FRANK IERO AND THE FUTURE VIOLENTS have released a brand new cellar session recorded with One on One at City Winery New York. The audio for the session was mixed by none other than Frank’s former bandmate Ray Toro. This marks the first collaboration between the two since My Chemical Romance’s dissolution in 2013. “I really enjoyed doing this session at the winery and when they asked if we had anyone in mind to mix the tracks I immediately thought of asking Ray Toro,” Frank said about working with Toro once again. “He’s just so multi-talented and has such a great ear. He’s been recording and mixing some rad projects these past few years, and it was an honor to have him work on this session for us.”
The band are also celebrating major Billboard chart success for their formidable new album Barriers, which was released on May 31 via UNFD. Barriers debuted at #5 on their New Artist/Heatseekers chart, #8 on the Hard Rock chart, #18 on the Independent Labels chart, and at #56 on the Top Current 200 chart.
Frank Iero’s new record is a rumination of sorts on life and living and the obstacles that get in the way. Recorded and mixed by Steve Albini, Barriers is 14 songs that not only tackle the existential journey of his heart and mind, but help him redirect his musical path.
“I never expected to do one solo record in my lifetime,” he chuckles, “let alone three. Every time I start a new record, I say to myself ‘This is it. This is the end. This is the last one.’ It got me thinking about how we set up these obstacles around ourselves. Sometimes they’re for protection and sometimes they’re to keep people out, and sometimes we even set them up so that we fail and we find solace in that failure. But whenever I find something that scares the shit out of me, that’s when I know I have to do it! And so these songs are about experiences that were either walls I wanted to break down or walls that I’d built up around myself in order to protect myself. But these songs were also things that I’d never attempted before but had always wanted to try.”
One on One features a unique approach of a small intimate performance between One videographer and One artist. Nothing else, nothing more. Previous One on One sessions have included performances from John Oates, Shelby Lynne, lovelytheband, Laura Jane Grace, Los Lonely Boys, The Mountain Goats, Julien Baker, and Paula Cole.
Frank Iero and the Future Violents are in the midst a full US headline tour that takes the band through Boston, Detroit, Philadelphia, New York City, Portland, Seattle, Austin, and Los Angeles. The band will also be playing the Atlantic City Beach and Mountain View dates of Warped Tour, as well as Great South Bay Music Festival and Riot Fest.
Frank Iero and the Future Violents is Frank Iero, Evan Nestor, Matt Armstrong, Tucker Rule and Kayleigh Goldsworthy. Barriers was recorded and mixed by Steve Albini and is out via UNFD.