22 November 2010
A decade after the release of Good Charlotte’s debut album, the US pop-rockers almost scrapped their latest creation Cardiology and ditched music altogether.
In July of this year, Good Charlotte – vocalist Joel Madden, guitaristBenji Madden, guitarist Billy Martin, bassist Paul Thomas and new edition and drummer Dean Butterworth – dumped their label Sony Music and signed with Capitol Records, part of the EMI family. TMN caught up with tattooed twin Benji, whilst they were in Sydney performing for the Debit Mastercard Priceless series.
“We were on a label that didn’t really care, the staff had changed six times over, no one really got our band anymore…I thought maybe this is it, maybe we are not meant to still be here, maybe we just got really lucky and maybe the ride’s over,” reflects Benji.
This self-doubt is unsurprising when you consider the waning popularity of the band in recent years. After two long years spent supporting their flop of a fourth album, Good Morning Revival back in 2007; fans were hungry for the classic GC found on their first self-titled record. Benji says when the band decided to take a year off he stopped caring about media opinion and was able to write honest music again.
“I think that’s why this record sounds more like the first record because when we wrote the first one we were just fans and when we made this record we were truly fans again.
“We couldn’t write the songs that are on Cardiology on Good Morning Revival because our guard was up,” admits the 31-year-old. “Why would we write a personal song like 1979 (the year the Madden twins were born) or why would Joel write Harlow’s Song (about Joel’s daughter to partner Nicole Ritchie), just to put it out there and have people tear you to shreds?”
For a guy who once famously wrote the lyrics “I’m young, I’m hopeless, I’m lost and I know this,” he seems… well, hopeful, and on track. Good Charlotte’s fifth opus takes us back to basics; it’s that guilty pleasure mix of pop rock churned with simple guitar riffs and whoa oh’s that make you wanna don your Chuck Taylor’s and dye your hair blue. This is partly thanks to producer Don Gilmore who worked on the band’s first record. “He actually cares more about us as people than he even cares about the music,” says Benji.
Similar to the label switcheroo, Gilmore was GC’s second choice.Howard Benson (who worked on My Chemical Romance’s, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge and The All-American Rejects’, Move Along) was fired after not once appearing in the studio throughout the recording process. Benji blogged of his frustration on the band’s website and the over-600 responses from fans cemented his decision to start again.
“The response from the fans was so overwhelmingly positive that the next day I wrote the song Let The Music Play. It was really a turning point, that’s when we started over,” explains Benji.
Let The Music Play is the next single to be released from the album and is dedicated to new beginnings and, of course, their fans. After a complete turnaround from almost giving up, to releasing a mature throwback record that tips its fedora hat to the bands breakout release; Benji says there’s still more for him to achieve within the industry.
“There’s still a lot of things I’d love to be able to do within the music industry. I’d love to be able to take a Grammy home to my mother and be like ‘look mum!’” he jokes. “I think we’ll just stick around for another 10 years and see what happens.”
In July of this year, Good Charlotte – vocalist Joel Madden, guitaristBenji Madden, guitarist Billy Martin, bassist Paul Thomas and new edition and drummer Dean Butterworth – dumped their label Sony Music and signed with Capitol Records, part of the EMI family. TMN caught up with tattooed twin Benji, whilst they were in Sydney performing for the Debit Mastercard Priceless series.
“We were on a label that didn’t really care, the staff had changed six times over, no one really got our band anymore…I thought maybe this is it, maybe we are not meant to still be here, maybe we just got really lucky and maybe the ride’s over,” reflects Benji.
This self-doubt is unsurprising when you consider the waning popularity of the band in recent years. After two long years spent supporting their flop of a fourth album, Good Morning Revival back in 2007; fans were hungry for the classic GC found on their first self-titled record. Benji says when the band decided to take a year off he stopped caring about media opinion and was able to write honest music again.
“I think that’s why this record sounds more like the first record because when we wrote the first one we were just fans and when we made this record we were truly fans again.
“We couldn’t write the songs that are on Cardiology on Good Morning Revival because our guard was up,” admits the 31-year-old. “Why would we write a personal song like 1979 (the year the Madden twins were born) or why would Joel write Harlow’s Song (about Joel’s daughter to partner Nicole Ritchie), just to put it out there and have people tear you to shreds?”
For a guy who once famously wrote the lyrics “I’m young, I’m hopeless, I’m lost and I know this,” he seems… well, hopeful, and on track. Good Charlotte’s fifth opus takes us back to basics; it’s that guilty pleasure mix of pop rock churned with simple guitar riffs and whoa oh’s that make you wanna don your Chuck Taylor’s and dye your hair blue. This is partly thanks to producer Don Gilmore who worked on the band’s first record. “He actually cares more about us as people than he even cares about the music,” says Benji.
Similar to the label switcheroo, Gilmore was GC’s second choice.Howard Benson (who worked on My Chemical Romance’s, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge and The All-American Rejects’, Move Along) was fired after not once appearing in the studio throughout the recording process. Benji blogged of his frustration on the band’s website and the over-600 responses from fans cemented his decision to start again.
“The response from the fans was so overwhelmingly positive that the next day I wrote the song Let The Music Play. It was really a turning point, that’s when we started over,” explains Benji.
Let The Music Play is the next single to be released from the album and is dedicated to new beginnings and, of course, their fans. After a complete turnaround from almost giving up, to releasing a mature throwback record that tips its fedora hat to the bands breakout release; Benji says there’s still more for him to achieve within the industry.
“There’s still a lot of things I’d love to be able to do within the music industry. I’d love to be able to take a Grammy home to my mother and be like ‘look mum!’” he jokes. “I think we’ll just stick around for another 10 years and see what happens.”
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