Talking about Aliens: Gerard Ways Solo Career
- a not so brief talk about Gerard Ways vastly overlooked solo career.
My Chemical Romance frontman and all round music icon Gerard Way unveiled on Instagram recently a selection of previously unheard recordings and a near finished song, now I know this is going to be hard but it's about time we actually put MCR to the side and all started to talk about our emo kings incredibly selection of solo projects.
Just over 7 years ago on March 22nd one of the biggest bands to come out of the Alt-Rock scene and one of the original proclaimed 'emo trinity' My Chemical Romance broke our hearts and annouced that they would be splitting up, a heart aching day for music of course. As time passed we all began to wonder what would become of these musicians we'd watched and sang through an array of universes created in each and every album and wow what we've been treated to in the time since then, not just 6 entire albums and various other EPs and singles between Gerard, Mikey, Frank and Ray but of course just last year our guys got the gang back together and now they're waiting to take over the world again but we'll save that for another time.
Bring yourself to September 29th 2014 and you'll see Mr. Way suited in blue and rocking some very orange hair, 'Hesitant Alien' has just been released. Ways' first solo release is something not a single MCR fan could have seen coming but oh how it hit the mark, a blissful collection of glam-rock and britpop anthems like 'Action Cat' and 'No Shows', full of fuzzed up pedals and manic synths with a fresh and powerful set of lungs at the front. Taking strains of all of Gerards outspoken influences and personal favourites like The Smashing Pumpkins and David Bowie, this album oozes class like it's a brand new musical start for Way completely and I don't think we have any right to complain. It still has it's softer side though with tracks like 'Drugstore Perfume' and 'Brother', a tribute to his own brother Mikey and other siblings all around that comes in the form of a soft steady drum and a tamed delicate voice, Way certainly shows off the range and passion he's able to put into his song writing and once again he's done it perfectly.
Now that was actually Gerards only full LP release but don't worry theres still plenty more nuggets of gold thats been looked over through the years. In 2016 he released 'Pinkish/Don't Try', a 2 track Single for Record Store Day, donning the same suit and hair on the singles artwork you can make assumptions about the sound but boy does it expend beliefs. 'Pinkish' starts of with a fire of grizzley guitars and vocals alike and ends in a similar manner but is glued together with a mellow, delicate vocal display paired with soft, space like synths which makes this song a complete spectacle and one of my personal favourite releases by him. Now 'Don't Try' is a song that wouldn't go amiss on 'Danger Days', My Chems 4th studio album, a fuzzy ballad with snarley lows and uplifting highs. The 2 years between this and his first solo release show a clear tweak of his craft defining this sound.
In the same year Way released a single alongside his work with DC Comics called 'Into The Cave We Wonder', interestingly this was co-written and recorded with ex-bandmate Ray Toro this is a soft song giving us a range of dainty voices, heavenly synth beats and a beautiful set of strings it almost feels like you're strolling through a cave yourself while this plays ambiently in the background, if albeit an unexpected release what a nice pretty tune it is still.
In 2 years time Way released 'Baby You're a Haunted House' on October 26th 2018 alongside a grainy 90s tv style video featuring him and the band donned in skeleton masks and gloves playing along. Another of my personal favourites here, nothing but a bouncey, dance along, halloween love anthem. This little tale of love sprinkled with ghosts and ghouls fills the room with a pop driven voice and deep fuzzy bassline, performed by Ways' brother Mikey, and is a song that will get stuck in your head all year round.
Less than a month after that he's back working with Ray (Toro) again on 'Getting Down The Germs', just short of 5 minutes this number is a groovey mass of instruments consisting of strings, drums, synths and a flute, apparently Way had been really wanting to use a flute for a long time according to interviews at the time, so why not! This track just shows how easily he can expand his music, drawing in instruments and styles he most certainly isn't known for.
What a year 2018 was, December 14th brings us to the end of a trilogy of songs with 'Dasher', a slow and swinging tale of a girl who falls in love with a reindeer and the adventures they have together. A festive treat featuring Lydia Night on guest vocals puts a heartwarming closure on the end of the year and this collection of fantastic singles.
