Johnny 3 Tears talks new album and what kind of parade he would throw

We had the chance to catch up with Hollywood Undead’s Johnny 3 Tears to talk about their upcoming album NEW EMPIRE Vol. 1 and what kind of parade he would throw.

What can we expect from NEW EMPIRE Vol. 1?

Just a very loving record, just like Valentine’s Day. Just a lot of love, heart, sweetness, kindness. No, I guess it’s a Hollywood Undead album but I think it’s kind of a reimagining of what we’ve done. I think, it’s a bit heavier. That wasn’t on purpose it just is. There are definitely some different progressions we used and new messages so I guess it’s a step forward, or I like to think it is. Some will probably think it’s a step back but what can you do?

Have you learned anything about yourselves and your band throughout the creation process of the new album?

Yeah, you know it’s funny that you say that because in the past we’ve always kind of written songs individually and then brought them into the studio where they’re already skeletoned out or the bones were there and then work on them together from there. This is actually the first album where everybody was in the studio all the time together, and we’ve never done that. We’ve done it in periods of time or for certain songs but never for a full record. So, I think it was an interesting process and I continue to learn about these assholes every time I’m with them. No I mean it’s cool, the camaraderie, it’s good. You know being in a band, I know its kind of overused but it really is kind of like a marriage. You kind of know the best parts of people and the worst parts of people. You know, we’ve all been friends since we were little kids so that helps. Like everybody else we fight, we disagree on things, but I like to think we are stronger now as a group than ever before which is vital for a band because if you don’t believe in each other nobody else is going to. So, I feel like we’re closer now than we ever have been which really helps with the music creating process to have that firm belief in one another. It was actually a really, really good and positive recording and album experience.

How are you guys feeling with the release date getting closer?

Honestly, I’ll say the day we release an album is my favorite day being in a band. This is our 6th album, in all these 14-15 years we’ve only done it 6 times so it’s always cool in that sense because it really doesn’t happen very often. So I always get really excited. You know I guess there’s a little bit of nervousness or whatever else about the reception and stuff like that but we really like it. So, I always look forward to when we get a record out because I don’t know, you get to show people what you’ve been doing for the past couple of years and it’s pretty exciting.

What are you most excited for on your upcoming tour with Papa Roach and Ice Nine Kills?

We’ve know the Papa Roach dudes for a long time, we’ve done a lot of festivals together and this is our first tour with them. They’re really good guys so I’m really looking forward to that. Then Ice Nine Kills is actually one of my favorite kind of newer bands that have come out recently, so it’s actually pretty cool to get to tour together. We’ve always wanted to tour with Papa Roach, those guys are awesome, and to have a newer band that I actually really, really like on the tour also is pretty exciting. We’re going to some cool places in Europe that we haven’t actually toured in before. So, the whole thing is just going to be fun I think.

How do you make a show new every night for you when the set list usually stays the same?

A little bit of coke, you know, liven things up (laughs). You know that and fans. You can have a great show one night and a horrible show the next and you do the same exact thing you did, but the fans’ energy and stuff like that really does make a huge difference in how you feel about it. You could be playing a song for the, I don’t know, thousandth time but this might be the first time someone’s hearing that and you really do feed off the energy of the people there. We might play “Undead” which is probably our oldest song, we’ve played it at every show we’ve played and we’ve played a hell of a lot of shows so if the fans are feeling it and are into it, it makes me relieve the same energy we had when we wrote it. So a lot of it is that. You just kind of feed off each other. That to me is the coolest part about music because the artists are not responsible solely for a show being good. It really is on the audience too and you see that kinetic energy between the two groups and they kind of meet. It’s really fascinating to me. I’ve been to a lot of shows too and you see it. You can really see something passing through that energy and it can be really positive or it can be really negative so a lot of it comes down to who’s listening.

If you could change one thing about the music industry what would it be and why?

Currently the music industry, or the record industry, is in a better place than I could ever remember it. Maybe from the 80s or 90s somebody would say something different but for me as musicians we’re in a much better position now than we were then. I think streaming and the consumption of music has changed drastically which is think is great because you can get music out without having a record label or someone helping you along the way. You don’t need the via in between. You can write the songs and you can put them out and it’s really that simple. So, I think the record industry now is in a better place now than it ever has been since I’ve been in a band and we signed in I think 2005 or 2004. So I don’t have a lot of complaints to be honest with you, but there are a lot of things I would love to have changed about 2004 and 2005 and some of the stuff we went through back then. But, I don’t think that’s a retroactive question so I’ll just shut up.

If your fans were to take one message away from this new album, what do you hope it would be?

I think for us there’s a lot of changes and we really do try and progress each time; and like I said some people will view that as progression or regression and there’s no controlling that. But I never want our fans to know what to expect I guess. So, I don’t want to write the same record twice and I just hope that nobody ever expects to hear the same record twice is what I would like that relationship to be. We’re always going to try and emulate something different and bring something new to the table, not just for them but for us. To keep us passionate about being in a band and not doing the exact same thing. I just hope people understand because you hear that a lot. “Oh, why didn’t you make a record like this album or that album?” You don’t want to hear another one because you’ll just be complaining that you heard the same thing twice. So, I would never want people to feel secure in what we’re doing because it’s always going to change and I want people to not know what to expect I guess.

If you could throw a parade of any caliber, what type of parade would it be?

Oo, a parade, okay. I’d love to throw a parade for the Dodgers because they cheated out of that World Series in 2017 by the Astros. That’s what I’d do right now.

What can we expect from Hollywood Undead in the future?

I don’t even know the answer to that one to be honest. Who knows, I might be dead tomorrow so I don’t know what to expect from the band. But as long as we’re capable and we enjoy what we’re doing we plan on continuing making music and I would love to say thank you to the people who listen to our music because it really gratifying to make something, and plenty of people can hate it I don’t care about that, but to know that someone cares about what we do as much as we do is pretty special. So I just want to thank you.

We’d like to give a huge thanks to Johnny 3 Tears for taking the time to do this interview! Hollywood Undead’s new album NEW EMPIRE Vol. 1  comes out this Friday, February 14th so make sure to check it out!

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