Goo Goo Dolls/Robby Takac

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The Goo Goo Dolls "Magnetic" Music Keeps Them On The Fan Fave List Year After Year!

By: Susan J. Yeager

There's a reason the Goo Goo Dolls are still turning out successful albums almost fifteen years after a little song called "Iris" dominated radio airwaves, stayed on the Billboard charts for over 11 months, and was nominated for three Grammy awards. The simple formula of write a good song that will be relatable to thousands of music fans world-wide worked for the band with hits like "Iris," "Name," and "Slide." The tradition continues on the band's recently released tenth studio album "Magnetic." Lyrics like "You need time to cope and time to heal, time to cry if it's what you feel. Life can hurt when it gets too real. I can hold you up when it's hard to deal," from the album's first single "Rebel Beat" are a good example of why fans relate to the songs their singing.

Check out the video for "Iris" here:

The band is currently on tour with Matchbox Twenty and zigzagging the country to play for as many fans as possible. Bass player and co-founding member, Robby Takac, carved time out of the Kansas City tour stop to give us a call and cover a wide range of topics from life on the road, to being a new Dad, to making music, of course!

Robby confesses that not being great at sports as a kid is probably how he first got started playing music. "Well, probably once I realized I wasn't great at hitting a baseball," he surmises when asked when he decided he wanted to be a musician. "That probably had something to do with it. It's always been something I've done since I was a little, little kid. I can't remember when I didn't actually."

It was playing in bands through high school and college that ultimately led to the formation of a group called "Goo Goo Dolls." "I was a Freshman in college with our old drummer and Johnny was playing in a band with my cousin," he says of lead singer and songwriter Johnny Rzeznik. "Those two situations sort of came together and we released our first album in 1986." Mike Malinin would come along in 1994 and become the band's drummer and official third member.

Overnight success is not part of the band's back story. "Most of the world didn't know about us for the first 10 years," Robby says candidly. "We were driving around in a van trying to make that happen." Slowly, but surely, people (and radio) started catching on. The venues they played started getting bigger. They traveled in tour buses instead of vans. The number of fans singing along to their songs kept multiplying.

Suddenly, it's 2013 and the band has just released its tenth studio album, a collection of songs called "Magnetic." Robby says this album certainly came together differently than the nine before. "This time was a little different. John decided he wanted to try to do a bunch of co-writes with different people. He went out and started working with some producers. We ended up getting into a process where Mike and I would join John when he thought he had something. We would record it, finish it, and sort of move on to the next thing, which is something that we've never done before. We've always gone in the studio with 15 songs and left with 13 and had a record. This one was much different. Definitely felt different making it."

See the video for "Rebel Beat" below:

The goals for this project were pretty straight forward. "I guess the goal before you start recording is to finish the record. I don't know if we think much further than that, quite honestly. You want to do your best, but you don't find out what that is until you're in the process. Every time that you try to do this again... it's different, hopefully, different enough so that you're not just repeating yourself the next time. I was excited to hear what it was going to sound like when it's finished as anybody is I think."

The band can't help but think about playing the songs live when they are in the studio. "I think when you're making your record there's points where you're go, 'Wow, this will be really cool when we're playing this live.' Or in the case of this record there are a few points where we decided that we were going to change the length of some things... if there's something that looks like you might have some fist-pumping involved or something."

Of the finished products, does Robby have a favorite? "There are a lot of great songs on there. There's a song called 'Keep the Car Running,' that John wrote that's really cool. That's probably my favorite right now."

You might just hear that one and several other from "Magnetic" when you catch the band on tour this summer. Robby gives us a hint on what audience members can expect from a show they have spent several years perfecting. "We've got a lot of songs people know. We try to figure out which ones those are and put those in the set. There are some new songs in there that people might not know yet that we hope you fall in love with and go out and buy the record. And a couple of curve balls too which are pretty fun!"

"We're well into this tour now. The band is rockin' hard. Matchbox Twenty is awesome! They've been killing it every night! Kate Earl's been opening the shows. She's doing a great job! It's a great summer."

