh, I could live here, I could get used to a place like this.”

How is your music received over there? Do you notice a difference between audiences there versus North America?

Well, the show is bigger over there. A lot of the shows are over 4,000 people, in a really big room. So yeah, the shows are just different; they’re bigger. I think that rock music in general—even if it doesn’t have the easiest time on the radio—people still kind of believe in rock over there. People do believe in it here too, but maybe just not in a mainstream sense. So a show here is more like you’re playing a big theatre, whereas there you’re playing in a giant theatre. So there’s that difference.

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The UK media seems to champion young rock bands more than they do over here – is that something you experienced when you were coming up with My Chemical Romance?

For sure, yeah. I mean, My Chemical Romance first broke in the UK. We would go over there and we would have a tour bus. And then we ‘d be in America and we’d be in the van. It was a huge difference to how quickly people were receiving My Chemical Romance. And yea, I think so too – I think they champion young bands, they look for the new sound, they look for the new thing. Whereas over here, maybe less so.

You did an issue of Edge of Spider-Verse last year – what was it like to get to play in the Marvel sandbox?

It was cool, you know, it was this kind of thing where I got to do whatever I wanted because it was an alternate universe, so that part was really exciting. So I guess in a weird way, I didn’t really play in the Marvel universe, so I have yet to kind of do that. I got to kind of devise my own miniature universe that fit into the Marvel universe, so that was really fun. But it was great using the mythology of the character. I broke down Spider-Man to his core concepts, and tried to make something new out of the idea of a radioactive spider and another human being. I made them connected in a very different way than in the traditional Spider-Man.

Do you have any plans to do more work with the big two (Marvel and DC) on any of their other characters?

Um, I toyed around with that, but I don’t have any immediate plans in the future to do that. I’m working on Umbrella Academy series 3 and that’s gone really well, so I’m kind of focused on that, and another creator-owned project.

What’s that other creator-owned project?

Unfortunately, I can’t share too much about it right now, because of the publisher; they’ve asked me to keep it kind of confidential.

But it’s definitely very different from Umbrella Academy, it’s almost fantasy-based. So that’s kind of a new thing for me, this kind of darker fantasy story that feels maybe like something from the 80’s, like Labyrinth.

When do you think the publisher will be releasing info on that?

Hmm, maybe next year? Early next year I think.

When you’re writing for comics and your musical projects, do ideas cross over from one to another?

Yeah, absolutely. Everything I’m kind of working with right now in my writing feels like it has this kind of 90’s feel to it. I made music that feels very 90’s, so it’s always connected. Like, when I was making Black Parade, I feel like that is very connected to Umbrella Academy in a lot of ways. It was the tone that was very similar. I think your art is all connected, and it spills into one another, and I like that. I’m in a very kind of 90’s phase right now, where I’m just listening to all the stuff I listened to in that period, and writing about those things, and some of those concepts that I was thinking about back then.

Does music from that period speak to you more than current stuff? Are there current bands that still get you excited?

Yeah, I get into newer stuff all the time. There’s been this kind of resurgence over in England of the kind of shoegaze-y pop stuff, and I’ve been listening to The History of Apple Pie, and there’s kind of these other bands too, I’ve been just kind of exploring that. They’re re-discovering Fender guitars and fuzz pedals. And there’s Eagulls, who which is a band I love, that has a kind of Joy Division, 90’s sound as well.

Are you going to be doing “Snakedriver,” The Jesus and Mary Chain cover on this upcoming tour?

Yeah, there’s an idea of maybe trying—I don’t know which song yet—but I might do a different cover as well just to have it in the arsenal. So we’ll probably learn one or two other covers. But “Snakedriver” is such a great way for me to end the set. I like ending with that song because it just gets super loud, you know?

Were The Jesus and Mary Chain another influential band for you?

Oh yeah, for sure. And oddly, I discovered them through The Crow soundtrack. I was still pretty young, I think I was maybe in middle-school or something when The Crow came out, so I had yet to discover The Jesus and Mary Chain, and I remember that being the song that jumped out. I bought it for all the other songs, but the one that jumped out was by this band The Jesus and Mary Chain, and then I went and discovered them. It was around the same time that I was discovering the Pixies and they had also done a cover of [The Jesus and Mary Chain’s] “Head On,” and that directed me to that band, so they were pretty influential in this solo record as well.

Your tour is just about to start, is it exciting going back out knowing people have had the time to absorb the new record?

Yeah for sure, it just means that they’ll be more connected, and will get to have a little more fun. We all know the material really well. If we all know it really well it’s more like a celebration, and less of an introduction.

What’s coming up for you that you can let people in on?

Right now I’ve just begun writing the second album, and I’m also in the middle of writing the new Umbrella Academy. So I think this year I’m kind of in a very creative state and creative mode, and next year there will be a lot of stuff coming out.

Gerard Way’s upcoming Canadian tour includes a stop at Toronto’s Danforth Hall on May 20 with Nuns. Tickets are $45.50/$57.50, available here. The tour then hits Montreal’s Virgin Mobile Corona Theatre on May 22. Tickets are $35/$40, available here.