Interview

 

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to interview GC at the show at Clutch Cargos on October 28th. I'm trying to put the interview online for everyone to listen to, but for now, please read! It's kinda REALLY long... sorry... but maybe you'll find out something about the band you didn't know before =0)

 

Eileen: So why did you guys decide to name the band after a book?

Benji: Ah, well, Joel claims that it's a book that he really likes when he was little. But we just like the name "Good Charlotte." We saw the book, it was kinda weird, I mean thats a weird lookin' little book, isn't it? Look at it!

Eileen: Well, what about the little girl with blue hair?

Benji: Ah, yeah, well, I dunno. Isn't that kinda weird? Isn't that a weird lookin' little book though?

Eileen: Yeah, well, I guess.

Benji: Yeah, it is. C'mon look at that! It's kinda weird Anyways, so we just liked it, thought it was a cool name--- unique. Y'know?

Eileen: A lot of songs that you guys sing are about not fitting in and stuff. So what was high school like for you guys? Did you guys not fit in?

Benji: Um....Well, we were more like we got along with everyone, like cause we were nice guys and everyone, like y'know, we had friends, but we were sorta anti-popular. And sort of....

Eileen: Like all "those" people?

Benji: Yeah, because they did give us a really hard time.

Eileen: Really? Like what did they do?

Benji: I mean...

Eileen: Normal stuff?

Benji: Yeah, jock--bully stuff. Y'know, and like kind of our homelife situation changed throughout high school, and they sorta liked to point that out and make it known to everyone. And I mean Paul definitely was ( this part got cut off, but basically Paul used to be in drama and wasn't considered "cool" either)

Paul: I mean, your in theater------but y'know it's like we're all in our own little world---kind of.

Eileen: Yeah, high school's really cliquey

Paul: Oh, yeah.

Benji: And we were very anti-clique, y'know? And that's another thing with our music-- our music is very anti-clique----we want everyone to come to our shows and everything. Even it goes beyond like punk rock. Punk Rock is supposed to be anti-clique and that's why we don't really, we don't consider ourselves a punk rock band. Because these days, yeah--we're just a band, these days even that's gotten cliquey Like your not punk enough or this enough or that enough and like whatever.....y'know, just cometo the show and everyone have a good time. So we're like very anti-cliquey y'know?

Eileen: Yeah, I know...So you and Joel usually write the music right? How come only you and Joel write the music?

Benji: Um.. that's just sort of the way it works. We write all of the songs on acoustic guitar, and we bring them to the band and thankfully they like 'em. And so it just works out that way.

Paul: Most of the time...

Benji: Yeah, most of the time they like 'em (laughs).

Eileen: So what are you guys inspired by?

Benji: Um.. We're inspired by our lives. Just stuff that's real to us. Like all of our songs are very autobiagriphal....autobiographical.....autobiographical...

Paul: autobiagriphal..

Benji: Autoblahblahblah.....

Eileen: Like everything about your dad?

Benji: Uh-huh. Like everything in the songs is real. It's all real and so we just write about what's real and sometimes after we write a song and we sing it in front of people.....(Paul interupts).......so sometimes after we write a song, uh...it's actually kind of embarrassing to sing.

Eileen: So what do your parents think of all of this?

Benji: Well, I don't know about my dad, I haven't talked to my dad in years. umm...

Eileen: Do you think he knows?

Benji: Um, I'm sure he's heard it through the grapevine. My mom's great y'know..my mom's very supportive.

Eileen: Is that why you have mom..( points to his tattoo)

Benji: Yeah, totally.

Eileen: So why is "Thank You Mom" a hidden track? Why didn't you guys put it on as a separate track?

Benji: Cause we didn't wanna like, it wasn't like a commercial thing. It was just something we did for our moms, for all of our moms. It was just something we did cause we wanted to do it like as from us to them, not for anyone else. And we're glad that people like the song--but it wasn't for like to sell records, it was to thank our moms.

Paul: We're all a bunch of momma's boys.

Benji: Yeah.

Eileen: So how do you guys like being on the road?

Benji: It's awesome. It's tiring, but it's awesome. It never gets old, it's always something new everyday. We're like best friends with all the bands we're on tour with right now---Fenix TX, New Found Glory and Lefty.

Eileen: What was it like being on tour with EVE 6?

Benji: Awesome.

Paul: Oh, it was great.

Eileen: You guys were here in September for that festival, right?

Benji: Yup.

Eileen: See, I missed that..I didn't find out till the next day.

Benji: Yeah, apparently everyone did cause there was only like 15 people watching us.

Eileen: Yeah, I actually was walking around up there earlier, but didn't know u guys were going to be playing. Did you guys get to walk around at all?

Benji: Yeah, some.

Eileen: Yeah, I got to meet EVE 6 cause they were just walking around.

Benji: They're good friends of ours now too. We love those guys.

Paul: We talk to them all the time. We're gonna see them when we go out to LA

Benji: Yeah, we're excited, I miss those guys alot. The cool thing about touring is that you make alot of good friends. No one else knows what it's like to be out there on the road, to be doing this every night, except for those guys---except for the bands your on tour with. Cause we're all like in it together.

Eileen: So isn't this like your first tour?

Benji: This is our second.....we were with EVE 6.

Eileen: I mean, this is you first like, big tour.

Paul: Yeah, this is our first like long tour, we only did like 12 shows with EVE 6

Benji: Yeah.

