Frank Iero on FrnkIero & The Cellabration and Make-A-Wish Foundation
by Tim Wenger
Frank Iero is best known as a guitarist for pop-punk rockers My Chemical Romance, but now that the group is on hiatus, Iero has created frnkiero and the cellabration. After dropping their debut album on August 25, the group played Riot Fest Denver on Saturday, September 20 and Iero took a few minutes to catch CMB up on what is happening in his world.
CMB: Let’s hear about the making of the album Stomachaches.
Frank: I guess it all started around late 2012. I’ve always had these weird digestive issues that have kind of plagued my existence ever since I was a teenager. Recently, in the last two years, it has started to get really bad. I’m at this point of my life where I have kids, and when things get really bad, it’s easy to just give up and want to die. Now, because of my kids, I didn’t want that. I wanted to show them that you can turn something negative into a positive, so I’ve started forcing myself out of bed. Every time I would start to feel really bad, I’d get up and go create something. It started to work. I would ride these creative highs for a little while and it would make me forget about how I was feeling and what I was going through and I’d have something to show for it.
I started writing these songs and demoing them. I called my friend Jared Alexander and I flew him from LA out to Jersey. We started to record and I kept writing more and more, and before we knew it we had this big chunk of songs that I was happy with. A friend of mine, Matt Gallihugh, who’s been my booking agent since 2001, was like ‘What are you up to.’ I was like ‘Yeah, I got these songs’ so I sent them over to him. He was like ‘I really like this, can I play it for some people.’ He ended up playing it for a couple people. Vagrant records had a passion for the songs. It made sense. I ended up putting a band together and that’s where I am.
CMB: Do you feel like these songs are reflecting a different part of you than you had previously done?
Frank: I think so. I think with any new project, you have to do that, otherwise you might as well just do the other project. I feel like at the heart of it, this record is very much a folk record. It tells the stories of things I’ve gone through or that I’ve seen people go through first hand. To me, it’s just a collection of stories, and I’ve never done that with any other records.
CMB: Let’s hear about your work with the Make A Wish Foundation.
Frank: I started a long time ago. Make A Wish was a charity that we were familiar with, and they had contacted us because a couple kids had wishes that they wanted fulfilled. We saw first-hand the good that they did. Recently, I was contacted by a thing called Wear Your Music. They take used strings and make these bracelets with them. They sell the bracelets and all profits go to a charity of your choice. One, you can recycle, and two, do some good with it, so it’s totally awesome.
CMB: What’s coming up?
Frank: Right now we’re on tour with Taking Back Sunday and The Used. We’re doing that until October. We’re going to play with Alkaline Trio in Brooklyn October 23, and in November we go to the UK.
CMB: Anything you haven’t done that you would like to attack in your future?
Frank: I tent to set strange goals. For me, just making this record was the goal. Now that it’s been released, that’s just icing on the cake. I’ve done a lot in the past, I don’t know if I have expectations anymore. I’m just living in the moment and seeing what happens.
CMB: If I were someone that didn’t know you or didn’t know My Chemical Romance or any of this genre, and you were going to play a song for me, what song would it be and what would you want me to get out of it?
Frank: Oh wow. I would play “Neverenders.” I’m leery as to give my impression of the song because the most important thing is that when you listen to something, what you take out of it. I would just hope that you listen with an open mind and an open heart.
Online: facebook.com/frankieromusic
Category: National News
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