Goo Goo Dolls

“SOMETIMES YOU’VE GOT TO GO HOME TO FIND YOURSELF.”

That's what the Goo Goo Dolls discovered when they began writing songs for Let Love In, the band's eighth album.

Since forming in 1986, the Goo Goo Dolls have evolved from a scrappy punk-influenced trio into the platinum-selling, chart-topping act behind such radio staples as "Name," "Iris," "Slide," and "Here is Gone." Along the way, founding members John Rzeznik and Robby Takac left Buffalo, N.Y. for Los Angeles, but Rzeznik soon found that L.A. isn't everything it's cracked up to be.

"I wasn't really feeling any kind of real inspiration in Los Angeles," he admits. "I was sitting here just beating my head against the wall trying to write songs and I wasn't feeling inspired at all."

The quest to rekindle his muse led Rzeznik to pack his recording gear and guitars in a U-Haul truck and drive across country to his hometown. He met his band mates Robby Takac and drummer Mike Malinin set up shop in a 100-year-old Masonic Ballroom.

"It was a really beautiful old place," he says. "It felt really good to be back where I grew up. It's sort of that whole getting-back-to-your-roots thing only that sounds so cliche, but there's definitely a different kind of dramatic tension there than in L.A." After the incredible success of "Iris," the landmark power ballad recorded for the City of Angels soundtrack, and the Goo Goo Dolls' 1998 blockbuster Dizzy Up the Girl, Rzeznik became a Los Angeles resident. But he soon found that the commercial success that the band strove for and obtained came with a price.

"Nobody likes to hear a rock star talk about his problems," he says, "but it was really kind of alienating and strange to me. All of a sudden people really change how they treat you. I found a lot of people being disingenuous. So my circle of friends tightened, as in there are fewer of them."

Those feelings of isolation and the search for inspiration led him back home to Buffalo where the Dolls spent a long cold winter working 12 hours a day, writing and recording material for Let Love In.

It was in a copy of the Rolling Stones' Hot Rocks, a seminal double-vinyl "best of" set, that Rzeznik found refuge, listening to Jagger-Richards classics while starring at the gatefold sleeve and dreaming rock star dreams.

Those dreams turned to a nightmare when Rzeznik lost both of his parents within a year of each other when he was just was just 16. Shaken but not beaten, Rzeznik was left to his own devices.

It was while he was attending college that Rzeznik met Takac. "I was playing in a hardcore band. I just wanted to have someone to play with," Rzeznik remembers. "He was sort of like this hippy metal guy and I was very influenced by the whole punk thing. We just got together and enjoyed hanging out so we started playing together. Recalls Takac, "When John and I met each other, I really didn't know how to write a song and he really didn't know how to keep a band together. We started learning from each other, and as we moved forward, it became easier for us to complete our own sentences with the help from each other."

The Goo Goo Dolls also have put in plenty of work and not only survived but also thrived over two decades, a milestone that hasn't gone unnoticed by the band. "One of the things that we've managed to do -- as simply put as possible – is stay together," Takac says. "That's awfully difficult for a lot of bands."

For Let Love In, Rzeznik and Takac renewed their writing partnership. "John and I wrote together on this record," Takac says. "We had done some stuff lyrically together, but the last time we actually wrote completely together on Superstar CarWash."

While the Goo Goo Dolls have certainly enjoyed their success, one thing is certain – the band hasn't forgotten where they came from and is happy to give back to its loyal fans. That became perfectly clear on July 4, 2004, when the band returned to Buffalo to play a free gig for more than 60,000 fans. When rain fell on the outdoor show, it could have turned into a logistical nightmare, but instead it became a hometown triumph that was captured for posterity's sake on The Goo Goo Dolls Live in Buffalo July 4th 2004 CD/DVD release. "The whole thing turned around as soon as it started raining," Rzeznik recalls. "It was awesome. I remember being up there playing and going, 'Sometimes God just cuts you a break' and that's what it was." Writing the songs for Let Love In, Rzeznik found similar inspiration in his hometown. "When you drive down the street and you see the park and the bleachers where you first a kissed a girl, you drive past the house you grew up in and you remember them taking your mother out in an ambulance, you see the post office where your father worked, you drive through a neighborhood that used to be all factories and now it's just leveled, or you drive by a street and see a beautiful little shop that just opened and how people are really thriving there," he says. "It gives you a lot of hope and perspective."