By January 2019 Way was well into his work adapting his comic book series 'Umbrella Academy' into a Netflix series so admittedly we weren't expecting much music wise but by February we had been treated to 2 cover songs recorded with Ray Toro (again!) that would be included in his series. First came Simon and Garfunkle cover 'A Hazy Shade Of Winter' a gritty guitar led anthem that went hand in hand with the series promo, then followed by Turtles 1967 classic 'Happy Together' staying faithful to this dainty little love tune, a little fuzzier maybe but that's just his personal touch by now, the vocals work brilliantly here topping off an incredibly different but equally impressive pair of cover songs.
That brings us to today, in the time since Geard Way last released any solo material before now My Chemical Romance, annouced their reunion, played a sold out show in California, booked themselves into headline slots for Riotfest and Download festival in Japan and Australia, a UK Tour, US Tour, a string of European dates and have now had to start cancelling them too, wow what a turn of events. With everything that's going on around us MCR have been forced to pull a number of shows and festivals have been forced to postpone as well, this gave Gerard the opportunity to say hello over instagram and drop a few little bits for us once again this time just exclusively on his soundcloud. Now admittedly they aren't much as he simply put it 'It feels good to share', even if they are just snippets and clips, the first is 2 and a half minute instrumental distortion masterpiece without a single word and full of heavy, mucky guitar we'd certainly be lucky to see him revisit this sound, following that is 40 second clip entitled 'Welcome to the Hotel' which repeats that line in his now classic fuzzy pop snarl that would work perfectly as a power pop chorus nodoubt and lastly a near complete song that is actually a unreleased single Way has been sitting on. 'Phone It In' is just what you'd expect him to have laying around unreleased by this point a 3 minute grainy pop number with a loud drum beat and a bouncy little riff tugging it along. We can only hope that given all this free time we've suddenly found ourselves in Gerard starts to pick up where he left off and revisits some of these solo projects, containing such vivid life in a very different direction to what we know and love him for is certainly nothing that should we should let become buried under the reunion.
My Chemical Romance frontman and all round music icon Gerard Way unveiled on Instagram recently a selection of previously unheard recordings and a near finished song, now I know this is going to be hard but it's about time we actually put MCR to the side and all started to talk about our emo kings incredibly selection of solo projects.
Just over 7 years ago on March 22nd one of the biggest bands to come out of the Alt-Rock scene and one of the original proclaimed 'emo trinity' My Chemical Romance broke our hearts and annouced that they would be splitting up, a heart aching day for music of course. As time passed we all began to wonder what would become of these musicians we'd watched and sang through an array of universes created in each and every album and wow what we've been treated to in the time since then, not just 6 entire albums and various other EPs and singles between Gerard, Mikey, Frank and Ray but of course just last year our guys got the gang back together and now they're waiting to take over the world again but we'll save that for another time.
Bring yourself to September 29th 2014 and you'll see Mr. Way suited in blue and rocking some very orange hair, 'Hesitant Alien' has just been released. Ways' first solo release is something not a single MCR fan could have seen coming but oh how it hit the mark, a blissful collection of glam-rock and britpop anthems like 'Action Cat' and 'No Shows', full of fuzzed up pedals and manic synths with a fresh and powerful set of lungs at the front. Taking strains of all of Gerards outspoken influences and personal favourites like The Smashing Pumpkins and David Bowie, this album oozes class like it's a brand new musical start for Way completely and I don't think we have any right to complain. It still has it's softer side though with tracks like 'Drugstore Perfume' and 'Brother', a tribute to his own brother Mikey and other siblings all around that comes in the form of a soft steady drum and a tamed delicate voice, Way certainly shows off the range and passion he's able to put into his song writing and once again he's done it perfectly.
