CCTeens: How old were you guys when you first started?
JOEL: Well, We started the band... I was 16, Billy hadn't joined, he joined about two years ago, he was 18, so that was a couple years into it, so when we started the band, I was 16, Benji was 16, and Paul was 15, so we were all pretty young.
CCTeens: Who influenced you to get into music, and also the direction you're going into now?
JOEL: Well, our biggest influences would probably be a lot of punk bands, like newer punk bands like Green Day, Rancid, they were the ones that really influenced us when we would see them play, and when we would hear their music, we wanted to start a band. And then when we started getting into music we would read their interviews, and they would mention bands, like older bands, like the Clash, or the Sex Pistols, but we were really into the newer bands first, you know?
BILLY: The first band for me was always SILVERCHAIR because they were like 15 and 16, you know, on tour with records, and I was like wow, I wanna do that, and they're still my favorite band just cause I totally respected them.
CCTeens: The groups and performers are getting younger and younger these days, what do you think of the state of music now and where do you think it's going?
JOEL: A lot of people complain about the state of music cause' of pop and how big it is. I think that's a good thing because it's giving like a lot of Punk music and rock music a chance to brew underground, you know? And like to me, I mean, like for us it's... we don't have as many fans as say a pop group, but I don't mind that because our fans are real. And they come out to our shows and we hang out with them and it's a really amazing thing to have, you know, even if it's kind of underground. But, I think in the next couple years, it's really gonna come back. I think that it's really gonna swing back around, you know? Just the way it always does, you know? Pop will be big for a while and then it'll swing back around to where something will come out to break through that.
CCTeens: What do you want to do to make your mark? What difference do you want to make?
JOEL: We never really thought about making a mark, you know? Like, we just want to be Good Charlotte and we want to be good to our fans.
BILLY: If we make a mark that's awesome, but we're going to play songs and go on tour and be a band and have a good time. The bottom line is that we're going to make music that we love and we're going to make music for our fans and however many fans we have that's what it's about. And if more people get into us, that's cool. But if they don't, we're still gonna be doing it.
CCTeens: What's your experience so far this tour?
JOEL: It's been awesome! We came out to do like we're going to do a month and a half with 40 really awesome bands. You know, all the time bands coming in and out. We got to meet a lot of bands that we look up to for a long time. We get to play to a huge number of kids every day. It's like a punk rock summer camp! It's been really awesome.
CCTeens: Have you started thinking about the new CD and what direction do you think it will go into?
JOEL: I definitely think that it will be Good Charlotte but I think it's gonna be... Playing live on the road has changed us a little bit you know, and I think you're going to have a lot more songs that are going to be.... A little bit more straight ahead rock on this record and um... Songs that will be a little more exciting live. So I definitely see it being more towards the live thing.
CCTeens: Do you have a preference to being in the studio versus playing on the road?
BILLY: They both have their ups and downs; nothing beats playing in concert live. Traveling sometimes isn't the best. But playing live, you can't top that! Being in the studio is cool because you record and the final outcome is like, wow we did this! It's a lot of work.
CCTeens: What do you guys do when you're on your own as a group?
JOEL: We do small clubs and we like to be right in the face of our fans.
CCTeens: Do you have any advice for teens that are aspiring to do what you guys are doing?
BILLY: Don't let anyone tell you that you can't do it and never stop. It takes a lot of persistence and you just gotta keep doing it. Don't listen to anyone because no one else does this better for them than themselves.