Unsung Melody - Cheetos, Buffalo Wings and the Lion King. An interview with Charlie Scene from Hollywood Undead.

What can you say about Hollywood Undead that hasn’t been said before? That’s the task I’m handed today. Having sold millions of records, the band has obviously made their mark on the world. Blending many styles to form their own unique sound, Hollywood Undead has forged to the forefront of what many call the rap/rock genre. I hate lumping bands into genres, but sometimes it’s a necessary evil. Ready to embark on the next step in world domination, the band is releasing Notes From the Underground tomorrow, January 8th. The album is full of great melodies, aggressive lyrics and even a club banger about football. Piqued your interest yet? If you are a fan of the band, the men behind the masks have quite possibly created their best release yet.

Listen to the entire Charlie Scene from Hollywood Undead interview below:
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Today, I’m joined by Charlie Scene. Charlie is a vocalist and guitarist for the very popular Hollywood Undead. First off, thanks for taking the time to speak with us today and welcome to the Unsung Melody family.

Hey, no problem. It’s a pleasure to be here.

We’ll get started by discussing the upcoming album a bit. It’s titled Notes From the Underground. I’ve had the chance to spin it multiple times, and I was impressed. While I’ll be honest and tell you it’s not my usual genre, I found the melodies to be quite captivating at times. One song in particular that really drew me in, was Lions. Care to divulge a few details about that song?

That song was written by a guy in the band, Johnny 3 Tears. I think he must be like a big Lion King fan or he thinks of himself as Mufasa. He loves lions. I never knew that he loved lions so much, until I heard that song. But, the melody is super catchy, and it’s a good song.

You mentioned that he wrote that song. The band features quite a few vocalists, when writing for an album, how difficult is it to come together in agreement on the final versions of songs?

Usually it starts, well for the most part, it starts with one writer who starts the song. They write the chorus or a verse to something, or the music to something. Then, that person is kind of in charge of who gets put on that song. Who else they think would sound good on that song. Whether it be two guys, one guy or zero guys. They get to pick and choose. So, on that song, he wrote it. I guess he’s an egomaniac because he didn’t put me on that song like a jerk. (laughter) Which means that’s the last time I put him on a song. I’m just kidding. (laughter) Ya know what I mean?

Absolutely. You kind of dole out the responsibilities. It’s like you wrote this, you get to pick who’s on it.

Yeah. There are other times it works out really well when the whole band sits there and writes a song together. For the most part though, we write songs from home. We don’t all live together. We have at certain times in our life, but now, as young adults, we live alone and that’s where we write our stuff. It’s good when you’re together writing a song, but I write a lot of the stuff just sitting at home eating Cheetos, playing Call of Duty. I write a hit song and then from there, I choose who’s going to be on it.

I definitely love Cheetos, so I’m right there with you.

Exactly. I have like six songs written just about Cheetos. (laughter)

We Are is the lead single off the album. How has the response from your fan base been so far?

So far, it’s been awesome. We’re really stoked. We just did that video with Clown from Slipknot, he directed. The song is just blowing up. It’s awesome.

You worked with Clown from Slipknot on the video for We Are. How did that whole situation come about?

Our record label President had lunch with him or something, Hollywood Undead got brought up and it turns out that Clown was a big fan of our music and that’s awesome, because we are fans of his music. So, he was in the middle of a project he was on. He’s doing so many. He’s doing a movie right now. He took time off from that. He put a halt to the movie, so he could come and direct our video. So, we were just beyond excited. Just happy to have him want to be such a part of it and us want him to be such a part of it. So, it was awesome.

I have a feeling that one song in particular is going to be all over the place come football season later this year. Tell us a bit about the song Pigskin. Were Cheetos involved in that one or not?

(laughter) That one was buffalo wings, sliders, and beer. We are all such football fans. It’s a club banger and it’s also about football, so I hope that song gets used during football season. Because that’s awesome, that song is perfect. I’ve never heard a club banger that’s about football. That songs awesome. That should get the meatheads going wild.

Check out the hilarious lyric video for Pigskin by Hollywood Undead below:

We all know that with a new album, comes a new tour. What do you guys have up your sleeve for 2013?

So far, our record comes out January 8th. We play LA, then we hop on a tour bus and we play all the major cities. We play a lot of the big cities, the big markets. We’re going to do some press, we’re going to go hit those. We’re going to eat some Cheetos in different cities. See how they taste, see if they taste different in different towns. So, that’s all we have booked now. Then, there’s talks of Europe. There’s talks of getting on a big tour for the Summer and the Spring. There’s nothing booked yet, but it will be soon.

When I received my copy of Notes From the Underground, it was shortly after the shootings that occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary. On my first spin, I found the song Kill Everyone, and immediately thought that the song may delay the album. Where there any hesitations about releasing the song on the album?

There was. That song was written so long before that happened. Then, that happened and I mean, it was so messed up when that happened. Really, we did think about that. We thought, Oh My God. It’s not about that at all, but it is a bad time to release a song that’s about killing anyone. So, we did think about that, but we hope that people will hear it and see that it’s not about someone shooting up a school. That’s horrible. That song is about someone who, it’s done in a fun way, it’s about someone who killed your family and you’re going after them or it’s about people in Afghanistan killing terrorists. It’s not about killing anyone who is innocent. It’s about killing someone who deserves it and it’s done in a fun way. It’s not meant to be taken seriously, at all. Which, a lot of our songs aren’t.

I understand that completely. I just really thought, oh man, this might suck for you guys. So, that’s why I was curious about it. I appreciate you answering that one, because I was kind of fearful for you guys. Alright, I always end on a random question. We’ve talked about Cheetos and some buffalo wings, and such as that. You did mention that you thought the Lion King was a big influence on one member of the band. So, if you were to be a cartoon character, who would you be?

I would be, in that movie, what’s the monkey’s name in that? The wise old monkey.

Rafiki.

Yeah! That’s who I would be. I’d be him. The wise monkey.

Alright, I appreciate your time. The site and myself wish you and the band absolutely nothing but the best. Hopefully, we can catch you out there on the road sometime soon.

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