When it came time to write lyrics for the Goo Goo Dolls' latest album, Something For the Rest Of Us, frontman John Rzeznik tried to change things up a bit.
It's been 24 years, after all, since the Buffalo pop-rock trio -- rounded out by original bassist Robby Takac and drummer Mike Malinin (since 1994) -- formed. They later hit the big time behind such hits as Name and Iris and sold 10 million albums worldwide.
Rzeznik said he wanted the new CD, which goes on sale Aug. 31, to reflect the turbulent and troubled times the U.S. currently finds itself in.
"(I wanted) to really talk more about the emotional fallout from living in America right now. (We have) two wars that seem like they're never going to end, and really, really hard economic times where so many people are hurting," said Rzeznik, 44, down the line from Saratogo Springs, N.Y., leading up to the Goos' sole Canadian summer stop at the Molson Canadian Amphitheatre on Sunday night.
"And it seems like we're slowly, slowly turning into this plutocracy. We don't even know it. We don't even see it, it's happening so slowly. I was trying to put myself into the perspective of what this person might feel like now that they can't provide for their family. What does this person feel like, that they've lost their home and they can't find a job? That they've lost somebody in a war?"
Rzeznik, an early Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton supporter, said not much has changed since the new president came into power.
"I think he walked into The White House, and a big group of men, who he'd never met before, sat him down and said, 'OK, here's the real deal. This is what's what. This is how business works and there's not a damn thing you can do about it. So we'll let you do this and this and this, but there ain't no way this and this and that are ever going to change.' I feel sorry for Obama. I think he came in there and just realized, 'Oh my God, what's going on?'"
The Goo Goos' previous album was 2006's Let Love In, which included a cover of Supertramp's Give A Little Bit. For the new CD, the band ended up with their main producer Tim Palmer recording in Buffalo, where bassist Takac still lives. (Rzeznik and Malinin both live in L.A. but are going to move after this tour as each embraces the idea of having a family.)
The band recorded the song Something For The Rest Of Us in five different recording studios with three other producers, including Butch Vig, John Fields and Rob Cavello in Nashville and Los Angeles.
"The problem with my band is that we've been around so long, and we've made so many records, and we've been in the studio so much, we know too much about this actual physical process of making an album. So I think we have a tendency to burn producers out," Rzeznik said. "We may have."
Rzeznik said the band is good and warmed up, after a 10-week run of small venues leading to the bigger shows this summer. But he expects the band to be back for a larger theatre tour in the winter that will include more Canadian dates.
"I do like the snow," he said with a laugh.
T.O. second home for Goo Goos
Goo Goo Dolls frontman John Rzeznik says the Buffalo band feels that Toronto, where it plays Sunday night at the Molson Canadian Amphitheatre, is its second home.
But its audiences are no pushovers.
"Toronto (was) one of the only cities that we were able to go to at the beginning and draw people. We grew up and cut our teeth on Toronto," Rzeznik told QMI Agency. "Toronto's tough, though. You guys are tough. It's a very, very big city, it's very cosmopolitan and sophisticated. So I always feel like I have to work just a little bit harder when I'm there. You're not easily impressed. You guys are very discerning about what you like, and you got to work hard to impress you."
