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About a year ago, I got an IM from a friend of mine, telling me she found this really awesome band through Skeleton Crew, Frank Iero's (Of My Chemical Romance fame) record label / clothing company / general awesomeness. She sent me an mp3 and, trusting her taste, I listened and absolutely loved it. It was raw and loud and violent and I immiediately thought that this was 'let's go in the pit and beat the sh*t out of people' music, which let's be honest, everyone needs every now and then. This band was Leathermouth, I added them on MySpace and kept an eye on everything, listened to the music and the screams and every now and then was reminded of someone, and I couldn't understand it.

As it turns out, those screams that accompanied the aggressive music, belonged to Mr Iero himself. And when myself, Jen, Natty and Ed went to Buffalo last weekend (Sept 6th) to see the band live, we found Frank and he agreed to talk to us about how the band came to be, the differences between being with Leathermouth and My Chemical Romance, and how, well, sometimes he just wants to stop time and take a nap.

"It doesn't have any answers, it's just full of complaints."
- Frank Iero: LeATHERMOUTH

For our readers who don't know who you are; Roll Call! Who are you, and what do you do for the band?

Geez, uh... I'm Frank Iero. I play guitar in some bands, play bass in other bands, and I sing in other bands.

So how did Leathermouth come to be?

Well, originally it started, a couple of friends of mine, they were in another band around Jersey they wanted to do another band. And they wrote a couple of songs, like, three songs, just a demo, and I heard it, and they were going to have their friend sing and I really liked the band, I wanted to work with them somehow. I was going on tour so much that I couldn't do it. So I came back a couple of months later, the kid never wrote lyrics or anything, and they're like "Ah, I guess we're not gonna do it," and I kinda got bummed about it, so I was like "Alright, give me a week," I wrote some lyrics, and we just got together in a practice studio and did it.

Over the past I guess, year and a half, we've just been recording in each other basements and put together a record.

For those who haven't seen Leathermouth live, what can they expect from your live show?

That's... kinda it, I mean, every show- even though this has been our first tour- and every shows been completely different from the next. I think the kind of fun thing is you don't know what to expect. Leathermouth is kind of like, the anti-band, y'know? I've been in bands my entire life, and you know how you get up there and there's certain things you're supposed to say? Like "Oh, is everyone having a good time?" It really doesn't matter. It's just about getting up there and getting everything out and when it's done, hopefully everyone is still standing.

Well it works. It was awesome.

Thank you, I appreciate it.

What exactly inspires your lyrics?

Oh man, uh, well... When writing Leathermouth stuff it's really just the kind of things that are happening in the world today that we don't like to think about, y'know? The things that you hear on the news every time you turn the channel. It doesn't have any answers, it's just full of complaints. It's basically just talking about how messed up everything is and talking about how everything is okay but it's not going to be okay.

It's kind of like ranting in song form?

Yeah.

Nice.

I basically do it so I don't go crazy.

That's... a good reason to do it. *laughs* Your logo, the circle with the line through it, does it have a purpose?

Yeah, it's the symbol for nothing.

That makes sense. So we know there's an album coming out, but what else can we expect to see from you guys in the future?

Well, uhm... you can expect me to take some time off I think. *laughs* But it's weird, I had time off. We stopped doing My Chemical Romance in the summer, and I started a couple of other projects and stuff like that because I just really like to play. But now that I've been out, again, on tour, I kind of want to go home and just have some time with my dogs, and just be home.

But, I might do like another short tour, right now we're talking about signing the record to a label and it's coming together pretty well, so I think by either the end of this year, early next year, a Leathermouth record will be out, probably another week or two of tours, and then I'll go back to My Chem.

Don't hold me to it.

So what fuels your passion for what you do? Because obviously, you just said yourself you're so busy. You just finished with My Chem, you started doing this, what is it that keeps you going?

I don't know. I guess uh.. what's weird is the passion keeps you passionate. Does that make any sense?

Self feeding?

Yeah, it's weird! It's hard to explain to somebody that hasn't gotten the bug. When you get bit by this touring thing, or this music thing it's all you can think about, it's all you can do, it's the only way you know how to relate your true self. If I was just going about my normal day, I'd probably freak out. Because for me, that thirty minutes on stage, or that half hour... Which...

Are the same?

Which would be thirty minutes. *laughs* Glad you picked up on that. Or forty-five minutes or whatever it is that's the time where you just get to let everything go and just be whoever you are. The rest is just putting on a mask and going through your day and having people not run away from you.

If you were in charge of the music business right now, what would be the first thing you'd do?

I'd kill the internet.

Kill the internet?

Yeah. *laughs* I think people know too much about things that they enjoy. I think it takes away if you can go on the world wide web or whatever and find out everything that you could possibly know about something in five seconds. It takes away a lot, you know? I think some stuff should be secret, some things should be private. This day and age, everyone needs it right now, and if you're not getting it in three seconds, you don't care anymore. And I think that sucks.

That does suck. Okay, the only My Chem related question, I promise. How does touring with Leathermouth differ from touring with My Chem?

