Hollywood Undead interview with Charlie Scene

by Adam Warner – 2009

 

Back in the beginning when [Hollywood Undead] was doing street performances, did you ever think you’d get this big?
That’s what we hoped for, for sure. I had a good feeling that something good would happen and we’re very happy with the level that we’re at. Of course I’d like to see it go even farther.

Has any of the fame and popularity gotten to you guys yet or has it not quite sunk in?
It really hasn’t sunk in at all yet, we’re all still broke and we all still do the same stuff that we did before. We haven’t changed at all, I don’t think this band will ever change no matter how big we get. That’s just the kind of people we are, we’re not pompous pricks like a lot of the other bands are when they get successful. We know where we came from and we’re not leaving.

Now is there a front man for Hollywood Undead or do you guys all share an equal role?
I would say that it’s more of an equal role, there are really 4 front men in the band.

With having so many singers, what is the song writing process like?
It’s kind of comes together naturally, one person will go in and write a verse or two people will go in and work on it together. We all just work on so many different songs and everyone is always working on something.

Hollywood Undead isn’t a traditional band in the sense of each member has an instrument per se, you have a slightly different structure, but the song writing structure is different where everyone contributes to the final product.
Yeah, it’s not just one person writing all the music, it’s a collaboration of every single time.

There are a few bands out there who wear masks as the theme for their band, what separates your masks from the masks of other bands?
I would say that we wear them for different reasons. I mean, we’re not wearing them to hide our identity, we’re not trying to scare people at all. We wear them just because we think it looks cool. I mean, it has a great shock value ya know, you’re flipping through a magazine and you see pictures of different bands and ours will stand out because it looks sweet as hell. It is something so different, it wouldn’t be 6 guys with black hair standing in front of their face with skinny jeans on, it would be something that would get your attention right away. 6 gangsters with masks on coming to a town near you!

The Saints and Sinners tour has a wide variety of music on it, there is obviously you guys with the rap-rock, the hard rock favorites Senses Fail and of course the Christian metal of Haste the Day. Does having so many different bands on the tour raise and problems at all?
No, I was wondering that too if that would happen or not but all the bands get along so well and the whole show really flows well together especially the Haste the Day guys, they get the crowd like really going. Their music gets the entire crowd moshing and throwing things and Senses Fail has all those songs that the crowd knows. And finally we end it off and we mix a little bit of both.

You guys were just in Minnesota not long ago and had your first ever in-store signing at the Best Buy in Maplewood, how was that?
It was crazy, there was a lot of people there. People were bringing us bottles of alcohol and stuff, it was great over there in Minnesota.

Was there any fans that really stood out?
The guy who brought us a big bottle of Jack Daniels.

Did you share that with the other bands then?
Well, the ones who didn’t directly know about it didn’t get to share it *laughs*but the ones who saw it get handed to us did.

You guys seem like a pretty wild bunch, what kind of crazy shit has been going on with the tour, any pranks on the other bands or anything like that?
No pranks, there has been some crazy shit though. Last night, oh it’s so funny man, Johnny 3 Tears got into an altercation on the Senses Fail bus and they all had to break it up. *laughs* We were in New Orleans and that’s what you do, you get drunk and be an asshole.

So is everything ok now?
Oh yeah, everyone’s fine. That’s how it you know, we’ve known each other for so long and grown up together so we’re like brothers, and brothers fight you know. And a few hours later you just don’t give a shit anymore and it’s all over.

You’ve toured quite a bit and seen a lot of the world, is there still no other place like Los Angeles?
Yeah, I’ve been to a lot of towns and cities that I could possibly see myself living in, and I can see why people like some of those places so much, but really LA is always going to be the place that I will live. I used to not say that, always thought that it’d be nice to get out of LA at one point but after touring and being away from it and coming back to it, you appreciate it and what it is. People always talk about the weather and how nice it always is in California and I always thought that was so gay, but after touring and coming back to see how much there is to do and how nice the weather really is. The people, I mean you can live in downtown LA or you can live in Hollywood, Burbank, I’m 15 minutes away from the beach, 15 minutes in the other direction and you’re in the mountains. So there is just everything there.

In the track “Sell Your Soul”, is that about Hollywood Undead getting into the industry or about other bands selling out?
It’s a little bit of both, it’s just an aggressive song about just music in general.

In “Bottle and a Gun” you guys make mention of going back in time and saving Tupac, is he a big inspiration for you guys?
Yeah, in high school that is all I would listen to like in between class. I was on my walkman/discman listening to Tupac. He was a big influence on me, that’s where I get my hip-hop and his lyrics really had meaning behind them and were about your life; about real occurrences. And that’s what we do in our band, like all the stuff that we talk about is something that is a part of our life, a page of something that we experienced.

Speaking of your personal life, “The Diary” is an incredibly personal song, was that difficult to write and release to the world?
That’s a song where Johnny 3 Tears wrote the verses and he was going through a real tough time in his life, he was going through a breakup and was just drinking a lot and that is definitely a very personal song for him.

Do you guys ever play that one live?
No, we don’t ever play that one live. I mean we try to keep the set as upbeat as possible. Especially with the bands that we’re playing with which are more hard rock bands so we try to amp up our set and play that we feel will be the best to compliment the other bands that are there.

You guys don’t sugarcoat your lyrics, how much negative feedback do you get for using terms like “fags” or “bitches” or terms like that?
We used to get a lot of people that would tell us that they don’t like our lyrics but those were older people who weren’t buying the record anyways. I mean, I’m sure the same thing happened with Kiss when they stuck their tongues out and talked about sex all the time. It’s like a more advanced version and it’s about the next generation and saying what everyone else is thinking.

So for the most part you’re getting a lot of fans that don’t really care that the terms are “un-p.c.” and they are just enjoying the music?
Yeah, cuz that’s what it is, it’s a lot of fun. It’s very tongue and cheek at certain moments and sarcastic, it’s not like we’re going around fucking kittens in the ass. It’s funny because we’re doing all the things that the kids are talking about and we’re not going to hold back. Just like if it were a conversation between two regular kids, that’s the same thing we’re going for.

“Swan Song” just dropped in Sept and it’s been getting some really good reviews, the tour is kicking ass around the U.S., and of course you’re going to be heading to Europe and Asia, are there any plans of [Hollywood Undead] hitting the studio before the year is over?
I’m sure we will. We have a studio on the bus and we’re always writing new things and constantly writing. We have all been in different bands and we were all the lead writer in those bands, we got 4 song writers and we all wanna work with one another.

Thanks very much for your time Charlie.
Awesome, thank you very much.