Hollywood Undead’s Charlie Scene Talks Remix Disc, Giving Wedgies + More

Hollywood Undead have taken the music world by storm with their eclectic mix of hip-hop and rock. With the release of their latest effort, ‘American Tragedy Redux,’ a remix disc of their second album, the band crosses over into many different genres to show that they don’t fit into a specific mold when it comes to their creativity.

Not to mention, on the new disc they got some help from their pals Jonathan Davis of Korn, Andrew W.K., KMFDM and many others. The band has been busy touring all year and fresh off their co-headlining tour with Asking Alexandria they are currently on the road with their buddies Avenged Sevenfold as part of the lineup for the ‘Buried Alive’ Tour, which also features Asking Alexandria and Black Veil Brides. To see a full list of dates, go here.

Loudwire had the pleasure of catching up with Hollywood Undead singer-guitarist Charlie Scene, who reveals that he’s a glock-packing, wedgy-giving machine. He also gave us some insight on 'American Tragedy Redux' (which is available now at iTunes), Hollywood Undead’s upcoming studio album, their relationship with other bands and much, much more.

How did the idea of a remix of ‘American Tragedy’ come about?

I think just from touring you meet artists and come across a lot of people who do remixes or just cool people and then you think that would be pretty bad-ass to have one of these guys remix one of our songs so it’s always cool to see another artist interprets your music.

How does it feel to have heavy hitters such as Jonathan Davis of Korn, Borgore, KMFDM and more remixing your tracks?

It’s awesome, it’s really cool. Jonathan Davis was one of the people we met on tour and we know that he does remixes and that was actually one of the reasons and one of the ways we came up with the idea to doing a remix record. We thought it would be cool to have Jonathan, who’s a very dear friend of ours, do a remix.

What was the process of recording the remix album; did you guys pick the artists or did they come to you with ideas?

We pretty much tried to figure out what artist would fit what song best. The cool part was, we didn’t have to do s--t -- just hang out and eat Cheetos and play ‘Call of Duty’ all day. [Laughs]

You guys were on tour last year with Avenged Sevenfold and now you guys are on the Buried Alive Tour; how would you describe your relationship with A7X?

We use to run into those guys all the time, we’d just run into them randomly. We always got along so well and we’ve talked about touring, finally we made it happen so those guys are really cool, we’re really close with them, we have a lot of fun touring with them. They’re really solid dudes.

You'll be joined on that tour by Asking Alexandria, who you just co-headlined a trek with. With all of this touring with them, what has been your relationship with those guys?

I haven’t said a word to those guys and they haven’t said a word to me, freakin’ jerks. I tried to say “hi” to them and they’re just like “whatever loser” and keep walking, so messed up.

Are you being serious?

[Laughs] No, they played right before us and then they just stick onto their bus when they’re not playing but we just haven’t really ran into them too many times, but if I do, they’re getting wedgies … all of them.

Are there any upcoming tour plans for next year?

As of now, no, when the Avenged tour is done we’re going to start working on the third record. Yeah we brought our studio equipment out with us on this tour and we’re already in the works, working on songs and putting that together that way when we’re home we can get straight to work and start working on the next record.

What do you think Hollywood Undead fans can expect from the third studio album?

I would say that this time the label gave us full creative control. I think it’s going to be more like ‘Swan Songs’ than ‘American Tragedy.’ It’ll be a mixture of both; I mean we all grow as artists, we get older and we’ve been doing it a long time so I think it’ll be more like ‘Swan Songs’ and I think the fans are gonna like it a lot.

Hollywood Undead combine different genres of music; there’s a lot of love and hate among music fans but there isn’t really any middle ground. What do you think is it about this band that divides people so much?

I don’t know, I think maybe because it’s so different or the fact that we wear masks or something like that, but whenever something new and different comes out they either get scared of it or hate it right away or they love it. I mean there’s only some many rock bands that can come out with just guitars and singing over and over again and hardcore screaming and s--t, music has to change, it has to evolve with what’s going on with society and kids. It’s becoming more technical now, it’s becoming more digital so I think rock music it going to have to become more digital. Some people are afraid of that, like little p--sies. I’m gonna give them f---ing wedgies, too, if I find them.

What has been the biggest difference with Deuce no longer in the band and Daniel “Danny” Murillo coming into the fold?

Well now we have a frontman who isn’t a skinny little Mr. Burns lookin’ dude; we have a buff frontman who’s got a great voice, the voice of an angel and everyone in the band gets along so much better. We all grew up together, we’ve all been friends since elementary school and high school so we’ve known each other forever and there was just that one person that divided us and now we don’t have that anymore. Now we have good ol’ Danny, who we’ve also known for a long time so we have that brotherhood back and the band is just one again; it’s fun again.

You can definitely see it onstage; I sure did when I saw you guys at the New York show.

Yeah, we have a lot of fun, I mean we play for the crowd but we also play for ourselves. We gotta enjoy what we’re doing or else we shouldn’t be doing it, so we try to have fun up there and we really do.

Other guys in Hollywood Undead wear masks; what made you decide to rock the bandana?

Well before I use to wear a Del Taco bag, which is a fast food chain out in L.A., I think it’s in other places, too, but yeah I use to rock the Del Taco bag and everyone else who wore these masks that they could easily take off and put back on and I had this annoying taco bag and I liked it, it was cool, it was different. I didn’t want to wear a mask like everyone else; I wanted to have something different so I did that for a while and then finally the band said, 'Dude, you can’t wear that Del Taco bag,” so then I thought alright I’m gonna wear a bandana so it’s even easier than a stupid ass mask that you guys are wearing.

With all of this touring, what is one thing you must bring on tour with you? No electronics.

Holy s--t, no electronics. I was gonna say my laptop, but no electronics! Everything I own is electronic, I’m rich. I’m really not. My sunglasses, I gotta bring my sunglasses, yeah because I wear them onstage and if I don’t have them on I’d probably look stupid, gotta have my shades on me. A glock, too. I carry a little glock and stuff it in my cowboys boots, if I didn’t have that I wouldn’t have gotten myself out of a lot of sick situations on tour.