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Blender interview with John!
« on: Aug 25th, 2010, 1:39pm » |
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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Johnny Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls
Posted Tuesday 08/24/2010 3:01 PM in Blender Blog by Conrad Doucette
What Johnny Rzeznik has achieved is staggering.
"Iris," still the Goo Goo Dolls' biggest hit, spent an extraordinary 18 weeks atop Billboard airplay charts. The song has registered over 1,000,000 cumulative spins on the radio. The band has 17 Top Ten singles and four Grammy nominations under its belt and has sold over 10 million albums.
Still, Rzeznik just wants to go home. Or so he sings on the lead single from the Goo Goo Dolls' latest album Something For The Rest Of Us, which finds Rzeznik's songwriting reaching into some of the most introspective places of his career as he seeks to capture the uncertainty of a country struggling through a recession and two wars. Combine this with a more defiant attitude, and you've got the 2010 Rzeznik that spoke with Blender, a musician justifiably proud of his achievements, yet prepared to continue pushing artistic boundaries.
The lyrics to "Home," the album's first single, indicate that you might have different social priorities than you might have earlier in your career.
I have different priorities than I was younger... definitely.
Did you enter in the songwriting process with a broad idea of what the lyrical theme of the record might be, or did one emerge over time.
The theme unfolded over time. During the process I noticed a pattern, and I would think, 'Oh, okay,' and something would solidify. Not every song on the record deals with such serious topics, but that theme does seem to run through the album. However, I did not sit down and think, 'I am going to make a concept album'—I'm not nearly that pretentious. [laughs]
I understand you guys entered the recording studio with no material prepared.
Well Robby [Takac, bassist] and I built a recording studio in Buffalo, N.Y., and I thought, 'We own this place, so I'm going to sit in this beautiful room, and I'm going to write my album, and it's mine.' [laughs] And that presents a lot of hazards, because there's no clock running. You can sit there for 20 hours a day, sleep on the couch, take a shower downstairs, then come back up and get back to work. It did take a lot of time.
Is it a method you think you'd employ again?
I don't know. But I love going back home to write, because there are no distractions and no illusions in a place like Buffalo.
How was working with the album's first producer Tim Palmer?
Well we had our disagreements, but I think his contribution is there on the album, and when he was finished with us, it was time for us to keep going, you know? After we had the first version of the album, there were a lot of questions: Is this good enough? Are we happy with this? Am I satisfied with this? And the answer was no.
So we went back into the studio, did some re-producing of the album ourselves, wrote some more material, and re-wrote some of what we had. We got to work Rob Cavallo, John Fields, and Butch Vig, and when we came back, it was a much stronger piece of material.
Was everything done in Buffalo?
No, we actually ended up working at five different studios. We worked in Buffalo, as well as Paramount in Los Angeles. We worked at my little writing room way the hell out in North Hollywood, at East West, and at Ocean Way in Nashville.
You've been writing and releasing records for 20 years. Do you have a person in mind—a typical Goo Goo Doll fan, for example—when you write songs?
No, no, no, no. I hate to say this, but the writing process has got to be selfish, an in-the-bubble type of thing. You hope people like it, but you've got to speak to your mind, you've got to deal with yourself first. 'Does this please me, Am I going deep enough?' Then you present it, and then it's out of your control.You make something, and then you give birth to it.And then once it's out there, it doesn't belong to me anymore. If people like it, that's great—I'm grateful to them. And people will hate it, too.The writer has to take the heat for songs, or receive any accolades. You know, it's either 'Great song,' or 'What a piece of shit!' [laughs] But other people's opinions? It's none of my business.
The industry has changed quite a deal since Let Love In was released in 2006. Does the changing state of the music business affect the band's thinking when it comes to deciding on releases, or even songwriting?
Well, the record companies are in trouble. I think the most powerful tool you can use, the greatest asset a band can have is YouTube, and Twitter and Facebook. And those are things I've never really embraced, and I still feel kind of weird about it, but hey—that's how people get their music. That's how people listen, communicate, form communities, and rally around a project or band they love.
Are outlets like Facebook and Twitter things you can see your band becoming more hands on with?
Yeah, but I can't be one of these Twitter guys that does it every single day: 'Hey, guess what I had for lunch?' But if I have something to say that I want to share, I'll share it. Otherwise, it's fluff—it's nothing.
In 2007 you were a judge on Fox's The Next Great American Band. Did you enjoy your time on TV?
Let's see, did I enjoy my time on TV...? No—because I was really bad at judging other people's work. I'm not a critic, and I don't want to be a critic. But it's like Paul Westerberg said: they put a checkbook to my head. At the beginning of the show, the situation was that there were real bands there, and they were going to perform some music, and I was down with that—that's cool, you know? But sitting there and telling somebody that something wasn't good was horrible for me, because that might be someone else's favorite song. It's just my opinion... what does my opinion mean? I've had people come up to me about a song and say, 'That's the biggest piece of shit you've ever written.' And I've had other people come up to me about the same song and say 'I love that song, because I relate to it.'
I found it very difficult to be a judge, and honestly, I'm glad it got canceled.
Is it true that in 1989 you had a van-full of 'Spam'-stenciled gear stolen in Manhattan?
Spam, the meat product? Oh... yeah! But it was only one guitar that had a Spam sticker on it. Man, in those days we were driving around the country in a van, and we'd worked our asses off for the gear, so it was pretty devastating. But the people in Buffalo, the people in the music community there, they really helped us out, and we were able to keep going with borrowed gear. It says a lot about what the scene was like in Buffalo back then.
Does that scene still exist in Buffalo?
I think it's changed a lot. The venue that all the bands with original material played at, the Continental, closed after the owner died. It was basically the CBGB of Buffalo—everybody played there, and it was really a unique community. It was part dance club, part gay bar, part punk rock bar—it was a place where we all banded together, and where we all hung out together.
And we would do bills with super-hardcore bands, but we were more melodic, because all we ever wanted to be was the Replacements, but there was a serious amount of diversity. We'd do gigs with electronic bands, ska bands, angry girl bands [laughs]... and we all had fun and we all respected one another, because everyone had the guts to be themselves, and not go play in a cover band.
Would you like to see the Replacements reunite and do a tour, or would you prefer to see them leave things be?
Let It Be! You know, I got to tour opening for the Replacements on their last tour, and that's still one of the biggest highlights I've had being a musician... getting to see the Replacements play every night. I don't know... but I would go see it. There IS such a mythology around them that maybe it would be best not to do it... I don't know. But if they did it, I would go. I would love to see it.
Excluding yourselves, what's the greatest band to come out of Buffalo?
Well Rick James came out of Buffalo, which is pretty amazing. And there's Ani DiFranco. I'd say those two—two amazing musicians, and two musicians very different from each other!
Something For The Rest Of Us is out August 31.
http://www.blender.com/blender-blog/94410/exclusive-interview-johnny.htm l
If you click the link the Home video is featured after the interview.
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