Gerard Way Announces First Solo U.S. Tour

Way provided a quote about his vision for the album due out Sept. 30 on Warner Bros. Records.

“I wanted to make the small things sound big,” Way said. “My intention was to make 100 percent uncompromised art, using the currently least radio-friendly instrument, the guitar. I knew  there would be lots of fuzz pedals. I knew I would play Fender instruments. I knew I would look at who my guitar heroes were in art school, Mary Timony and Carrie Brownstein, and I drew a lot of influence from shoe-gaze and Britpop. I want the record to sonically galvanize people.”

He added that he wrote about what he knew at the time, “which was struggle, beginnings, finding a newness in the mundane and the abstract. I looked to the Britpop poets like Jarvis Cocker and Damon Albarn, drawing upon everyday life. I also experimented with the abstract, and looked at Frank Black’s work both with the Pixies, and as a solo artist. There was no concept and no call-to-arms.”

Rolling Stone was at Reading Festival to check out Way’s take on Brit-pop.

The magazine reports, “There were a few traces of MCR’s trademark flamboyance in the Bowie-isms of ‘Drugstore Perfume,’ but the likes of ‘Zero Zero’ and ‘No Shows’ stuck more closely to his recent pledge to ‘re-boot Britpop in America’ – snappy, catchy songs delivered with arty panache.”  

Here is the official video for “No Shows.”

And here’s the U.S. itinerary:  

Oct. 12 – San Francisco, Calif., The Fillmore
Oct. 13 – West Hollywood, Calif., Troubadour
Oct. 14 – Los Angeles, Calif., The Fonda    
Oct. 17 – Philadelphia, Pa., Trocadero Theatre
Oct. 19 – Boston, Mass., Paradise Rock Club
Oct. 20 – New York, N.Y., Irving Plaza      
Oct. 22 – Sayreville, N.J., Starland Ballroom           
Oct. 23 – New York, N.Y., Webster Hall

Tickets go on sale Wednesday, Aug. 27.

For more information visit GerardWay.com, where you pre-order an exclusive Hesitant Alien album bundle. The bundles come with a free, instant download of “No Shows.”