- Title: USA: New Goo Goo Dolls song featured on "Transformers" movie soundtrack
- Date: 4th July 2007
- Summary: GOO GOO DOLLS PERFORMING NEW SONG "BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE"
- Embargoed: 19th July 2007 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Usa
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVAAW79DZL86IV8QORZDFOX8E8V9
- Story Text: Alternative rockers the Goo Goo Dolls are hitting the big screen this summer. The band has a new song "Before It's Too Late" featured in the upcoming summer action pic, "Transformers," based on the popular toy franchise. The track is the love theme for the main human characters, played by Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox. The live-action robot fantasy film is a collaboration between director Michael Bay and executive producer Steven Spielberg.
The group, which is behind hits such as "Name," "Iris," "Slide," and "Here Is Gone," has been making music together for more than two decades and has sold more than seven million copies of their eighth album, "Let Love In," which was released in April 2006.
Lead singer Johnny Rzeznik believes part of the secret to their longevity is the freedom the three members have had to express themselves creatively outside the tight-knit trio.
"Nobody else wants us," laughs Rzeznik. "So we have to stay together with each other. It's like, you know how hard it is to get a date after being married for 20 years? You're out of circulation for that long it's kind of difficult. But I don't think we really hate each other, and, Mike made his own record, Robbie works on his own stuff. I mess around with other things on the side. We have an open marriage, I suppose. I guess that helps to make it work," he told Reuters.
Rzeznik says that the Goo Goo Dolls' growth and evolution as musicians has paralleled the changes in the lives of the group. He notes that to try and produce an album like they made in 1988 would be a forced affair. Instead, Rzeznik says, the music of the Dolls is a reflection of how the group has developed as individual artists working as a whole, and not an attempt to please anyone other them themselves.
"People's opinions are like loose change and lint in their pockets that they have to show their friends," Rzeznik said. "So you know, you have to develop a really tough skin because no matter what you do you're wrong. That's all there is to it. Someone's gonna think you're wrong. But ten people think you're right."
In terms of the Dolls being chosen to make music for the highly-anticipated "Transformers" film, Rzeznik recalls the process that began with a surprising phone call.
"Well, I got involved with The Transformers film because I guess the music supervisor from the film called and asked if I would like to write a song for the film. And I was like 'Sure, let me come down.' And I got to see some of the film, not all of it. They're very secretive. And I read the script and asked a lot of questions about the characters and what they were thinking about and what's going on psychologically, and the whole thing."
Rzeznik says he enjoyed the creative challenge of composing a track to bring a big-screen theme to life.
"You know, I like writing pieces of music that, that fit into a larger thing which is this film. It's really awesome, you know. Fits into a larger thing. It's, it's a component that supports somebody else's vision, you know. I like that. You know, it's a good exercise as a writer to do that."
Writing and producing "Before It's Too Late" also represents a milestone of sorts for the Goo Goo Dolls in that it is the first song the chart-topping trio has recorded and produced on their own in a brand new studio they built in Buffalo, New York.
Rzeznik says flying solo was unnerving in the beginning. But he believes the end result made taking the risk worthwhile.
"It was kind of liberating because we had the opportunity just to experiment, and do, just do whatever we wanted," recalls Rzeznik. "And it actually worked. I mean I was ready to be like 'Oh my God, you know, this ain't gonna work.' We've been working with amazing producers and engineers, and beautiful studios for 15 years, and you learn a lot. If you don't get an education it'd be a shame."
The Goo Goo Dolls kicked off their lengthy summer tour on June 15 in Phoenix, Arizona. They will be out until October of this year playing stops in North America, Japan, Scotland, Ireland and the U.K. While in Great Britain, the band will be performing at T In The Park, The Oxygen Festival, and the V Festival in addition to their own concerts. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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