Eileen: So are you guys going to headline a tour?

Benji: It would suck if we didn't. We'd be doing pretty bad if we never...

Eileen: No, I mean like anytime soon?

Benji: No, not soon. We like opening for people. But, eventually we will. We'll see what happens-- I mean, it all depends y'know.

Eileen: So what do you guys think of Wakefield wanting to "follow in your footsteps"?

Benji: Um.. it's cool. It's cool--yeah, I mean, I take it as a huge compliment.

Eileen: So what advice would you give them?

Benji: I just tell every band to just believe in yourselves and really like play as many shows anywhere, anytime, for anyone as you can. Just don't stop. Those guys are our boys. They're like our little brothers.

Paul: It's just like something that I've come to learn, that if you want something, don't stop till you get it. I mean, it happened for us.

Benji: Totally..It's like I mean, Wakefield, they're like our little brothers. Like, there's alot of bands that come up to us and give us demos at shows and on the road and we consider them all like our....but those bands, they've got the courage to come up to us and talk to us and stuff cause I was there, and I totally support them.

Eileen: So how did you guys get signed?

Benji: It was a very long process. But eventually we did a bunch of shows with Lit and the last show with Lit ended up being a big showcase and a lot of labels came out and the next week it sort of picked up and eventually we just picked the label we wanted to be with, and it was good.

Eileen: Ok--so how about your stage names? How'd you guys come up with that?

Benji: Those just kind of happened. It just kind of developed y'know? All in different ways. It would take a long time to tell you.

Eileen: So who's Sid Vicious?

Benji: You don't know who Sid Vicious is? ( Paul and my friend Angie also say the same thing)

Eileen: No, I'm sorry. ( me very embarrassed)

Benji: It's ok--Sid Vicious was ah...

Paul: Ever heard of the Sex Pistols?

Eileen: Yeah.---

Benji: Bass player for the Sex Pistols.

Eileen: Really?

Benji: Yeah, Sid Vicious died a long time ago.

Paul: He was like a big 70's....

Benji: Icon

Paul: Rock icon--

Eileen: Like, I hear about Elvis Costello and I don't know who that is--

Benji: Well, you should-- you know what?----you know what I do is just when I read an interview with a band I really love, and they name old bands I've never heard of, I go out and buy their record. And I end up liking them as much as I like the band. Like thats how I found out about The Clash, I found out about all this old stuff-- um, Minor Threat--all these bands I found out through bands like Rancid and all these other bands. It's cool.

Eileen: So whatdo you guys like to do for fun besides play music?

Benji: Ahhh...

Paul: Video games.

Benji: Wait, we hang out with each other alot.

Eileen: So have you guys gotten that new playstation thing yet?

Paul: Nope, not yet.

Eileen: Well, you guys'll probably end up getting one.

Benji: I hope so, we'll see.

Eileen: Well, you guys are under Sony, so shouldn't they send you guys one?

Benji: Maybe, I dunno--we'll see.

Eileen: I know Billy always has stars on and the album has stars all over it--so do the stars mean anything?

Benji: We all just like stars.

Eileen: So have you guys always really been into music?

Benji: Mmm..., yeah-- we've always been into music, but it was just one day....Paul had been in bands a lot longer than we have, and Aaron had always played around his house. But then one day, when me and Joel decided that we wanted to start a band, we knew Paul through his sister, and we knew Aaron through school-- and we were sort of like, "hey, u wanna jam?" and they were like "OK"------and we did and we were just like good. Now we're just like best friends. And Billy joined afterwards---we decided we wanted another guitar player.

Eileen: So what do you guys think about being famous?

Benji: Are we famous?

Paul: I don't even think we're famous. Are we?

Benji: (laughs) I didn't know that we were.

Eileen: Well, I know down in Maryland..

Benji: Yeah, OK, yeah, we're pretty well....

Paul: It's a huge compliment when someone recognizes you and when you like don't even know them.

Benji: It's always the pink spot in my hair.

Paul: Yeah, you get it more than anyone.

Benji: I get recognized more than anyone cause I guess my...

Eileen: Pink hair.

Benji: Yeah

Paul: Like she didn't even recognize me ( referring to when I told him I didn't recognize him at first ).

Benji: It's cool, it's really fun to be able to have a positive influence on people because when they come up to you and are looking up to you, you can actually do good things.

Eileen: So do you know what the next single is that gonna be out?

Benji: We don't have any idea. What single do you think we should put out?

Eileen: I like "Complicated".

Benji: Yeah, Alot of people say that. A lot of people say "Worldwide".

Eileen: Yeah, I love that song. OK--how come on the promo single (acoustic version), the chorus is different?

Benji: Cause it's just a different version.

Eileen: Do you guys ever play it?

Benji: Uh-huh, sometimes----every once in a while.

Eileen: So what was it like making tha video? What was Mandy Moore like?

Benji: It was a blast.

Paul: It was like two of the funnest days we've had in like three years.

Benji: Yeah, two of the funnest days ever. Mandy Moore was awesome. Really cool, really nice-- very, very cool to hang out with. I can't wait to hang out with her again.

Paul: All the kids in the video were really cool too. That was our first time ever being in Canada, so it was great.

Benji: Yeah, it was cool.

Eileen: So where do you guys usually make your videos--like could I come and be in one and just jump around or something?

Benji: Yeah, sure.

Eileen: Well, I think that's it--thank you.

Benji: Cool, thanks.