With a fantastic combination of hip-hop , rock, and attitude, Hollywood Undead soared to stardom with their “Swan Songs” album touring relentlessly and achieving world wide accolades. At the height of their success, founding member Deuce left the band in order to pursue a musical career on his own. Putting his own personal touches on the rap-rock genre, the talented artist released his solo debut under the Nine Lives moniker in 2012 spawning the hit single “America” and hitting the stage at major rock festivals. It’s been five years, but Deuce is back with a brand new record “Invincible” which is sure to be a hit with terrfic beats and an incredible collection of all new tunes.
BackstageAxxess had the opportunity to chat with Deuce and find out all about his new album, tour plans, and why he made the difficult choice to leave his former band behind and branch out on his own.
KE: Hi Deuce! Welcome to BackstageAxxess and thanks for taking the time to talk with us today.
Deuce: Yeah!
KE: Let’s talk about the new record “Invincible.” Would you tell us a little about the overall sound of the album?
Deuce: Yeah, it’s a mix between rock and rap. It’s similar to the Nine Lives album. It’s a little more like half of it’s kind of rock and half of it’s kind of rap with a couple slow songs too so that’s pretty much it you know.
KE: What’s your approach to writing an album? Do you start off with a couple beats?
Deuce: Usually like some beats or riffs ideas first and then once we got that going we’ll mess around with some lyrics and then the whole thing will come together like that.
KE: Some of the album was recorded in L.A. and some of it was recorded in Portland. Are there differences between the songs that were done in L.A. and those that were done in Portland?
Deuce: We did a bunch of rap stuff in Portland, did a bunch of rock stuff in L.A. But I did some rock/rap stuff in L.A. too so it’s just like a mix. I did a bunch of rock/rap stuff in L.A. and mostly some rap stuff in Portland pretty much.
KE: Tell us a little bit about the song “Thank You” because that was a real stand out track for me.
Deuce: Yeah it’s just like thank you to the fans and everyone for supporting me and helping me. It’s just a thank you, that’s the message of the song.
KE: When it comes to lyrics, where do you draw your inspiration from?
Deuce: It’s just having fun, being creative, you know different ideas. Sometimes it’s based off of real life and sometimes it isn’t you know?
KE: Being a producer yourself, take us a little into the production of the album.
Deuce: Probably just having more people working on it, there’s more ideas being put into it from different people. From a production standpoint, there’s just more ideas and more musicians and artists.
KE: Is it helpful as an artist for you to be involved in the production process?
Deuce: Definitely!
KE: Any tour plans yet ?
Deuce: Yeah, we’re still working on it. We’re still getting ideas so we don’t have anything set in stone yet but we’re getting there.
KE: In the past, you’ve played some of the bigger festivals like Uproar and Rock on the Range. Is that something that you’d be interested in doing again to support this record?
Deuce: Yeah, definitely I want to look into those again. I just don’t know what will be available at the moment.
KE: Of course a lot of people are familiar with you because of Hollywood Undead. As one of the founding members of the band, how hard was it to walk away from it all especially with the level of success that the band had already achieved?
Deuce: It was kind of hard because it was a band that I worked on for a long time. I guess it took me time but I got over it and I just do my own thing now. It was fun. I was young so it was a fun part of my life you know but it took a lot of work too. Overall I’m just probably better of as Deuce you know.
KE: So you can have more control over things?
Deuce: Yeah, but it was still fun though.
KE: Did you have any difficulties separating yourself as a solo artist after being a part of a band for so many years?
Deuce: Yeah, it’s just putting out music and making myself known and just practicing and kind of putting my own message out there and saying what I want to say as Deuce. I had to get used to it.
KE: What about in terms of the music industry? Do people still tend to lump you in with Hollywood Undead?
Deuce: Yeah, I think at first but I think I’ve put out enough material on my own that they don’t lump me in as much anymore. I’m more Deuce now but they still connect me because it’s the first band that made me successful and all that stuff so I’ll probably always be linked up to some degree. But it’s probably a lot less now.
KE: How do you think “Invincible” compares to some of your older material with Hollywood Undead?
Deuce: Similar you know, similar sounds, similar styles. They’re just newer. It’s a solo project so it’s less people but newer. It has its own freshness to it you know. It’s own thing. It’s just a different thing. Some of Swan Songs was raw, some of it was like fresh and this stuff is more like similar but newer. I produced Swan Songs too. I sat and worked on that so its similar.
KE: Tell us who is currently in your band. Is Jimmy Yuma still with you?
Deuce: Yes so Jimmy Yuma, James Kloeppel and Tye Gaddis and some other people.
KE: Your music crosses over so many different genres, rock, rap, hip-hop, even metal. Do you think that’s helped you gain a larger fan base?
Deuce: Yeah, I think the mixture definitely helped out with a broader audience.
KE: Since your music is a real cross between rock and rap, who would you say are your biggest musical influences both on the rap end and the rock end?
Deuce: Hip-hop would be Wu-Tang Clan, Method Man, Eminem, Jay-Z like all those and D-12. On the rock side like Nirvana, Offspring, Linkin Park, Pennywise and NOFX, Rancid, Machine Gun Kelly is good too.
KE: Where do you see yourself going from here?
Deuce: Definitely keep working on music, keep putting out and making albums you know.
KE: Thanks so much!
Deuce: Thank you.
We would like to thank Tom George from TAG Publicity for setting up the interview with Deuce. For more information on Deuce including the new album “Invincible,” please go here: Deuce.
