Good Charlotte – Interview with Joel

We find Good Charlottes lead singer, Joel, going to Washington. And he comes back with a tattoo. Come along for the ride!

What kind of tattoo?

Im into a lot of traditional stuff. I might get some nautical stars or something. I’m talking to the guy today about doing a big piece on my back soon.

Whats that going to be?

I want some old school religious thing, like a portrait of Jesus. Its real old school traditional stuff.

How many do you have now?

I have like nine right now. Not too many.

Did you get any that were like crazy painful?

I got these stars on my wrist. That hurt. I got my knee done and that hurt really bad.

I got the ankle deal and that was horrible.

Anywhere on your leg is near the bone and that shit hurts.

I thought I was going to die. I was sweating and

Yeah, and your teeth are clenched together, and you are like, Its cool, man. I’m fine. (laughs)

And you cant legally go in drunk, but you need something to kill that pain.

I know. It sucks.

Has life been crazy since “Little Things” has broken?

Yeah. The last four or five months of our lives have been a roller coaster. We’ve had a really great time and we feel really lucky because things are going so well.

So what is the touring situation?

We just got off the road with Eve 6 and we toured with them for like six weeks. We had a great time with them and were really bummed out that we had to get off the road, but now we are going on the road with Fenix TX.

I know some of the member are pretty young. What do their parent think?

Their parents are always like, Please take care of them. Me and Vince look out for the guys, so its all good.
Whats it been like being a signed artist?

Its awesome. Its really new to us. The video was some of the most fun Ive had in my life. We worked with Nigel Dick and he was so cool. He was so much fun to work with. Mandy Moore came out. She is such a cool chick. We got along with her so well. We were hanging out. She was really cool. I was impressed with her. She was really cool. And hot too. That helps. (we both begin to laugh)

Can you get chicks now with the video out?

(laughs) Yeah! I wish.

How did you guys get signed?

Well, it was a really long process. It started out with one label being interested and then we got our manager. He got a lot of other labels interested and it snowballed. When we went on tour with Lit for a week is when it really started. We did a show in New York and some labels came out. The show really clicked and the kids were into it and Epic came on. We signed with them and its been awesome since.

Did you have a majority of the songs done before you entered the studio?

We had all the songs written. “Festival Song” was the only song we really didn’t finish and we finished that when we were in the studio. We worked with Don Gilmour, our producer, and he was really good. He made us work hard. It was hard work, but we are really proud of it.

How do you guys write?

Vince and I write all the songs. We usually write songs when we are alone and finish it and bring it to the band. Luckily they like our songwriting, so it works out really well.

Where do you think your knack for writing hooks and anthems comes from?

I don’t know. I’m into Oasis. A lot of their songs are anthems so we are into that kind of music and Benji likes a lot of punk music. Our influences come together in our songs. I think you can hear all of them on the record.

Thats for sure. I was thinking Green Day a bit since they mix anthems with punk and pop and rock.

Yeah. They rock. We love Green Day. Green Day was one of those bands that changed my scope of music. Green Day and Nirvana made a big difference in music and our lives.

Those are two bands that talked a lot about isolation and not having the girl or a lot of friends like “Little Things”.

Yeah. And I really identified with that. They were important to me when I was younger.

How do you go from all this hard rocking to the last hidden track?

I guess that is our Oasis side. We love all kinds of music. One of my favorite bands of all time is The Smiths. That isnt hard music, but I love it, and we don’t want to be contained to one kind of music. We write however it comes out. We do them like they come out because they are real songs to us, so we wanted to put them on the record as they are.

Plus that doesn’t allow you to get shoehorned as a punk band or something.

Right. We are just a rock band. Whatever anyone calls us, then that is what we are. If someone wants to believe we are a punk band, then we are a punk band. If they think we are a rock band, then we are. We don’t label ourselves. We just want to make music, tour, and be a band.

+ charlie craine