Frank Anthony Iero Jr. (, born October 31, 1981) is an American musician who is the rhythm guitarist and backup vocalist of the rock band My Chemical Romance and a guitarist in the supergroup L.S. Dunes. He was also the lead vocalist of the post-hardcore band Leathermouth. He has a solo project titled "Frank Iero and the Future Violents" (formerly "frnkiero andthe cellabration" and "Frank Iero and the Patience"). He released his debut solo album titled Stomachaches on August 26, 2014.
Early life
He was born in Belleville, New Jersey. As a child he suffered numerous bouts of bronchitis and ear infections, which meant he spent a lot of his childhood in the hospital. Iero is lactose intolerant and has other various food allergies. He attended Queen of Peace High School. He went to Rutgers University on a scholarship but dropped out his final year of college to go on tour with My Chemical Romance.
Iero's parents split when he was young and he grew up living with his mother, who lent out her basement to her son's many band practices; his father and grandfather were musicians and both were big influences on Iero when he was young. His father had taught him to play drums but Iero later began playing the guitar.
Music career
Early bands and Pencey Prep (1997–2002) Frank started playing in local bands on the New Jersey punk scene at age 11. Before joining My Chemical Romance he served as frontman for the punk band Pencey Prep. The band released an album, Heartbreak in Stereo, on the independent Eyeball Records before disbanding. Whilst playing with Pencey Prep he became friends with Gerard Way and the other My Chemical Romance members, and became a fan of their original demo and helped them get their first shows. After his band broke up Frank played in several bands including I Am A Graveyard, Hybrid, and Sector 12 before being offered the slot of rhythm guitar in My Chemical Romance.
My Chemical Romance (2002–2013)
Iero joined My Chemical Romance in 2002 and was featured on two tracks, "Honey, This Mirror Isn't Big Enough for the Two of Us" and "Early Sunsets Over Monroeville", on their debut album I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love. Iero performed on the band's second studio album Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, released on June 8, 2004. My Chemical Romance released their third studio album The Black Parade, on October 24, 2006. My Chemical Romance's fourth and final studio album Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys was released on November 22, 2010. The band announced their breakup on March 22, 2013.
Leathermouth and side projects (2007–2016) Iero fronted the hardcore punk quintet Leathermouth, who released their debut album XO in January 2009 on Epitaph Records. The band split later in 2010. He is involved in a tribute band to The Cure named The Love Cats, after the song of the same name, and played bass with Reggie and the Full Effect on their farewell tour. His first solo song This Song Is A Curse was released as a bonus track on the official soundtrack to the Tim Burton film Frankenweenie. He later posted an anti-Xmas track he recorded as a joke in 15 minutes and followed that up with a cover of the song 'Be My Baby', originally made famous by The Ronettes.
On December 7, 2010, Iero left the record company Skeleton Crew that he and his wife had co-founded in order to concentrate on his family and his music with My Chemical Romance, stating that although he would have loved to carry on, he could not juggle his career with the band, the new additions to his family (newborn daughters), and co-running a business . He was a judge for the 7th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists.
In early 2013 Iero and James Dewees announced that they were working on a new project, a digital hardcore act called Death Spells. They also announced a tour supporting Mindless Self Indulgence and a performance at the Skate and Surf Festival in New Jersey. Starting a week before the Mindless Self Indulgence tour Death Spells posted a short demo of a new song each night at midnight, culminating this with their first full single Where Are My Fucking Pills? and an accompanying music video. A full-length album was expected to be released in late 2013 but was delayed until 2016, when their album Nothing Above, Nothing Below was released on July 29 of that year.
During Death Spells' initial inactivity in 2013 Iero performed new solo songs live and posted others to his SoundCloud, then implied he had a full album worth of songs wrote with more content being created on a continuous basis. This was confirmed to be for a solo album.