Hollywood Undead Select Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan of Slipknot To Direct ‘We Are’ Video

Hollywood Undead have selected M. Shawn Crahan aka clown to direct the video accompanying the band's lead single from the forthcoming new album Notes From The Underground. clown has been an acclaimed director for years working in the field of music video, delivering clips for his own band Slipknot throughout their multi-platinum Grammy-winning career. Crahan also directed Slipknot's 2005 DVD Voliminal: Inside The Nine.

On the selection Da Kurlzz shares, "We are very excited to be working with someone that thinks as progressively about their art as we do. clown is a great director, and together we are going to deliver something truly memorable."

Hollywood Undead recently released the lead single "We Are" to rock radio. The track reunites the band with producer Danny Lohner (Nine Inch Nails, Puscifer), and delivers an epic call-to-arms laced with gnashing guitars, lyrical jabs and fiery beats.

Selecting the track as the lead entry on the weekly playlist, USA Today stated, "The horror-loving rap-rock outfit Hollywood Undead previews January's Notes From the Underground with We Are, an anthem for disenfranchised youth. A brutally captivating chorus wraps desolation and desperation into the lyrics 'We are made from broken parts ... we are broken from the start'. It's self-destructive and cathartic." Band member Johnny 3 Tears elaborates, "The song is about collective resistance. It's the silent majority, but we're using Los Angeles as the backdrop. Every time we work with Danny, he takes our music to the next level. Think of it as an ode to our misled youth."

The album title is a homage to the Fyodor Dostoyevsky novel—a Johnny 3 Tears personal favorite—the moniker alludes to what's really under the mask. He elaborates, "We've maintained an underground identity. When we write songs, we're coming from a place people don't like to look at or talk about openly. As people get older, they get used to lying. We have a bond with so many kids because they appreciate that honesty. They don't know how bad some things get yet. We tell them the truth."

While the band’s roots are in the underground, the band has drawn mainstream attention since the release of their 2008 near platinum-selling debut Swan Songs and its acclaimed 2010 follow-up American Tragedy. Swan Songs has moved well over 900,000 copies, and American Tragedy debuted on the Billboard Top 200 at #4 with first-week sales exceeding 67,000. They've played sold out headline shows all over the world as well as rousing appearances at festivals such as the Rock on the Range, Epicenter and UK's Download Festival

The masked Los Angeles collective—Johnny 3 Tears, J-Dog, Charlie Scene, Danny, Funny Man, and Da Kurlzz are excited about the release of their third album in January, 2013. "Nothing could change us or our music," assures J-Dog. "We may change the method but not the message." Notes From The Underground was produced by Griffin Boice, Sam & Sluggo, and Danny Lohner, The album emerges directly from that same place behind the curtain, underneath the veneer, and inside the darkest heart of their city.