Illinois Entertainer November 2016 | Page 4

November 2016 • Volume 43, Number 01 • www. illinoisentertainer. com

COVER STORY: GOOD CHARLOTTE

For protean punk – and part-time thespian – Joel Madden, of Good Charlotte renown, there’ s only one thing better than his cameo appearance last year on Lee Daniels’ hit TV series Empire, alongside his wife of six years, designer Nicole Richie. And that’ s building an actual empire of his own, which he’ s quietly been doing over the last few years with his bandmate brother Benji. And now said company – a label / management / production firm dubbed MDDN – is ready to be fully unveiled, via not only Good Charlotte’ s rollicking new Youth Authority slugfest, but a bevy of upcoming 2017 releases from performers that the siblings have been developing in relative stealth mode. Tom Lanham spoke with Madden.

HELLO MY NAME IS ROBBY

You’ ll have to forgive Robby Takac if he sounds a bit distracted. The Goo Goo Dolls bassist is staying busy this fall with his band, which is back out on the road for a 29-date run backing its inventive new 11th album, Boxes. But the musician is also an entrepreneur, with his own bustling Japanese-favoring imprint Good Charamel Records, his own studio, GCR Audio, where the artists sometimes record, and annual event in his native Buffalo, NY called the Music is Art Festival. Tom Lanham talked to Takac.

DAUGHTER

Shortly after Daughter ' s If You Leave LP was released – vocalist Elena Tonra and boyfiend / band guitarist Igor Haefeli broke up, leaving the band’ s future in doubt for a heartbeat or two.“ So it was strange for a while – we were doing a lot of touring with us not, err, being in maybe the best place,” she says.“ But now, it doesn’ t really matter, because it works, absolutely. And it’ s really cool.” Like Welsh outfit The Joy Formidable – which endured a similar schism – the couple decided that their creative collaboration was worth soldiering on with, no matter what. Not an easy decision to make, given the bruised egos and broken hearts involved. Tom Lanham discussed the band ' s unusual path with Tonra.

EPICA

Dutch symphonic metallers Epica are returning to Chicago via Concord Hall a mere nine months of their rescheduled North American tour, which was cut short the pervious year due to a family illness. At the time, the band was already in songwriting mode for its new album, which ultimately became the fantastic The Holographic Principle. Epica ' s writing and recording schedule became time consuming, especially when the band took a few touring breaks in the middle of the recording sessions.“ The writing took a year and the recording about five months because it was stretched over periods when we were away on tour,” Simone Simons told Kelley Simms talked to lead singer.

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File

Remembering Herb Kent, local break-out bands.

Cinema Scopes

The Oscar contenders, Part One.

Sweet Home

Blues Reviews.

Media

Missing you Patty Haze.

Spins

Usher, David Bowie and Scorpions.

Record Store Day

Our complete list of Black Friday RSD releases.

Calendar

Over 1200 shows and 2100 bands in November.

Caught In A Mosh

The other Grim Reaper.

Studiophile

Uptown Recording and more.

Classifieds

You dumped your boyfriend ' s vocalist, now you ' re looking for another.

Gear

The pedal you ' ve been waiting for.

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