My Chemical Romance

Gerard Way was drawing comics when the September 11, 2001 changed everything. He was a direct witness to the attacks, and that pushed him to want to do something that mattered. He proposed to his high school friend Matt Pelissier to form a band. The first two to try out were them: Pelissier on drums, Way singing and playing guitar. The first song they wrote, «Skylines and turnstiles», was born directly from that experience.Soon after, the guitarist Ray Toro joined, whom Way met through a common friend. Also joined Mikey Way, Gerard's younger brother, who left school to play with them. It was Mikey who brought the name: My Chemical Romance, taken from the title of the book Ecstasy: three tales of chemical romance, by the Scottish writer Irvine Welsh.

By December 2001 they were already recording their first three demos, including a track that later became «Our Lady of Sorrows».The band signed with Eyeball Records and in 2002 released their debut, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love. The breakthrough came with Reprise Records and the second album, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge (2004), which included songs like «Helena», «The Ghost of You» and «I'm Not Okay (I Promise)». In 2006 came The Black Parade, with a more refined sound and influences from the 1970s in songs like «Welcome to the Black Parade» and «Teenagers». After recording a full album and discarding it, in 2010 they released Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, with «Na Na Na» and «SING» as their first singles.