Way planned normal life after My Chem split

Former My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way has revealed he was hoping to live a normal life after he split the band last year.

He had no plans to forge a solo career until he began coming up with ideas for his album Hesitant Alien, headed up with lead track Action Cat.

Way last year admitted he felt MCR had reached a natural conclusion with 2006 album The Black Parade – but now he tells NME: “I’m still proud of the shows we played, especially of the music we played after Black Parade; but I definitely didn’t have anything planned.”

He says of his upcoming release: “All of a sudden I started to plan out what a solo career would be like. I thought of artists I loved like Nick Cave, Morrissey, Brian Eno, Bowie, Iggy, PJ Harvey, Björk. I thought about all those artists and I was like, ‘That’s what I want my arc to be.’ I would be so lucky to have a quarter of what any of them had, in terms of their story.”

Hesitant Alien represents a change of direction in more ways than one. “It’s not a concept record, it’s not high concept at all, and that’s new for me,” he says. “It’s got its own look and its own feeling. I imagine reinvention is something that’s such a part of me that I don’t think that will ever stop.”

His current mantra is: “Maybe plan it less.”

Way will play his first post-MCR shows at the Reading festival on August 22 and the Leeds festival the following day.

Not only is one-time online news editor Martin an established rock journalist and drummer, but he’s also penned several books on music history, including SAHB Story: The Tale of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, a band he once managed, and the best-selling Apollo Memories about the history of the legendary and infamous Glasgow Apollo. Martin has written for Classic Rock and Prog and at one time had written more articles for Louder than anyone else (we think he's second now). He’s appeared on TV and when not delving intro all things music, can be found travelling along the UK’s vast canal network.