I gotta load shit! *laughs* It's crazy, you know, going on this tour it's been amazing, because I'm touring with friends I've known for so long, and it's rad, I get to hang out with my best friend Hambone and Eddie, and Rob and stuff, and James who I've known for years, and it's really, really chill, really laid back, but it's completely different then touring with My Chem.

We were really, really lucky with My Chem, we go all over the world and we'd do a lot of press and other things and there's a lot of work involved, but there's a lot of stuff, like setting up your own merch and just doing the day to day stuff that you don't think about anymore. And coming back to this tour it's great. I guess you feel very fortunate to be able to do what you do. It's rad though, I get to just hang out, and sleep all day and play shows at night. I'm really psyched.

So it's kind of like going back to the basics?

Yeah! It's weird, My Chem, we toured a lot, and it was a very gradual thing, like more kids would come to shows, but then all of a sudden shows got really big, and then you just kind of woke up one day and it was like, 'woah, what the f*ck? What happened?' And a lot of us started to get really bad anxieties about stuff like going on stage and things and it definitely gets to you when you're just a kid from Jersey that writes music, and you get on stage and there's thousands of people. And most of those people are there just to hate you sometimes. It gets weird, you know?

So to do this it's funny, it gives you your confidence back to get back up in front of people, and there's not that many people, and you try to relate to the stage better... it's definitely a wake up call. It's fun.

Is there any specific creative process you go through when you're writing any of your music?

It's just writing what you like to hear, and different melodies that pop out. It could be something as different as playing a different guitar. Say you're working on a song, right? And you have this one guitar you're playing on, and the song's not coming through, maybe you put that guitar down and pick up another one and it just forces you to do something different.

And suddenly it all works?

Yeah. It's weird the way that music works that way, and art just in general. It's just really muddling your way through it and trying to come up with something you really like. .

Trying to pick apart all the pieces to make something whole?

Trying to reinvent yourself, yeah.

What's your favourite Leathermouth lyric and why?

Oh man, I don't know. It's one of those things where a lot of the things I say in Leathermouth, I'm not really proud of.

Goes back to that ranting?

Yeah. That's the thing, I originally wanted to do it very honestly, but it's hard to do because of the internet and things of that nature. But I don't know, I don't think I'm proud of any of them. I'm not proud that I feel that way about certain things, but I think it's better than holding it inside.

It's better to be honest and let it all out then pretend not to.

They're going to hate you for it anyway.

Music means something to everyone, so what does making music that means something to the people that go to your shows... what does that mean to you?

It's... I don't even know how to put that into words. To write something in your basement or your house or your room or somewhere and be like, this is what I'm feeling right now, and this is what I want to put across into my art. And then all of a sudden, months later kids that you never thought you would meet in countries you never thought you would go to, say hey, that song that you wrote really meant this to me, or that, and maybe it's not the exact same thing you were thinking but it helped them in some way? And it's shocking. It kind of knocks the breath out of you, like wow, I can't believe I'm doing that.

*laughs* Like wow I really did something right!

Yeah, or wrong! *laughs* you never know, depending, right? But that's the thing. It's shocking to know that people are actually listening to you.

I can believe that.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, I do. So us at The Sound Faction are pretty much some of the most random people you will ever meet. So with every interview, no matter how serious it's been or whatever, we always try to end it with five random questions, just to make everyone laugh, or we try to, at least.

Okay. I'll laugh.

Did you have a favourite bath toy when you were a kid?

Bath toy... oh man, I had a wind up diver.

Oh man! I had one of those too. *laughs* They were awesome. Do you have a favourite dinosaur?

Yeah. I guess. ...I think. Well... yeah. Yeah and no.

Yeah and no? ...And... It would be? *laughs*

*laughs* That wasn't the question, was that part of the question?

Yeah, true, I worded that wrong. Sorry. *laughs*

It's alright. I mean,T-Rex is always fun, but Velociraptors were a lot more...

Vicious?

Vicious, yeah. I kinda like Wooly Mammoths, but is that a dinosaur really? It's kind of like a mammal..

I don't think it's a dinosaur so much as a devolved elephant...

Well, I like Elephants.

If you could have any nonstandard superpower, like anything you wouldn't really see in a comic book, what would it be?

I always wanted the power to stop time. Just pause everything and go take a nap. I don't know it's that's a superpower...

Yeah.

Yeah? But would you see that in a comic book though? I guess so, you'd see people stopping time... That's all I've really ever wanted to do though.

Stop time?

Yeah. Stop time. I'm better when I have my time to myself.

I like your idea of going and stopping time to go take a nap so you haven't lost anything. That's awesome. If you were a scented candle, what would you smell like?

I'd smell like shit. *laughs* I'm kind of a scented candle right now, and tour is not treating me well. Whatever I do smell like, I don't want to smell like it anymore.

Go take a nice shower *laughs*

I'm ready for a shower, yeah!

What's your favourite song on guitar hero?

I like playing 'Mother'. You can always rock out to 'Mother'.

Alright!

Alright, thank you very much!

Thank you again to Frank for taking the time to talk to us and giving us such an awesome interview. You can check out Leathermouth's homepage, and their MySpace. You can also check out Skeleton Crew for other awesome stuff.

Want to see the (albeit low quality) video we took during this interview? Click here.