For anyone living under a rock, let me explain Hollywood Undead for you. It’s as if Lou Pearlman wanted to take one last stab at making the perfect “boy band”. However, instead of choosing the squeaky clean pretty boys of his past adventures – he went to the county lockup. The band proclaims a heartfelt hatred for anyone who bags on their music. This is not a front in any way shape or form. These guys do what they do because they love it. If you bag on them for it, don’t do it in a forum that discloses your location. You might end up picking your teeth up off the pavement.

You know how you can smell someone who’s had the world handed to them? As I sat down to talk with Charlie and Johnny, it was clear that this was not the case. This group of guys has busted their asses for every last thing that they call their own. I know why haters bag on these guys, but you know what? Being able to pay your bills is pretty cool. Having some extra coin in your pocket is even cooler. What wouldn’t be cool would be if these guys were just pumping an image just so that they could get paid. Sure, you can draw comparisons within the songs. What you can also do is realize that every last bit of music that is being played today has been influenced by something that has already been done. Is all glam a rip-off of Alice Cooper? Is all metal a rip-off of Black Sabbath? Truth is, there’s a bunch of cool stuff out there. And you can bag on whatever you want. But at the same time – good music is good music, period. There’s a reason why Hollywood Undead are as popular as they are. Like momma always said, “find something you’re good at.” These guys found what they’re good at, stuck with it, and are now sharing it with you and me..

Planet Loud – First off, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with Planet Loud today.
Hollywood Undead – Our pleasure.

Planet Loud – As far as the masks are concerned, was it a decision to try and hide your identities? Was it just for fun?
Hollywood Undead – At first, it was just to have fun. Sort of spur of the moment. We liked wearing them. It was a visual. We loved the way it looked. And at that point, we were involved in that music scene in Hollywood for so many years in other bands, that we wanted to stray away from the, “oh, that’s that guy from that band, and that’s that guy from that band.” It was just something new and no one really knew what we were doing. And the visual part, we built on. We liked it so much visually that we thought, “we can make this look even cooler.” Right now, we’re in the process of making masks with a big designer. I’m not supposed to say who, but he’s a huge fashion dude. So we’re gonna’ keep working on it and make it as cool looking as we can.

Planet Loud – And every individual member is taking control of what their mask is?
Hollywood Undead – Yeah, it’s a process. If I told you who it was, you’d be like, “oh yeah!” That type of thing. As far as counter culture goes, he’s a huge figure head. He’s worked really hard to legalize graffiti. And he’s like a billionaire too, but he’s down with the whole street aspect. So we shoot ideas back and forth for what we’re trying to do. It’ll be cool. I think we’re gonna’ save it for the release of the second record.

Planet Loud – Cool. Can’t wait to see it. Now, you guys know you’re a Myspace phenomenon. About 25 million hits on Undead alone. Was this part of your marketing plan? What was your business model for how to reach the masses?
Hollywood Undead – We really didn’t have a plan at all. We were just broke, and that was pretty much just the only thing we could do. We couldn’t even pay to rehearse anywhere, so the only thing we could do is just put our songs on Myspace. It just sort of took off from there. People saw something different and new. They were intrigued by it, wanted to find out more about it and be a part of it. And it just grew and grew. Yeah, we’re stoked about the amount of people that still listen to our shit every day. It’s cool if they listen to it on Myspace, as long as they buy the record! I’d be bummed if we had that many plays and hadn’t sold any records! The Myspace thing definitely helped. I think also for us, being in different bands, we used to make our own demo tapes. Buy a case of them, spray paint them – and we did it the traditional way. We worked hard! It was so hard to break into this industry before the internet was there. You had to go through a major record label, and it’s fucking hard to get a deal. For us, it was cool that after all those years of trying and trying and trying and failing, well, not failing. Just not breaking – to be able to do it without any record label. We put it up, got all these hits, and every major label shopped us, you know? They tried to sign us! We almost signed with Atlantic, ended up going with Interscope, and now we’re with A&M. But it was like going from nothing. We were all giving up. Then we were just going to hotels and getting drunk with record labels. Then we started seeing the money and we were like, “YES!” Yeah, so we have to give Myspace credit for that.

Planet Loud – So even though some people will say that Hollywood Undead is an overnight sensation, it’s really been a ton of work, and just going through what you’ve had to go through…
Hollywood Undead – We were all in different bands throughout the years. Since we were about 13, we’ve all been playing together in different bands and just working at it. And then with the advent of the internet, it just made it a lot easier. So we may have just popped up on peoples radars all of the sudden, but the groundwork of years of struggling, just like it says in the songs, it took a lot of work.

Planet Loud – I think that about covers what I wanted to hit with you guys. Anything you want to add?
Hollywood Undead – Check out Hollywood Undead.com. And look for our new music video coming out.

Planet Loud – Johnny, Charlie, thank you so much for taking the time out to chat. Can’t wait for the show.
Hollywood Undead – Right on. Let’s do this then get drunk dude!

Like I said before, you can bag on these guys if you want. But take this into account – They’re selling records, performing live and making cash doing what they love, also, doing so after years of commitment to their craft. The fact that they love what they do is evident during the live show. It’s more like a party. Something just happens to some people when they perform. It’s a gift. To connect with a room full of people as closely as if it were a one-on-one encounter, it’s truly a gift. And all of the guys from Hollywood Undead have it.

Interview by Steve Bowe