Interview with Good Charlotte

Good Charlotte interview w/ Benji 03/30/08 – phoner interview :: punk76.com

Oliver P76: Tell me about the beginning, when you got influenced trough music – especially Punkrock music. I clearly renember that I got influenced in the beginning by Dead Kennedys and Ten Foot Pole.
Benji: If you wanna know, what part Punk played in my musical beginnings, it had been the New Wave of punk. I was really starting listenning to music, when I was fourteen. That´s when Green Day first came out, Rancid just got out…

Oliver P76: (interupts) Rancid is still a very good band!
Benji: Yeah! And so I was listening to the Offspring. When I was listening to the Dead Kennedys I didn´t really liked it. I wanted melodies and when I heard Nofx I thought: “That´s awesome!”. And when I found out about Rancid I thought they look coolest I´ve ever seen.

Oliver P76: Did you ever worked with Tim Armstrong (of Rancid)? Benji: We´ve been friends for years and so we´ve started a few things but we never really came up with music. But I´ve been always been a fan of Tim and all these guys. (about influences Benji said) In the 90´s Radio Rock was like huge. I loved all the bands, that got played on the Rock stations, I loved like Nirvarna, I liked Sublime, Alice In Chains and all that stuff, that modern Rock stations played.

Oliver P76: (Benji and me shortly talked about our ages. I answeared him) I know what you mean, because we both grew up to the same music.
Benji: Right. You are at my brothers age. I´ve got an older brother and he was totally into The Cure.

Oliver P76: Definintely one of my favourite influences too.
Benji: When we came out, everyone called us a Pop Punk band. It was kind of weird, also one of my favourite bands is Weezer. I loved Weezer and I loved Marilin Manson or Nine Inch Nails and I loved all that stuff, that was really happening in the 90´s. To me the 90´s was the best decade for music – I really loved it. When I was getting older and started a band I was I got into The Clash. I actually think it was Rancid, who was talking about The Clash. About the old Punk The Clash is my favourite.

Oliver P76: I´m running P76 for about 4-5 years now. I receive(d) tons of music. But I never received an Good Charlotte album. And honestly, I know nothing about your band. I only got one song from your band, that was contributed to a Fat Wreck compilation. So may you please tell me, how GC came into the business and how everything began?
Benji: If you wanna know more about GC we have to sit down for an hour and listen deeply our lyrics and to the songs. But when our first record came out in 2000 – we started our band in high school with the same guys, that are in the band now – except Dean, our drummer. He is in the band for four years now. Before he was playing with Morrissey. So, when we got out of Highschool we decided music is what we want to do with our lives. We don´t really had to graduate College, we just wanted to go out and play.

Oliver P76: Did your parents freaked out, when they heard about your decision?
Benji: No, because where we lived it´s not like a lot of people where really went like to College. They didn´t really freaked out. My Mom was really supportive actually.

Oliver P76: Let me hear something about your career. You told me, that you got signed in 2000.
Benji: Yes, in 99` by a guy named David Nassie. He signed Oasis and he signed…

Oliver P76: (interupts) You directly made it to a major label?
Benji: To be honest: We wanted to be on a major label. So many bands that I loved, like Oasis… (starts new) Our goal always was to be the biggest band in the world!

Oliver P76: (laughing) Great! I went to a few shows at this big arena, where we lived. I saw the Beastie Boys play, I got to see some really great shows. I saw Green Day in the arena. I never thougt it was uncool to be a huge band? I never got that old mentality like we wanna stay in the van and play in front of a few kids. I mean when our first record came out we drove with a van and started playing in front of three kids – we´ve done all that. But I definitely enjoy more the shows in front of 15 000.
Oliver P76: But how did that came? I mean, you mentioned, that you got signed – but how did someone once found out about you?
Benji: What happened was, we was always go up to Washington D.C. or Baltimore. We lived about 1 ½ hours from these cities - in the middle of nowhere. We go there every weekend to every show. Whenever Punkbands came to town or Rock bands, whenever there was a show I take demos and demos with me and gave them out to everyone at the shows. And a guy that worked at the local Sony office heard it and he liked it. So he called me and he was like: “Hey, I know some people in New York. I want you to play for them”. Sure enough, one thing leads to another we started playing for the label and other labels heard it and other labels showed attention in this big thing. They came to see us play and they all wanted us. The funny thing is, that when all the labels came to see us, we called them: “Come down to see us in D. C. watch us play. We can sell out 1500 people, no problem!”. But the thing is, we couldn´t even get a hundret people in D.C., because we really didn´t lived in D.C. What we did was we lied basically and went and got every single kid, that we got ever to know since like Kindergarten and every single kid we worked on tour with and every single friend of our Mom and we got 1500 people in this club! And we kept the labels in a separate section, so that they couldn´t hear the people talking, because everyone knew us. We wanted them to think, that people came to see us play. The next week they all wanted to sign us. We ended up signing, like I said, with David Nassie and made a record that out in 2000. And in 2002, that´s when we put out “The Young And The Hopeless” and that was when we really, really tooked off. And after that record we put out a little bit more dramatic record “The Chronicles Of Live And Death”. And this is like years before “The Black Parade” (My Chemical Romance). This is four years ago. I was so proud of that record and it was so dramatic and I loved the lyrics on that record. We had some trouble on that record because our drummer left to be on his brothers band.

