Mutant mayhem and tottmnt is so fucking good. I love how in this iteration they really get a chance to actually find themselves. In previous versions the turtles already had pretty set personalities, and while there was obviously character development, its been a very different vibe then what we see in MM. They're really just kids and I love seeing them grow and be goofy and stupid.
Interviewer: Do you think that added to the performance, that you had to actually get through the pain?
Gerard: For Early Sunsets Over Monroeville, definitely. I was in-- It was like, I don’t know like 10-- 9:30 at night. We were just getting ready-- It was the last song we did for the day, and I was in so much pain. And I just-- you know Geoffy [Geoff Rickly] was like, “Alright, let her rip.”
Interviewer: That’s the mellow song, right?
Ray: Right, that’s the-- what’s awesome about that too is the last, I think it’s like the last 3 minutes of that song is just one take, no edits, no stops, no cuts. It’s just...It’s an amazing performance by-- by him and just by all of us, I think because we-- we wrote that song like a few days before we went into the studio. It wasn’t finished when we recorded it, so it was just us, you know, kinda letting all of us [unintelligible], you know?
Interviewer: (Overlapping) It was your studio song.
Ray: Right, we wrote it in the studio.
Interviewer: Well since we’re hyping this up so much... (Ray laughs) We might as well play it ‘cause everyone out there’s going “Wow, sounds like a great song.”
Ray: Hopefully
Interviewer: “I wanna hear him crying.” (Ray and Gerard laugh) “I wanna hear that tooth.” (Continued laughter) So, I guess let’s go into a little bit background of the song, and then we’ll play the song for everybody, and everyone can hear.
Gerard: Okay, Mikey does not want me to reveal--
Interviewer: He’s going “No! You’re out!”
Gerard: (Overlapping) what the song is about, but if you-- there’s plenty of clues in it, so if you figure out, it’s-- I’ll say it’s about a film. Is that enough?
Ray: Yeah, that’s good.
Gerard: Okay, you can figure out--
Ray: (Interrupting) Horror film
Gerard: Alright. (Pauses then laughs) You messed it up! (Arguing in background)
Interviewer: What are some of your favorite songs off this record to play live and actually-- or during the recording process?
Ray: Um, I think recording process-wise, definitely “Monroeville.”
Frank: (Talking about his favorite songs) And “Monroeville” because I had no clue what I was gonna do. (Interviewer laughs) I wrote it in the van before we recorded, and I had like frostbite on my fingers so it kinda sucked.
Mikey: I like the “Monroeville” song. (To Gerard) It was fun watching you tweak out at the end. (Gerard laughs)
/
Noise Theory Interview - 11/13/02
Page 1, paragraph 5
Interviewer: Even though ‘My Chemical Romance’ as a band have been together only a short time, the album displays some excellent and mature song writing skills. Were the album songs written after the band became complete?
Ray: We started in October 2001, and had written 5 songs by January 2002. This was when the band was still a four piece. The rest of the songs came together a few weeks before we went to record. Honey This Mirror and Early Sunsets were written about a week before we left for the studio. We asked Frank to be in the band around the same time, so to get his input on those songs really helped them become what they are.
/
HardcoreNJ Interview - March/April 2003
Paragraph 3
Interviewer: What was the inspiration behind "Early Sunsets Over Monroeville"?
Matt: Musically there wasn't any inspiration, 2 days before the recording I happened to be strumming an acoustic guitar in our practice space, and the guys all seemed to like what I was playing (which is a rarity). Anyways, we knew we wanted something different on the record to reflect our softer side. I think it was the most magical part of recording process, seeing a 2 day old song kinda just work, we didn't even have an ending for it. We all just jammed it out improvising. Oh, and the vocals were inspired by a certain movie...
/
89.5 WSOU FM Interview - 7/3/03
8:25-8:31, 8:59-10:27
Interviewer: Alright, so, we’re gonna hear “Monroeville.”
Ray: It’s a slow one. Grab your girl...and then shoot her in the head. (Laughter)
Interviewer: I remember a long time ago when you were recording this record that you had a problem while you were singing this song.
Gerard: Yeah, I had a hole in my tooth and an abscess in the hole, and it was pushing against all the nerves in my face, and it looked like I had Parkinson’s, and it was (a?) drag, and it--
Interviewer: And your face was droopy, and--
Gerard: It was drooping, and I looked like a-- I went to hospitals the whole time we were recording, and they thought I had facial nerve paralysis, nerve damage, so I had to do that song, like basically with, yeah like the most intense pain and half a face. (Dramatically) Half a face!
Interviewer: So, alright, everyone listening out there, now you know he did this song with half a face.
Gerard: (After a pause) Half a face. (Laughter)
Interviewer: How did you feel about the song after you played it? I know you must have been like, you know, “This can’t be the best I can do” because you’re all messed up and stuff. (Ray protesting in background)
Gerard: It felt like that, but (Unintelligible as Gerard and interviewer talk at the same time) when I was doing it, but everybody was so psyched on it when I did it--
Ray: Psyched! People were crying--
Gerard: They were crying man (Laughter)
Ray: It was amazing. It was the most amazing, definitely the most amazing--
Matt: (Overlapping) Yeah, we were definitely a bunch of wusses.
