| GOOD CHARLOTTE's BENJI MADDEN just wants to let the music play... |
| Written by Samantha McQueen |
| Sunday, 12 December 2010 23:23 |
 GOOD CHARLOTTE guitarist and songwriter BENJI MADDEN has never been one to ignore the wishes of his fans. If you take a look at the band’s website, it is slap-in-the-face obvious that these guys live and breathe for their fans. Why else will they actively update the band’s Twitter, Facebook, blog, vlogs on GCTV and the GCFAM (Good Charlotte’s equivalent of “Little Monsters” or the “MCRmy”) just to let fans know what is on their minds? “It’s a really great way for your fans to get to know you instead of getting to know what other people are putting out there. They really get to know it from us first hand. They know us.” That could explain why, forty seconds into our conversation, Benji confirms what Kiwi fans have been crossing their fingers and toes for - Good Charlotte will be doing a show in New Zealand in 2011. Never mind that nothing has been officially announced by labels or touring companies; Benji just wanted fans to know that they’re coming. Good Charlotte are a rarity. It’s been 15 years since Benji and his twin brother Joel formed Good Charlotte, back when they were 16-year-old un-inked teenagers from Maryland in love with making music. While many things have changed (the brothers’ love of tattoos are almost as famous as the band itself), their love of music isn’t one of them. Almost 10 years after their self-titled debut hit shelves, they’re traveling the world promoting 'Cardiology', their fifth studio album, which is all about the body’s most complex muscle - the heart. Speaking from their honorary home of Australia, Benji and I chat (or rather, he chats and I listen in awe) about the new album - including the spine-tingling 'Harlow’s Song' - not being a critic’s favourite and the frustrations of dealing with people who aren’t in love with music like they are. COUP DE MAIN: 'Cardiology' has the distinct Good Charlotte sound that fans have come to love from your self-titled debut. Why did you guys decide to return to your pop-punk roots after musically exploring away from it in the last two albums? BENJI MADDEN: I think it was kind of natural. On the last record 'Good Morning Revival', and the one before that 'Chronicles [Of Life And Death'], those are probably the two records where we did the most musically. As a songwriter - [Joel and] I write most of the songs - we have to experiment or we’re just going to go crazy. We have to grow, we have to push ourselves or we’re just going to get bored, we’re going to be uninspired. No one wants to see us stand on stage and play a record that we did just because we thought people only wanted to hear that from us. So over the years we’ve had to try different things, and some things worked and some things were cool, and looking back there were some things that we’re like “I probably wouldn’t do that again” but I’m glad we did it. So, on this record it was just natural, you know? If you listen to 'Good Morning Revival' and you listen to our first self-titled album, they’re so different from each other; it was a progression getting to here from there. I definitely like the path that we’ve been on. Who knows what we’ll do on our next record but we always try to make it a little different. CDM: You’ve got that excitement in 'Cardiology' that was in the first couple of records that maybe wasn’t in the last one... It sounds like you’re excited to be in music again. BENJI: We’re excited to be a band; not that we weren’t on the last record, but it’s a rollercoaster. You go through struggles. When you have a relationship with a label, it can really affect the work you’re doing and if you feel like they don’t believe in you sometimes you go: "maybe I’m not any good at this". Then you get on a label that is excited to have you and you go: "oh, maybe we are ok at this". It gives you a little more confidence and you work a little better. CDM: The album is all about wearing your heart on your sleeve and being in love with all things, including music. Was this always the direction you wanted to go with this album? BENJI: The album kind of wrote itself; it wasn’t very deliberate. I wrote the last song on the record 'Cardiology', [and] I had already written a few songs on the record and I was thinking about that concept of "can science and medicine really figure out the heart"? Because I don’t think so. To me, that’s what music is, that’s what we’re trying to do with music. CDM: It’s known that the first attempt of this album with producer Howard Benson was scrapped at the end of last year. How long into the album did you have that gut instinct that you maybe weren’t going in the direction that you wanted? BENJI: I knew it from the first day we worked in the studio. But you know, our manager and the label were like "this is the way to go" and so once I said we’d give it a try... once I commit to something I follow through with it. But the whole time I knew it wasn’t right deep down. Once we got to the point where we were like 75 percent done and we got to a point where I got to hear a couple of rough mixes it sounded kind of lifeless. A producer has a lot to do with the chemistry in the studio, and he wasn’t there. His style - he makes like five records at a time - and so he’ll check in like once a week and you’re just there working alone. CDM: And that’s completely different to Don Gilmore [producer of 'Cardiology']? BENJI: Yeah. Don, who he made our first record with and the last record, he’s a very close friend of mine and when you work together you’re engaged the whole time - you know what I mean? The whole time you’re bouncing ideas off each other, you continue to try and push the songs as far as you can take them and make them the best that they can be. I need a little criticism while I make a record so that I kind of feel like: okay, I know that I’m doing the best that I can do because someone is actually here challenging it. CDM: You’ve mentioned in interviews that what Howard was basically doing was trying to make commercial selling singles... BENJI: The straw that broke the camel’s back was when I heard a rough mix for the song '1979', which is one of my favourite songs on the record. Nothing’s changed in that song, all the lyrics in that song were the way I wrote them the first time I wrote them and it was a really important song - I wrote it for my parents. The first verse is about my Dad