Interview by Rick Florino

"Las Vegas is like Disneyland for adults but in the worst way possible," laughs Hollywood Undead vocalist/multi-instrumentalist J-Dog. "It's so weird. If you look at The Strip, it's not that big; it's a mile or two long. However, once you go into each hotel, you're in a different world. You can easily get lost."
      Luckily, J-Dog and his Undead cohorts didn't get lost during their most recent outing in Las Vegas. Insteard they rocked a packed crowd at Desert Breeze Park with Sum 41 and P.O.D. before taking in all of the treats and tricks that Nevada has to offer.
      Vegas was simply the first of many stops for the band as they promote their newly released second effort, American Tragedy. Picking up where 2008's Swan Songs left off, the Los Angeles six-piece embraces their darker tendencies and stabs through psyches with a sharp combination of heavy industrial instrumental violence and tripped-out hip hop verses. This is modern rap-rock at its heaviest and most hypnotic.
       In this exclusive interview J-Dog talked to Hot Topic about the stories at the heart of American Tragedy, going to "Hell", his love-hate relationship with Las Vegas, and so much more.

HOT TOPIC: What ties American Tragedy together?

J-DOG: To me, it's about life, growing up, and following different patterns in the state of the world. The world is really shitty right now. We're following the pattern and relating to everything that everyone's going through.

HOT TOPIC: How important is it for you tell stories? The music video for "Been To Hell" has three separate storylines that all stand out.

J-DOG: When you're making music, you're making art. People don't realize that. You're writing a song, and you're telling a story. We wrote "Been To Hell" about a situation that we've seen people go through for our entire lives. Every now and then, a movie might come out about it, but I don't remember ever hearing a song that goes through the real shit that happens in LA. The song is a lot more narrative and visual. People can see a video about it. My sister texted me saying, "Holy shit, your video is so dark; it's amazing. I can't believe you guys had the balls to make a video that dark." I don't really view it as "dark", per se. I see it as reality.
 
HOT TOPIC: LA is your hometown, and all of these outsiders come there for the glitz and glamour. That's not your LA…

J-DOG: Yeah, it just gets annoying. People come out here, and they act like assholes. They swear they're going to be "the next big thing" — whether it's the next big actor, songwriter, producer, or filmmaker — and they're really just trying to get laid. They fail at what they're doing, and they go back home to wherever they came from. 90 percent of the people in LA aren't from here.

HOT TOPIC: Did you work directly with directors Jeff Janke and Corey Soria on the music video's storyline?

J-DOG: They heard the song, and Johnny 3 Tears worked on the treatment with them. They went back and forth bouncing ideas off of each other.

HOT TOPIC: Did you infuse your own experiences at Hollywood clubs into "Comin' In Hot?"

J-DOG: Actually when that song was written, we thought, "Every club song out there right now fucking sucks. Why not make a club song we like that people can jump up and down to?" It doesn't simply say the same word over and over again like most club tracks do. We knew we could do something better than that, so we came up with "Comin' In Hot". I put in a lot of time at shitty clubs. I've probably been to every shitty club in LA. None of the good ones, just the shitty ones. [Laughs] It's only the clubs that I can walk to and walk back.

HOT TOPIC: For you, how does American Tragedy compare with Swan Songs?

J-DOG: It's definitely different, but it's not so much of a departure. You're not in the same mental mind state when you write your first record. The pressure to write your second record, if you've had any success with your first, is so great that it's hard to make everyone happy and make yourself happy. We spent two or three years touring, so some people will say that American Tragedy is a little more rock-orientated, but our live shows are rock shows. That's how we're presented. We're on rock radio. We're on rock charts. We're a rock band. If you spend so much time touring, you want the live show to be better, because we pride ourselves on the show.

HOT TOPIC: What does American Tragedy mean to you?

J-DOG: I think of it as the next chapter in my Hollywood Undead story. I'm really proud of it. I don't think we could've done anything better, and I'm just happy when I think about it. We put a lot of time and energy into it. It's not easy. Not everyone's going to be happy. Korn and Slipknot's fans love their first records. On their second albums, a lot of fans said, "Oh, the first one was better." However, if bands don't change, they're never going to grow. They're just going to stay the same, and the fans will forget about them because they're going to get bored. If we're going to get bored and write the same music over and over again, what's the point doing it? If we're not having fun, there's no point at all.

HOT TOPIC: What memory defines the Las Vegas experience for you?

J-DOG: Every time we go to Vegas, I end up getting sh*tfaced. There are girls and drugs everywhere. I don't know. I have a love-hate relationship with Vegas, if I could sum it up. I get there, and I love it. Once I leave, I hate it. [Laughs] I'm sure everyone feels that way about it.
 
HOT TOPIC: What do you like to do in Vegas? What are some of your favorite spots?

J-DOG: The Palms is always fun because those guys are cool. They always hook us up. I just like to drink. Some of the guys in the band like to gamble, but I've never been good at gambling. I usually lose 90 percent of the time, so I don't even bother. I like the fact that you can drink on the street, because I've probably had twenty "Drinking In Public" tickets back in LA. The fact that you can walk around Vegas drinking makes it like Disneyland to me. I end up getting way more shitfaced because I drink everywhere I go, and it's usually 100 degrees out. By the time it's 9 o'clock, I can't even talk.

HOT TOPIC: Did you grow up taking trips to Vegas?

J-DOG: I actually first met Funny Man in Vegas. I was 18 years old, and he was 16 years old. I used to get fake IDs on Alvarado Street in LA and take them to Vegas. Some of the shadier places in Vegas don't really give a shit if you have a fake ID, as long as you have one. We all had fake IDs, and Vegas would be the first place we'd go. We went with a big group of friends, and Funny Man was there. There must've been 15 of us, and somehow he and I started hanging out. We hung out the whole trip. He was so young, and you have to be 18 to get into casinos so we were sneaking him around to get him in. He was taking all of those cards that they hand out for strippers and passing them out pretending like he worked out there. It was hilarious.