My favorite band is My Chemical Romance. They were an alternative rock band hailing from New Jersey. They give a very positive message to teenagers through their music. In many interviews they have stated that they wanted to save kid's lives. They have accomplished that over the band's span of 12 years.
The band started when the singer Gerard Way saw the 9/11 attacks. He was a recent graduate from the School of Visual Arts in New York and at the time was an intern for the Cartoon Network. He was commuting to work when he saw that happen. He had very deep thoughts about where he thought his life was going and what kind of an impact he was doing. He thought that what he was doing was not enough. When he got home he wrote the song "Skylines and Turnstiles". He called one of his high school friends to see of he wanted to join. Matt Pelissier jumped at the opportunity to start a band. Gerard then called someone who knew who to play guitar because he couldn't sing and pay guitar at the same time. Ray Toro was the first one to go and their lead guitarist. At the time Ray wasn't doing anything either and he loved to play guitar but Gerard chose him because he was to best one around. Gerard's little brother Mikey came soon afterwards. Mikey became their bassist.
With this lineup they started performing at local bars and parties and got a decent following from friends and fellow bands. Mikey was an intern at a local record label Eyeball Records and he helped the band get noticed by them. They were signed pretty quickly considering they were a pretty new band. That is where they met their 5th member Frank Iero. Frank was in a band called Pencey Prep that was in the same label as them but after the band's splitting the band decided to bring him along as the rhythm guitarist. The band had already started recording their debut album I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love so Frank is only heard on 2 tracks. They toured to a couple of places in support of that album before they caught the attention of major record label Reprise records. The band was getting pursue by many of them but what made Reprise stand out was that they gave the band liberty with their music. They would let the band make music that they liked not music that would sell.
Not long after being signed to Reprise Records and them starting to record their new album that tragedy struck. Gerard and Mikey's grandma passed away and her death changed the direction of the album. All were really sad in her passing since she was a vital role in helping the band be where they were. One of the songs on the album was made in her honor. "Helena" in Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge is about the passing of a loved one but instead of being forever on grief one should celebrate the impact they had on your life. Their album was a success selling over 24,000 records in the first week, twice as much as their debut sold in its lifetime.
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