That feeling, hope, and perspective informs Let Love In. "That whole experience kind of opened up my heart," Rzeznik says of the Buffalo sessions. "It was good to feel again. I don't need to feel good all the time. I just want to be able to feel."

Listening to Let Love In -- recorded with acclaimed producer Glen Ballard -- it's apparent that Rzeznik isn't only sharing his own feelings, he's tapped into consciousness to such an extent that some of the Goo Goo Dolls' songs have become anthems. Take "Better Days" for example, a song from Let Love In with such power and empathy it was adopted by CNN as an anthem of sorts for the recovery efforts following Hurricane Katrina. "I was just looking at the situation in the world," Rzeznik says of the song. "Fear makes people do frightening things. Fear is a catalyst for selfishness and war. Sometimes I fear that we're losing our ability to reason. I needed some hope to hang onto. That's why I wrote 'Better Days'".

"Let's just hit the reset button," he says. "Let's say I'm sorry and start over again. That was basically the message. Something better is going to come."

With that hope, the Goo Goo Dolls have offered Let Love In, a rare work of naked honesty and emotion in songs that will stick in your head for the weeks, months, and years to come.

Here's hoping that you, too, will open the door.

Vertical Horizon

Vertical Horizon was founded by Matt Scannell and Keith Kane in 1991, while both were attending Georgetown University. Initially a duo, Vertical Horizon recorded and toured extensively and released three albums independently, There And Back Again, Running On Ice, and Live Stages, before signing with RCA in 1999. Their first major release, Everything You Want sold 2 million copies with the title song hitting #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and Adult Top 40 charts. The song was the most played single of 2000. In addition to the success with “Everything You Want,” the band also garnered continued recognition on radio with “You’re A God” (#4 on Billboard’s Adult Chart) and “Best I Ever Had (Grey Sky Morning)” which in 2005, also became a Top 20 country hit for Gary Allen.

Their follow-up album Go was released in 2003, but the merger of Sony/BMG left the band and the album caught in the proverbial shuffle. At the conclusion of the RCA relationship, the band signed with Hybrid Records and the album was re-released in 2005. Eventually, the band took a self-imposed hiatus to pursue individual interests. In 2007, realizing as Matt says, “there was more to do” and “thinking the timing was just right to start working on a new album,” the band began writing and recording, Burning The Days. The album was released on September 22, 2009 with the first single released “Save Me From Myself” was extremely well-received and climbed the Hot AC charts with strong airplay in McAllen.

Independent of label constraints, Burning The Days was produced by Scannell and recorded at his studio over the course of the 2 years. For the band, it was a complete return to their beginnings of working at their own pace and “nurturing those moments of inspiration.” According to Matt, the album is “sonically as good as anything we have ever done. I take great pride in this album and feel that our renewed sense of creativity will resonate with our fans.” The album also features virtuoso drummer Neil Peart of Rush on “Save Me From Myself,” “Even Now” and “Welcome To The Bottom” as well as Richard Marx playing piano on “Here” and producing two of Matt’s lead vocal tracks.

“I’m actually in a pretty positive place right now,” says Scannell. “Of course I still have that underlying fear of everything falling apart and crumbling to the floor, but it is not the first thing on my mind, like it’s been at times in the past.” And so one of the main themes of Burning The Days is about finding balance in a journey from hardship to peacefulness – knowing that the up must follow the down, and vice versa. “It’s about being okay with things going well, and also finding strength to get through the tough times.”