Many My Chemical Romance fans noticed when Frank Iero slipped in a sign to his former band in the latest tune from Frank Iero and the Future Violents, "Young and Doomed." But the ex-MCR guitarist's reference to "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" in the lead single from the forthcoming Barriers album wasn't necessarily employed to cause commotion. Instead, the musician suggested to Hysteria Monday (May 27) that he used the cue to bridge a gap between My Chemical Romance and his work outside of that group.

In "Young and Doomed," Iero sings, "Cause kids are so unkind / To kids of different kinds / And I promise that I'm not okay / (Oh, wait, that's the other guy)." Dissecting the stanza, the musician compared the song's MCR quip to that of disparate comic book characters intersecting (perhaps not unlike the ones his former bandmates create.)

"I don't know if I was purposely trying to stir shit," Iero confessed. "It was more that I liked the idea of breaking down this fourth wall. To me, it was very much like reading a comic and you find out that two superheroes are in the same universe, even though they don’t necessarily interact. I like the fact that it called back to previous works."

In fact, the musician said the song's creative underpinnings owe to more than just "I'm Not Okay." He also compared it to his past tune with Frank Iero and the Patience, "I'm a Mess," a track from 2017's Keep the Coffins Coming.

"I feel a song like 'Young and Doomed' is very tied to a song like 'I'm Not Okay' and it's also really tied to a song like 'I'm a Mess,'" Iero explained. "So that line, it just fits so perfectly. Yeah, I knew that it was going to cause some disruption for others, but what I was hoping for was that attention would be brought to what I was actually trying to say within the song."

Frank Iero and the Future Violents' new album Barriers comes out May 31.

Frank Iero and the Future Violents, "Young and Doomed"

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