It’s a rare occasion when a band transcends a single generation. With songs on my three year old daughter’s IPod, my Mother’s IPod, and of course on my own, the pop-punk band, Good Charlotte, has done just that. This East coast band has had much success with Singles like; "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" and "Anthem”, along with countless others. With numerous tours and 5 spectacularly successful albums, the band’s fan base is astronomical, and I’m sure that has plenty to do with the fact that, behind all the tattoos and crazy hair… these guys are real sweet hearts. I spoke with Drummer, Dean Butterworth, and got to know a little bit more about these five awesome men
So, you’re the newest edition to the band, not new… but newest. How did you joining the band come about? How did you mesh?
Dean Butterworth: I met Benji and Joel and worked with them I was a producer; I do a lot of studio work and live in Los Angeles. At the time I was working with the singer from the Smiths, I was in that band and I was working with John, the singer of Goldfinger, who produces a lot of records… we did a lot of records together over the past 10 years. He was good friends with Benji and Joel, and they worked on a lot of pop stuff, writing for different people, and I was just called in to produce some records. So that’s how I initially met Joel and Benji. It turned out that one of Joel’s favorite bands was the smiths, so he was super stoked on working with me, and obviously I like working with anyone and everyone, so it was a good vibe off the bat. They were making “chronicles” and they were doing a lot of work with John, writing and demoing, so they had me do some work, so I probably demoed on like half of that record, even though I didn’t play on the record, they ended up using the old drummer, but we have that kind of studio relationship. I invited Joel to come see me at the Universal Amphitheatre with Morrissey, and he came back stage and hung out. Then, I was rehearsing to go out on a world tour, and Good Charlotte was rehearsing to go out to tour with the Chronicles of life and death. Joel came over and sang a song with Swayhead, and I loved it. We had a working relationship probably 3 years before I actually started drumming with them. I ended up getting a call from Europe at the end of 2004, and then started working with them in March of 2005. … That’s the short winded version anyway. ::laughs::
I can imagine it would be intimidating to join a band that has already established themselves, but on top of that, you joined a band with twin brothers… was it intimidating for you at all?
.DB: It’s not intimidating to do anything. I mean I’m down to do anything. I’ve been playing music my whole life. You want to be put into situations to make you better, so I just show up and deliver. So no, I wasn’t intimidated at all. Now we’ve become friends and really tight over the duration.
You guys are about to start touring again, right?
DB: We start on the 10th in San Diego. We’re doing a double headline tour with yellow card and a band called Runner Runner, who are label mates with us on Capitol Records. We do that for a bout to weeks and end in Florida, then we come home, and we’re going to go in studio and do a little recording, just for fun. Then we’re going to go back out again in August and do some festivals and shows in Europe.
Just for fun or are you guys going to put out another album?
DB: We don’t really know yet. We’re just going to work on some songs. Our goal is to always have time to be in the studio and work on stuff that’ll be ready to be released. The last couple records we’ve had two years breaks between records, and we don’t really want to do that anymore, especially with the change of the music industry. You have to be ready with another single. You can’t take a year off, you can’t take 6 months off. You have to constantly be outing material out into the marketplace. So we’re just getting ahead of ourselves really. We don’t know really when or what, but our plan is to just always be ready and in the studio recording and working on new stuff.
Do you guys write all your own stuff?
DB: yeah, those guys, Benji and Joel do most of the writing. A lot of the time, I go in with Benji, and he likes to write off of my drum beats, like a hip-hop writer writes off of drum machines. So a lot of times, I’ll go in with just him, or I’ll go in by myself and just lay down a whole bunch of stuff, and sometimes he’ll get inspired by different things, so there’s really a whole bunch of formulas.
Who are you, specifically, influenced by?
DB: My favorite band is the Beatles. I love the Beatles, I love Bob Marley and the Whalers, Steel pulse, I love the Police, I love Muse, I Jeff Buckley, Stevie Wonder is probably my favorite singer, I love more old school punk rock. I like everything. I like classical music, I like Beethoven, Mozart, I like the Beach Boys, I like everything across the board. ::pauses:: I love Michael Buble ::laughs::
Are there any up and coming artists that you’re really into?
