Interview

Good Charlotte - The Revival Starts Here
"An interview should be like a conversation, you know? Not a boring question-and-answer session."
That's Joel Madden's way of telling me that he's enjoying our little tête-à -tête. The clean-cut adult übersexual Good Charlotte frontman has lost his boyish charm, having grown into a bona fide rock star: the cut-off sleeve black tee, the 48-hour beard and a look that you, the average guy, would interpret as "Keep Your Hands Off My Girl".
Funnily enough, that's also the title of Good Charlotte's first single off its fourth album, Good Morning Revival, a title full of significance. Lyrically, it doesn't sound much different; Joel continues to dwell on love ("Where Would We Be" reminds us of his recent break-up with Hilary Duff), Hollywood (in "Misery", he sings, "Look at all these plastic people") and exorcises old demons; musically, it's a new territory for the band, who has outgrown all that adolescent punk pop which characterized the band. Finally. "That wasn't what we really wanted to do," says Joel, "We wanted to play stuff that we actually liked." He reveals that the band felt "trapped in an image," and this album releases them of some of those trappings. "I mean, we've grown up, just like our fans."
Good Charlotte suffers from the Misconception Syndrome, where a band is placed in a category
it doesn't really feel it belongs to. "We're not what people think we are: a bunch of teens who never grew up and who can only play poppy songs." While the album takes some tentative steps into old Charlotte territory, the band deserves the merit of having made its most experimental album to date.



SUM 41 Interview
Livewire: So, in my past interview with you a couple of years ago, you refer to yourselves as the "ugly goons from Canada." Now with the new hairstyle has that changed? I think you're better looking.

Deryck: I just refered to ourselves last night as "four ugly assholes having a good time." (laughs)

Livewire: What made you decide to go for the new look?

Deryck: My natural color is blonde and that's what it's been in a lot of the videos - now it's black, I like to switch it up.

Livewire: Do you still talk to Paris Hilton?

Deryck: Uh no. If I saw her I would, but I don't talk to her on the phone or anything.

Livewire: Are we going to see any naughty videos of you and Paris on the web?

Deryck: No definately not!

Livewire: Who are you dating now?

Deryck: I really don't like talking about that stuff, man.

Livewire: How have your musical tastes changed over the past 5 years?

Deryck: For us, I mean every record sounds a little bit different and we're just getting better and growing - when you start so young there's just a natural growth. We're just in a position that we're touring a lot - I mean most people write from life experiences and when you're home you do the same thing over and over again and when we're on the road we're constantly doing something different. I mean we're travelling the world and getting more life experiences than the average 21 year old.

Livewire: How's the new CD going? Is it your best to date?

Deryck: Yeah, by far. I've always thought our records keep getting better, but this is by far our best album.

Livewire: Tell me some really hot underground bands that you dig today.

Deryck: A band called Billy Talent, from Canada. They're absolutely amazing. They's probably one of the best bands today. There's another band called No Warning. They're really cool - that's about it really.

Livewire: That's it?

Deryck: Yeah.

Livewire: Wow!

Livewire: What do you say when people call your music bubblegum punk?

Deryck: We don't even consider ourselves punk. We're just a rock band. We want to do something different. We want to do our own thing. That's how music has always been to us.

Livewire: How do you feel about the U.S. getting Bush (and the world for that matter) for another four years?

Deryck: Four more years and many more tears.

Livewire: Is Bush a war criminal?

Deryck: Oh, totally - he's a fucking terrorist!

Livewire: Do you wish you could have voted in the election?

Deryck: I wish I could have voted so bad!!

Livewire: Do you think that the 50 some million American voters that voted for Bush are dumb?

Deryck: It was more like people were afraid. The election was won by fear. It's not that people are stupid - it's just that they're afraid.

Livewire: Is Canada really all that much different then the U.S.?

Deryck: Not really. Not in many ways. The main difference between Canadians and Americans is that Canadian girls will give you blowjobs a lot faster than American girls.

Livewire: So where did the inspiration for the "We're all to Blame" (Solid Gold) video come from?

Deryck: We had different ideas. I mean the song is kinda serious and heavy and we go with the best idea and usually the best idea is the stupidist idea and in that case it was. We thought that it would be funny.

Livewire: Drink of choice?

Deryck: Jack Daniels. Actually, I have two drinks of choice and it's for different occasions. If I'm on tour I'll drink Jack because for some reason Jack Daniels doesn't hurt my voice as much. I think because it's really thick and it kind of coats my throat. My drink of choice, if I didn't have to worry about anything, is Grey Goose on the rocks.

Livewire: It's good, but you can afford that - I can't.

Deryck: (laughs) It's only a few dollars more, man.

Livewire: How's the tour with Good Charlotte going?

Deryck: Oh, it's going good. I mean they're great guys and we've been friends for a long time. We use to tour together, years ago, before either of us has had any success. We've always said that we'd do another tour together and it just so happened that our records were coming out at the same time - so it just made sense.

Livewire: Who would you like to tour with next?

Deryck: I don't know - we usually don't go out on tour with other bands. We just like to do our own thing. We were talking about touring with Green Day and New Found Glory, but their records came out before ours - so we couldn't. Green Day would've been a band we would have liked to tour with. The Beastie Boys would have been cool too.

Livewire: If you could open for anyone, who would it be for?

Deryck: We've done it and it was Metallica! We played about five or six shows with them last summer.

Livewire: So, you're telling me that you'd take Metallica over Nirvana, the Doors, Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles?!!?

Deryck: Yes I would!

Livewire: How long can Sum 41 go?

Deryck: As long as we're enjoying it, really.

Livewire: But, what if you're not enjoying it and still making money?

Deryck: We have money man. (laughs) We don't need to do it for money anymore. We're simple people and we like being on the road together. If we didn't like it we definately wouldn't do it. We've turned down offers of well over a million dollars to do things that we just wouldn't do. We care about our band and we're not doing it for money.

Livewire: If you could endorse only one product, what would it be?

Deryck: (laughs) It would probably be some kind of liquor.

Livewire: What was it like working with Iggy Pop?

Deryck: It was REALLY cool. It was one of those things that was just out of the blue. I was so blown away by it. Iggy wants to do a song with us?!!? I just couldn't believe it. I got a call from our manager and he was like "hey Iggy wants to do a song with you guys, like would you be into it? I'm like Yeeeaaaahhh!! are you crazy? (laughs) He says "Iggy wants you to call him." I'm like fuck, I'm going to call Iggy Pop. I was really nervous, I didn't know what the fuck to say to him. So, I call and I say "Hey uh is Iggy there?" I mean I didn't know what to say. He was really cool. After about five minutes of talking to him I wasn't nervous at all. He was really cool - he was like an old friend - really cool. We talked for like an hour. After the call I immediately went and picked up my guitar and wrote this little thing and sent it to him the next day and he loved it. We went back and forth on the song and we met up two weeks later and went into the studio and did it in two days.

Livewire: Do you think he's the most important figure in punk?

Deryck: I think collectively there's a few people - I mean obvioulsy Iggy, for sure, and of course the Sex Pistols and the Ramones are tops for me. I mean, you wouldn't have them without Iggy. I mean young people now can probaly quote the Ramones and the Sex Pistols over Iggy, but Iggy started it all.

Livewire: Describe Sum 41 in a few words.

Deryck: (laughs) Young, dumb and full of cum.