In February HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD published their album „New Empire Vol. 1”. It was just a matter of time when their next album would be published. Than the pandemic hit and interrupted their Europe tour. For the first time in decades the boys have to stay at home and can’t play a show. Nevertheless they used their time to finish the new album “New Empire Vol. 2 ”. I wanted to get to know about their “new” empire and their musical collaborations and therefore I had the interview with Johnny 3 Tears (George Ragan). Thereby I detected that they are working on the next album. And of course I needed to talk about their upcoming party. So if you want to get to know the background of the album and the mindset of Johnny 3 Tears, I’m sure, you’re interested in the interview.

Sarah-Jane: My first question: Did you record the album volume one and two in one shot and if yes, why did you split it?

Johnny 3 Tears (George Ragan): Most of it was in one shot, but we added a few songs, because you know we’re supposed to be on tour all year. And when the thing happened with covid, we had extra time. So we were like we write more music, so we did that. But we split it, because you can’t put out a record with that many song. The label doesn’t like it. The most they let us do were twelve. We had, I think, twenty-two songs we wanted put out. And a lot of the times we write a lot songs, but a lot of them sucked. We said yeah, take it off, cause it’s not good. The songs on volume two we didn’t wanted get rid of, we cared about the songs. So the only way to do was to split them.

Sarah-Jane: As a band, why did you want to start “a new empire” and what makes the album so special to you?

Johnny 3 Tears (George Ragan): I mean every album is unique in a certain way. We always trying to make albums that aren’t similar to the ones we already put out. That’s the whole goal. This record I think more than anything, we just stepped outside the box and we looked at it as a new unit of time and we’re moving in a different direction than we were before. And that is the whole goal, it’s to build a new empire. So I think the name suits that fact. And to be honest with you the record we put out after new empire probably won’t sound anything like new empire. So maybe it’s just this record that’s new and the next one is completely different. We like to challenge ourselves. I think when we recording to change as much as possible that we feel comfortable with so that way it doesn’t suck for us. If I had to write the same album over and over I would quit. I think every record is a kind of new empire but this one happens to be called “new empire”.

Sarah-Jane: So do you already work on a new album? It sounds like you would have some plans.

Johnny 3 Tears (George Ragan): Yeah we are already writing now for another album. We never stop. Once we stop recording one record, we keep going on the next one. We always working on music and we probably going to the studio probably saying spring of next year to get another album done.

Sarah-Jane: While we are staying at home during the pandemic, what do you need to get inspiration? Some people loose inspiration, because they don’t experience something new.

Johnny 3 Tears (George Ragan): Honestly I think there is more inspiration because of covid. Well it puts everybody in a much more difficult position in life. Sometimes when you writing you have to like dig pretty deep to find like a subject or an emotion that is strong enough. I think covid fucked everybody up so much that there is plenty to talk about (laughs). So that won’t be a problem.

Sarah-Jane: That is interesting, because there are many people who have problems to get a different view when they are locked up and just see their own room.

Johnny 3 Tears (George Ragan): Where I looked at is when you kinda locked up like that all you can do you gotta look inside yourself and reflect. I think people are finding out their weaknesses and their strength through all of this. This stuff never happened before. I think you can use it in a positive way or you can use it in a negative way. But either one is gonna create good art, because when the human being, the spirit or the person is challenged more that’s a good cause for creativity. I’ve always had a way rougher time writing music when my life was going good.

Sarah-Jane: What are you going to do since you can't get on the road and do a tour?

Johnny 3 Tears (George Ragan): It’s been a big change for a lot of people but I always just trying think of it like you trying to get a positive thing of a very negative situation. So I’ve took the time to learn new things, to practice more music to get better. All you can do is the best of it. We don’t have a choice.

Sarah-Jane: How long did it take to produce the album?

Johnny 3 Tears (George Ragan): It took us three weeks, we’re fast (laughs). Some of it was last winter, so a little bit over a year ago. And then, when we got home from tour, because of the covid thing, we’re like “let’s do some more” and we added and took a couple songs off. And all the bands were home so we’re started saying lets feature some other artists on here like Jacoby from Papa Roach and so on. Cause usually it’s hard to do that stuff, because everybody is scheduled. They are on tour, we are at home. They are at home, we are on tour. So everybody is fucking home and we’re like “hey lets working together”. I think you gonna see a lot more collaborations from all of this. I did a song with Zero 9:36, I did a song with Ghøstkid, I did a song for another band that hasn’t put it out yet. Cause normally when people ask “hey do you wanna make a song” I can’t. But this time I was “yeah, sure”.

Sarah-Jane: Why did you choose the German singer Ghøstkid? I was surprised by the fact that he was singing in German.

Johnny 3 Tears (George Ragan): I did a song on his record and he did a song on ours. So we thought about that, he thought “oh, I could do an English version”. But we have already done an English version with Tech N9ne. So we thought “that will be cool. It’s a bit weird. Let’s do one in German, what the hell.” I thought it was very cool, cause we never had a different language on one of our songs. I thought it was just exciting. So we were happy he wanted to do it. And you know a lot of our audience is German. I thought it would be cool for the fans. So it just was something we kinda did it for fun and see how it turns out.

Sarah-Jane: What was special about your partnership?

Johnny 3 Tears (George Ragan): Honestly I’m a fan. I love Ghøstkid stuff, he has a new sound, the hooks are really good, he has great singing, you know every aspect of what he is doing I was like “that is really cool” and he is a nice guy. But I really like his music. So when you are a fan of something, you gonna add something to it. You wanna work with people who you like, so I just really liked his music, before I was a fan. So for me it was pretty special.

Sarah-Jane: Is his music playing on the radio in America?