and the second verse is about my Mum and I used their names and everything. It was an important song to me and when I came in he had cut out half of each of the verses. I was just like: "whoa, dude, those lyrics are my favourite, most important lyrics to me on the record." And he was like: "what are you talking about?" And I was like: "ummmm, did you listen to it?" And he was like: "no". I was like: "ouch, alright, now I definitely know I’m with the wrong guy" - because this record’s not about radio. Radio... I love it and if we have success on the radio it’s great, but we can’t make our records for that. It has to come to us; we have to make our records for the heart of the music. CDM: So has that always been the attitude of Good Charlotte - that commercial airplay is not as important as making music? BENJI: For the fans? Absolutely. That’s the way we felt on our first record and that’s the way we feel on this record. The commercial success is great and we’ve had a lot of commercial success and we’re really thankful for it to get that support, but we also know that none of those people are really interested in our band or really care about the music. We know that the fans are the ones who really care. And listen, it’s also no secret that we’re not a critic’s favourite, we’re a fan favourite. Rolling Stone [magazine] didn’t put us on the cover because Rolling Stone loves Good Charlotte, they put us on the cover because our fans demanded it. Our fans were like: “[if] you put them on the cover, we’ll buy your magazine". And it’s the same with every other magazine. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve got some allies out there who do like our band, but we know that the fans have dictated all of our success. Every trophy we have, every plaque we have, we owe to our fans. We’re making the records for the fans; we’re not making the record for the people who don’t care.  CDM: Going to back to your song '1979', fans that have been with you from the beginning will know about the infamous relationship you and Joel have had with your father... so how hard was it to write a song like '1979' where you’re writing from a positive angle? BENJI: The thing is that all the best songs are, I think, the easiest write because they just come out. The reason why I really, really wanted to write that song is because in the last two-and-a-half years me and my Dad have become really close friends again after not seeing each other for, you know, 14 years. When you’re 30 you think about things a lot differently than you do when you’re 20. After some life experience and going out into the world and seeing all the great things that my Dad taught me when I was a kid and all the things that I owe him... everybody goes through some shit and everyone handles it differently, so where I was really angry when I was younger at things I didn’t understand, now I just get it. So that was a song I really felt that I had to write and I really wanted to write it; it was something I wanted to say. That song probably took about 20 minutes, half an hour to write. CDM: So songs that are based on personal experiences are easier to write? BENJI: They just come out. I didn’t even write the lyrics down. I got in the booth, I put down a little guitar riff and the idea I had was it was going to be really simple, I just want it to be all about the lyrics and I just literally sang the lyrics. It probably took me like two, three passes, and the lyrics just really came. CDM: When you listen to songs that are directly about people and that come from the heart, like 'Harlow’s Song' and '1979', they seem to flow a lot better than other songs from bands that have worked on it for ages... BENJI: Yeah, 'Harlow’s Song' hasn’t changed one bit since Joel wrote it. Joel wrote that song one night. I left the studio and Joel wrote that song. He was like: "I want to stay, I want to work on something. Not for the record, just for me - something I want to take home to my girls". He was literally there for not even an hour and he texted me: "I wrote a cool song for the girls, I’ll let you hear it tomorrow". He didn’t even want it to be on the record and when I heard the song I got choked up. When it got to the bridge and he’s talking about someday her dreams are going to carry her away... that got me. CDM: Both of your brothers have kids now, do you have a stereotypical uncle "role" that you fit into? BENJI: I think I’m a great uncle, you know. I love those kids; my life has changed dramatically since the kids have come. The whole band has kids now and they’re all amazing kids. It’s really cool to see your band grow up over the years. We were 15, 16 together and now everyone’s got kids and they’re all great Dads. They’re really, really amazing fathers and the kids come first and that’s what I’m the most proud of - their priorities in life. Even if it means our band misses out on something that might be good for business. Whenever I see the band make one of those calls where it’s like: yeah this is a great opportunity but it’s little man’s first birthday and we gotta be there... CDM: You only get one first birthday, but there’s always going to be another opportunity to put your music out there... BENJI: Yeah and we always feel like if we do the right thing it will come back to us. CDM: In your album insert there is a paragraph dedicated to bands that have helped you and in your music video 'Like It’s Her Birthday', you’ve got cameos from members of The Maine and Boys Like Girls. How important is it for yourself and the band to support young, up and coming bands? BENJI: I think it’s really important. All of those bands are part of the reason we’re still here and we all affect each other, all the bands, so I think it’s really important. We’ve had a lot of bands support us, so we try to support others, and what goes around comes around. CDM: Good Charlotte have such an incredible presence online, do you think that’s helped with the reception of 'Cardiology'? Because you guys are so communicative with your fans... BENJI: Yeah, we definitely try to really let them in and really try and stay connected to them. In the last few years we’ve done it more. We kind of get it now. When it first started it was kind of new to us, but now we really get it and it’s a really great way for your fans to get to know you instead of getting to know what other people are putting out there. They really get to know it from us first hand. They know us. |
