Good Charlotte Compressed Interview

Below is my compressed interview with Paul and Deano of Good Charlotte. The interview starts off with just me and Paul. Deano was nice enough to join in a little bit into the interview. Conducted: 5/22/2010 at the Bamboozle Roadshow in Charlotte, NC. Click here to read the full version

If you could, please state your name and your role in the band.
Paul: Mhm, my name is Paul and I play bass and drink Red Bull in Good Charlotte

Today is the second day of the Bamboozle Roadshow. How’s the tour been so far?
Paul: Umm, it’s been really good. It was like a 2 year break and it was a little rusty but it was really great. The crowd was awesome and it was so nice being back in Maryland, playing a place we’ve never played before. You know, we went to shows there. I saw Rage and Wu Tang there. But, never played there. So it was really cool.

Are there any bands on this tour that you’re excited to see?
Paul: Yea, that was the thing, I didn’t get to see any of the bands yesterday. I was so wrapped up with the family thing. Umm.. I really want to see pretty much everybody. All Time Low, Hanson, umm.. Vita Chambers right? Check that out.
Deano: Cartel.
Paul: Yea, I haven’t heard of half of these bands and I want to check them out.

Do you have a favorite song to play live?
Paul: Oh yea, absolutely. Anthem is always a lot of fun to play live. Uh, Dance Floor Anthem. Pretty much every song with the word “Anthem” in it is really fun live. We have a few of those.

Do you prefer festivals like Bamboozle and Warped Tour or your own personal tours?
Paul: This is pretty good.
Deano: I like both. It(Bamboozle Roadshow) is different deal.
Paul: He’s a little confused because this was supposed to be just me and him.
Deano: I’m Deano, Paul’s friend.
Paul: He’s Dean Butterworth and he play’s drums. And he didn’t know he wasn’t in this interview.
Deano: I personally love festivals. Festivals are good, you know, there’s multiple bands and it’s always fun to run around and meet other musicians or guys who play the same instrument as you. I like running into different drummers and talking to them about what drummers influenced them.
Paul: Drummers always nerd out together.
Deano: Yea, We get all ‘drummy’ and weird. But, you know it’s always fun doing your own shows too, you know. Regardless, you generally will always have one or two openers. So, there’s always a few bands and a bunch of musicians hanging out. But, you know here, there’s what 12 bands? And it’s fun.
RTS-Chris: Yea, like a mid-sized tour.
Deano: Yea, It’s like a mid-sized tour and..
Paul: And they’re all like you’re(Chris’s) age.
Deano: It’s like a mini carnival and we’re digging it.

When you first started out, did you ever think you’d make it this far?
Paul: That’s the thing actually and why we started from high school. I saw in Benji and Joel’s eyes the truth. They would tell me we’re going to be bigger than N’Sync, we’re going to be the biggest band in the world. Because at the time, N’Sync was the biggest thing ever. They just believed it from the very beginning and I believed them; I believed in them. So, that’s why i’ve been with them since high school. Because when I first met them, they didn’t even know how to play. They were just so serious about having this as a job. And I loved that because that’s what I wanted to do. So, ever since the beginning, we’ve been expecting to be a big band. We’re still not where we want to be. You’ve gotta keep striving. You know, once you think like you’re as big as you’re going to get.. You know, the only way to go is down and then that sucks.

All Time Low have commented a lot about how influential you are to them. Seeing as you’re both from Maryland, would you consider them your ‘protege’?
Paul: I don’t know about all of that. I mean.. sure. Dean, how about you’re opinion.
Deano: You know, All Time Low, they’re a great four-piece rock band and they write great tunes. They’re some of the nicest guys I’ve met.
Paul: We’re just so proud that another band from Maryland is doing well, you know? Because it’s not a common thing.
Deano: We have a great time running around just being silly. I stood on the side of the stage and watched their set last night. Me and their drummer Rian(Dawson), we have our little drummer geek-outs. We were emailing before the tour too a few weeks before the tour. We were talking about drumming, how we can’t wait to hang out and you know, they’re really good and it’s really fun to be out here. Everybody teaches something. You’re always a student and a teacher hopefully in every situation that you’re in. You know what I mean?
RTS-Chris: Yea.
Deano: Also, there’s a lot of thing’s we’re learning by watching them and they’re just really inspiring to us.
Paul: Exactly.

You trashed your new album, Cardiology after nearly completing it and restarted. How is that coming along?
Paul: You know, we wanted to be fully satisfied with the final product and we absolutely are right now. We actually have more songs than we need for an album. So, there’s going to be lots of b-sides. Like, quality b-sides that aren’t covers and stuff like that. We’re really excited. The process was a learning process on all parts and we didn’t want to stop until we were completely happy. After working with Don (Gilmore), everything just clicked and the vibe in the studio was a lot of fun. Shit just came together. I think it’s our best album ever and I’m not just saying that, seriously.

