On stage, identical twins Joel and Benji Madden — the driving force behind punk pop behemoths Good Charlotte — may revel in playing the part of rock miscreants.

In private, however, the twins are nothing like their stage personas: They're quiet, reflective and utterly serious about making music.

What's more, the brothers Madden would like to make one thing perfectly clear: What's printed about them in the tabloids is — in their own words — "absolute rubbish".

"Despite the mixed press we keep getting, I think we're just getting comfortable in our own skin," said lead singer Joel, who sat down with his guitarist brother recently for an exclusive chat with Today at the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Jakarta.

The brothers were in the Indonesian capital to promote their highly-anticipated fourth album Good Morning Revival, which was released last week.

"We like the fact that we don't have to fit in with other celebrities," added Benji, distinguishable from his brother thanks to his shaved head and countless tattoos. "We're the same regular guys who left our hometown to record an album back in 2000."

Are they for real?

The Madden brothers' rock 'n' roll rags-to-riches tale may make for an interesting back story, but music critics aren't necessarily buying the brothers' humble pie routine.

Back in 2002, Good Charlotte's hit single Lifestyles of The Rich and Famous poked fun at life on the celebrity merry-go-round. Now the band — which also includes guitarist William Martin, bass player Paul Thomas and drummer Dean Butterworth — is staring at the other end of the barrel.

After all, they're young, rich and play in a high-profile rock band. So, naturally, they tend to attract attention from the paparazzi.

Despite Benji's high-profiled romance with Australian actress Sophie Monk (whose major role so far has been a supporting blink-or-you'll-miss-it role in the 2006 Adam Sandler comedy Click) Joel seems to be their prime target for the press: For two-and-a-half years, he was better known as pop princess Hillary Duff's significant other.

Things went south last November and he was soon seen in the company of socialite and celebrity pest Nicole Richie.

Of course, Joel declined to discuss the Simple Life star during the interview but, not surprisingly, he did seem rather peeved at the unending intrusions into his private life.

"It's not good for our music if people would rather focus on my personal life than the music we're doing," said Joel, who is five minutes older than his brother.

"I don't consider myself a rock star at all," he said. "I live my life and we all make mistakes. But, sometimes, I wonder if all this attention is just personal."

Drawing from real life

Even as the pair struggles with lessons in the cult of personality, they take comfort in the fact that fortune continues to shine on the 11-year-old band from Waldorf, Maryland.

The product of a broken home (the brothers' original surname was Combs but they legally changed it to their mother's maiden name in their teens), Benji and Joel decided that music was their calling after seeing the Beastie Boys play in their hometown in 1995.

By the time their second album The Young and The Hopeless was released in 2002, they had become the poster boys for an angst-ridden punk pop movement also made popular by Simple Plan, Avril Lavigne and Sum 41.

It sold over three million copies worldwide but even Good Charlotte still got no respect: Critics slated them for watering punk down to the lowest common denominator simply to reap the rewards of mass appeal.

"We were just trying something different," offered Joel. "Sure our music is light and has a fun element to it, but I think there's some darker stuff going in there as well."

Being that this "darker stuff" includes stories of high school outcasts and absent fathers, could the stories behind the seemingly innocent anthems be autobiographical in nature?

"I think everything you do there has to be drawn from your real life," said Joel as Benji nodded in agreement.

But it seems the band is now eager to shift their focus elsewhere. Perhaps in an effort to separate Good Charlotte from the punk-pop pack, their previous album The Chronicles of Life and Death featured more strings and keyboards.

It alienated their fan base and was considered their least successful outing, selling just over a million copies worldwide.

"It was an experiment to re-inspire ourselves," Benji said of the 2004 offering. "It may not have sold as much as The Young and The Hopeless but it did show where our heads were at the time."

Giving fans something new

In spite of their attempts to avoid pigeonholing, the brothers are aware that their most important constituency remains suburban teenagers looking for a little whiff of teen spirit.

The night before the interview, the Madden brothers had played a low-key acoustic set at the Hard Rock Cafe in downtown Jakarta.

Playing in front of the 600 screaming teenagers packed into the club, it was clear that even shifts in musical style have in no way affected Good Charlotte's popularity.

With Benji strumming the acoustic guitar and Joel going through a batch of songs from the new album, the crowd bobbed along enthusiastically.

It was a reaction the pair said they took as a positive sign that Good Morning Revival has what it takes to revive the band's fortunes.

"We may have changed our sound a bit but we haven't lost our fans," Benji said.

Even as popular outfits like Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance continue to storm the pop charts by peddling a heavier sound, Joel was just as confident that Good Charlotte would continue to prosper.

"Maybe we lost some fans when those bands came on to the scene," said Joel. "But it's good for the music, it opens the fans' ears to some interesting new stuff."

Without missing a beat, he added: "I've been told we have a loyal following. So, I'm pretty sure of our chances." -TODAY/na