In an interview with Skratch N’ Sniff and SNSMix.com, HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD co-founder Johnny 3 Tears revealed that he and his bandmates have no plans to release a new full-length album anytime soon. He explained (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “We’ve got new songs coming out real shortly, within the next couple of months. As far as like a new ‘record record’, I don’t know. I don’t think we’re even planning on [it]. Well, at least as of now, I think those days are numbered, as far as putting out, like, ‘Hey, here’s an album with 15 songs on it.’ I mean, at some point that will happen. But as of now we’re just kind of just releasing songs.”We have a bunch of songs lined up — we’re gonna release songs,” he clarified. “At one point we’ll probably package them with some other songs and put out a record for those who want ’em. But dude, cars don’t even have fucking CD players in ’em anymore. What are we gonna release a record for? No one buys ’em. Except for people who like vinyl. And now, it’s funny ’cause outside of the artwork, there’s almost no incentive to make an album anymore. So we’ll see what happens. But as of now, we’re just gonna release songs and videos and all the other stuff, and eventually maybe package it into a record for people who want physical product or tangible product. But yeah, as far as releasing an actual album, I have no idea. I don’t even know if anybody’s gonna do that anymore.”When the interviewer noted that bands put out records, only for people to have forgotten about them within 10 days, Johnny 3 Tears said: “In the streaming era, it’s a bummer. I used to love buying an album and you read the liner notes and the thank yous. It was like an event. But then again, I didn’t have access to the back catalog of the world either. So it was, like, I spent 20 bucks. I’m gonna go through this and listen to every word and da, da, da, da. Now it’s, like, dude, you’re lucky if people listen to the first 30 seconds of every song on your album. And no one wants the physical product. So it’s been negated by the streaming world. And if you don’t adapt to that, it really is just kind of wasteful. And then the back half of your record no one listens to anyway, so you’re getting bummed out ’cause you might have some really good stuff that you care about, and now you’re, like, ‘Well, no one’s listening to those songs.'”It’s funny ’cause the hip-hop world’s been doing this mix tape stuff for forever — two, three songs here, two, three songs there, a lot of collabing,” he continued. “Rock is just now catching up to that. ‘Hey, let’s call up ICE NINE KILLS and do a song together.’ ‘Let’s do some stuff with PAPA ROACH.’ ‘Oh, let’s do something with ATREYU,’ whatever. Hip-hop’s been doing this forever, and now rock is coming around to the same avenue because now it makes more sense ’cause, yeah, people don’t wanna buy albums and they’ve realized, Hey, you know what? Not every song has to be this massive event. You can just take something, like, ‘Hey, let’s record a song today and put it out next week.’ Why not? If people don’t like it, it’s just sitting there, like, what’s the big deal? Do you know what I mean? Not everything is living forever on some album now.”It’s a different world, dude,” Johnny 3 Tears added. “Honestly, it’s hard to adapt to. I can’t stand the whole TikTok, ‘Hey, you’ve gotta have snippets. You need these 15-second videos.’ It’s not my world. I’m just living in it. But as far as music goes, I love it, because I write music all of the time — every day, that’s pretty much what we all do. And it sucks ’cause you write music all day every day, and you get every two years you’ve gotta put up 14 songs out of the hundreds you’ve worked on. So that’s always been very, like, ‘Eh, that that part kind of stinks.’ So now we just write songs, we send them in and they’ll be, like, ‘Yeah, let’s put it out in a couple weeks. What the hell?’ That’s a lot more fun. There’s not so much weight on it: ‘Oh, how did it do? Did it sell a gazillion copies?’ It’s more like it goes away with the next song that you put out. So there’s less pressure on the song. We get to put out whatever we want, whenever we want. It’s kind of cool — artistically speaking. But everything has its wins and losses.”He concluded: “It’s a different world, dude. We’re just living in it, bro.”After the interviewer pointed out that the old way of making records, with bands sometimes having to wait up to a year after an album has been completed for it to come out, Johnny 3 Tears concurred. “You are sitting there and then by the time you are putting it out, you wanna change stuff,” he said. “You’re, like, “This doesn’t sound right now.’ It’s just a mind game. You do nine mixes, because you have too much time to think and you start making it worse because you have a vacuum in your head now. To me, it’s just not conducive to creativity. And when you’re making music and you know this probably isn’t even gonna come out, you’ll do it ’cause you like doing it but there’s also this kind of ambivalence to the whole thing. It’s, like, what’s the point? And so I would way rather just be able to write a song and if we like it, put it out. If people don’t like it, okay — I don’t care. I’d rather people like it, but if they don’t, it’s not like I’m gonna go walk off a bridge or something. So it’s, like, you let people listen to it. If they like it, they like it. If they don’t, they don’t. It’s music. It’s meant to be fluid. And I get it — for a record label, they needed those 14 songs to be perfect ’cause it was propped up on a 10-million-dollar campaign of promotion. They can’t afford for it not to succeed, and I understand that. But that’s not the case anymore. So, like, well, dude, let’s rock and roll.”Last October HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD released a new single, “Hollywood Forever”. The track, accompanied by an official music video, marked the band’s first release under a newly inked deal with globally renowned independent label Sumerian Records.HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD has surpassed three billion cross-platform streams and over one billion YouTube views, cementing its status as one of the most streamed rock bands of its generation, with an ever-evolving sound that continues to resonate with a global audience.Since the release of HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD’s RIAA platinum-certified 2008 debut album, “Swan Songs”, their distinctive and infectious music has incited a cult audience of millions of fans, resulting in sold-out shows across the globe, in addition to receiving nods in the press from the likes of Consequence Of Sound, Billboard, Alternative Press, Rolling Stone and Revolver. The quintet have also garnered massive mainstream appeal, with their 2011 sophomore record, “American Tragedy”, going gold and hitting No. 4 on the Billboard 200 chart.HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD’s latest album — the band’s eighth — “Hotel Kalifornia”, arrived in 2022 via Dove & Grenade Media/BMG.Photo credit: Travis Shinn[embedded content]