Good Charlotte
Joel: Lead Singer
Benji: Lead Guitar, Vocals
Billy: Lead Guitar
Paul: Bass
Dusty: Drums
Old Drummer: Aaron
Good Charlotte, an explosive new band from Waldorf, Maryland first arrived on the music scene last spring with thier teenage-angst anthem, Little Things.Ever since then, they have been whipping out the hits and developing a large fan base all over the country.
Benji, singer and guitarist, and Joel, lead singer, were inspired to start the band after attending their first rock concert, the Beastie Boys', when they were 16. "It totally blew us away. We had the crappiest seats, but right then and there we knew it, we were like "man, we're gonna be rockstars"" says Benji
The twins came home and Benji dug out an old guitar from the basement, and Joel took over the position of lead singer. Paul, a school friend, taught Benji some basic chords on the guitar and with just those 3 chords, Benji was hooked. Aaron, another school friend, played drums and lent his house as studio space. The band's first practice was a week later. The band helped Benji and Joel get through high school, a rough time for them. After they graduated, all they could see in the future was GC, and making it big. In 1998, all four guys moved to Annapolis, deciding to skip college and risk their schooling for a serious music career. The boys worked as stock boys, waiters, and shampoo boys("the best job we ever had" according to both of them) at a beauty salon to earn money as they began to build their fan base in the Baltimore/DC area. They began being recognized as "the twins who play" and popular venues were places like ACME Bar and Grill, and various bars/clubs throughout the city. Billy didn't join until he showed up to see the twins play an acoustic set at a local hangout. Billy was at the time playing with his band Overflow, but was close friends with the members of GC after seeing them play a couple of times. When Good Charlotte got kicked out of thier apartment, they all crashed at Billy's. One day, Joel invited Billy to play at a practice, and the next week Billy was officially part of the band.
Although unsigned, Good Charlotte began to play with Blink 182, Bad Religion, and a sold-out East coast tour with Lit. GC continued to gain fans, playing for charity and the local radio station WHFS' HFSTIVAL, first on the local's only stage, and then in 2000, to the street stage. This was a big step up for the guys, who had been lifelong listeners to WHFS. The band's popularity spread when a demo of "The Little Things" was picked up by Philadelphia's Y100 and broke a record on the station's show as it was chosen for 15 nights over other competing songs on a sort of countdown radio show. Soon the band was offered record deals, and they signed with Epic Records in 2000. GC's producer Don Gilmore helped them through their first album, which is a spectacualar mix of punk rock, reggae, and a little bit of R&B. The twins write all of the songs, and as Joel says, "Me and Benji have always written from personal experiences," He gestures to his heart: "Everything comes from here." Although the song "Little Things" may talk about thier bad days in high school, the twins are quick to point out that thier life was not all bad. "My mom is the strongest lady I know" they both agree, and they are very happy that they're making it big. No one in the band uses last names, for a couple of different reasons. Benji and Joel are getting thier last name legally changed to thier mother's maidedn name, so as not to be constantly reminded of thier father, who abandoned them as kids. The other members do it more out of respect for Benji and Joel. The boys write about everything from political issues ("All I wanna do is kick the welfare") to love ("So Complicated/Overrated/This feeling is love") to growing up ("Today I screwed up again").
MTV picked up the first single off of the album "Little Things" and played it on MTV and MTV2 along with GC's second single "Motivation Proclamation". Benji and Joel guest-starred on popular MTV shows like Hot Zone and Say What? Kareaoke. Then the band was asked to write/perform the theme song to the MTV show "The Undergrads". That song was "The Click", about breaking the barriers of labels and "cliques" to just be yourself and have a veriety of friends. The next single will be "Festival Song", inspired by the HFSTIVAL which gave GC their first big break. The boys played at the 2001 2 day festival, first on the street stage and then on the main stage for the first time. The video was also filmed at the Festival. Aaron left the band to join his brother's band, Wakefield, and the other 4 guys say that they talked it over and came to that decision together. Dusty, formerly of the Jesus Eaters filled in for Aaron on the Warped tour, and GC decided to keep him (YAY).More and more people are starting to appreciate the band's music and GC keeps getting lots of fan support. They deserve every bit of attention they get, and I am proud to say that I was a fan before they were the biggest band in the world |
