Photo Credit: Claire Marie Vogel
Goo Goo Dolls
When you put on The Goo Goo Dolls’ 1987 self-titled debut album, it becomes hard to believe that the same band would have put out mega hit singles like “Slide” and “Iris” with a very different sound just a little over a decade later. When you put on their latest release, this year’s Chaos In Bloom, you hear almost an entirely different iteration of the band’s sound, a few decades removed. While that is a testament to longevity in the music business, it also requires a tremendous amount of resilience and willingness to grow and evolve as a band. Ahead of Wednesday night’s show at the Pabst Theater, we spoke to John Rzeznik about the making of the new album, as well as their now storied career.
It feels unbelievable that we’re talking about four decades of The Goo Goo Dolls. How do you feel about it? Do you look back on the past?
I like living in the moment. I’m grateful for the success that my band has had, and I’m grateful for the songs that we’ve written that have become humongous hits, and the songs that didn’t as well. I’m still writing, and the world is changing so quickly. I’m always trying to look forward to the future, and see what else is out there that I can try. Sometimes that entails going back to your past, and digging around to see if there’s anything you missed. But I still feel like I have something to say.
Speaking of trying new things, Chaos In Bloom is the first Goo Goo Dolls record that you’ve produced. Why this one?
Sometimes in the past, the process of going from my brain to a phone or a laptop or recorder, and then getting it into a studio, and through a producer and engineer affected things. I have one thing in my mind, and it turns out completely different. I really wanted to see this one through. I had great engineers, and I did have help with the production from Gregg Wattenberg and Chris Szczech, the engineer. When I was out of my element, I could go to them and say “how do we do this?” I’m notorious for burning producers out. I want to experiment with every possible thing. I’m such a gear geek. I have a collection of vintage guitars and pedals and amps. On this album I wanted to get the tones in a very organic way, and then add the modern stuff later.
Any vintage stuff that you brought into the recording?
I’ve got this old Fender Jazzmaster that I brought in. You should own a guitar from the year that you were born. When I bought one from the year I was born, it was too expensive because it was so friggin’ old. But it sounded so cold, and I ended up using that for most of the album. It’s too nice to take on tour with me though. I have like 200 or 300 effect pedals, and we just created this mad scientist sort of thing. Fortunately I had people that were like minded. The album is conceptually about the angst that we’ve been going through for the past few years.
I wanted to ask about that actually. There’s a lot of heavier things going on with these songs, about relationships falling apart. Does it feel like you can be more open about that sort of thing when it’s you producing it?
It can work for you or it can work against you. There were definitely moments where I thought it might be working against me, but for the most part I think it worked in my favor. There just wasn't another filter being put on there. It was more of a direct line from my brain to the recording.
This is your first tour in a while for a band that has pretty much lived on the road. What did you miss, or not miss about being on the road?
Long bus rides. I do not like those. I can fly sometimes, which is more fun. What I look forward to, though, is just being able to play with my band. During the lockdown, we didn’t get to play much together. But being on a stage with these four awesome musicians and knowing that we can play off of each other is just really fun. We had a conversation about this. Being away from what we do made us appreciate it a lot more, because there were times where you’re just grinding from show to show after show. I’m a worker, brought up in Buffalo with a blue collar family, and it’s what you did. You get up and go to work. But we appreciate it more now.
I think you don’t realize the little things until you’re out of it, as well.
Oh God, yeah. The conversations on the bus after the show, where you just laugh so hard. You miss that. Like most bands, we text each other and we talk, but when you live with these guys for months at a time, they become like a surrogate family. We’re very aware of that. Robby (Takac) and I try to have coffee every morning. We try to still have time to connect as human beings, even though we’ve known each other for almost 40 years.
Anything in particular come to mind when you think of Milwaukee?
Milwaukee is actually close to my heart for a couple of reasons. Summerfest, which we’ve done a few times, is amazing. But it reminds me so much of my hometown in Buffalo. I also love the Safe House. I haven’t had a drink in eight years, so I haven’t been back in a while, but every single tour we did, we had to go there. It’s just so crazy and unique. I love history, and I love spy movies and all that, and the people are like, salt of the earth as well.
The Goo Goo Dolls play the Pabst Theater on Wednesday night. Find out more information about the show and get tickets here.