PAULOV MYSPACE a spol.
21. 5. 2007
Why Good Charlotte's Joel and Benji Madden don't care if you hate them.
The release of Good Charlotte's fourth album, 'Good Morning Revival', was something of a Year Zero for the band. Once known for instantly memorable but immediately disposable pop-punk hits that made them teen idols around the world, their new record hums with a maturity and a desire to break away from the constraints of their previous image. Older, wiser and more settled, this was an album they knew could make or break them - one that could cast off the shackles of the old but could just as easily consign them to the scrap heap.
Its warm reception, then - 'Good Morning Revival' achieved top 10 chart debuts in 11 countries - is something the band's singer and guitarist, twins Joel and Benji Madden, talk about with equal measures of relief and vindication. Sitting back to think about all this, they cast a striking image - a ying and yang at times, two different whose contrasting opinions serve to make each other whole. And today, all thoughts are to the future, about what Good Charlotte can become, not what they were.
People used to think of Good Charlotte as a teen, pop band. Do you think you've cast off that image yet?
Benji: "Yes, but you can't get jaded about having an image put on you.
That's the nature of the music business. We're a band and a record label will try to package us. They want to try to sell us, that's what they do.
But there comes a time when an image just doesn't fit anymore. We're not 20 anymore, I'm 27 and..."
Joel: "...and we're not selling songs to 13-year-olds. We could try and it would be easy."
Benji: "But the intent isn't to make music for 13-year-olds, it's to make music for us. The interesting thing is we're still comparatively young compared to a lot of the bands that are becoming big now. I'm younger than Gerard Way and Pete Wentz, for example, which surprised me."
So you felt typeast by your past. Does this mean 'Good Morning Revival' was an attempt to get your band seen in a different light?
Benji: "Yes, that's perfectly put. We've put out a record that's truly our own sound. You can't call it pop-punk, you can't call it emo, you can't really call it anything. I never felt that we were a band that fitted into the genre we were put in. I've read things that have been written about us and it hasn't any relation to what we do."
Joel: "It seems people are looking at us differently now. They're not saying 'Good Charlotte' dismissively anymore. They're saying it as though they're interested in us."
Do you think people have started taking you seriously?
Joel: "Absolutely. There are magazines that are covering us now that would never have touched us before."
Has that surprised you?
Benji: "I think that what people expected from us was a couple of records, a lot
of sales, and then for us to disappear. That's something that has made us
work harder. When people said we were going to go away, it was a great
motivation for us."
How much does proving people wrong inspire you?
Joel: "It's what has driven is since day one. We've always been underdogs, if we weren't motivated by proving people wrong, we would never have got
signed. We came from a small town where being a musician simply wasn't
something that was understood. We like being put down sometimes, it makes us want to prove ourselves more."
Benji: "In a way, we're happy to be in third place. It means that we're still up there but we still have that top spot to aim for..."
Joel: "...so we can't sit back on our laurels."
So, what is the aim?
Joel: "I hope that one day we make a record that's important in pop culture. I feel that we have that opportunity and we have to keep at it until we get
there."
Benji: "You have to believe that otherwise what the hell are you doing?"
Joel: "It would be nice to release 14 important songs. Whether we will or not
isn't set in stone, but it's our dream and you have to believe in something."
What do you say to people who tell you that you're just Good Charlotte, that you don't have it in you to make a record that matters?
Benji: "They're the same people who told us we wouldn't last past our first
album."
Does it annoy you that people don't see you as cool?
Joel: "Whatever - we're happy with where we are."
Benji: "I think my band IS cool as shit. When I look at my band, I think we're the coolest people in the world. We've taken shit and stood through it. Now people seem comfortable with us. Even people who don't want to go out and buy our record have accepted us; we don't seem to offend them anymore."
Do you see GC as something you have to do artistically, or as a job?
Benji: "We've been quit3e good as acknowledging this as work. This is a job that we break our butts for. Not to say we don't have passion for it but we were raised by our families to work."
Joel: "You see these bands that are saying, 'OH, it's all too much, it's all
too tiring,' and then breaking up. That's just stupid. You have a job and
that's more than a lot of people have. My mom would say, 'You're going to
stop doing this because you're tired? Are you fucking stupid?'. Of course
the artistic side of music is incredibly important to me but, at the end of
the day, we come from working class families and we work at this."
That's a mature attitude. Is that how you feel now?
Benji: "We do. We were kids before and all kids are insecure - that's why
they're agressive and they pick on each other. We've certainly been there.
Kids have to spend a lot of energy figuring out who they are. I think we've
come through that now, which means we can start enjoying ourselves."
