| GWA Does all that ass-kissing affect your songwriting? Rzeznik It does, but in a bad way-it makes you stop trying. I always tell the people around me, "If I'm screwing up, let me know. This is no time to be kissing my ass. We have too much to lose." When you're in the middle of a whirlwind you don't see what the hell is going on. You're so busy trying to get everything you've dreamed about, you forget to keep an eye on yourself. I don't want to fuck things up by having a false sense of who or what I am because of what I've accomplished. That sets you up for a huge fall. There's potential for a heartbreak when you derive your personal happiness from "I've got a million dollars in the bank," or " "I'm banging model X, " or whatever. Your human value doesn't increase just because you did something. You're still the same person. GWA September 11 put a lot if that in perspective-what matters and what doesn't. You were in the middle of recording Gutterflower at that time. How did the attack and its aftermath affect the making of the album? Rzeznik After September 11, the band shut down for a couple of weeks. We just sat and watched TV, though I did perform with the guys from Limp Bizkit on the Tribute to Heroes TV special, which was an honor and a great experience. When I finally came back and listened to what we had been working on, I thought to myself, "What the hell am I going to sing or write about that's going to mean anything?" For me, what happened on 9/11 brought to the forefront the insignificance of most of what goes on in this country. We're spoiled, you know? We have time to watch a game show where people get tortured in a chair. GWA You've lived in Southern California for the past few years. The song "What A Scene" is clearly an attack on the vapidity and the self-important emptiness of life in Hollywood. The "How does it feel?" line echoes Dylan in "Like A Rolling Stone," where he rails against people who think they are "It." Rzeznik The ironic thing about me and California is that most people come out here to get noticed and discovered, but I came to evaporate. Nobody knows me here and that's great. I walk down the street and nobody cares who I am. A lot of the lyrics ob "What A Scene" are about me trying to figure out where I fit in. I don't feel like California is my permanent home. I managed to find what must be the only East Coast-looking house around-it reminds me of Buffalo. GWA I know you've had difficulty in the past with your lyric writing. How did it go this time? Rzeznik The lyrics were more difficult this time around than on our last album. Rob Cavallo, our producer, helped me deal with the problem by sitting me outside the studio, putting the proverbial gun to my head and saying, "Do it,." Which was great-it was like cramming for a final exam. I didn't have time to second-guess myself-I had to get to the essence of what the songs were about and do it fast. Here's something that may strike you as neurotic: When we were on tour last time we would listen to other bands' demo tapes, and sometimes I would think, "Wow, this is really bad." But when I would think about how much that recording means to them and how all their dreams were riding on it, I felt like, "Who am I to judge what somebody else creates or does?" And then, of course, it led to my questioning what I do, what i create. I think what I do is pretty cool, but how do I know? How does anyone know? Our music, but it make me tap my foot and I'm happy with it. GWA As someone who's felt insecure about his work, how do you respond to bad reviews? Rzeznik I tell you, I've gotten over my phobia of music critics. It's important to detach yourself from what people say or write. I used to get pretty upset when we got shit press- I told one writer I was going to pound his head into the curb. He either didn't listen to the record or totally lacked the depth-not that it was so deep- to understand what it was about. But now I realize he just didn't get it, and that's okay. In the final analysis, the only valid opinion is "I don't like it," or "I like it." GWA So you've developed a thicker skin. Rzeznik Yes. I got my feelings hurt a few times, but you just have to say, "That's life." What am I going to do, run and hide? I don't write music for critics or hipsters. I write for me. GWA The Goo Goo Dolls have enjoyed their greatest success with acoustic-based songs that are built around unusual tunings. Do you feel any pressure to continue writing in that vein? Rzeznik No. It worked out that way for this album because that's just where it went. It's what sounded best. We wanted to really get into the overtones, the droning. I wanted to make things more dissonant and find different kinds of harmonic structures. GWA Some of your best-known songs employ that you came up with through experimentation. Have you ever used tunings associated with other artists, say, Jimmy Page or David Crosby? Rzeznik I've tried some of the tunings Page used in Led Zeppelin, but I always wind up messing around with them. When I come across a sound I like I get my tuner- it's important to have a tuner handy- and write down the sequence so I don't forget it. I'm anxious to see if any of the tunings I used on this album have ever been used by other guitarists. GWA Do you use any particular strange tunings on Gutterflower? Rzeznik "Big Machine" was written on a four string guitar. Actually, it was a regular six string, but I cut two strings off- the D and the high E- because they were getting in the way. That left jus the E,A,G and B strings, which i detuned to D# A# A# D. And it worked- it's so infectious. When I came up with the riff, I was so excited that I kept calling my friends and saying, "Check this riff out!" Now it's my favorite song on the record. GWA Are there six-string parts on that song aswell? Rzeznik Yeah, I did some overdubs of power chords to bring the dynamics up in the bridge and chorus. Tim Pierce did this cool apreggio part on it too. I did thins thing at the end of the song that I think [Cars guitarist] Elliot Easton used to do, which was take a Les Paul and triple the single-note parts to give it a fat, throaty sound. GWA Is that you playing the mandling part on "Sympathy"? Rzeznik I played some of it, and Tim plays some madolin as well. GWA There's a lot of lush guitar overdubs on this record. Rzeznik That's mostly Tim. He came in and added an ambient flavor to the songs. He takes a simple melody and makes it work, knowing exactly where to add that punctuation and drive the point home. And he has this great collection of guitars and pedals that hje knows how to use. He's so tasteful. GWA Did you use a B-Bender on "It's Over"? Rzeznik Yeah, on a Tele. The B-Bender is the coolest thing ever. Who ever came up with that idea? GWA Gene Parsons and Clarence White of the Brds. Rzeznik Really? No shit! It's reall really cool. GWA What other guitars did you use on Gutterflower? Rzenik A lot of Guilds, a Chet Atkins and also Parker Fly electric. I usually stacked up a Guild and the Chet Atkins because the compliment each other nicely. On "What A Scene" there's three seperate acoustics- a Gibson J-200, a Guild and a Chet Akins- and then I stuck a clean elesctric underneath it. Many of the acoustic parts on this record lay a foundation for the songs, but they're not always the main instruments. On all of my songs, I always try to play one electric part in standard. and then Tim will come in and play his part in standard. So if there are a total of five guitar tracks, I might do two in an altered tuning and one in standard tuning, and then Tim wil add his parts. GWA How about amps and effects? Rzeznik I put this sick amp rig together. It has a Bogner Shiva, a Matchless Chieftain, a Marshall Plexi with Mullard tubes and a Naylor Superdrive 60, which is the most amazing, heavy sounding amp. We also used a lot of the Line 6 stuff in the studio. It's great for expnading your creative potential-there are so many different possibilties. But most people just use the prestes, because they want to sound like someone else. GWA They feel they need to follow Rzeznik Fuck that. Take the Stevie Ray Vaughan preset or whatever and whack the hell out of it and run it trough something else. Put a wound G string on your electric. Poke a hole in your speaker like the Kinks did. Be creative. The worst that could happen is that it sucks. |
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