Three Cheers...

As soon as the band had finished recording Bullets, Gerard decided that the title of their second record would be Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge. Because they had recently signed to a major label, the recording process was very different, as they actually had money, good equipment, and a lot of time. Revenge was written and recorded over a four-month period from October 2003 – January 2004. The record was mostly written in New Jersey during the second half of 2003. While they were writing Frank and Mikey lived together.

In November 2003, Gerard and Mikey’s grandmother Elena died. The band had almost finished writing, but this tragic event changed the whole direction of the record. Mikey and Gerard had just come off tour and hadn’t had a chance to visit her yet. They hadn’t even known she was sick – they thought she was just having some routine surgery. After that, the only thing that made them feel good was getting back into music. The album, which had previously been a concept album, started to relate to real life a lot more. After Elena’s death, Gerard started taking Xanax. It was around this time that taking drugs and alcohol started to become a problem that flourished when they went to LA.

They had a preproduction period before going to record at Bay 7 Studios, Valley Village / Sparky Dark Studio, Calabasas, California. They went to there instead of recording in Jersey again because they wanted California to ruin them, to feel like outcasts. In LA they were surrounded by people trying to pick up the pieces of their musical careers, and they really wanted to be in that element. When they weren’t in the studio, everyone except Ray would go partying. Frank would take pills on Friday night and wake up on Monday with no memory of the weekend. They would all vanish for days when they weren’t working on the album. Gerard took cocaine once and couldn’t sing the next day. He felt really guilty about it, so he talked to Ray about it, and never did anything like it again while they were recording. Apart from this instance, Ray didn’t have any idea that kind of thing was happening.

Howard Benson

Howard Benson produced Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge.  He had previously produced four Motörhead records and is well known for his track pants. He was like a coach to the band, and used a lot of basketball references to get his points across. He taught them the golden rules of song structure, putting an end to their tendency to have long songs without a real chorus. Benson made them write parts that fit with the song instead of just writing randomly. He gave them a bit of self-doubt, which made them a better band.

Benson made Gerard’s vocals the main focus of the band. He hadn’t been impressed with their demos, but could see that Gerard had the potential to become a star singer. Benson encouraged Gerard to access his emotions while singing and to take on different identities for each song. Most of the vocals were sung in an attic away from everyone else. This was hard for Gerard at first, as he was used to performing to people. However, the isolation allowed him to really focus on what he was singing. Halfway through tracking he finally figured out how to be a studio singer. This breakthrough led him to scrap all the vocals that had been recorded and do them again. Benson encouraged him to get really weird in the studio, so Gerard would go crazy while singing, hitting things and taking off his clothes when it got too hot. To inspire him, Gerard had A Clockwork Orange and porn running while he was singing.

Near the end of recording, Gerard ran off to “find himself in the hills of Hollywood”, leaving behind an enigmatic note that said something about him being the next Jim Morrison and life being a bag of shit. Frank posted a voice message on the band’s website appealing to anyone that had seen him to contact them. Fans were very concerned, and a few suggested he had committed suicide. After a few days, Gerard showed up again. He had had 2 more songs and the album artwork to finish, and so had decided to get a room and some liquor and just focus on the work. The concern shown by fans made him feel very loved, but at the same time guilty for being so irresponsible and scaring people.

You can download the Revenge era voice messages here. This collection also includes messages from after the band had finished recording and were on tour.

Here are some videos of songs while the band was in pre-production/recording:

To The End

Deathwish

Prison

The Ghost Of You

I'm Not Okay

A random cover (sounds like AC/DC?)

Eating Twizzlers