Number of posts : 560 Age : 34 Location : Malaysia Registration date : 2008-10-07
Subject: BBC Interview: My Chemical Romance hails Watchmen Wed Feb 04 2009, 11:53
Quote :
The Black Parade must have been tired of marching.
In 2008 My Chemical Romance were absent from our sight for good reason.
Three years of incessant touring and touting of their operatic third album The Black Parade exhausted New Jersey's theatrical punks.
Our first glimpse in more than 12 months comes in the form of Desolation Row - a Bob Dylan cover set for inclusion on the soundtrack to forthcoming comic book movie The Watchmen.
"Movie stuff has come up before and we never get to finish it or do it," says lead singer Gerard Way. "Usually it doesn't get with us anyway."
'Life changing'
But The Watchmen is different - Zack Snyder's film set for general release this spring - is one close to the heart of the band. Way's in particular.
He first discovered Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' seminal graphic novel aged 15.
My Chemical Romance perform live in London
"I picked up the graphic novel and it was real life changing for me," he says.
"I wanted to be an artist and a comic writer because of that book. It was kind of like my 7" record that got me into music in a weird way - it's the greatest graphic novel ever written."
Indeed, the singer is an award winning comic book writer himself with his acclaimed series The Umbrella Academy.
"Gabriel [Ba - illustrator] and I won the Eisner Award for the book which was awesome.
"If you look at that list of comics that have won that award it's some of the greatest graphic novels - like the Watchmen and Sin City. So that was a really big deal.
"I've learned so much from Watchmen - that comics could be so much more than superheroes flying around beating each other up. I always kept that with me."
The band's involvement with the film didn't come without reluctance.
"You have got to understand like any other fan of the comic - I think sceptical is the wrong word - but there was lot of anticipation.
"I was sitting there and thinking, 'Man I don't want to be disappointed this is a really big deal to me'."
Dylan cover
The track itself was recorded in Nashville and New York, completed last October with producer Rich Costey.
"With the sound of it and the approach I wanted it to sound like a product of its era," Way says of Desolation Row.
It was kind of like my 7" record that got me into music in a weird way - it's the greatest graphic novel ever written Gerard Way, My Chemical Romance
"The movie the Watchman and the comic are set in this alternate version of the early 80s - I wanted the youth culture to listen to from that universe.
"I think that's what Bob Dylan would want for the song.
"It's not easy being a fan of his [Dylan] and taking a song and completely altering the way it's played."
The release of The Watchmen represents an iconic point in the popularity of comic book adaptations with a flurry in recent years.
"The Dark Knight was amazing," admits Way.
"Despite what happened to Heath Ledger that was the best joker performance we're ever going to get - if he was still alive I would have felt the exact same way about that.
"That was pretty much the best villain we're ever going to get on screen."
Subject: BBC Interview: My Chemical Romance hails Watchmen 
