By Greg Grant
Johnny Rzeznik and the Goo Goo Dolls know all about earning your own way. After a decade of high-mileage/low-budget touring and a couple of almost hit paydirt, the Buffalo, New York-bred trio had earned a loyal following and critical success, but not much in the way of lucre. Then it happened: 1995's hook-ladden A boy named Goo catapulted the band from well kept secret to power pop idols.
Unfortunately, the Dolls' hard won success nearly destroyed the band. Songwriter/vocalist/guitarist Johnny Rzeznik's well documented disillusionment with the machinations of the record industry-and, more important, his disappointment in the actions of the industry folk he'd once trusted-drove him to consider hanging up his patended sparkled guitars in a favor of a saner line of work. That, plus the pressure to deliver another hit to match A boy named Goo while maintaining an "honest" approach to writing music, may have contributed to Rzeznik's woes as he spun his wheels in the throes of writer's block. But as he told Guitar Shop, you just have to put the music first, and let the industry success take care of itself.
With a boy named Goo being such a mainstream success, what were some of the hurdles you had to overcome when writing this new album?
The biggest thing I had to overcome was a serious case of writer's block that hit me when I sat down to write some new songs. I was getting in my own way-being too critical too soon. But once I learned how to let my idea flow, without first thinking if they were good or not, the process started to happen again. I mean, if Michael Jordan thought about every mechanical move he had to make in order to fly, he'd probably never get off the ground.
Let's face it, nothing can fuck your head up more than a good dosage of success. If you ask yourself that fatal question: "Oh man, how am I gonna do that again?" Hey, who cares! Because there's nothing worse than a performer who loves being a star more than writing good music. Most of the bands who influenced my writing never sold a bunch of albums. The bottom line is you have to love writing songs.
Did you ever try to write while touring?
No, it's ridiculous to try to write on the road. Nobody wants to hear some rock star whining about how tough touring is-and that's exactly what I end up doing in that situation.
Considering the timeline you had to write a Boy Named Goo as compared to Dizzy Up the Girl, it seems you're a person who writes better under pressure.
Yeah, I'm definitely one of those guys who wrote his term paper the night before class. I work well in pressure situations-especially when I have a big body of work to complete. The great thing about these situations is you can't overthink, which was one of the things that led to my writer's block. That, and being completely turned off by the music business.
Rumor has it that you almost threw in the towel?
There was a period of about nine months where I was completely turned off by the music business, and I did contemplate quitting. I didn't like the way people in the industry worked, and I definitely didn't like the way they treated each other…
Or the way they treated you-right?
Well, it's like this. When you enter into a situation and put complete faith in the people representing you, but then you find out they aren't holding up their end of the bargain-after you've been trying to do the right thing-it's hurtful. Of course, this is only my opinion. I have to say that, because I don't want to get myself into any more legal bullshit. But what can I say? I took it personally. Other people I'd run into would say things like "Forget it John, It's only business." Fuck that! It's not just business. We believed in those people.
Anyway, after we got through all that nonsense, I was pretty much bent on quitting. But the other guys I work with dragged me along and convinced me to start writing again and put all that other shit aside.
The biggest songs you've recorded so far ("Name", "Naked", and "Iris") have been in some pretty unique guitar tunings. What started you on these alternate tunings?
My inability to play the guitar correctly! (laughing) It's true! I never learned how to play technically correct. So, one day I just started twisting knobs on my guitar and it just was a whole new ballgame. Every new tuning I discovered is like a whole new world for me-it's amazing.
Do you have a favorite tuning?
No. I mean I never really looked in a book of tunings to find one. But when we were recording, my guitar tech showed me a Nashville tuning (also known as high-stringing) and we started doing some alternate tuning with those strings, which was double freaky. Then I had a few of my guitars outfitted with banjo tuners on the high E and B strings, because a lot of the times I'll tune the 1st string to F# and the 2nd to C#. I've also been using a Hipshot device on my low E-string that allows me to drop it to a D easily. Then I have one guitar where the 2nd string is tuned up to a C and the 1st string is tuned up to a G. That's a really fun tuning-but watch your eyes!
Sounds dangerous. You must have even higher string tension on "Name", where the 2nd string is tuned up to an E.