Is there one moment during the show that Robby can't wait to experience? "I have to say, almost every night, when we're playing 'Iris," and we stop singing, I take my ear plugs out, cause I play with headphones, I pull my earphones out, I listen and everyone is singing along. That's like the completion of the cycle you know? Kind of what we've been doing here for a really long time together. When that's happening, it's on full blast! There's other amazing moment too, but if there is anybody in the room that you were missing, you pretty much got them at that point. That's a great feeling!"

Another great feeling for Robby (and his wife) is that of a first time parent! The birth of his daughter has definitely changed the way he approaches playing. "Everything that you encounter every day, when you do this for a living, has something to do with what you're doing. It's most certainly going through the process. This is our first baby. My wife and I have been married over 11 years. It's definitely exercising another part of our psyches."

"It's pretty awesome," he gushes. "It definitely changes your perspective on the way you look at everything! It changes the perspective on the way you wake up in the morning. We've actually been really lucky, knock on wood. Our baby is 18 months old. She's pretty good. She sleeps through the nights most nights."

It's a change of pace, but Robby is getting up earlier when he's on the road now too. This time around he is trying to see as much of the country that he can. "Yesterday, we went to the World War I Museum. I'm actually staring out my window at the National World War I Monument, which is right out my window right now. It's pretty enormous. It's pretty glorious. It's pretty huge! So we went to the museum and we went to Stroud's, which is like a fried chicken place here."

"I started doing that about seven or eight years ago," he says of sight-seeing. "We would always tour and be up at night, you know... rockin' out, doing my thing. Then I would sleep til one o'clock and then go to the gig. Since then, my lifestyle has mellowed out a bit. I generally get up early in the morning take a walk around town. On days off, when we're lucky enough to have a day off, we'll rent a car and drive out places. I think it's the key to not being crazy out here, especially after doing this for this long, you start to feel like a brush salesman, in the twenty three hours that surrounds being in a band. Being in a different city every single day, you really have to kind of find some things to amuse yourself or you will go insane."

With a successful music career that spans over two decades, there are several memories that come to mind as career highlights. "We got to play the Olympic Village once that was really cool. We played an aircraft carrier, the USS Kennedy in the middle of the Persian Gulf. That was pretty crazy. I could go on and on. Christmas in Rockefeller Center was great. The NFL All-Star game was amazing. Playing Wembley Arena for the NFL All-Star game [was] pretty crazy."

Perhaps the biggest highlight for Robby is a more personal one. "We played at this place called 'Memorial Auditorium' once probably fifteen years ago. It's a place in Buffalo, where I grew up, where I saw like KISS, and The Who and everybody when I was growing up. They've knocked it down since, but I can remember playing there, the big ole' hockey rink. I can remember just looking out over the place and going, 'Wow! I always wondered what this looked like from the other side.' That's always a moment that sticks out in my head. I don't even know if it's real, the way I remember it. It's gone now. It's the place the Sabres' played all of their hockey games when I was a kid. The Buffalo Braves, when we had a basketball team, we used to go there and watch them play. I saw the circus there. That was cool!"

Robby tries not to take one minute for granted. "Every time I do one of these things though, I swear to God, I say to myself, "Oh my God, I can't believe we're doing this! This is amazing!' I never really lose that. I think if you lose that, you got trouble man. I think you gotta take a break!"

Thousands of fans hope there are no breaks in the band's near future. They are flocking to the concerts and requesting their songs on radio. Robby says that getting the word out is the best thing fans can do to help them out. "Music is still something that people like to do together. Although, I'm sure that there are a lot less speakers sold then headphones these days, unfortunately. I think you can share music with people. Make playlist for people and such. Just sharing music with people and sharing new music with people is a huge thing. The music industry is changing... where at this particular point, if you like a band, support them! Figure out some way to support them so they can keep doing what they're doing. Just keep listening! That's all!"

If you'd like to listen to more of the great music by the Goo Goo Dolls, visit www.googoodolls.com/ to find out if they are coming to a city near you soon. Pick up a copy of the newest album, "Magnetic," or download your digital copy on-line.

There is a reason this band's career is still going strong. Check out their music and find out for yourself the secret to their success!

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