Joel: "I think we know who we are, we know what we're doing and we know where we want to go. We're lucky, it takes some people a long time to get to this point."
The release of Good Charlotte's fourth album, 'Good Morning Revival', was something of a Year Zero for the band. Once known for instantly memorable but immediately disposable pop-punk hits that made them teen idols around the world, their new record hums with a maturity and a desire to break away from the constraints of their previous image. Older, wiser and more settled, this was an album they knew could make or break them - one that could cast off the shackles of the old but could just as easily consign them to the scrap heap.
Its warm reception, then - 'Good Morning Revival' achieved top 10 chart debuts in 11 countries - is something the band's singer and guitarist, twins Joel and Benji Madden, talk about with equal measures of relief and vindication. Sitting back to think about all this, they cast a striking image - a ying and yang at times, two different whose contrasting opinions serve to make each other whole. And today, all thoughts are to the future, about what Good Charlotte can become, not what they were.
People used to think of Good Charlotte as a teen, pop band. Do you think you've cast off that image yet?
Benji: "Yes, but you can't get jaded about having an image put on you.
That's the nature of the music business. We're a band and a record label will try to package us. They want to try to sell us, that's what they do.
But there comes a time when an image just doesn't fit anymore. We're not 20 anymore, I'm 27 and..."
Joel: "...and we're not selling songs to 13-year-olds. We could try and it would be easy."
Benji: "But the intent isn't to make music for 13-year-olds, it's to make music for us. The interesting thing is we're still comparatively young compared to a lot of the bands that are becoming big now. I'm younger than Gerard Way and Pete Wentz, for example, which surprised me."
So you felt typeast by your past. Does this mean 'Good Morning Revival' was an attempt to get your band seen in a different light?
Benji: "Yes, that's perfectly put. We've put out a record that's truly our own sound. You can't call it pop-punk, you can't call it emo, you can't really call it anything. I never felt that we were a band that fitted into the genre we were put in. I've read things that have been written about us and it hasn't any relation to what we do."
Joel: "It seems people are looking at us differently now. They're not saying 'Good Charlotte' dismissively anymore. They're saying it as though they're interested in us."
Do you think people have started taking you seriously?
Joel: "Absolutely. There are magazines that are covering us now that would never have touched us before."
Has that surprised you?
Benji: "I think that what people expected from us was a couple of records, a lot
of sales, and then for us to disappear. That's something that has made us
work harder. When people said we were going to go away, it was a great
motivation for us."
How much does proving people wrong inspire you?
Joel: "It's what has driven is since day one. We've always been underdogs, if we weren't motivated by proving people wrong, we would never have got
signed. We came from a small town where being a musician simply wasn't
something that was understood. We like being put down sometimes, it makes us want to prove ourselves more."
Benji: "In a way, we're happy to be in third place. It means that we're still up there but we still have that top spot to aim for..."
Joel: "...so we can't sit back on our laurels."
So, what is the aim?
Joel: "I hope that one day we make a record that's important in pop culture. I feel that we have that opportunity and we have to keep at it until we get
there."
Benji: "You have to believe that otherwise what the hell are you doing?"
Joel: "It would be nice to release 14 important songs. Whether we will or not
isn't set in stone, but it's our dream and you have to believe in something."
What do you say to people who tell you that you're just Good Charlotte, that you don't have it in you to make a record that matters?
Benji: "They're the same people who told us we wouldn't last past our first
album."
Does it annoy you that people don't see you as cool?
Joel: "Whatever - we're happy with where we are."
Benji: "I think my band IS cool as shit. When I look at my band, I think we're the coolest people in the world. We've taken shit and stood through it. Now people seem comfortable with us. Even people who don't want to go out and buy our record have accepted us; we don't seem to offend them anymore."
Do you see GC as something you have to do artistically, or as a job?
Benji: "We've been quit3e good as acknowledging this as work. This is a job that we break our butts for. Not to say we don't have passion for it but we were raised by our families to work."
Joel: "You see these bands that are saying, 'OH, it's all too much, it's all
too tiring,' and then breaking up. That's just stupid. You have a job and
that's more than a lot of people have. My mom would say, 'You're going to
stop doing this because you're tired? Are you fucking stupid?'. Of course
the artistic side of music is incredibly important to me but, at the end of
the day, we come from working class families and we work at this."
That's a mature attitude. Is that how you feel now?
Benji: "We do. We were kids before and all kids are insecure - that's why
they're agressive and they pick on each other. We've certainly been there.
Kids have to spend a lot of energy figuring out who they are. I think we've
come through that now, which means we can start enjoying ourselves."
Joel: "I think we know who we are, we know what we're doing and we know where we want to go. We're lucky, it takes some people a long time to get to this point."
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