BandNation

Lucia and Jen got a chance to meet up with Benji and Paul from Good Charlotte at the Vans Warped Tour in Pompano Beach. Even though they were very tired they still took the time to answer some questions that will give you some insight into their lives…

BN: So, what instruments do you guys play for the band?
I’m Benji, I play guitar and sing.
I’m Paul I play bass.

BN: Why did you guys choose Good Charlotte as a name?
Benji: It’s just a name from a book, it has no significant meaning really.

BN: What were come of your musical influences growing up?
Paul: Favorite bands? Uhh, Rancid, Ben Lee…
Benji: You ever listen to Ben Lee…?
Paul: Uhh, Oasis… you ever listen to Oasis?

BN Lucia: Oasis played last night.

Paul: We all have different influences…he listens to a lot of punk and stuff,

listens to a lot of $3>$3>l, uhhh, he listens to like The Smiths and Cure. I listen to like the

Pixies and stuff, and we all collaborate to make Good Charlotte. We all listen to hip-hop.

BN: If you guys could share the stage with any band, living or dead, who would it be?
Paul: Uhh…I’ll let you answer this [looking at Benji]
Benji: It has to be one answer? Nirvana
Paul: Nirvana would be cool.
Benji: Rancid
Paul: Sex Pistols would be cool.
Benji: Motley Crue, those guys are awesome.

BN: If you weren’t in a band, what do you think you would be doing?
Paul: Flunking out of college, working at a restaurant.
Benji: Working jobs, being in a band.

BN: What message do you want you fans to get from your music?
Is there any particular message you are trying to give out through your music?

Paul: Well, I mean, lyrically there is something to say, but at our live shows, we’re not trying to get a message across, we're just trying to have fun. We have fun, we just want everyone else to have fun too.

BN’s Partner: New cd coming out right? What can we expect from that?

Paul: Yes, October 1st. What can you expect? 13 songs.

BN’s Partner: wow, so specific!

Benji: I think it's a better album.

Paul: We have kind of grown from our first album, learned how to play our instruments really well.

Benji: He did but uh, I didn't

Paul: It's a lot better than our first album. I mean, we all just grew and you can really tell in our music.

BN’s Partner: Are you guys going to go out on tour once the album is out?
Paul: Yeah, we will probably go overseas for a little while and then do a headlining tour.

BN: Benji, you and Joel have a show in MTV, is it hard to balance that with the band itself?

Benji: Not hard to balance, just more work, MTV knows that this is our first priority so they basically just work with our schedule. Good Charlotte is our number one priority and then they get whatever extra time we have, which the only thing that really means is that we never really get time off, you know, as soon as we’re done we have to do this or that so…it’s just a little hard…

Paul: He needs a day off, he hasn’t had a day off in like a few months now.

BN Jen: Do you guys shoot everyday for the show?

Benji: Uhh, no it’s like, just days off if we have any.

BN: If you could use one word to describe each of your band mates what would it be?

BN Jen: It can be creative, we’ve heard some pretty interesting ones…

Benji: Billy…thoughtful. Paul… intelligent…

Paul: hell yeah!

Benji: Joel…my brother, ok Joel…passionate.

Paul: I guess I have to do you huh? Benji… genius.

Benji: Genius? That’s all I get?

Paul: The guy’s got the biggest brain you’ll ever see.

BN: How about one word for the whole band together?
Paul: Eclectic.
BN: Good word
Benji: Good word to describe our new album!

BN: Well I guess that’s it!

Paul: You sure?

BN: Yeah, thank you so much and good luck!







pictures courtesy of goodcharlotte.com