Producing Goo Goo Dolls

At the moment I am producing the new album for Blue October. It’s the first time I have worked with the band since mixing tracks on ‘History for Sale’  Its early days, but it’s  going really well so far.

Last Year I produced and wrote on ‘Something for the rest of us for The Goo Goo Dolls. The new single is Notbroken.

For its the highest-charting recordings – 1998/s triple-platinum “Dizzy up the girl” and 2002’s million-selling “Gutterflower” – the Goo Goo Dolls worked with producer Rob Cavallo. Since then Cavallo has gone on to become on the most sought-after producers in the business working with the likes of Green Day, Avril Lavigne, the Dave Matthews Band, My Chemical Romance and Paramore, among many others. For this new album, the Goo’s were looking for something a little bit different. Initially, the band consulted with legendary U2 producer Steve Lillywhite, “but the time we were going to take in order to write, rehearse and record this album was way too much for him to be able to commit to,” says Takac.

Undaunted, the band struck up a relationship with Tim Palmer, whose resume reads like a dream team roster from the past three decades of popular music. Beginning in the 80’s, and continuing through this current decade, Palmer has worked with Robert Plant, the Mighty Lemon Drops, David Bowies Tin Machine, Pearl Jam, James, the Catherine Wheel, The Cure, Porcupine Tree and U2 among others.

More important that his record of active duty, however, is Palmer’s  bedside manner in the studio.

“Tim sat at rehearsal in Buffalo with us for four months while we got material together,” says Takac admiringly. “He basically joined the band. The whole element of the excitement created by the chaos of us arriving with nothing ready to go – instead of looking at that as a negative thing, Tim totally embraced it, and helped us to use that as an energy force.

“This record is completely different for us as a result of working with him. He didn’t want us to turn it all over to him, yah know? He wanted to be a part of it with us. So we had to become part of the process, the whole tim. At no point have we turned this project over to anyone else. That’s incredibly exciting for us.”