This page is a summary of the following posts:
For more in-depth information about this era, refer to the original posts
Gerard:
- Born 9 April 1977 in Belleville, New Jersey
- Family:
- One sibling – Mikey, 3 years younger
- Half Italian, half Scottish
- Dad a mechanic – “Handsome Don”
- Mum a hairdresser – Donna “Momma Way”
- Grandma (Elena) taught Gerard and Mikey how to paint and draw, taught Gerard how to sing
- Raised Catholic
- Lived in a dangerous neighbourhood, couldn’t really play outside, had to create their own worlds
- Moved schools in 4th grade, decided to try things e.g. school musical
- Introduced to metal in 4th grade at a Dungeons and Dragons party – Iron Maiden
- In middle school a friend introduced him to punk, specifically The Misfits
- Obsessed with death
- Very isolated in high school
- Used to stalk Christina Ricci when he was 17 – bought a 10-speed bike, road up and down the streets trying to see her
- Went to the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York
- Majored in Illustration and Cartooning
- Learnt to see beauty and ugliness in everything – e.g. focusing on a model’s scar instead of her beauty
- Graduated 1999 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts
- ‘The Amazing Goffo Brothers, Piano Movers Extraordinaire’ = black comedy in a creepy city – metaphor for his relationship with Mikey
- Was trying to sell The Breakfast Monkey to Cartoon Network pre-9/11
- About a Scandinavian flying imp, talked like Bjork, could harness Breakfast Magic (manipulate/create breakfast food)
- First collaboration with Ray – wrote Cruisin’ For Crazy with him 4 months before MCR
- CN turned it down because they had just sign Aqua Teen Hunger Force – they didn’t want another food related show
- 9/11 made him reevaluated his life, decided he needed something more immediate than art to express himself
- Wrote Skyline and Turnstiles in response to 9/11
- Called up Matt (Otter) Pelissier to play the drums, then called Ray to play guitar
Ray:
- Born 15 July 1977 in Kearny, New Jersey
- Dangerous neighborhood – Drug related crime, mafia
- Family
- Puerto Rican
- Overprotective mother
- Shared a really small room with his two older brothers
- His dad worked at the local post office in international shipping
- His dad was really into electronics
- Brother Louis played guitar, spent all hours playing guitar
- In Junior high became interested in metal bands (Metallica, Pantera, Anthrax)
- Louis gave Ray guitar mags and taught him how to play
- Bought him a guitar for Christmas
- Wasn’t very popular, pretty invisible in high school
- Would go straight home after school to practice guitar
- Went to William Patterson University to study film, wanted to become a film editor
Mikey:
- Born 10 September 1980 in Belleville, New Jersey
- Was very shy, lived in his head a lot
- His teachers thought there was something wrong with him because he didn’t talk to anyone
- Really close to his older brother Gerard
- Started drinking in middle school
- Mikey was a “Pumpkin Head”, followed the Smashing Pumpkins up and down the East coast.
- Got ticket money by bootlegging rare Disney movies and selling them on eBay – a private investigator caught him but he didn’t get sent to jail because he was only 15
- Took Gee to see the Smashing Pumpkins at Madison Square Garden
- Didn’t like highschool at all – “didn’t connect with anyone”
- Interned for Eyeball Records (MCR’s first label) – carrying equipment, putting up flyers, etc.
- Fixture on the Jersey scene – “If there was a party, Mikey was there.”
- Worked at Barnes and Noble (got Gerard a job there coz he couldn’t get a job anywhere else)
- Manager brought over a stack of Irvine Welsh books, started flipping through them, saw that one of the books was described as being “3 Tales of Chemical Romance”
Frank:
- Born 31 October 1981 in Belleville, New Jersey
- Parents split up when he was young
- Mother had to take care of everything – times they couldn’t afford milk
- Spent a lot of time when young in hospital b/c of bronchitis and ear infections – sick almost constantly until 5th grade
- Wasn’t popular in school – got bullied, had three friends in high school
- Used to get bad stomach cramps – self medicated with pot when he was in high school
- Before he wanted to do music he wanted to do special effects for horror movies
- Grandfather (Frank Joseph) and Father (Frank Anthony) both played drums in jazz bands
- Dad worked on records by John Lennon and KISS and Iggy Pop
- His dad would sneak him into clubs so he could watch him, Frank would help load gear and stuff
- Tried to get him to play drums but he wasn’t really interested because he wanted to be able to write songs
- Mother tried to get him to play the piano, but he didn’t enjoy that either
- He tried playing the saxophone (because “It was shiny!”) but that also fell through
- Started playing in bands when he was 11
- When he was in 8th grade he discovered punk rock (Sonic Youth, Black Flag), realized he wanted to play guitar
- His friend John “Hambone” McGuire would make him mix tapes
- His dad bought him guitar, boasted to his friends that he could play when he hadn’t actually started learning yet.
- First time he played in front of people was at his grammar school graduation
- Got his first tattoo on his 18th birthday – a pumpkin on his back coz his bday is Halloween
- He and some of the ex-members of Stick Figure Suicide started Pencey Prep
- Frank Iero (Lead vocals, guitar), Shaun Simon (Keyboards, Moog), John “Hambone” McGuire (Bass, vocals), and Tim Hagevik (Drums, percussion)
- Mikey tried out for guitar but didn’t get in
- Officially released Heartbreak in Stereo Eyeball in fall 2001 (November 26, 2001)
- Broke up soon after
- Pencey really liked Stabbing/Being Stabbed, would listen to it to get psyched up for shows
- MCR needed a practice space, Pencey let them share
- Frank was a fly on the wall while they were recording the demo of Vampires
- Then he got asked to join MCR as rhythm guitarist – 2 days before going into studio to record Bullets
