Interview with the Goo Goo Dolls

http://montclair.patch.com By Peter Gerstenzang 10-14-2010 John Rzeznik is worried. The singer and main songwriter of that radiant American rock band, The Goo Goo Dolls, sees trouble wherever he turns. Whether it's our seemingly endless military misadventures in Iraq and Afghanistan, unemployment at home, or the feeling of spiritual unease he senses everywhere else, Rzeznik sometimes seems like Buffalo, New York's answer to Ingmar Bergman. In other words, he's fairly freaked out. So he's done what all great songwriters do. Taken all this dread, dressed it up with guitars, bass, drums, and keyboards, painted on some harmonies and thrown in some mad hooks. The result is "Something For The Rest Of Us," perhaps the Goo Goos' best disc to date. Its songs will be amply in evidence when Rzeznik, bassist Robby Takac, and drummer Mike Malinin, play the Wellmont Theatre on Monday night. "I think one of the reasons the album works so well, is that the band has been together a long time," Rzeznik said recently. "Next year, we're marking our 25th anniversary (drummer Malinin joined in the mid 90s). We don't care how we're labelled anymore, or about underground cred. The band is past all that. We just want to play well and make great records." With, 'Something,' the boys have done just that. A roiling, eclectic album, that runs the gamut, from nasty rockers like "Sweetest Lie," to flower-fragile ballads like "Notbroken," The Goo Goo Dolls' new record works brilliantly on several levels. The angst and sense of betrayal that flare up on many of the songs, certainly describe a relationship that's broken. But whether it's between a man and a woman or a man and his country—well, that's up to the listener. One thing Rzeznik knows? How to get to these emotional places, so the songs illustrating these feelings, come spilling out. "You have to be vulnerable if you're going to do this right," he said. "Posing and acting cool will work here and there. But, if you're going to write stuff that really reaches people, you can't worry about how you come off." We'll trust him. After all, this is the guy who wrote "Long Way Down," "Iris," "Name," and a fistful of other carefully-crafted tunes. Each as elegant on the outside and unsettling within, as to draw all sorts of Trojan Horse comparisons. To hear Rzeznik tell it, the new record took shape in a slightly different way than previous Goo Goo releases. "Even though I took accordion lessons as a kid in Buffalo—and got beaten up for it on the streets—I only play a little piano. But I find that eking out certain things on the keyboard helped to broaden the melodies this time around. Plus, we all got way more into harmonies this time. Stacking lots of them on top of one another. I'm a big fan of Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks, so I'd like to think we got some of that melodic color into some of the new songs," he said. The recording process for their new record seems to indicate that The Goo Goo Dolls will release no record before its time. Tracks were recorded over several years, at studios in California, Nashville, and Rzeznik and Takac's hometown of Buffalo. Considering the piecework approach, "Something For The Rest Of Us" sounds like a remarkably organic whole. Malinin, the band's secret weapon, has never cracked the drums with such authority. Takac's bass-playing is fluid and rhythmic. This sounds like one band.That set up in a room. And didn't leave until they were done. Still, musical pride aside, Rzeznik's angst about the shape of things to come in America hangs heavy, over both the record and our conversation. Leaving things on an ominous, if slightly hopeful note. "Sometimes I really worry about the war and how long it's been going on," Rzeznik said, with a resigned sigh. "With the U.S. being in Iraq, I wonder if this is the right idea. Or if it's just the place where empires go to die. Combine that with the deficit and the rise of the Right, it makes you nervous sometimes. But, in the meantime, the band has got tours to do to promote the album." Rzeznik finds a little humor in  his crazy scheduling situation. And how it reflects his feelings about the rest of his country. "Yeah, we go to Canada this winter and next summer, to Florida! I have to admit, it's a little like what's going on in the U.S.," the songwriter says, chuckling. "It's kind of the opposite of the way it should be. But, hopefully, things will all work out okay."