My Chemical Romance were forced to make a very quick decision last year after booting drummer Mike Pedicone from the band for stealing in the midst of their Honda Civic Tour dates with Blink-182. But the decision to bring in former Suicide File skinbeater Jarrod Alexander has been a solid one so far.

Guitarist Frank Iero tells Aquarian Weekly that Alexander is continuing with the group into the studio as they begin working on new music. He says, “Jarrod is a rad guy and a fantastic player. It’s been really fun making music with him these past few months. He loves coffee and hitting drums super-hard … and the fact that he’s not a thieving piece of garbage is a breath of fresh air.”

The band stepped in as a last minute substitution for the ailing Blink-182 at this weekend’s Bamboozle Festival, and Iero jokes, “Since we only had a week’s worth of notice to prepare for this show and with scheduling conflicts and all, we decided that instead of using a real-live human drummer, we are going to use the super computer from ‘War Games’ instead. However, we have nicknamed the computer Jarrod.”

As for new music, Iero confirmed that the band has been writing, but that they were at least “a month away from the record button lighting up.” The group will reunite with producer Doug McKean for the album, but do not have a set timetable as to when they expect to deliver their follow up to ‘Danger Days.’

More From Banana 101.5