Living For The Moment: Frank Iero's Journey Post My Chemical Romance

You know Frank Iero from his time with My Chemical Romance, the band he made music with, toured the world with and donned a bulletproof vest and eyeliner for. But, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that his story is one with plenty of twists and turns still to come.

On his debut solo album, ‘Stomachaches’, Iero embraced his punk heritage and created a record with more bite than My Chemical Romance’s latter-day theatrics. That passion is something that translates to the stage at the Globe in Cardiff where, despite his reservations, Iero cuts a commanding figure as a frontman during a relentless set.

It seems that spending the best part of 12 years flanking a near iconic lead singer has worked wonders. When on stage, Iero is the centre of attention, giving in to the moment and sharing that with the crowd. Mid-set, he leaps from the stage and crowdsurfs from to the bar to pick up a beer.

Iero has no long term plans for himself and the Cellabration. He’s very much about doing what makes him happy until, simply put, it doesn’t anymore. The result is that air of spontaneity. These experiences could be firsts and lasts.

How have you adjusted from being the guitarist to the front man? No more staying up all hours, or smoking...

It’s true. That sucks. I got real good at it too. I was like a professional smoker. Nah, it’s for the best. Sometimes you end up doing things out of necessity. You end up being forced into a situation that you normally wouldn’t have done or tried and sometimes it ends up being the best thing that ever happened to you. Just gives you that push and you find something you really love. Or, sometimes you find out that’s not for me.

Which one are you finding?

I don’t know yet, to be honest. There’s times when I’m having the time of my life and there’s times when it’s just not fun and I think to myself: “I can find something else that I’d like to do more.” But the good times have greatly outweighed the bad. I’m getting used to it and I think I want to do it a little bit more, but I don’t know for how long.

I read that you found recording the album a lonely process. Now you’ve got through that, would you look to change the process and include the Cellabration in future?

I don’t know. I think it’d be really fun. I really enjoy playing things and doing it myself, but I also really enjoy playing with the guys and I think that would be really fantastic to capture on record. I think that, ultimately, it would depend upon where I decide to record it and how I decide to record it. Some of my favourite things about music are the things that happen in the moment. The rubs, the mistakes that maybe other people would want to take out. And I feel like nobody can make mistakes like I can.

What is the future of the Cellabration?

I think we have to kinda see how it goes. I would love for these guys to be the Cellabration forever but also I love their other projects so much that if they said to me one day “hey, I have to do this other thing”, I would understand. If I felt the same way, that I needed to do something too, then I think that we would come to an understanding where we’ll just both do what we wanna do. But I hope it stays this band.  

Is anything happening with Death Spells, your project with James Dewees?

It’s funny, I don’t know. I did, however, get an email from James today about something. So, I think we would really like to have it done and out. Do I know how or when that’s going to happen? No idea. He keeps touring and I keep touring so it’s ridiculous. We’ll see.

Following your UK tour is a US tour with Against Me. You’re also playing the same day at Reading and Leeds festival. Sounds ripe for a collaboration to me.

Are we? Oh. I’ll have to talk to Laura about that. It’s funny. Laura and I have been talking, kind of intermittently, for a while trying to make this tour happen. I think it’s a great fit. I’ve loved that band for years. With My Chem we were on the same label for like 100 years and I would go see them all the time. There was a bunch of times where they would come and see us when we played radio shows together. But we never hung out, we never toured. It was really weird and I don’t know why that never happened. But I think we’ve been admirers from afar from a very long time.

​A lot of your videos have artistic influences. With My Chemical Romance that ended up filtering on to the stage. Do you see that happening with this band?

Definitely not. I don’t ever foresee that. Doing that was an incredible experience. Certain people in that band enjoyed that more, the theatrics of it and all that. I was happy to be a part of it, but it was never my first thing. But I’m glad I got to experience it. It was really fun to be a part of and I’m sure for people to watch, but fuck no! It would be like “yeah, let’s put on these wool suits and hang out for like an hour and a half.” No fucking way! Which is weird because I layer up like crazy. It’s just I don’t like wool, maybe.

The record contains a lot of juxtaposition of upbeat music with dark lyrics. Is that something you intentionally aim for or does it come naturally?

I don’t know if I aim for it. However, I am a fan of that juxtaposition of having something beautiful and ugly, broken yet works together. I’ve always been attracted to that. I’ve always found solace in that and that’s just what comes out. I’ve written songs where I’ve thought,“this is really good, I wanna share this with people” and they’re like “oh my god that’s so bleak”. I’m like “really?!”. But sometimes that just comes out. It’s almost a way to get the poison out, so that you can live.

You write about other people’s stories, not just your own. Has anyone ever realised something is about them?

I hope not. I feel like I veiled them enough, which is one of the main reasons I didn’t go back and change anything, ‘cos I never wanted to out anybody on anything. I feel like if they wanted to tell their story then they should tell their story. But there’s things that I witnessed first hand that I wanted to talk about because I feel like it affected me. Just seeing it changed me as a person and I feel like at that point, it is my story. But I would never use real names or anything like that, I feel like that would be wrong.

I also try not to overly explain any of the songs too much. I feel like in doing that it short changes the people that hear a song, or the whole record, and are like “this is what it means to me”. I want them to have that experience. I don’t want to be like “no you’re wrong. That is not what I was talking about”.

The lyrics on your website are written in prose. Is that the way you normally write?

It’s very rare that a song will come with lyric and music at the same time. When they do, they tend to be my favourite. But for the most part it’s usually music or words and then I’ll have this catalogue of words that I like to go to and be like “alright, well this could fit with something that sounds like this” or maybe it doesn’t and that’s why I like it and I’ll make it work that way. But when I write I do both, I do free-form and sometimes if I can feel either a rhythmic or melodic tone to it I’ll write in lyric form. But I tend to hate when things rhyme too much, you know, sky, bye, hi, then you’re like, fuck this.

You get a lot of fan mail. Is it always positive?

I think the intent for the most part has always come from a very beautiful place and I understand that. I try to remember that when I get something that’s a little bit offsetting. But there’s times when you get things that are really just straight dangerous, you know when you open an envelope and it’s just full of razor blades. There’s things like that where I wish people would think a little bit. So that gets to be a bit rough and you start to say, “where do you draw the line?”. Do you just not accept anything? But they’re so creative and that’s an amazing thing to be a part of, someone’s creativity. When they use that creativity and include you in their art it’s very humbling.

What’s next? Are you writing on the road?

I’ve always felt like touring life and real life have been far removed. But you can never tell when you’re going to be inspired. So there’s little things here and there. Today at soundcheck I’d had this, maybe a verse to a song, I don’t know, a progression. I had it for a very long time, so I played it today for some reason. It ended up getting a second part to it that I’ve been trying to find for months, and it just so happens that it happened today in Cardiff. So, I don’t know if that’s a part that will stick, but we’ll see. If nothing else it chipped away at the locked door.

FrnkIero AndThe Cellabration Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:

Tue April 28 2015 - LONDON Underworld
Wed April 29 2015 - PORTSMOUTH Wedgewood Rooms
Sun May 10 2015 - LONDON Underworld

Click here to compare & buy FrnkIero AndThe Cellabration Tickets at Stereoboard.com.

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