My Chemical Romance gives a fascinating live show complete with stage make-up and suits. Their show lingers with you, images flashing through your mind, long after you leave the venue. This year at Warped Tour was no different. Dedicated fans singing along, chanting the lyrics to this New Jersey band’s songs...I was fortunate enough to be able to speak with Gerard Way and Ray Toro about their influence, beginnings, and achievements.

Who/What are your major influences?
Gerard: The Shins, The Smiths, Iron Maiden, The Misfits, The Cure...what about you Ray?
Ray: I think that’s it...
Gerard: That’s it!

How did the band form?
Gerard: Umm...I just picked up the phone and made some calls. It was that simple. None of us were really in bands at the time. None of us really thought we were going to be career musicians. But we had a desire to be together and do it. It all moved kind of rapidly

What do you consider to be your greatest musical achievement?
Ray: I kind of think that the band’s greatest musical achievement, well i think the band is our greatest musical achievement.
Gerard: We have very simple, normal guys that were able to become something extraordinary through music and fulfill their destiny. We’re very normal guys, very non-band guys.
Ray: And too just the fact that our music helps people through tough times. I think that’s pretty...I never thought when I started playing guitar that anybody would have kind of reaction to the music that we play.

What is your biggest regret as a band?
Gerard: We don’t have any and I think that’s the best part. We don’t regret a single decisions we’ve made. It’s that way because we think out things so much. We think about things really thoroughly and take a very long time to make our decisions. It took us a year and a half to decide to sign - we didn’t think it was right for us at the start. We just asked them to kindly leave us alone and give us our space. We take a long time. We think about everything. We think about the repercussions.

Could you describe your song writing process?
Ray: The song writing process usually starts with either me or Franky and Gerard will have a riff and a vocal melody. Usually it just involves us getting into some small confined practice space and playing together. One of the great things about writing with this band is that everybody is really listening to what the other person is doing and paying attention and everyone tries to play off that. I think that’s really unique. I think that there’s a connection between each of the parts that most bands I don’t think have.

What is your favorite venue to play?
Gerard: I like The Metro in Chicago. What do you think?
Ray: What was that one?
Gerard: The first Taste of Chaos...
Ray: Oh yeah, that’s right...that was one of my favorite shows.
Gerard: It’s hard to pick an arena as your favorite venue because you’re so disconnected. But at that arena, that night, there was so much energy. And it’s hard to feel that in an arena. But The Metro is definitely our favorite.
Ray: That was the first place where we really felt we had made a great impression.

What do you always take with you on tour?
Gerard: Well the usual stuff like iPods. I take a lot of art supplies most of them I leave sitting around. I just need it around, whether I touch it ever, a lot of it just stays cluttered. But I need it around knowing I could create something if I needed to.
Ray: Definitely have a guitar on the bus in case I want to write and pictures of home.

What would be your dream tour lineup?
Gerard: I think Green Day, Iron Maiden, and...I think Green Day and Iron Maiden, if we could open up for that tour that would be crazy.