DB: One of my favorite new artists, he’s been making music for a long time, is Bruno Mars. I think he’s an amazing song-writer, and I think he’s an amazing singer. I haven’t seen him live yet, but I’ve checked him out live on YouTube, and he just delivers, he sings like he sings on his records. And that doesn’t happen a lot these days in the music business, you know, because people fix things with computers and all that crazy stuff. That guy is a bad ass, and I’m just a huge fan, I really, really dig what he’s doing. Oh! And there’s a new band, called The Cab. I’m working on their album right now. They are like a hybrid of like, their band, Maroon 5, Robin Thicke meets Bruno Mars. We’re about 6 songs into that record and we’re going to finish it up in a couple of weeks. They’re a young band from Las Vegas, and they shred, and I have the pleasure of working on their album with the guy I was telling you about, that I met Joel through. So I’m a fan of them! They’re really good, and they deserve to be huge. They write great songs, and the singer is sick.
Well, we’ll have to get in touch with them and let them know you sent us their way.
DB: Yes. Definitely do. They’re a great band you’ll love them!
My mom, my 3 yr old daughter, and I, all have at least one of your songs on our IPods… how do you manage to appeal to multiple generations?
DB: Well, that’s really sweet of you, that’s awesome. All our records are different. I’m a big practicing fiend. Before we go on tour I practice like 6 days a week, and I focus on what we’re doing, so I’m ready to go out and play our music. It’s sort of a refresher for my mind. I play to all the records. There are similarities, and there are a lot of differences. On “Good Morning Revival” the song, “I don’t want to be in love” is more of a ‘poppy’ kind of a song, compared to, say, “Lifestyles of the Rich and the Famous.” There’s a song called, “we Believe” it was the first thing I ever did with the band, we shot a video for that down in LA, that’s more of like, an adult contemporary song. Somewhere, along the lines of like a Cold Play. So I think Benji and Joel, their writing sensibility is across the board, and no matter if it’s a more aggressive song, or a more mellow song, it’s always a good chorus. I think that’s one of the reasons that diversity is there. You know, like you said, we can reach out to such a wide demographic. I think that we’ve taken chances. Some people don’t like the chances. Everyone’s got an opinion, but no matter what we show up and put our hearts into the records. Being in a band is a different thing, we believe in what we do. Everybody has got their opinion. You can’t make the same record over and over. Look at any band that’s been around for years, they’re always changing. You have to take chances. So I think that that’s it. We try different things, so that’s why we’re able to reach a wider audience.
You guys are kind of known for involving your friends, and keeping them updated, especially through Twitter, how important is that to you to do something like that?
DB: It’s the way people communicate. It’s not just the music business. It’s the world in general. People want to be engaged with the bands they’re fans of. And in return, the band needs to engage with the fans. Twitter is an amazing format. Our website too, we have this thing called GCTV, when we’re on tour we usually do 3 of those a week. It’s all about engaging. It’s kind of like a reality TV show. It’s a day in the life of our world, in the studio, on tour, it’s our life. We have a guy that travels with us, and that’s all he does. It’s something we really started focusing on about a year ago. It’s amazing. The numbers have jumped just because of engaging. Benji and Joel have a lot of friends on twitter, me, to be totally honest with you, I’d rather go surfing. Or write music or practice. But I do go on there every once in a while, and talk about how good the waves were. When were on the road I’m more about it, but when I’m home, personally, I’m not as involved in it. I’m not like, “hey I just woke up and had some cheerios” I’m not that guy.
Absolutely. There’s definitely a line between doing it for promotional reasons for the band, and then being on there 24/7 with your personal stuff.
DB: That’s the deal exactly. I think it’s a great business format. I think it’s wonderful.
You have been linked with quite a few activism groups and charities and such. Where does that compassion come from?
DB: We do a lot of make a wish foundation stuff. We went to a hospital and visited a bunch of kids. It kind of goes back to the end of the last question. It’s amazing that their one wish is to meet us. That’s an honor in itself. You go to give back. It can be anything across the board just to be of service, in any way we can be is just amazing. You walk out of places like that, and you’re just feeling a million times more grateful, and you see the strength in these children, and they just have fight, and life, and you walk out thinking God, how blessed are we. Even if it’s helping animals. It just puts you anchored on the ground; you realize just how good we have it. So anytime we can show up for any cause like that, we are just ready. We love doing that stuff.
So, to wrap it up, any messages to fans? Final words?
DB: First of all, I want to thank you for calling us and doing an interview for Good Charlotte, and lastly, I’d just like to thank anyone who reads this, Good Charlotte fan or not, just thank you guys. Go out and check out our music. W e are hitting the road, go to our website, GoodCharlotte.com. There’s going to be a lot of touring this year, and more touring in the US later this year. A lot of fun stuff. On behalf of the other four guys, I just want to say thank you for always standing by us. And we love you guys.
Great read
ReplyDeleteLove Good Charolotte!!
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