nmf016
Thread Killer
Goo God
Slashephant
Posts: 3680
|
 |
Robby/MIA article
« on: Jul 1st, 2005, 4:56pm » |
 Quote  Modify
|
SECTION: State and Regional
LENGTH: 849 words
HEADLINE: Goo Goo Dolls' Takac never far from home
BYLINE: By CAROLYN THOMPSON, Associated Press Writer
BODY:
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) - It was 10 a.m. on a Sunday. Robby Takac had been up for three hours and already installed tarp roofing over two stages as fans for the music festival he organized began gathering in the rain.
Day one of the festival, Saturday, had the Goo Goo Dolls bassist changing trash can liners, sweeping and troubleshooting - including getting an errant fried dough truck moved from the event entrance.
The Goo Goo Dolls have sold millions of albums, with hits like "Slide," "Name," "Black Balloon." Doesn't Takac have "people" to do that sort of thing?
Takac, in jeans and a T-shirt, his long hair confined under a knit cap, said it's not that he necessarily wants broom duty.
"It's just that everyone here is a volunteer ... If there's somebody working out here I'd feel really horrible about not being out here," he said, fueling up on coffee. "So this turns into one of those three-day Jerry Lewis-style marathons for me."
The high-energy Takac calls Los Angeles home now but never seems far from the city where he grew up. He is in the schools bringing donated instruments collected by his Music is Art Foundation. He's at the Albright-Knox Art Museum curating an exhibit. He's helping an HMO raise awareness of lead paint-related illnesses. He's brainstorming with his alma mater, Medaille College, on music-teaching ideas.
He's not about to give up his day job. The Goo Goo Dolls - Takac, Johnny Rzeznik and Mike Malinin - are at work on a new album.
But it turns out the other stuff, even if it means tending to trash cans, is fun. And it helps people feel good, he said.
"I don't consider myself any kind of like, philanthropist, or any sort of weird, self-righteous savior of the universe or anything like that," Takac, 40, said with a laugh. "It's just, coincidentally, I'm having the time of my life and great things are happening, so I may as well keep it rolling."
Takac's 3-year-old Music is Art Festival raises money for charity while shining a spotlight on local talent: 80 bands took the stage during the two-day festival this year, with proceeds going to hospice. It is part of Takac's Music is Art Foundation, a not-for-profit that supports arts in schools and the community with instrument drives, concerts and "music awareness" tours meant to inspire student audiences.
"There's so many talented people here, and so many creative people here and so many motivated people here," Takac said, "and they learn here, they learn to be motivated and efficient and tolerant of things, and then they get really good at everything and move."
Takac does his best to stem that, mentoring young musicians, giving them a stage, and signing some to his Buffalo record label, Good Charamel Records.
His mother said it's the kind of break the Goo Goo Dolls could have used 20 years ago.
"It was so hard for them to get started here," said Kathy Takac, as she worked a festival ticket booth. "They went into New York City cold ... I think that's why he likes to come back to help the kids here, because he thinks they're losing people here, they don't get a start."
"The greater the challenge, the more fun he has," said his father, Bob, who was alongside his son on trash can duty the day before. "When the Goos are no longer goo-ing together, I think he'll do a great job promoting bands."
Success hasn't gone to Takac's head, according to his parents, who have lived in the same suburban Buffalo home for more than 30 years. Maybe to his feet, according to his mother.
"When they're on the road Robby's big perk is socks. He throws them out and they give him new socks," Kathy Takac said. "And I say, put them in a bag and send them home. I'll do them for your father."
Takac is stopped at the festival by Maria Slomczewski and her 15-year-old daughter, Christina. Takac signs a picture of himself with Christina taken at a mall where she'd made a donation to one of his school instrument drives.
"He feels more like a friend than a famous person," Christina said.
"I love it here," added her mother, "and what he does for Buffalo is wonderful."
Takac said his Tokyo-born wife of nearly four years finds it charming that every second person seems to stop him while he's walking down the street here.
"This is super Mayberrry to her," he said.
Takac's recording studio isn't immune to the downturns in Buffalo's economy, but he's even more bothered that the city's identity is so strongly linked to football - the loss of four Super Bowls in particular.
"There's so much more in life. I really have a horrible distaste about that sport ... But I just don't get the reputation of being a loser town," he said.
Still, he says his Buffalo-based efforts are more about having fun than saving the city.
"I just love having this job, man," he said. "The good thing about, quote unquote, fame, or notability, is just that you have a potentially uninterrupted forum for a moment, until somebody interrupts you, but you usually don't even get the chance."
---
On the Net:
Music is Art Foundation: www.musicisart.org
GRAPHIC: AP Photo NYDD501-504
LOAD-DATE: July 1, 2005
|
Home
Help
Search
Members
Login![[MFC]](http://www.musicfanclubs.org/googoodolls/images3/tag_mfc.gif)
Reply
Notify of replies
Send Topic
Print
Author
IP Logged
