POP: I Drink Lots of Tea to Prepare for a Concert

By RUSS MORRIS

My Chemical Romance have had an astronomical year. Their album, The Black Parade, sold 350,000 copies in the UK and last week they played a sold out show at Birmingham’s NIA.

Before they went on stage, I caught up with frontman Gerard Way to find out how they get ready for a show.

"I start preparing about two hours before we go on by doing my vocal warm-ups and drinking lots of tea," he says. "Then it’s time for make up and to get our suits on. This used to take a couple of hours, but now we’ve got it down to 40 minutes.

"Just before we go on stage we do our final routine, and the band and crew high five each other! It’s a strange ritual but it works for us and gets us all hyped for the show."

It all started for My Chemical Romance six years ago is the suburbs of New Jersey. The five members have been friends since their high school years.

"I was doing animation in New York City, living in my mother’s basement," states Gerard, "and I was really starting to question the direction of my life. So I called Matt, who’d been asking himself a lot of the same questions. We decided we would get together and play some music."

My Chemical Romance are now on their third album, and their most successful to date which has thrown them into the mainstream. So does it make it easier to do gigs?

"It does! It’s so much easier performing to a large crowd. It’s also an amazing feeling when you have thousands of people singing back at you. There is no feeling like it on earth."

(c) 2007 Evening Mail; Birmingham (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.