 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
| - Interviews - |
| . |
| * HOME * * Back 2 Interviews * * Bios * * Pics* * News * * Discography * * Guitar Tabs * * Quotes * * Facts * * Contact Me * * Xtra Stuff * |
| Mainstream: So you guys have a new album out in October, did you try anything new on it this time around? Joel: It's not so much about trying anything different, but we are different now because we've grown over the past 2-3 years with some of the songs I remembering writing like 4-5 years ago. We are just a little bit more mature I think. We tried a lot of different things but I think that's because we have the ability now to do that. Billy: Also I think it's because we used a different producer this time and it makes a huge difference. We used Eric Valentine this time and I think that every producer has a really different approach to making a record. So just because we made it with a different producer it came out with a totally different sound. On the last record pretty much all the songs have the same kind of idea. This time there's more then one slow song, there are a couple slow songs and there's a couple songs that are really fast like punk songs. But, then there are also a lot of really normal rock songs so it's a lot more diverse I would say. Joel: Does Paul have anything to add to that? Paul: Nah, you pretty much covered everything I was going to say. Mainstream: Did you guys already pick the first single? Billy: Yeah we did it's called, �Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.� It's just an all around good song, I don't even know. Joel: It's kind of one of those things where we have faith in all of our songs on our record. I wouldn't say we are a radio band so we didn't really write the record for anything with radio in mind. We just let our label pick the song that they thought would do good on radio because we don't really care we love all the songs on the record. We love �Lifestlyes� as much as any other song so when everyone started talking about that song we were completely down with it. Paul: We are really bias with ourselves, we like ourselves way too much. Billy: Yeah, this CD is the best CD made in the history of music. < Everyone Laughs > Mainstream: Do you guys already know the concept for the new video? Billy: No, we're actually talking about that today on who will produce it and everything like that. By the end of the day we'll know all that information and have it all fixed, but we don't know it right now. Mainstream: How was the recording process for the new album? You guys were out in LA for a while and then went back home for the mixing. Billy: Yeah, we pretty much did everything in LA. Eric our producer has his own studio called Barefoot Studios. It was cool because you can only work for a certain block and < Hiccups > I'm sorry I have the hiccups today! You usually have to work from like 10am to 10pm and get it all done between there. But since Eric owns the studio we kept going until like 10 in the morning and work until like 6am, we could just go forever. If it was a good day we could just go and go and go, but if it was a bad day then we could just cut it early and we wouldn't be wasting any money and we could do whatever we wanted. This time we had a lot more free time and we spent a lot more time making this record then we did the last time. Mainstream: How do you think the absence of a permanent drummer has affected the band in anyway? Joel: Eh, drummers are drummers. The guy that's on tour with us right now is a good friend of ours named Tom and we had Dusty with us last year. We've just had our friends playing with us and they are all really great drummers. It's been great because it's so fun having our friends out with us. Josh Freese played on the record, so we didn't play with anything different. For the record Josh Freese is probably the best drummer in Rock as far as I'm concerned. So, playing with him I actually think that he made us sound better which is a huge plus. Billy: Comments from Paul? Paul: Um, I'm going to have to say �No� this time. Mainstream: When did you find the time to write a lot of the songs for the new album? Joel: I know we wrote a lot of songs while we were on tour but then when we got into the studio we scratched a lot of them. Billy: Which was kind of weird because all the songs were done last time before we even got into the studio to record them. Joel: Yeah there were a couple points where I had to go away for a couple days and try to write and I'd come back with a song or two. But a lot of the songs were in the studio because the studio for some reason helped when we sat down to write Benji and I just flowed in the studio. I think it was because the studio was an old Motown style place and there was a lot of energy there. We did end up writing a lot while we were in the studio though. Mainstream: Did you guys feel any extra pressure going in for your sophomore release? Joel: Definitely. Billy: I mean I think that we are all feeling the pressure right now. I think that we are all kind of nervous because we made this record and you can't really judge this record, but we sat around and listened and we were all like, �Man I am so proud of this record.� It seems like a really great record and step for us but you know who knows what the rest of the world will think. I know that if we are happy with our music then we should just be content in general. We are all nervous but I think that it's an awesome record. Joel: I think that there was a lot of extra pressure on us because we did prove ourselves with the first record. Everyone is just waiting to see if the last record was just kind of a lucky fall into the row record. I think this record really proves a lot of things. It proves our musicianship, our song writing, it proves how real we are because we talk about a lot of the same things as we did in the last record that we do in this record. So uh, yeah never mind. Paul: Yeah Joel yeah, we hear you man! Mainstream: What do you think is harder doing what you want and expect out of the music or doing what fans expect and want out of you? Joel: Well something that really affected me heavily for writing lyrics for the record was the fans. Being on the road for the last 2 1/2 years I have gotten a lot of letters from fans that have affected me really deeply. There's a song on the record called �Hold On� that I wrote after reading like hundreds of fans writing me telling me about how they were going to commit suicide or they thought about suicide. Our record is affected by our fans, but it's also affected by my life experiences since they are mainly what I write about. All of us are affected musically by the bands we tour with and the bands that come out that we love like new bands and old bands. We didn't really try for anything. We went into this record and we didn't have any pressure on what our fans wanted because we feel like our fans will support us no matter what. As long as we keep making real music and stay true to ourselves then they will still like us. So there wasn't much pressure there I don't think. Mainstream: I heard you guys have had some crazy fan experiences at Warped Tour, there was one just the other day at a Meet N' Greet right? Joel: Yeah, there was this crazy mob the other day at Warped Tour. They just busted in and it turned out to be this crazy experience. That happens more and more now and it's just so weird. Billy: Good Charlotte was assigned to the meet n' greet area for an hour or an hour and 15 minutes and there were still so many kids that hadn't gotten into the signing yet. So we kind of got up like we were done and we were getting ready to walk away and there was caution tape all around us in the area. But a couple hundred kids just broke through the caution tape and all came in and were like, �Sign this, sign this!� They were all jumping all over the table and everything and that was pretty weird. Paul: It was crazy but pretty outstanding at the same time. Mainstream: Can we look forward to seeing the first singles video being debuted on your show 'All Things Rock?' Joel: Yeah of course we are, of course! I mean we talk about Good Charlotte every 5 seconds on that show. But um, The Used are playing right now. But yeah we are definitely going to try and play our music video and get it up on MTV as much as we can. I mean what's the point of even having a music video if no one even sees it.th Mainstream: What about Warped Tour? Is this a tour you could see yourselves doing every year? Billy: Every year I don't know about that because� Joel: I would! Billy: Yeah, Joel would. I think it's a great thing because you get to play to so many kids and you get to meet a million bands. But it's REALLY, REALLY hot some days. Joel: Yeah today is one of those days that I don't think any of us would want to be here. It's just way too hot!e same time. Mainstream: What next would you like to see happen for Good Charlotte? Joel: Be the biggest band in the world! Paul: Just to be able to stay and do this for as long as possible. Joel: You know what? We are just thankful that we are able to do this and we try not to look too far ahead. We try to look day to day, and we are happy where we are at today Mainstream: For the new album will you guys be having a lot more radio play on the songs? Joel: We don't know, we'll see. Billy: I don't know we didn't go into making the record hoping for it to be a radio album. That's not really up to us anyways. Joel: Either way, if we get played on the radio and MTV or not, we are still going to be Good Charlotte and we're still going to tour and we'll still make another record after this. So the next record is still going to be better. If they play us cool we would love it, but if they don't then we aren't worried at all. |
|
|
|
|