An Artist Perspective - Gerard Way

Rollingstones.com has published interviews with some of the top artists out there today. They broke down how different artists feel about what is going on, and their thoughts on what is going to happen in the industry. Here are some excerpts from those interviews:

(source:www.rollingstones.com)

Growing up, how did you make your first connections to music?

My parents didn't have records, they didn't have radios, and they didn't listen to music. My grandmother was my main connection to art and music. She could play piano very well, and she had perfect pitch. She's the one who pushed me to try out for Peter Pan, and I ended up getting the part. When I tried out, I realized I could sing, which was pretty interesting.

How do kids connect to your music?
I've always seen My Chemical Romance as the band that would have represented who me and my friends were in high school, and the band that we didn't have to represent us — the kids that wore black — back then. When I was in school there wasn't much other that the Smiths and the Cure, which was great, but a lot of those bands had since broken up, or didn't tour. There was no new wave of music that represented us.

What one artist do you see as important to the future of music?
Conor Oberst. His lyrics are phenomenal. I think he speaks for our generation. He started out as an angry young man from Omaha, Nebraska. From there he went out into the world and toured, and then that stuff crept into his lyrics, and now he's going back to being a little more human, with less social commentary. I love it all. He speaks to me.

Source: www.rollingstones.com