Lets get one thing straight right out of the box, Hollywood Undead are not an Internet band. As percussionist Da Kurlzz tells us, “We are a band, we like to see ourselves that way,” he says. “We have live guitar, keyboards, electronic drums / percussion and [we’re] all vocalists.”
Evidently the topic of the Los Angeles-based Hollywood Undead being just an Internet band is something the group has been fielding for a while. September of 2008 marked the release of the band’s debut record Swan Songs on A&M / Octone Records. It’s an album filled to the brim with lyrics that would make most mothers blush, most teenage girls giggle and most guys wish they were that cool. In the end, Da Kurlzz says that Swan Songs is simply a brutally honest storybook of where the six piece comes from both individually and as a whole. “I think our purpose is to just have a really great time and be honest with people and express stories, whether they could be fictional for people to come up with their own conclusions or to just have a really good time,” says Da Kurlzz. “A lot of our songs are just party, good time songs that are about our lives that I’m sure a lot of kids relate to,” he continues.
The story of Hollywood Undead began just over three years ago when Deuce and J-Dog began working together, posted some songs on the Internet and within a day had garnered all sorts of fans and unique listens. Rounded out by Johnny 3 Tears, Charlie Scene and Funny Man, Hollywood Undead are truly a unique group of individuals who bring their personal influences to the table. “I would say from when Deuce and J-Dog started the group, we didn’t really have a key idea of what we wanted to pursue as far as music and where it was going to go,” Da Kurlzz explains from the band’s management office in North Hollywood. “I think when it came together and we all put our two cents in, at least on ideas from different stories, there’s a lot of different influences there.”
Da Kurlzz explains Hollywood Undead with a passionate and professional eloquence. Surprising, coming from a group with lyrics like, “Everywhere I go, bitches always know, that Charlie Scene has got a weenie that he loves to show.” It’s proof that behind the masks, which we’ll discuss later on, the members of Hollywood Undead are simply speaking their minds through musical artistry and it’s caught on. For every crass party lyric, there’s an emotional lyric. For every rap riff, there’s a metal riff and for every hip-hop vibe, there’s a pop hook. There’s nothing textbook about Hollywood Undead.
Swan Songs has been completed for over a year and a half and according to Da Kurlzz, the biggest obstacle for the band was being free with their lyrical content. This would prove problematic when it came time to get the record out to the masses. It was originally supposed to be released on Myspace Records / Interscope, but the label had other ideas. “At the time with what was going on with Myspace, apparently they did not want to release a record with a band talking as bad as we were in a lot of our lyrics,” he explains. “Even if it wasn’t exact curse words, maybe it was just the circumstances and things we were talking about were just too much.” Da Kurlzz continues, “They literally wanted to chop up the record and completely censor it even worse than like a Wal-Mart would do and that would just completely take away the entire element of who we are and where we came from.” So in the end, the band felt that the best thing to do was leave the label and shop the record rather than compromise their artistic integrity. “With the content and such, everyone is just being very true to what they want to say,” explains Da Kurlzz. “Whether it’s a curse word or specific subject matter. Regardless, it’s art and it’s all in good fun.”
Da Kurlzz says that he sees music or any form of art as an avenue of communication. How someone may interpret that art explains how it’s communicated to someone. “You could sit here and say, ‘I really like your party songs, but I could care less about your other songs.’ Well,” he continues, “Obviously it communicated to you because you like to have fun and party.” On the flip side, Da Kurlzz talks about the song “Black Dahlia,” which is a track about heartbreak and real life situations that Deuce, Johnny 3 Tears and J-Dog were speaking of from a personal and honest approach. It’s no secret that everyone has felt a form of heartbreak. “People can feel honesty through lyrics because it’s not only written or formed in a certain way, but they can feel the honesty there because they’ve experienced the exact same thing,” he explains.
So how do we categorize Hollywood Undead? After one listen to Swan Songs, you’ll want to compare the band to someone or something, but it’s nearly impossible. “I don’t like to easily categorize our group,” says Da Kurlzz. “I don’t think anyone can. Imagine when the Beastie Boys first came out with License to Ill; it’s like no one knew what the hell that was. There are just so many styles there.” And perhaps that’s the best comparison to Hollywood Undead we’ve heard. Sure some have said the vocals sound just like Eminem, which Da Kurlzz agrees he’s heard before. He’s also heard people say they sound like Linkin Park and a “billion other bands.” “As far as vocally sounding like Eminem,” says Da Kurlzz, “I don’t think that was intended.” We assure Da Kurlzz that it’s not a bad comparison to have because Eminem is a great artist. It’s a comment that he agrees with and admits that the Detroit-based rapper is an influence of the band’s.
While Hollywood Undead does pull from all corners of the musical spectrum, another influence that Da Kurlzz cites is the production team. With split efforts coming from Don Gilmore (Linkin Park, Eve 6) and Danny Lohner formerly of Nine Inch Nails fame, who Da Kurlzz says is responsible for the band’s heavier, more industrial side. Hollywood Undead put it all on the table and fans have been eating it up like the last supper. “The successful actions of our group have been the music [and] all of us being friends,” explains Da Kurlzz. He would like the music to speak for itself.