Johnny 3 Tears (George Ragan): No, his audience in definitely more out there [Europa] than here. But I think he is really good, he will develop an audience in America. At least when we can start touring again. We probably take him on tour here.

Sarah-Jane: “Monster” is the first ballad with some dubstep features. The lyrics are dangerous too. In your opinion what is special about the track?

Johnny 3 Tears (George Ragan): That song was about childhood and things like that. A lot of people, and myself included, sometimes we’re like “uhm, can I say this?” cause it feels weird talking about that stuff to strangers. Normally I say that stuff to my psychiatrist. So to talk about things that are extremely personal, in a direct way it’s was a kind of uncomfortable. But I know a lot of people have the same feelings, the goal is to bond with the people and create a relationship with people that have shared pain, I guess. That was really the goal of the song. I think probably that song had the vast majority of Hollywood Undead, it’s probably the most vulnerable song we’ve made. It wasn’t comfortable to write, but I feel like there’s a lot of people who through the same stuff, so why don’t try to talk to them and create that bond between us.

Sarah-Jane: Would you try to be more honest to talk about feelings that you’re scared of? Sometimes a metaphor isn’t the best thing to talk about emotions.

Johnny 3 Tears (George Ragan): Music to me that is what is for. If you go up to somebody on the street, that you’ve never met and tell ‘em that stuff, they gonna think you’re fucking crazy.

Sarah-Jane: Then you’re crazy so what?

Johnny 3 Tears (George Ragan): I know everybody I think everybody is fucking crazy but they pretend they’re not. So music is a platform, with all art too, that is when you supposed to be the most vulnerable. Cause that’s what people want. They wanna hear a song about something maybe they feel that they are afraid to go to tell somebody. So it’s very therapeutic. Yeah you go out and if you tell people personal stuff about yourself, they might think “damn, this guy is fucking nuts”. But if you do in music, usually they are happy to hear it, because they think the same thing as you.

Sarah-Jane: The song “Idol” is going into the direction of the last albums. Why did Tech N9ne fit especially for this song? What was special about the partnership, how did you get to know him

Johnny 3 Tears (George Ragan): Tech N9ne is like my favourite rapper of all time, for a couple of the guys in the band. I grew up listening to him when I was in school. So really I just wanted to work with him. To me he is the best. And Tech N9ne is really dark for a rapper, it’s not about money and girls, cars and all the stuff that are a lot of rappers are about. He has always been on the dark side if things, which suits Hollywood Undead very well, cause we’ve always been on the dark side of things. Tech9 fits with our band and we fit with his music, so we’re just a match made in heaven.

Sarah-Jane: Let’s talk about the upcoming livestream. Is it possible to get some insiders about the party?

Johnny 3 Tears (George Ragan): No, the party is a secret. There is not a lot I can say, because I have been told not to say much, because it supposed to be a secret. But we have some really cool guest stars that come out for the show. It was a lot of fun, but I can’t really talk about.

Sarah-Jane: Is it difficult to have a party without a live audience?

Johnny 3 Tears (George Ragan): For me it’s a party just to play with my friends again, you know I don’t need anybody there. I was having a good time. But just to be able to play with your band after so long was enough for me. But I know what you mean, normally you get the energy back from the crowd which I missed very much, but that was the next best thing, this is all we could do. It’s not as good as playing a live show, but it’s all we got right now.

Sarah-Jane: How did you feel as you had to cancel your European tour with Papa Roach?

Johnny 3 Tears (George Ragan): That sucked. That was like one of the most fun tours we’ve ever done. The shows were great. That sucked pretty but. And I also thought I was gonna die, going home. It was definitely disappointing, but I think when everything is back to normal, we’re gonna go finish the tour. So we get all the bands and we’ll go to the shows that we didn’t do the first time.

Sarah-Jane: Since there is a development in your lyrics being more profound, will that work with your image as a “party band” or do you want to go in a different direction?

Johnny 3 Tears (George Ragan): I never liked the image of just being a party band. I never identified ourselves. I know a lot of people do, I’ve never been a big fan of that stuff. So for me, obviously when you play and you want people to have fun. For me its business as usual and with the band I’ve always written the darker stuff and the more profound stuff, that’s usually kind of my job or part of it. So to me I always been on the other end of it. Party is cool, I like to party. I think is more of a mixture. To me we pretty much just doing the same thing we’ve always done. Although on Empire One and Two we didn’t do any party tracks maybe that will change, maybe not. I don’t know. A lot of it has do with the way we are doing in our personal lives when we record. Sometimes you are just dark, it depends on what mindset you are in. So back in the days when we record records, that’s when we partied a lot. Lot of the times we write songs about it. But cause we’ve gotten older it’s a big part of it, your mind changes, your emotions change. We always trying be honest of our feelings. When we feel one thing we write about it, if not we won’t

Sarah-Jane: The new artcover is darker and dangerous compared to the last one. What did you want to symbolize?

Johnny 3 Tears (George Ragan): When we did the first one we wanted let it be bright and colourful and kind of symbolic of the new empire. Like every empire they come to an end, so the second one was the same empire maybe destroyed. People pretty much ruin everything even our new empire.

Sarah-Jane: How does that fit to the music?

Johnny 3 Tears (George Ragan): The second album is considerably darker than the first one. With the first record we really wanted to be heavy, aggressive. The second is a bit more thoughtful, a little darker, a little more melodic in that sense. The goal, when you make the artwork is to have it match to the tone of the record. And that is kinda what we trying to do.

Johnny 3 Tears (George Ragan): Sarah, it was good to speaking to you. Stay safe!
Sarah-Jane: Thank you for taking time for the interview. Stay safe.