Hoobastank Interview: There's Something Good in the Neighborhood



With 15 years in the business, four albums under their belt, and lyrics to monster hits like "The Reason" rolling off the lips of every fan at concerts, it would seem that the world was lulled into all too familiar territory with Hoobastank.

That was until the guys shook things up with an impromptu and thoroughly rousing rendition of "Ghostbusters" at MTV World Stage Live in Malaysia. The crowd went wild, and it was one of those highlights that would go down in World Stage history.

Just like their penchant for the element of surprise, Hoobastank certainly weren't keen on stuffy interview set ups, choosing to greet us with farting noises, laughter and warm smiles as we settled down for a chat.

"Just relax guys," coos frontman Doug Robb as he eased onto the carpet. Taking us through their creative process for For(N)Ever, the secret to the band's longevity and Spinal Tap moments on tour, Hoobastank has no doubt matured as a band.

Given the energy and bond these guys share, we're pretty sure another 15 years and more of making music together (with more setlist surprises in store) have been locked down in the big book of Hoobastank's band history.

Hoobastank albums always had different themes and ideas to them. What do you expect fans to take away from For(n)Ever?

Doug: Do we have fans….what?

Dan: (shifting into Professor mode) There's a lot of different themes to our records Doug, and what do you think our fans would take away from this new record, For(n)Ever?

Doug: Have any of you guys ever thought about that, ever?

Dan: Never

Doug: I've never thought about what I want a fan to take away from any record.

Dan: You know what though, I mean honestly, it'd be nice for people to be able to just relate to it. If it strikes a nerve with somebody then they're relating to it and if it touches them, that's pretty cool. I don't know if we necessarily set out for that but...

Doug: Yeah, I mean, that's what you hope for. We'll like them to connect somehow, whether it's in a positive way or even in a negative way or brings back harsh memories, either way.

But lyrically, there is some departure on For(n)Ever from your previous records.

Doug: A little bit, I think this record is less philosophical than the prior, definitely the one right before it, and maybe the first album too. The songs are more personal and story-driven, with inspiration drawn from close friends and family, stories that I interpreted.

The track, "So Close, So Far" holds obvious meaning. Especially for you, Doug. Was it written as a specific message or did it evolve to be as such?

Doug: Well honestly, when we were writing it, and this doesn't sound very romantic at all, but I remember watching the news on TV. There was this story on CNN about the families of the troops stationed in Middle East - how they coped from being away from each other for so long, and it reminded me of what we do.

Obviously it's totally different from being in a touring rock band and someone who's serving the military. It's like comparing apples and oranges, but we definitely share the same sentiment - that longing to be with the people that we can't. We don't have a choice. So, I wrote the lyrics with that in mind, kinda about ourselves and also kinda from watching CNN.

So were there any other specific influences when recording this album?

Doug: I'm gonna defer to you guys or I'm just gonna keep talking about lyrics.

Chris: Talk about lyrics

Dan: I don't know, I don't even remember recording the record, really.

Doug: It happened so fast it seems like...

Dan: No, but it took forever didn't it?

Doug: Yeah but *snaps fingers* it happened like that

Dan: *laughs* Didn't it take forever? I'm just trying to think about being in the studio and like, what was I doing? What was I driving home listening to? And most of the time it was our own music and still trying to write stuff so I would be in the car, driving home from the studio listening to the songs, trying to get an idea of something that I could possibly record for later.

There was a version of your song, "The Letter," recorded with Vanessa Amorosi and there's also a version with Japanese vocalist, Anna Tsuchiya.

Doug: The original version of "The Letter" was just me; it was never written to be a duet, we decided to do that afterwards and try different countries. Actually, we wanted to see if we could do different versions in all the different countries. It would've been interesting you know, to have an Italian singer do it in Italy. So Vanessa agreed to do it and it was kinda like a test run in Australia. It worked out pretty well.