Oliver P76: What was that band called?
Benji: They are not around any more. There was called “Wakefield”.

Oliver P76: A real good drummer is important for a band. Whenever I listen to music, I always pay attention on the drums.
Benji: There are the backbone of a band. We almost broke up on that record. Without a drummer we was missing shows and we had a lot of problems on the stage. The worst thing for beeing in a band is, when you don´t have a drummer, who knows all that stuff. Finally on that record – on Chronicles – Dean, who was playing with Morrissey – had been friends with us for a couple of years. And Dean said: “Hey, I´ve got a little bit time off, let me help you out”. When Dean stepped in it was just perfect and it was the best drummer we´ve ever played with. And then we made this last record Good Morning Rivival – our latest record and it was kind of a beginning of the next chapter for us. We got trough these problems and these are the ups and downs of a band. People love you and they hate you and then they love you again. And everybody is talking about: “Are you guys punk?” All that stuff that come and gone it´s a distant memory. Now everyone knows, it seems like we´re here to stay. We have seen a lot of bands come and go. I think we really sound ourselfes and have a lot of confidence. We really stopped questioning – actually we´re letting people ask, who we are. We never started saying: “Hey, I don´t have to fucking answear you!”. Love us or hate us, but over here, we´re doing a good thing in music and we love our band. If I think about the punkrock scene in the beginning they really embraced us. They´re really routing a way for us. And then – I think the same happened to Green Day – when we had succsess – I don´t know, wheather it was jealousy – you kind of get a little fucked. But since then it´s come all the way back to a circle. When we got at the Warped Tour now.. .When we started out with the Warped Tour, we were kind of little brothers of the tour, everybody just hugged or kissed us…

Oliver P76: May you also say, that the scene has disrespected you? I mean, there we´re some bands out there, that came from the underground, playing in some clubs and finally got signed to Epitaph or Fat. Those bands have a special kind of credibility. But then came Good Charlotte, a band from a small town, that got directly signed to a major label and their music is mostley dedicated to younger kids.
Benji: About people from the punkrockscene and if you talk about credibility, I always say: What´s more credible? Working class guys from a small town had a dream and believed in it or some kids, whose parents bought them a van and got signed to an independent label because the did not really need the money. If that´s credibility.. I just think that at the end of the day your credibility is really in your catalouge. If kids say: This band is so cool and they got signed on Epitaph – or whatever – I go: “Ok kids, I´ve been here for eight years, and we´re still here in four years and let´s sit down and talk about credibility”. It goes like these guys had been together for four years and they just got signed to Epitaph. You have a long way to go before you got credibility. Of course there is some instant crap, that comes with beeing on a certain label and touring with NoFx – you know?

Oliver P76: By the Nofx: You re-recorded “The Rich And Famous” new as a accoustic song and contributed it to a Fat Wreck compilation. How did that came?
Benji: We knew Fat Mike for a couple of years now – I think for probably 6 or 7 years and he asked us to have a song on a compilation. Of course and so we called the label and we give them one.

Oliver P76: I really wonder, that Mike has choosen your song, because he is constantly fighting against main stream music. So that´s inconsitent.
Benji: Yeah, but I think it had more to do with the friendship. All the lines get blurred, when you´re friends with people! I´m friends with people like 5 years ago I would have said, I never listen to their music. And now I´m friends with them and I love their music. If anything is asking, I´m saying: “Fuck you! I love them”. I´m not the type of guy, that cares if I´m friends with somebody that´s in this Pop act. If people go: “How could you go along with them and be friends with them?” I go: “Hey that´s my friend. Don´t go and talk shit about them”. For me I think you´re weak if you´re gonna sit there and be afraid to admit. I don´t care if it´s fucking The Jungle Brothers or if it´s fucking The Casualties. At the end of the day you´re a good guy or a bad guy. If I´m friends with somebody that´s in the Casualties, it´s because I like them – it´s just like that! It´s weird on these punk tours and you see like these guys and they´re acted differentl way when they´re hanging out with somebody. But when Fat Mike comes around they acted different, like: “Oh, it´s not cool to be friends with this band”. It´s like get over it, man! That´s lame!

Oliver P76: When I talked to Mark Hoppus I told him how strange the situation, that I was talking to a millioneer, who made a lot of money trough Punkrock music. So, have you become millioneers trough your music as well?
Benji: Yes.

Oliver P76: What kind of feeling is it, that you can say: Yes, I made it trough my music?
Benji: I never really think about the money. I mean it´s good to keep track of it all but I don´t really think about it. My tourmanager is leading over me. You don´t really think about it, but when you take your mom or family out to dinner it is nice to be able to pay for it. Those are the moments, when you feel awesome. Ok, my sister just had a baby and so I bought a baby shower and a family car. That´s when you realize: “Wow, I can buy my sister a car” and that´s the best feeling in the world. It makes you feel so grateful. You know, it is awesome and you appreciate your fans. I don´t care, what anyone says, money makes life a lot easier. We used always to have always this car, that never start and we had to push it to get it rolling and it was fucking freezing in the wintertime. Everyday I get in my nice ass car and it starts right up it´s so awesome with stereo. I really feel lucky and thankful.

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