2005,
The trio of Jorel Decker, Aron Erlichman, and Jeffrey Phillips were in Jorel's apartment and an idea struck upon Jeff, "We should be a Heavy Metal Beastie Boys", the other two were in agreement of this, and called themselves, The Kids.
Later, four other men joined the group; Matt Busek, Jordon Terrell, George Ragan, and Dylan Alvarez.
The men soon adopted pseudonyms
(Matt as Da Kurlzz, Jordon as Charles P. Scene/Charlie Scene, George as Tha Server [Later known as Johnny 3 Tears], Dylan as Funny Man, Jorel as J-Dog, Aron as Tha Producer [Then shortened to Deuce], and Jeff as Shady Jeff).
The guys grew popular on MySpace, created two EPs, soon after Jeff was kicked out of the group in 2007.
The band's name was going to be Undead. The members referred as "undead" to the Scene Kids in LA who were always on their way partying, looking like living dead.
They wrote Hollywood (the song's title) and Undead (the band's name) on a CD and gave it to Decker's neighbor who thought the group was called Hollywood Undead. They all liked the name so they went for it.
Jeff Phillips later left the band after a conflict with Erlichman. In interviews, they only said that Jeff was too old for the band and he wouldn't have fit in.
The band only took one year working on their debut album, Swan Songs. The other two years were spent looking for a company that wouldn't try to censor the album.
They first signed a record contract with MySpace Records in 2005 but they left the label after the label tried to censor their first album.
They also tried to sign with Interscope Records but they wouldn't publish the songs uncensored. They then signed a contract with A&M/Octone Records and Swan Songs was released on September 2, 2008 and reached #22 on the Billboard 200 in its first week of release, selling 21,000 copies; which was later on released in the United Kingdom on May 18, 2009 with two bonus tracks.
On June 23, 2009, Hollywood Undead released Swan Songs B-Sides EP through iTunes. The band released a CD/DVD set entitled Desperate Measures on November 10, 2009.
The set includes a CD of previously unreleased six new songs, three of which are cover songs, as well a previously unreleased remix of Everywhere I Go, and six live recordings of songs from Swan Songs, and a DVD of a full live performance by the band.
In early 2010, the band announced that singer, Deuce, had left the band due to musical differences. Hints of Deuce's departure were noticed when he did not take part in the Vatos Locos tour. After a couple weeks on tour, the band asked long-time friend, Daniel Murillo, to fill in for Deuce's role. This was not too long after Murillo had just advanced past the auditions for season 9 of American Idol. Murillo decided to drop out of the competition and joined the band. Daniel Murillo was also the lead singer of the band, Lorene Drive, which is currently on hiatus due to his involvement with Hollywood Undead.
Deuce later released a song titled Story of a Snitch against the group, claiming he was kicked out as well as that he wrote every verse and every chorus.
The band stated that they didn't want to "stoop to his level" and chose to simply ignore the controversy. In mid-January, after seeing he can do just good in the studio as on shows, the band announced Daniel Murillo was an official member, going by the nickname of Danny.
They explained the reason Danny chose his name as his stage name was not because of the lack of creativity, rather than it wouldn't be logical since the original band members all got their nicknames from their past and they just couldn't imagine not calling him Danny.
The band continued years with Murillo, releasing their 4th studio album, Day Of The Dead in 2015.
2016 IS WHERE WE BEGIN
