In the three and a half years since My Chemical Romance parted ways, we’ve seen the different elements that created a global phenomenon take centre stage. We've had a look into the individual characters that came together to create a movement inspired by the darkest and brightest parts of life. Through Gerard Way’s ‘Hesitant Alien’, Frank Iero’s ‘Stomachaches’ and Mikey Way’s ‘For The Night To Control’, we’ve learned more about this engulfing spectrum that touched the hearts of a generation.
Now the last piece of the puzzle has manifested in the form of ‘Remember The Laughter’, Ray Toro’s debut solo album and a reflective account of both how Toro has come to where he is now, and what legacy he looks to leave behind.
Heavily inspired by the birth of his son and the life-changing responsibility that came with it, Toro was forced to take a much less selfish look at his life. A mind-altering transformation, he turned back to music and meticulously worked towards releasing an album, an endeavour which turned into a three year labour of emotional soul-searching.
“I couldn’t imagine after My Chem split up, that I wouldn’t make more music.” Toro begins, speaking over the phone after the early morning school run. “I just didn’t see myself making a record like this. This record has allowed me to process how I was feeling, getting more thoughts out on paper and into the air in music form. I feel like I’ve always been able to tap into my emotions much more when I make music. I’m not the best conversationalist, I’m very quiet, I guess you could say reserved.”
During My Chemical Romance’s ten year reign, Toro was never the one grabbing attention, instead seeming to perform and play for the indulgent euphoria of sharing a stage with his second family. So with a solo album, the spotlight has appropriately shifted toward his direction. What we hear in ‘Remember The Laughter’ comes as a surprise. Toro’s outstanding connection with his instrument always spoke louder than he could, but he’s found his voice on this record, as well as his knack for inventive composition.
“When you get to write a record yourself you get the opportunity to explore more sides of yourself. I obviously love the guitar and I’ve always been a fan of heavy rock, keeping it loud all the time, so it was a bit of a challenge to take a step back at times. It was interesting for me, and almost an extra challenge, to move away from where I’m comfortable. The guitar isn’t used as the main drive. In those moments when the solos do come, I feel like I’ve got to play things I would never normally play before. So you could say I became a better guitar player on this record as I got to play it in a different way.”
It’s obvious how Toro’s songwriting has changed, but it’s also clearer now how integral he was in creating some of those soul-shaking moments in ‘The Black Parade’. ‘Remember The Laughter’ is oozing with inspiration and can’t help but stir an adrenaline in your soul.
“With the record I really wanted to touch all sides and really explore. There are songs that are very raw but not every song matched that theme. I needed more elements to tell a story. A lot of this record was inspired by storytellers like Tom Petty, Johnny Cash or Willie Nelson.
“In a weird way, each song almost told me what it needed to be. The choruses are a person telling someone else ‘Look at all the shit you’ve gone through, but look where you are now. Look how you’ve handled all the shit.’ so that’s why I felt like I had to make this music uplifting.”
From a first-listen you would assume the tone of this record is very dreary, a dark and sombre questioning of the state of the world, but listen a bit closer and you find this is something else entirely. Songs like ‘The Lucky Ones’ and ‘Hope For The World’ are politically driven pop-hits inspired by racial tension in the USA, more specifically events such as Ferguson.
“That’s a beautiful part of music that I’ve only realised with creating my own record. You explore so many tonalities and textures that’ll help you tell a better a story and get to the heart of what each song is trying to say. I was definitely never bored while making the record as each song was a different process. It’s like a painter, you don’t always use the same palette, you can go as far as your tools will let you.”
The recording process wasn’t always easy though. “On top of writing music on my own, I’ve never written lyrics,” he recognises. “And that basically meant the only way I could do it right was to try and be straight-forward with myself and tap into what I was feeling. Until now, that’s what took a long time. I know there are people who can write out lyrics like it’s nothing, I just can’t do that, it’s a gift I do not have, so I needed to really dig deep.
“There were definitely times on the record where I’d have to stop recording because I just couldn’t stop crying. There are a few lines in the last song, ‘Remember The Laughter’, that stick out in my mind. That song is sort of me writing to my son from my deathbed. That song helped me process what I really want to leave with him. The last lyrics are me calling out for him to remember me. Every time I got to that section I really struggled. I’m picturing thirty years down the line where I’m not going to get to see my son anymore. That’s part of what makes good music, digging into honest emotion, so for me you could say this record was liberating for me, something therapeutic.”
Previous to this album, Toro hasn’t been completely silent. The opener on this record, ‘Isn’t That Something’, was initially released in 2014 and was the first hint of the musical therapy Toro needed.
“I wrote that song pretty soon after the band broke up. That was a selfish song I really needed to do for myself, to kick off that moving on process. I think each of us approached it in different ways and did what we needed to do to process everything.”
The concept of this record, a man finding various artefacts in his attic relating to his past, justifies this story-telling theme Toro tried to implement in the record. With each song is a different memory, a parable that hopes to inthrall and bring you deeper inside the mind of the artist. However, as much as this is an artistic choice, it is not one designed by ego or selfishness, if anything the record shows a bravery to put on display one man’s rhetoric for a better world.
“Each song had it’s own healing effect on me and I’m hoping for listeners to find something like that in there as well. The summative tone is very positive. I’m an extremely hopeful person so I’m hoping when people are listening it can trigger something in their memories where they made need some positivity or a little bit of hope from somewhere.”
‘Remember The Laughter’ is available now.