New Songs Covered in Goo

New songs covered in Goo By Kristi Singer - For The Sun News This year is the 24th that Goo Goo Dolls founding members John Rzeznik and Robby Takac first started playing music together. A fact that's hard to believe for those of us who grew up listening to the pop-rock band. The Goo Goo Dolls had its first hit, "Name," in 1995 off the multi-platinum selling "A Boy Named Goo" album. "Iris" followed in 1998, a single off of the band's popular "Dizzy Up The Girl" album, which also included top ten Billboard hits "Slide," "Black Balloon" and "Broadway." For the past 15 years, Rzeznik and Takac have been joined by drummer Mike Malinin. Together, the rock trio is touring in support of its ninth studio album, "Something for the Rest of Us," and will make a stop next Friday at the House of Blues in North Myrtle Beach. The new album addresses the tough issues that have been going on in society today with the economic downturn and seemingly endless war. It is a dose of truth from a poetic songwriter, Rzeznik, who has artistic compassion for the world around him. I caught up with Rzeznik for a phone interview Tuesday from his hotel room in Syracuse, New York, the first date of the band's tour, to talk about his inspiration for the new album. Question |You're touring in support of your new album, "Something for the Rest of Us." Are you excited to have new material out? Answer | This is our ninth studio album. Yeah it's always exciting to have new material. Since we tour so much, thank God we have some new songs to play! And they've been really well-received. The album debuted on the Billboard chart at No. 7 so that was a really great feeling. Q. | Tell me what inspired the songwriting on this album. A. | Well, you know I just felt like there's a big trend in music right now to be very escapist about everything - very light pop records, almost hyper-produced artists. I just wanted to make a record that reflected on the emotional fallout of living through really difficult economic times and the two wars. All of us have been affected by that. Not one person I know hasn't gone through some sort of hardship, either because of the wars or knows someone who has. It touches all of our lives and it ripples through society, and I think it's causing a lot of anxiety. But the message, the thing that I focused on a lot when I was writing these songs was the feeling of a lot of people that they had lost their purpose in life because so many people are struggling so hard to keep it together. And I think right now as a society that we're sort of having a paradigm shift and reassessing our values and our priorities. Q. | So, what have you personally seen people going through that has inspired you? A. | I have a friend who lost his house. He works constantly. And the housing market burst and he had to let his house go because he became under-employed and the value of his house dropped in half. He had to let it go because he just couldn't keep up with it. I know how that affected him and how it made him feel. He felt very lost and felt like he was feeling at something that was really no fault of his own. Q. | Tell me about the song "Not broken." A. | I met a woman at a meet and greet and you know, she was telling me about how her husband had been injured in the war in Iraq and she slipped me a little note. When you do a meet and greet, you talk to someone for a minute, maybe. So she gave me a little handwritten note that explained what the situation was. I didn't really think about it very much and then it suddenly dawned on me that the husband was having trouble coming back and readjusting because his life had changed in an instant because he was injured in a battle. And it really struck me as that is the true cost of war. How many thousands of people have gone through that and how many families is that affecting right now? And he didn't want to come home because he wasn't sure he was going to be accepted for the man that he was, being altered. I wanted to write a love letter from her to him, telling him that it was time to come home. Q. | Does she know that the song was inspired byher? A. | I don't know. Never saw her again. I don't know her name. Q. | What would you like to say as inspiration to people who are going through hard times right now? A. | It's not that important what you have - material possessions, etc. It's more important who's in your life and the quality of your life and the quality of your relationships. I wrote a song called "Home" and someone asked "what is 'home' to you?" And I was like, well "home" is where people care if you live or die. "Home" is where you walk through the door and someone smiles because they're glad to see you. Read more: http://www.thesunnews.com/2010/10/01/1725217/new-songs-covered-in-goo.html#ixzz114uAAmon