The Young and the Hopeless

The Young and The Hopeless was recorded between February and May 2002. Good Charlotte worked with Eric Valentine, who produced, mixed and recorded the album at his own Barefoot Studio in Hollywood, CA. Valentine's previous credits include Third Eye Blind, Smashmouth, the Dwarves, and Queens of the Stone Age.

"Eric's main job was to make us play the best we could play on this record," explains Benji. "We recorded mostly in full takes, without editing. That was hard, but I'm really glad we did it. You can tell it's authentic."

The brothers had no trouble coming up with new material, their intensive roadwork acting as a creative stimulus. "I write better on tour," says Benji, "in places where I don't know anyone, where I'm in the middle of nowhere."

"Joel's got this flair, this spark-that's why he's the lead singer-and a lot of times he can take a song from being just okay to being great. At other times, he'll have ideas and not know what to do with them. But I'm good with structures and arrangements, so we work well together even though we're really different people.