What stage are you in?
Paul: Well, the album’s pretty much done. There’s talks of release dates right?
Deano: Fall.
Paul: A fall relase date.
Deano: We don’t have a concrete date but it’s definitely fall.. like September/October (Benji later stated that they were releasing the album in September).
Paul: So, this is like the start of us going back to work.
Deano: This is like ‘promo-ville’ now and we’ll probably get a single out in the next 6 to 8 weeks. There’s a big process that people don’t realize.
Paul: Nowadays the process takes forever.
Deano: Yea, you know, just to get a single on the radio and then you have to make a video. There’s just so many things. It takes a long time to get a product out there.
Paul: But that’s why we’re here and tonight we’re going to play a new song. It takes so much longer to get a song circulating because nobody listens to the radio.
Deano: Yea, the cycling on the radio and for people to hear it. You know what I mean? So, we’re excited man. It’s like Paul said, we’re all proud of this. It takes what it takes to get the product that you want and that everybody wants that’s involved in our world. In the ‘Good Charlotte world’.
RTS-Chris: Yea, fans don’t understand all that goes into it, the recording, mixing, mastering process and the promo..
Deano: You’ve gotta make the record. Actually, you’ve got to write the songs.
Paul: Yea, you’ve got to write the songs, that’s first.
Deano, then you’ve got to demo the songs,
RTS-Chris: All the pre-production and stuff.
Deano: Yea, then you’ve got to record the songs, the whole band has to do all their parts and then you’ve got to mix the songs, and then you’ve got to master the songs. Plus, then you’ve got to do artwork and get all the lyrics typed out. Then you’ve got to do photoshoots for the inside of the record, and photoshoots for the record label.
Paul: So many photoshoots.
Deano: Then you’ve got to start doing press, photos and talking to wonderful people like you about our record and how grateful that you’re here. We’re stoked and we want the world to know what we’re doing man. We want to come out by storm and just take it and have everybody be stoked on Good Charlotte and what we’re doing here.
RTS-Chris: Yea, some of the fans can be kind of impatient at times with everything.
Deano: We can too, trust me.
Paul: Absolutely. Especially me and him.
Deano: Yea, we can be impatient too. We’re like, “It should have been out last year”.
RTS-Chris: That’s how a lot of fans are with blink(182) at times for their new album.
Deano: Yea, and you know what, it will make sense for blink too. When they come out with a record, it’s going to be great. Because they’re a great band.
Paul: Totally.
Deano: They’re going to take however long it takes, just like No Doubt, they’re going to put a record out. It’s going to be a great record. We love those bands and we love those people. They’re great people. And you know, it just takes what it takes.
RTS-Chris: Yes. So, for the whole thing, take longer and make a good record. You don’t want to just rush it out.
Deano: Yea, it’s not worth that. You can’t just throw it at a wall and hope it sticks. You want something to be quality.
Paul: Especially nowadays, that’s the only way to cut through the market. To have undeniably awesome songs.
Deano: And you don’t want just want one of your twelve song record, you want twelve. You could get a record today, and if you go back in history and find that band who had that one song, it’s like.. We don’t want to be the band that has just one killer song. Thank goodness there’s a lot of great singles and we’re going to go play a set of singles tonight. Songs that have been played on the radio all over the world. We look at a record like every song on that record is going to be a hit song. That’s the way you have to hit it. 100%.
Paul: And plus the twins, they just can’t help but have every song sound like a radio smash.
Deano: Yea, they’re great songwriters and we’re just lucky to all be together doing this. And have you here because you’re so rad too.
RTS-Chris: Haha, thank you.
Paul: Drummers have a lot of energy by the way.

What style are you going for compared to your previous releases?
Paul: Umm, it’s definitely moved more back to the Young And The Hopeless sound. There was a lot of production on that album too. Eric Valentine does a lot of tricks. You know, it was more orchestral. Not so electronic. Like  on the last album, we dove into the electronics pretty hard. We’re big fans of the technology and all of the cool synths and sounds and stuff you can make. We incorporated that on this album but the songs are more rocking. More guitar, bass and drums driven and it’s just layered behind it with cool transitions and stuff. It’s really a melding of all of our CD’s together. I’d say lyrically though, it compares to our first CD the most. And musically, it’s the other 3 combined together. Not the first album though.

Who were your biggest influences when recording Cardiology?
Deano: All five guys are influenced by the same thing and then by different things. So, you put all of those things in on a musical level and then the twins (Benji and Joel Madden) with the writing. Some songs with how chord changes have a sound that reminds me more of Belesque(band: please contact us for proper spelling/info on the band).
Paul: A lot of Beach Boys on this one.
Deano: Yea, and we’ve got this string part that reminds me of The Verve, that english band. We’ve also got this one song, you know we all like Oasis and we’re all fans of Green Day and The Police, you know. Just great bands.
Paul: Yea, you know.. there’s a little bit of everything. And like he(deano) was saying, we’re all into different stuff and my bass playing was influenced by the stuff i’ve been getting into lately. Stuff like James Jamerson and the guy from Cool And The Gang. It’s more like groove oriented stuff, you know? And I totally incorporated that into this album. It was great.

We’ve seen paparazzi take their toll on bands (such as fall out boy). Has Benji and Joel being in the spotlight all these years affected you as a band at all?
Paul: That sucks for them by the way. That’s why it’s great being the bass player. And no not really. It hasn’t really affected us as a whole. I mean, we laugh at it. A lot of those guys are assholes, so we usually just yell at them.
Deano: And that sort of stuff happens in Los Angeles. Like, we’re here today and there’s no paparazzi around. It’s also in New York City but espically in LA and hollywood, where all the movie stars are. But he(paul) and I are so far out of it and it doesn’t really happen when we’re on tour.
Paul: You just feel bad when it happens to them, seriously. It sucks.
Deano: Yea, it really sucks to get chased down by people.
Paul: I like to fuck with them a lot. Personally, I try to.

What do you consider the best and worst parts about your success over the years?
Paul: I’d say the worst part is that Joel can’t just hang out with his wife without getting bothered. That sucks. I guess that’s a price to pay with success, you know? But we’ve ridden the roller coaster. I mean, we’ve been big and we’ve had times where we’re not doing so awesome. We’re currently at a point where we’re trying to get that attention back to us. At the moment we’re kind of hungry for it. So, bring it on paparazzi.
Deano: All press is good press. We’ll take it.
Paul: Sure.

Anything you’d like to add?
Deano: We just want to thank you for your time and patience.
Paul: Yea, thank you.
RTS-Chris: No, thank you guys for doing this.

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