Nineties rockers the Goo Goo Dolls still making new music

You will be forgiven if you might have thought of the Goo Goo Dolls as a one-hit wonder from the late nineties with their hit “Iris”.

Until the date of the release of this hit song, they only had one other big hit, even though they had been making music since 1986.

“Iris” was in the number 1 position on the Hot 100 for 18 weeks and was named the Number One Top 40 Song of the last year.

This was their big breakthrough song.

But their subsequent hits and world tour at the end of this year bear testament to the fact that band members John Rzeznik and Robby Takac are producing new music, with their most recently released song “Beautiful lie” being another addition to their American songbook.

The band became famous in the nineties for its blend of punk, alternative rock and pop.

Rzeznik, the frontman of the band, told Rekord that punk will rise again in a new way.

“Nothing about music stays the same,” said Rzeznik, who grew up in a working-class Polish-American family.

Since launching as a cover band in New York in 1986, the two residents from Buffalo had a punk sound of their own.

It however took them almost a decade of making their own music before they had their first big song called “Name”.

Originality is something Rzenik still cares intensely about. He is opposed to algorithms creating a monotone soundtrack to people’s lives.

“Music streaming services are seriously influencing music today. Not the bands or the fans, but the algorithms are king. The services are also stealing from artists by not paying us. The quality of music is badly affected. There is nothing like live music to counter this,” he believes.

“Iris” the soundtrack to the 1998 film City of Angels, this month reached more than two billion plays on Spotify, making it one of the top 100 most played tracks in the world.

Recently, various renditions of the song have gone viral and have been trending on TikTok.

Rzeznik said writing the iconic song came easy to him.

“I am always amazed when crowds can sing it. It is the song people will remember us by,” he reminisced.

The band has sold 15 million albums globally and has received four Grammy nominations.

These days it is touring that Rzeznik really loves and that is why they grabbed a chance at the world tour, which includes stops in Naples and Verona soon.

First, they will make three stops in South Africa: Cape Town (December 4), Durban (December 5) and Pretoria at the Voortrekker Monument (December 7).

One of the reasons why he loves live performances and concerts said Rzeznik, is that too much technology is influencing music in a detrimental way.

He is outspoken about the influence of artificial intelligence on music and their own artistry.

“I think music is produced too fast. Fast and cheap lead to little lasting value and AI might add to this happening. Perhaps we should get to that point where we should ask ourselves who is controlling us and the conclusion will be the internet. And then of course the question is, who is controlling the internet?” said the father of Liliana Carella, who was born in 2016 to Rzeznik and his wife, Melina.

But the recovered alcoholic (he has been open about his struggles with alcoholism and stated on Instagram in 2023 that he has been clean for nine years) always has hope.

“You are not alone ever,” said Rzeznik while sharing this achievement.

For humanity, he told Rekord, he has high hopes.

“We are eight billion human beings on the planet. Despite overwhelming tech, an enormous amount of escapism and what is happening in the world, human beings are making a comeback. People are wondering what to believe and what not, and that is a good place for humanity to be.”

Click here to watch “Iris”:

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