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Title: Ga-ga for Goo Goo - Robby Interview Post by Shannon on Aug 23rd, 2006, 10:24am Ga-ga for Goo Goo By Jessica Banov Staff writer ADVERTISEMENT Robby Takac is a rock star, but he doesn�t act like one. He stands in long lines at airports and surrenders his coffee before going through security. He has a MySpace page and writes about doing house chores and bonding with his cats. And when he exhibits his least rock-star-like behavior, he admits he dies his hair to cover the gray, albeit in shades of rich black and edgy red. �My band has sold millions and millions of records and played before millions and millions of people,� he said. �We simply do not have a castle in France. It�s not the way things work anymore.� Takac is the bassist and one of the founding members of The Goo Goo Dolls. For 20 years, the band, composed of Takac, co-founder and lead singer Johnny Rzeznik and drummer Mike Malinin, have hit the highs and lows of modern rock radio. The band is perhaps best known for the epic song �Iris� from the soundtrack �City of Angels.� The song, released in 1998, launched the band from a band fit for college towns to Grammy winners. Since then, the band has struggled to recapture the overwhelming success of that record�and redefine what success means to them. This was put to the test in recording the band�s most recent album, �Let Love In.� Tonight, the band joins the Counting Crows, another music staple of the �90s, at the Alltel Pavilion at Walnut Creek. Takac, who is 41, is forthright and friendly. You�ll notice him at the concert when he performs in his trademark style�with bare feet. He rang up the Observer from Chicago, the mid-way point on their tour. Talk ranged from the new album to life-changing music and how fans pelt him with Pez dispensers instead of the cliche lingerie. Here are excerpts: Why the band had to let love in before recording �Let Love In� Johnny and I have been playing together 20 years. I think it got to a point where we were getting super itchy. We had to �fess up to the fact that no matter what happens, as big as our band gets, we may never sell that many records again. That�s always going to be an odd thing to see� ( Both he and Johnny spent time on their own producing other bands� albums. ) When we reconvened and talked about what�s going on in the next phase of our life, we kind of looked at each other and went, �Holy cow, what we do is kind of something special.� Maybe that�s why we�ve been doing it this long. We�ve been blessed with this opportunity to have a career. Oh my God, nobody has that in this business anymore. Shuffle off to Buffalo The band went to their hometown of Buffalo to record the album in a 100-year-old Masonic ballroom�and to escape Los Angeles. More than anything else, what we really really wanted to achieve being there (in Buffalo) was a bit of an exile away from the current trends and situations. More of a place where we could walk outside and look around and say, �Oh my God, when I was 9 years old I broke my ankle right there.� A lot better than, �Is that the new Benz?� Putting their heads together This is one of the first times we have written together. It�s been a long time since we did that. The songs were a little more of a collaboration that I think made the record a little bit more fluid. We had been writing separately for the past six or seven years. This time we didn�t come in with any songs. We came in with ideas this time. The album�s theme When it was all said and done, and it came time to name the record, we looked through the record and thought to ourselves, �What does this record represent to us?� It represented to us a new way of looking at the way the world works, the way our position in the world is, just in general. We made our last record during Sept. 11. It really disrupted the record-making process. At that point, the record-making process didn�t seem that important. Unfortunately it�s become really really difficult to look around you and find the people you�re going to let into your life to influence your sphere of thinking. Life in general has pushed most people away physically. It�s not about defining the problem anymore. Even if there is not an answer, it�s having some sort of optimism that there is something out there that is going to be the answer. That is the theme behind this record. It�s without the ability to share ideas, without the ability to have tolerance for other people�s ideas, then we�re doomed. It�s time now to make those things happen. On the industry today There are too many Ashlee Simpsons out there to be broke. The music industry these days tends to not take musicians and make stars out of them. They tend to take stars and make musicians out of them. That�s just the way it is...For now there is one thing people can�t download, and that�s us. Now it�s about staying out there on the road. That�s how you�re a rock band these days. Who me, a rock star? You know what? I think that concept is gone. I don�t know how much bigger of a band I have to be in to have it proven to me that that is not here anymore. People want you to think they have that castle. That�s why to me, the Internet and all this sort of stuff is real. 100 percent real. That�s what we�ve been striving for from the very beginning. On his MySpace page, Robby�s Lobby I love it. I like to throw the chum in the shark tank a lot. As the Goo Goo Dolls, as a band, when it comes time to campaign for people, we�re never shy to do that, never shy to let our opinions out. But this gives me a really cool venue for me to place my exclusive opinions, which is kind of a cool thing to do. It really is an amazing way to keep in contact with that very very select group of people who care at all. Life-changing music I�d have to say �Smoke on the Water� by Deep Purple. That was first song I learned on the electric guitar. I was able to stand there confidently and make unbelievable rock with those three chords. It was a mind-blowing experience�I was probably 10. The kid down the road taught me. It was a fairly new song then. (laughs). I was like �Oh my God!!� I had played acoustic as a little kid. It was at that point in my life, around 11 or 12 years old, I got my electric guitar and was like, I don�t need to do anything else. Between that and seeing the Rolling Stones in 1972 when I was 8 years old, that was it. Everything changed at that point. His Pez dispenser collection I have a huge dispenser collection, about 1,800. It started when someone threw some Pez dispensers up one night on the stage. Before you knew it, I was being pelted with them, as I still am. My collection grew and grew until I started gaining an interest in collecting. By this point now, I just co-produced a cartoon with the Pez company that I did the voice of the main character. That�s coming out later this fall. I wrote the theme song of this cartoon. Yeah, I love Pez, man. Touring with the Counting Crows The benefit of the whole thing is, unless you absolutely just despise my band, or vice versa, you�re going to be able to sit and really enjoy it. You know so many of the songs. The Crows are a bit different than I thought they would be�I expected to see a bunch of �me�s out there. It�s not just that. It�s totally quite a spectrum of people. But a good song is always going to be a good song. What�s next? The band will continue touring the U.S. through September before heading to Europe for a sold-out tour. They also will tour in Canada, Japan and Australia. The future looks good after that. This was actually the first time I can ever remember sitting around in the bus, talking about what we�re going to do with the next record. We haven�t done that before. I think spending time apart was best thing we ever could have done for ourselves. Actually getting to walk on those lawns looked a little greener, coming back, going, �We have a lot more stuff we can do here.� We�ve got a lot more room to grow and a lot more great music to make. Assistant features editor Jessica Banov can be reached at [email protected] or 486-3562. http://www.fayettevillenc.com/article?id=240276 |
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Title: Re: Ga-ga for Goo Goo - Robby Interview Post by Saz_Goo on Aug 23rd, 2006, 2:49pm Thanks for that, what a great interview! Robby's interviews rock. Heh, love that he dyes his hair to hide the grey. When I get to that stage, that's what I'm gonna do too. ;) on 08/23/06 at 10:24:41, Shannon wrote:
Woot! It's always nice to see that down in writing. I bet the Goos are loving the fact that it's all pretty much sold out. I know we are!! ;D ;D ;D |
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Title: Re: Ga-ga for Goo Goo - Robby Interview Post by Shannon on Aug 24th, 2006, 10:12am This is such a great Robby interview. I liked how he described how they came up with the 'theme' of the album....good description. I saw how he said they'd be touring England again. Did everyone notice he also said Japan and Australia? That's awesome for them. |
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