Now that was actually Gerards only full LP release but don't worry theres still plenty more nuggets of gold thats been looked over through the years. In 2016 he released 'Pinkish/Don't Try', a 2 track Single for Record Store Day, donning the same suit and hair on the singles artwork you can make assumptions about the sound but boy does it expend beliefs. 'Pinkish' starts of with a fire of grizzley guitars and vocals alike and ends in a similar manner but is glued together with a mellow, delicate vocal display paired with soft, space like synths which makes this song a complete spectacle and one of my personal favourite releases by him. Now 'Don't Try' is a song that wouldn't go amiss on 'Danger Days', My Chems 4th studio album, a fuzzy ballad with snarley lows and uplifting highs. The 2 years between this and his first solo release show a clear tweak of his craft defining this sound.
In the same year Way released a single alongside his work with DC Comics called 'Into The Cave We Wonder', interestingly this was co-written and recorded with ex-bandmate Ray Toro this is a soft song giving us a range of dainty voices, heavenly synth beats and a beautiful set of strings it almost feels like you're strolling through a cave yourself while this plays ambiently in the background, if albeit an unexpected release what a nice pretty tune it is still.
In 2 years time Way released 'Baby You're a Haunted House' on October 26th 2018 alongside a grainy 90s tv style video featuring him and the band donned in skeleton masks and gloves playing along. Another of my personal favourites here, nothing but a bouncey, dance along, halloween love anthem. This little tale of love sprinkled with ghosts and ghouls fills the room with a pop driven voice and deep fuzzy bassline, performed by Ways' brother Mikey, and is a song that will get stuck in your head all year round.
Less than a month after that he's back working with Ray (Toro) again on 'Getting Down The Germs', just short of 5 minutes this number is a groovey mass of instruments consisting of strings, drums, synths and a flute, apparently Way had been really wanting to use a flute for a long time according to interviews at the time, so why not! This track just shows how easily he can expand his music, drawing in instruments and styles he most certainly isn't known for.
What a year 2018 was, December 14th brings us to the end of a trilogy of songs with 'Dasher', a slow and swinging tale of a girl who falls in love with a reindeer and the adventures they have together. A festive treat featuring Lydia Night on guest vocals puts a heartwarming closure on the end of the year and this collection of fantastic singles.
By January 2019 Way was well into his work adapting his comic book series 'Umbrella Academy' into a Netflix series so admittedly we weren't expecting much music wise but by February we had been treated to 2 cover songs recorded with Ray Toro (again!) that would be included in his series. First came Simon and Garfunkle cover 'A Hazy Shade Of Winter' a gritty guitar led anthem that went hand in hand with the series promo, then followed by Turtles 1967 classic 'Happy Together' staying faithful to this dainty little love tune, a little fuzzier maybe but that's just his personal touch by now, the vocals work brilliantly here topping off an incredibly different but equally impressive pair of cover songs.
That brings us to today, in the time since Geard Way last released any solo material before now My Chemical Romance, annouced their reunion, played a sold out show in California, booked themselves into headline slots for Riotfest and Download festival in Japan and Australia, a UK Tour, US Tour, a string of European dates and have now had to start cancelling them too, wow what a turn of events. With everything that's going on around us MCR have been forced to pull a number of shows and festivals have been forced to postpone as well, this gave Gerard the opportunity to say hello over instagram and drop a few little bits for us once again this time just exclusively on his soundcloud. Now admittedly they aren't much as he simply put it 'It feels good to share', even if they are just snippets and clips, the first is 2 and a half minute instrumental distortion masterpiece without a single word and full of heavy, mucky guitar we'd certainly be lucky to see him revisit this sound, following that is 40 second clip entitled 'Welcome to the Hotel' which repeats that line in his now classic fuzzy pop snarl that would work perfectly as a power pop chorus nodoubt and lastly a near complete song that is actually a unreleased single Way has been sitting on. 'Phone It In' is just what you'd expect him to have laying around unreleased by this point a 3 minute grainy pop number with a loud drum beat and a bouncy little riff tugging it along. We can only hope that given all this free time we've suddenly found ourselves in Gerard starts to pick up where he left off and revisits some of these solo projects, containing such vivid life in a very different direction to what we know and love him for is certainly nothing that should we should let become buried under the reunion.
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