Gerard Way: "My Solo Album Is Rooted In Britpop"

Gerard Way says that his upcoming solo album is a stark departure from My Chemical Romance’s sound.

Listing a string of 1990s Britpop bands including Blur, Pulp, Supergrass, Lush and Elastica, Gerard told NME it’s a quintessentially British album.

“The sound of it I feel is rooted in shoegaze, also Britpop, and the whole thing feels largely like a British album,” he explained.

“I guess I was going for a lot of things that were completely new to me. Even the way we attacked the vocals and tried to make them sound was very different from ways that I had ever been recorded."

Gerard added that because of the UK influences, it only seemed natural to debut the material at the Reading and Leeds Festivals next month.

Referring to the UK, Gerard said: "This was the first place to get us, to fully understand My Chemical Romance, and I feel like it's going to be the same situation here.

"I think in the States, it's going to be a bit of a fight — I think it's going to be a bit of a fight here too, for different reasons, because it always should be a fight.

“But I think just the influences alone, because they're so rooted here, it needed to be set off here."

Don’t forget that Kerrang Magazine’s first part of our incredible interview with Gerard about the band’s split, his emotional struggles and what the future holds is ON SALE NOW!

*Check out the awesome front cover: *

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