Tom Saint takes a personal look back at Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge by My Chemical Romance.

FIRST INTRODUCTIONS…

I was first introduced to My Chemical Romance through this album, it spoke to me on so many levels as a bullied teen listening to a record about getting revenge over those who’ve wronged you.

At the time I was being bullied pretty mercilessly at school, physically and verbally, for being different, effeminate, outspoken, talented and My Chem was a band that was raw, passionate, cool, looked like a gang and presented as a set of heavily tattooed, makeup wearing, visceral performers who felt things as deeply as I did.

My Chemical Romance represented taking back the power and had the look and sound of everything that I admired.

The idea of me being a bullied teen, when I tell people who know me now they often laugh because they can’t imagine it based on the way I am and how I present myself. My beginnings are someone who was using music as an escape from how unhappy I was having to go to school every day, fearing for my safety, fearing for what may happen on the walk home from school, who might be waiting for me at the school gates and what violence may occur in the corridors during the school day between lessons.

I would race home and when I got to my bedroom and close the door – Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge would be waiting for me, loud as fuck, out of an enormous 80s hifi system my parents gave me (that was the first thing they ever bought when they got together in their 20’s). If I turned the volume dial past 10 O’clock it would make the walls vibrate.

THE FIRST TIME

I first heard (and saw) them on Kerrang TV – I saw the video for I’m not Okay which is about a group of outcast students surviving the cliques, bullies and drama of high school life – obviously this spoke to me on many levels.

I wasn’t into music that sounded spooky or dark until I got the album and heard ‘Helena’. And then the music video hooked me from then on. I actually got to visit the church from the video while I was in LA earlier this year. It was a crazy experience to be at the location where so much of my passion for music started.

WHEN DID IT CLICK?

When I got the album, I would listen to it over and over again. Track 9, Thank You For The Venom really stands out for me. Although never released as a single it has become a fan favourite. The opening riff is insane. It’s the first difficult guitar riff that I learned to play and I remember that impressing the boys (and the girls) at school!

THE INFLUENCE

The album influenced me stylistically and melodically – you can hear it in my music. I use rhythm guitarist Frank Iero’s famed octave guitar harmonies all over my new EP. My guitar tones all simulate lead guitarist Ray Toro’s sound from this era by using the same setup (a Les Paul and Marshall amphead).

Frank Iero was like my style icon. When I was younger I was too afraid to really go the whole hog but more recently (to my mothers dismay) I’ve arrived at that place now – wearing makeup, getting visible tattoos, dyeing my hair black, it’s all part of the becoming what my new EP ‘SAINT’ (see what I did there) is about, and the further I push it the more satisfied I feel. I wish I could shake that little kid who used to be so scared to be himself but there’s no time like the present.

THE REUNION

Most importantly the record really made me think that I could do this and make music and form my own band. I was lucky enough to see them at MK Stadium on their reunion tour two years ago, when they launched into ‘Helena’ – I burst into tears. I’d just been through a breakup the morning of the show and gone straight to Milton Keynes – I think of that day as all at once emo, ironic and iconic.

I can’t wait to hear the re-release and remixed version of this album and relive the drama of it all over again.

Our thanks go to Tom Saint for his open, honest and frank words on such a landmark album.

Listen to S.E.X. from Tom Saint’s new EP, Saint, which is released on 8th October, below:

Tom Saint: Instagram

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