Yeah, but I remedied that problem by putting two E strings on the guitar. Also, on "Iris", I drop the sixth string down to C#. There wasn't enough tension with a regular low E string, so my tech grabbed a G string off Robby's bass, and It worked perfectly.
You seem to prefer Fender Electrics
I pretty much rely on Strats, but I have been playing some Jag-Strangs, Jaguars, and Teles as well.
You like those Jag-Stangs?
I don't know yet. I think I like the actual Jaguars and Mustangs a little better. I like a really dark-sounding piece of wood.
But no Les Pauls?
You know, it just doesn't feel right against my body. I mean, I have a Les Paul that I play, but I like it more for the color than anything else.
A good guitar to have for a photo shoot?
It's fuckin' amazing man! (laughing) Seriously, though, it has a beautiful purple sparkle finish and I'm a big sucker for sparkle finish guitars. I love 'em.
The other thing I've been experimenting with is pickups. I've been using EMGs, but I think I want to switch over to Duncans. On this record I swapped out a few of my EMGs and replaced them with Seymour Duncan JBs and the sound was much more organic. An EMG is a very square, electronic-sounding pickup. But the good thing about it is it's sound is always constant and even. Hell, you could probably throw EMGs on a piece of tree bark and they'd sound good.
How about amps?
I started playing with smaller amps on this CD and found that I really liked them. The nice thing about good smaller amps is that they get a great overdrive tone without making your ears bleed and putting too much sound pressure on the mic. In the end, you get a more true tone through the board.
I used to get big amps like a Fender Dual Professional and a couple 100-watt Marshall JMP heads with Bob Bradshaw (tone guru of Custon Audio Electronics in hollywook) mods in them. But the one small amp I fell in love with was a 15-watt solid state Fender Bronco. We plugged the Bronco into a 4x12 cabinet and hit the overdrive and it just smoked. I was amazed.
The other amp I love is my new Custom Audio Electronic (CAE) OD-100. While we were recording in LA., I took a trip out to CAE to get one of my Marshalls worked on. While Bob was fixing my head, Matin Golub let me plug into the OD-100 and the clean and dirty tones I got just floored me. Martin was like "Well, I can't sell you that one, because we don't have anymore in stock." I said, "Dude, I don't think you understand-here's the credit card-the amp is coming home with me!"
The thing has the balls of a Marshall, but is way more hi-fi. The tremolo is killer, and we used it on "Dizzy", the first song on the new CD. Also the Clean channel is the best I've ever heard. So good that that I route my acoustic guitars through a D.I and then into the Clean channel on the OD-100. It also has the best Master Volume control I've ever used, because you can turn the volume down and still get an amazing overdrive tone.
What type of pedals did you use in the studio?
I used a wah pedal for the first time in my life. Besides that, I used this distorion pedal called a Super Hard-On, which was pretty nasty. I used a Dunlop Uni-Vibe, a couple of octave pedals, a lot of Boss pedals and an Electro-Harmonix Q-tron. Another pedal I used was the new Danelectro Dan-Echo. It sounds like an old tape delay and is so creamy-they should have called it the cream and sugar pedal. I bought three of them. One for me, another for Nathan December, the guitar player we hired for the tour, and then a backup.
Talk about the difference in production styles between Lou Giordano, who produced a Boy Named Goo and Rob Cavallo, who produced your new CD.
Lou is much more of an engineer and arranger who makes beautiful flawless recordings than he is a player. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to diss him for being that way, because he made a great record with us.
But because of where I was (with my songwriting) when we went to record Dizzy Up the Girl, I wanted someone to work with me on the songs-to coach me and tell me when certain parts needed to be reworked or trashed. And that's what Rob is good at.
There is a point when I become too intimate with my songs, and I can't see the flaws. It's like putting your nose up to a billboard and then trying to find out what it is. Rob helped me step back and see the weak spots. This isn't to say that we went with every suggestion Rob made-because we didn't-but if you at least try different things, it will open your head up.
The other thing all of us liked about Rob is that a session with him is like a big party. It's a complete no-pressure situation, which is hard to come by when you're dropping $2,500 a day on recording.
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