Speaking of the music standing on its own, we find out some of the reasoning behind the masks. While some have compared the mystery of the masks to the mystery of L.A., it’s really not that complicated at all. “To be honest with you, the masks are part of our show and kind of like our mock up and mystery and stuff like that,” Da Kurlzz explains. Essentially when the band first started, they were talking about their scene and simply wanted to make music and make people judge the music for what it is, not necessarily for who they were. “There wasn’t a huge thought behind it,” Da Kurlzz says. “It’s just part of who we are because you can open up a magazine and you could see a thousand bands that look the exact same way regardless of the music. It’s like why can’t we just wear masks and do our thing and let people enjoy the music for what it is.” Da Kurlzz admits that it’s been done before. Bands like Slipknot and Mushroomhead are known for their elaborate facial coverings, but really hasn’t it all been reserved for metal bands? Again, Hollywood Undead are different. “We don’t take it as seriously as other people do,” assures Da Kurlzz. “I mean we wear them and we don’t wear them. We’re not hiding ourselves from people. There’s not a group that sounds like us that wears masks.” Da Kurlzz says even the masks have evolved with the band. Like their music, the masks are an artistic communication of each individual’s interests.
In early February, the band will find themselves heading across the pond to do a few European tour dates and some press to try and get the ball rolling outside of the United States. Then, eleven days later Hollywood Undead will embark on the Saints and Sinners tour with Senses Fail, Haste the Day and Brokencyde, which will have them playing bigger clubs and venues across the U.S. through early April. “I think what we’re trying to accomplish is just getting ourselves out there more and to more people that haven’t heard of us before,” says Da Kurlzz. The band’s last tour had them selling out smaller clubs all around the country with local bands opening for them. Hollywood Undead just wanted to establish themselves from the ground up. “We want to prove to people that we can sell out shows and we can be an actual group,” Da Kurlzz explains. “It was like a big test and it went really well.” Ultimately, Hollywood Undead is excited about the upcoming tour because, again like the band, the tour is musically diverse. “I know when I go to a show, I don’t want to see four bands that sound the same,” says Da Kurlzz. “It’s kind of nice to get some diversity in there because that’s what kids are; they’re very diverse in their musical taste.”
So things may have changed for the band since the release of Swan Songs and their last tour. “We’re still broke as a joke, but that’s the way it is,” says Da Kurlzz. “You have to pay your dues.” The band has been doing a lot of press since they have been home, but are already getting antsy to get back on the road. “We still go out sometimes [and] drink, we party, we hang out with girls,” Da Kurlzz says of the band’s “downtime.” “It’s all chill,” he says. “That’s another thing; people look at L.A. and Hollywood as this glitz and glamorized thing all the time because that’s the way people interpret it. It’s Hollywood and everyone looks at it like this bright shining star, but to us it’s just home. A normal place where you can live, walk around, hopefully not get in fights and go to the movies, get food, whatever.”
So what about this whole stemming from the Internet thing? “Ultimately, we really did stem from the Internet, but I would hate to categorize us as a group that came from the Internet, like an Internet band,” explains Da Kurlzz. “A lot of people can listen to bands from Myspace and they might think, ‘Oh my God, this group is so big!’ But you never really know what that’s going to translate into ticket sales or album sales. Da Kurlzz goes on to explain how every show was sold out on their first tour and even though those venues weren’t the biggest rooms they could have played, it definitely gave the band a feel for what life on the road was like. “It was like, ‘Wow, I guess we really have built up a fanbase over the last three years.’” Prior to the release of Swan Songs, Hollywood Undead have never played a show. Da Kurlzz says that there was a lot of anticipation with not knowing what it was going to be like out there. For the first time out they wanted fans to see them in an intimate setting. “I think it would be kind of presumptuous and almost cocky in a sense to be like, ‘Oh, we’ve got to play bigger shows already,’” Da Kurlzz admits. He says that while it is a bummer that kids may not have been able to make it into a sold out show that it builds anticipation for the next go around. “I think we went about it the right way since literally we’ve only been around for three years and we’ve only started playing shows right around when the record came out,” says Da Kurlzz.
No matter how you want to file Hollywood Undead, they are for real. Is it rap, rock, hip-hop or metal? Listeners need to decide for themselves. There’s something for everyone on Swan Songs. Whether it’s offensive or not, it’s all based out of honesty and a good time. “We had a map, we had Myspace at a time when Myspace music was just barely getting popular,” says Da Kurlzz. “We did change a lot of things because people didn’t believe. They were like, ‘How is this happening from some group that’s never played a show before and has these amounts of numbers and these amounts of fans?’”
In the end, the band are doing it the old fashioned way. They are pounding the pavement and building their careers one rap, one riff, one beat, one scream and one city at a time. “It’s all legit,” says Da Kurlzz. “It’s not forced. We built this on our own and the music spoke for itself and the image came along with it.”
By: Adam K. Zak III - Senior Editor / Founder
