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The making of a Goo Goo Dolls song / article
« on: Aug 23rd, 2010, 10:59am » |
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The making of a Goo Goo Dolls song
By: Tom Lanham
Special to The Examiner
August 22, 2010
Tunesmith: Goo Goo Dolls frontman John Rzeznik, right, admits that the longer he’s in the pop music business, the harder it is to write original music. (Courtesy photo)
Over his illustrious 24-year career with the Goo Goo Dolls, Buffalo, N.Y.-bred rocker John Rzeznik has penned over a dozen Top 20 hits, memorable singalong anthems like “Iris,” “Name” and “Here Is Gone.”
They might seem disarmingly simple at first. But in reality, they’re all carefully polished gems that are labors of love for this jeweler.
“And the longer you go, and the more songs you write, the harder it is to keep going,” says Rzeznik, who was just inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. “Because honestly, there are so many chords that go together. But being clever about how you present them? That can make a song completely new.”
It’s why Rzeznik, 44, refused to release the first finished version of “Something for the Rest of Us,” the new ninth effort from The Goo Goo Dolls, who play in Concord on Thursday.
He kept tinkering with it for six more months until he perfected tracks like “Home,” “Soldier” and “Nothing Is Real.”
His motto? “You’ve got to have a hook,” he says. “That’s why this record took so long to make. I’d listen to it and go ‘What can I do differently? What can I do better? How can I dig a little deeper?’ We all decided that we had to try a lot harder.”
Rzeznik has many writing techniques. He used to keep the TV news running, muffled, until the news just got too depressing. He can’t compose material 9 to 5, either, he says, “because then it just turns into a factory job. So there’s something cool about just waking up at two in the morning, and you flip the recorder on and pick up your guitar. But mainly, you collect hundreds of ideas, and then you listen through them until you go ‘Wow! I’m kinda feeling that one! Let’s experiment with that and see where it goes.’”
To preserve his musical concepts, the singer employs an iPhone.
In his adopted hometown of Hollywood, he’ll typically strum thoughtfully on his living room sofa, or retreat to a secluded garret above his garage.
If he’s really hungry for inspiration, he says, “I like to go back to Buffalo, especially when it’s miserable in the winter, because there’s some kind of weird vibe to it — it just feels like the essence of what my home is.”
Rzeznik catches himself before he waxes too rhapsodic. “I romanticize about songwriting, but there are times when you just have to sit down and struggle until you get something,” he says. “Especially when somebody’s saying ‘Where’s the record? We need a record!’”
Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/lifestyle/The-making-of-a-Goo-Goo-Dolls-song-1 01227859.html#ixzz0xRfehtEB
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