It’s hard not to think of Buffalo alt-rock-lite band Goo Goo Dolls without immediately skipping to the choruses of their biggest songs, “Name” and “Iris.” But under the trappings of acoustic power ballad hits is a band that’s coming up on 30 years of distinguished rock and roll, not just the strummed acoustic numbers that made them huge back in the ’90s. Their latest and tenth album, Magnetic, was released last June and marks a new chapter in the band’s respectable career.
In advance of their upcoming appearance in Victoria, Goo Goo Dolls bassist/vocalist Robby Takac spoke to Nexus about trying out new things, chatting with Mick Jagger, and escaping the shadows of the ’90s.
How are you doing, Robby?
Good, good. I’m in sunny Los Angeles and my wife is sitting in Buffalo under a huge pile of snow.
Cool. How are you feeling about Magnetic now that it’s been out for a while?
Good, man. Everything seems to be going really well. We’ve got a lot of touring coming up, right until November, so it’s been a really good album for us so far.
You guys have pretty much made a career out of playing power ballads. Do you ever wonder what would have happened if you’d followed more the path of your earlier punk/hard rock stuff?
Well, I don’t think we ever considered ourselves a punk band. We always thought our songs were a lot more melodic than they were, you know? We were always fans of pop songs and I think we were just lucky enough to see what happens with your band if you stay together for 30 years, which we’re coming up on. You grow up as people, and what you want to see out of your music changes.
Do you feel like you’ve been able to control that and follow your own path?
Well, ultimately, it’s us who records the music and approves the mixes, so I guess I would have to say yes.
Do you listen to new and up-and-coming bands?
A little bit. I actually have a record label that I run with my wife, and I deal mainly with Japanese rock bands, so I listen to a lot of Japanese music right now. My wife is from Tokyo so I got exposed to a lot of it early on. We represent [Japanese pop-punk legends] Shonen Knife in the States and we release their records. And since then we’ve started representing other Japanese bands. So we run this little indie label out of our back bedroom.
Where do the Goo Goo Dolls get your inspiration for writing new music?
For years it was always about sitting there in the studio and knocking it out. We had a bunch of songs in varying stages of being done and we’d go into the studio and start recording. It would always end up that we felt we were sitting under this huge pile of unfinished stuff, and it starts to wear on you a bit and makes it difficult to finish a record. So, with this new record we did it in a different way. [Guitarist/vocalist] Johnny [Rzeznik] would go in and start a demo, then he’d call us up at a certain stage and we’d go in a knock it out, finish that song, and move onto the next song. And we also brought in a few different producers for this one. It really gave this record a chance to feed off of a lot more sources of vision and creativity than the old process did. So this record is a lot different than the previous records because of that.
A lot of bands from the ’90s got swallowed up by the shadow of that decade, and some are almost forgotten at this point. You guys have been able to avoid that, but do you ever feel the shadow of the ’90s weighing down on you?
Well, that’s when we were the biggest, so I guess that’s going to have some affect on the way people see things. We just try to keep our heads down and move on to the next thing. We’re lucky enough to be able to play shows and have people recognize the songs and let go of their hard-earned money, because it’s tough these days, man. It’s amazing to me that we still have this opportunity and I hope it goes on for a long time.
It must also be nice to have Taylor Swift playing one of your songs? [Swift has been known to bust out “Iris” in her live sets.]
Yeah, there you go! That’s the cherry on the sundae, isn’t it? It’s funny, we toured with the Rolling Stones years back and I remember sitting down with Mick Jagger for one of the few conversations I had with him on that tour and he said, “Yeah, it’s strange. On these tours it’s mothers with their daughters, and their daughters,” in this really creepy voice. And, to a much lesser degree than the Stones, it’s pretty amazing after 30 years how many people have just discovered our band through their parents, or just having our music laying around. It’s really interesting to talk to fans and see where they all came from.
What’s the secret to sticking around this long?
I guess just be willing to do what it takes to make it happen. And wish for a lot of luck [laughs]. There are a lot of great bands out there that just couldn’t make it happen.
Goo Goo Dolls
7:30 pm Wednesday, March 5
$50.25 and up, Royal Theatre
rmts.bc.ca