We just released a Greatest Hits album in Japan and maybe a month before that album came out, the [label] said "Oh, we'll find out," because we've been asking prior if any Japanese singer would like to do it. And then all of a sudden they came out and said "Anna would like to do it" and before we even said said "Ok, let's look her up!," they went "Oh, she already did it and here it is!" It was interesting, it kind of grows on you.

It took a while for me to get used to hearing the Vanessa Amorosi version because that was the first time we've ever had anybody sing besides me. So, it's grown on me a little bit, like I said, hopefully there'll be more versions of it - like an Italian version or a Spanish version. We'll see.

Dan: I think if we can find the right artiste in certain countries, it would be cool. If like, there was a Malaysian artiste that was the right artiste then, sure!

Congratulations Doug on recently getting married. How has marriage actually changed your life on the road?

Doug: Thank you. How's it at all? It's been exactly the same.

Chris: (in jest) He still cheats, every night.

Doug: Yeah *laughs*

Isn't it tiring having to juggle all this?

Doug: You know, I'm used to it. My wife is the same person I've been dating for 2 years when we started touring up till the time we got married, and she knows exactly what it's like to be with somebody who's always on the road all the time. It's not for everybody, obviously some girls and guys can't handle being in a relationship like that. But she does it really well and we make it work and honestly, I don't think it's that difficult.

Chris: All it really takes is trust..

Doug: And some cheating

Chris: And some cheating

*laughter*

It wasn't easy for you guys to cut your first album and to get recognition along the way. What do you think of all the musical upstarts that got famous through MySpace and Youtube?

Doug: Part of me wants to go "F**k those guys! That's not how you do it!" Obviously there's a part of me that wants to say that but the other side's like "Well, whatever!" It's not my life you know. If somebody gets really famous for writing that one song on Youtube or whatever and that's what they do, then fine, I've grown up past the point of having to judge everybody, especially with regards to music. I've come to a point where I can say, "More power to them."

I do think though, that being in a band is like being in a relationship, and it's healthier to go through the ups and downs of any relationship before you reach a certain level. We've gone through so much, played at the sh**tiest little places and at big shows before we had any real success and I think it prepares you.

You know how to deal with it and with each other when you do, if you're fortunate enough, to have success. Some bands will get together - form in January, get a record deal in February, have the number one song in the country by August and then they'll break up by December because they didn't know how to handle that. It's like one moment, they don't even know each other and the next moment, they're the biggest band in the country.

So I think doing it the way we have, even though we didn't specifically choose to do it that way, I think it's helped us stick together for 15 years.

So, do you guys endorse using social networks like Facebook or Twitter to reach out to fans? Do you practice that habit?

Doug: I have a band Twitter account, but I don't 'tweet' personal stuff. It's always like "Hey, we're gonna be in this city," "Show was great" that kind of stuff. Same with MySpace and Facebook, everything I do that's active, is all band related. Recently, we had a show in Taipei and it was pouring rain and right when we were done with the show, I 'tweeted' that we just had this amazing show in front of a sold-out stadium in the pouring rain, so much that the power shut off. Interesting things that have to do with the band, not like "Hey, I just had a great McDonald's Meal."

Besides that incident with the pouring rain, power shutting down and all, have you guys ever had any Spinal Tap moments?

Dan: We had a real Spinal Tap moment, with Joel walking us to the stage one day and we got lost. I remember that we were in some arena.

Doug: It was some arena, we got lost on the way to the stage. We were in Mexico, and we were trying to take the elevator from the basement to the next floor to do this little acoustic show and 'Meet and Greet' session, The elevator broke; it just shut down right in between floors and we were there for like 20 minutes. It was kinda funny, and we were all like packed in this elevator. Stuff like that is kinda funny, you know.

Chris: I think almost any band who has been around for more than a couple of years has had more than a handful of spinal tap moments. That's part of why the movie's so funny, because a lot of it is so ridiculous and so realistic at the same time.

Thanks for your time guys!