My Chemical Romance 'scrapped 28 boring songs'

"We'd done interviews and photo-shoots," says My Chemical Romance's bassist Mikey Way. "The singles were picked, we were booking shows - we were ready to go…"

And then the brakes were applied.

Two and a half years ago the New Jersey rockers returned to the studio to begin work on the follow-up to their hugely successful third album The Black Parade.

However, something was very wrong.

"It was just a pretty damaged band," says lead singer Gerard Way, tucking his freshly-dyed bright red hair under a winter hat.

"It wasn't damage between us - it was just we had toured too long, we'd over-worked, we'd over-shot in a lot of ways. [We were] Over exposed.

"We didn't have a semblance of real life at all. At that point Frank [Lero, guitarist] was only one with a home and he never saw it. None of us had homes.

"None of us could drive a car anymore. None of us could do anything for ourselves. It had just ground down to dust by a billion and one things."

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Gerard Way says The Black Parade left the band "damaged"

'Really boring'

In short they were a band who'd given every last bead of sweat. The tank was empty.

The Black Parade, a mortality-questioning conceptual rock-opera, had catapulted them into the big league alongside bands like Green Day and Foo Fighters. It'd also almost destroyed them.

They went into the studio and recorded a brand new album. As Mikey explains it was submitted to the record label and the band readied themselves to go.

"Something didn't feel right," says Gerard reluctantly. "It was a record that went against everything about the band that was great.

"Which was like having ambition, being ambitious, being visual, being artists, being excited, being free, reckless and rock 'n' roll.

"That stuff was gone and what was in its place was really boring."

Added to that, they parted ways with drummer Bob Bryar. Either way, the remaining members huddled around the studio's delete-button for everything they'd recorded so far and consigned it to history.

"Scrapped?" says Gerard. "Probably 28 songs. An entire album - and then some."

New rules

Fortunately they gathered their heads and wrote new single Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na), shattering their own "creative paralysis" in the process. Suddenly they were re-energised.

Along with a new, rawer sound came a number of new ground-rules to ensure the burn-out of the previous three years wouldn't creep in again. They had to make themselves crack-proof.

"Before, no-one wanted to be a complainer so we'd always work so hard," says Gerard.

"Now, it's like we've all told each other if something is too much just raise a flag.

"While we were making Danger Days there was a couple of moments where I said, 'I have to go home today.'"

So today, we find MCR having conquered their own self-made mountain. Ten years on from forming, for them, it tastes the sweetest.

"This is definitely the most excited I've been for us to put an album out," concludes Gerard. "It was such a struggle for us to get there.

"I like the fact we're not playing characters. It'll be more cinematic as opposed to theatrical this time."

"I felt like we're unique. I feel like we're still unique."

My Chemical Romance's album Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys is released on 22 November.