Frank: Alright, correction, not a bunch of wusses. Ray and Otter (Matt) cried. (Laughter) That’s what happened.
Ray: No no no, I will definitely say I--
Mikey: The red sea might have been parted when my brother did that part.
Ray: I cried. I think Alex [Saavedra] might have shed a singular tear.
Interviewer: A singular tear?
Ray: It was definitely some crying going on. (Matt talking in background)
Gerard: (Overlapping) I got a hug after that one
Ray: (Overlapping) It was bad.
Gerard: (Overlapping) I got a hug. I got lots of hugs after that.
Interviewer: (After a pause and laughter) Alright, so how’d you feel about the hugs afterwards?
Gerard: The hugs were sweet. (Laughter in background) The record was sweeter.
/
Punk It Interview - 10/29/03
Paragraph 28
Sev (Interviewer): What are some of the biggest disagreements amongst yourselves?
Gerard: We mesh really well musically and personally. We all have a good time, so there's probably not that many disagreements. The only thing I think we ever disagree upon is if we're going to play "Early Sunsets Over Monroeville" or not. We had a little thing tonight. Some guys wanted to play it tonight, but I'm not sure. It's an ad lib song - the first verse was written, but the last part of the song was freestyle. And I'm not fucking Eminem, so unless the vibe is right, I don't like to do it. I did it in Chicago because the vibe was perfect. It basically happens in the middle of the set. We feel the energy, and if they can deal with it, we can deal with it.
/
Life On the Murder Scene - 2005
31:24-32:01
Ray: And Frank played on 2 of the tracks off the first record, and one of them was “Early Sunsets Over Monroeville.”
(“Early Sunsets” begins to play)
Ray: He just plays some great, great parts.
Frank: (Cuts to different interview) When we were doing “Monroeville”, Ray was laying down his parts, and as soon as he was done, I took the parts that they had recorded into a van, that had like no heat, outside the studio and wrote what I was gonna play.
Ray: (Back to first interview) A lot of the melody that he plays during the verses and the choruses is just, you know, absolutely beautiful, and I think really makes those songs work.
/
Barcelona Live Stream - 3/5/11
6:10-6:34
Ray: (Reading a live chat feed) Ooh, would you ever play “Early Sunsets”?
Frank: Oh, we have (turns to Ray while Mikey speaks in the background) this tour? I don’t know.
Ray: I can’t even remember the last we played that.
Frank: I think it was in Chicago.
Ray: Yeah?
Mikey: (After a pause) Oh yeah, we played it in the Metro.
Gerard: (Unintelligible as multiple people speak) like “The End”?
Frank: Yeah
Ray: That would be a cool one to revisit.
Gerard: It was a cool-- I think especially if we give it some structure at the end like, ‘cause that was the problem with playing that song. It has no definitive ending, like it kinda just keeps going and going.
/
Kerrang #1376 (alt) - 8/10/11
Page 3, paragraph 11
Interviewer: I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love” was released in July 2002. What do you think of it now?
Ray: You can hear the nervousness and excitement. Every song speeds up which gives them a lot of character. I like the rawness, especially in the vocals. It sounds very true. I get emotional, too. Early Sunsets Over Monroeville is unlike anything we’ve ever done since -- it’s amazing.
/
Where Are Your Boys Tonight? (Chris Payne) - 2020-2022
Chapter 9, page 113
Geoff Rickly: When we were in the studio, Gerard’s wisdom teeth were really hurting him, and he wasn’t able to sing, so he went to the dentist to have them out and afterwards they gave him a bunch of painkillers. He didn’t sing with the fire or the venom, so Alex took the painkillers away from him. Like, “You gotta sing in pain, fuck you! You gotta feel it!” I was taking the painkillers, watching him sing the record. I remember lying on the floor and coaching him through how to sing “Early Sunsets Over Monroeville,” the ballad on the record. I was saying, “You’re following the music, make the music follow you. More intense! The music will catch up to you.”
and now, for something i actually haven’t posted to twitter yet(and i probs wont post it)
im working on some human designs for the rise boys! i like them all so far but idk raph feels like he’s missing something,,,,
I could be an absolute clown, but I don’t think anyone else is going to die. If Wakui kills off too many people, narratively, it becomes dangerously close to leaving readers being dissatisfied with the ending because we already saw the Bonten timeline. Of course, I’ve already talked about why that timeline isn’t a happy ending, but if Wakui kills any more major players, he risks leaving a bad taste in readers’ mouths. I personally believe that while the ending will be gut-wrenching in some aspect, it will ultimately be happy or at least hopeful or the themes of the story won’t work. Maybe one more major death, but I don’t even think that because we really haven’t seen a major permanent death on toman’s side since Baji.
