Just get over the name. Get over it. Everyone knows it's a terrible band name. Even the members of the band knows it's a terrible band name. The Goo Goo Dolls. It's sounds more like a bratty junior high girls pompom club than a chart-topping pop-rock band. It's easily one of the worst band names of all time (probably sliding in just above Dogs Die In Hot Cars) , yet somehow these tragically misnamed musicians have managed to sell almost 7 million-seven million! - records over the past 20-plus years. All under the tacky Goo Goo Dolls tag. What gives? Are they really that good? Well, only you and your ears can decide that, but the undeniable truth is they must be doing something right. And while founding lead man Johnny Rzeznick gets most of the spotlight, drummer Mike Malinin has been there since 1995 - as the three-piece matured from trashy melodic punksters to platinum pop alternative rockers-holding steady rock grooves through hit after hit, album after album.

He came to the band just before they launched up the pop charts with Dizzy Up The Girl. Malinin was the first and only drummer to audition after founding skinsman George Tutuska departed. "I think I was just the most available," jokes an articulate Malinin from his Massachusetts hotel room. "I had no wife, no kids, no job. In other words, I could tour forever without any kind of hang-ups. Only in the music business is that a great resume: absolutely nothing going on. So I was the first and only one to audition, and it just went from there. They haven't really said anything to me since then, so I guess I got the gig. It just sort of happened."

An extreme distance runner (more on that later) and an avid baseball fan (if you can call the Florida Marlins baseball), Malinin is your quintessential "for the song" player, yet he manages to bring a sense of musicality to his instrument that so few can. His classic beats drive lush melodies, and his effortless transitions bring the listener from one addictive room to the next with such finesse that you'll barely notice the migration until you look up and take in the sweeping panoramic view. It's become almost formulaic for the veteran rocker but - as their latest album, Let Love In, demonstrates - an important part of the formula is its adaptability.

"The early reviews of Let Love In have noticed that we've stepped out of what they were considering 'the Goo Goo Dolls formula.' I hope it's a step forward. It's always going to sound like us, so we didn't have to worry about experimenting too much. With the songwriting, I think Johnny was really intent on staying away from structures that were too similar to what we've done in the past. If there was anything weird about the last album [Gutterflower], it was that it sounded too much like the album before it.

"So all of us stepped out of the box a little bit and tried to approach each song a little differently. Hopefully it worked. I don't think it'll sound too different from what people have come to expect. But I have noticed, when we play live, there's a noticeable difference between the old songs and the new songs. I feel like I'm playing them from a different approach. For example, there's a song on the new album called 'Become,' and the entire song is on the ride cymbal - actually three different ride cymbals. So it's just small, feel-oriented things like that that make it a little more musical."

The simple complex. Simplistic originality is the biggest challenge a drummer like Malinin faces. After all, how many ways are there to support a rock song without getting in way the of the music? Not many. "One of the standard things you hear so many bands do when they try to keep the drums simple is they just play the same drum beat for every song. And that works, and it's one way of not getting in the way of songs, but I think there are more interesting ways of accomplishing that. It's inevitable that occasionally you're going to overlap with some of the same grooves, but you have to make a way for them to sound differently.

"It's really amazing how hard we work to create the simplest things. It becomes the challenge. Sometimes I set there like, What the hell else can I play? But I like the challenge. The biggest compliment I could ever get is for someone to say that I play musically, which is what I try to do with this band. My focus is more on the thinking side rather than the playing side - just trying to keep it original."

The bandmembers returned to their native Buffalo, New York (although Malinin is a Floridian) for the writing sessions and demo work. From there, they returned to the west coast for more refined studio work. "We cut the demos in Buffalo, and a lot of the actual record is done over those demos. It's kind of a different way of doing it. We started with those demos and slowly replaced parts. But there's an occasional part from the demo that made it all the way onto the record. Like I noticed a tambourine part that I laid down in Buffalo that is on the record. And I only noticed it because I remember this really terrible sounding tambourine. It was like a six-dollar one that had lost most of its jingles. But it stayed in the track. It's kind of cool.

"We do a lot of recordings of demos, so in the very beginning I just play whatever pops into my head. Then I'll step aside and listen back to it to see how it sounds. I'll listen for everything - from if the ride cymbal sounds right to if the simplest fills fit. And I'll listen to it from the song's perspective. Sometimes you end up straying a little but, then going back to the simplest thing.

"We pretty much always have the whole song completed before Johnny adds the lyrics, so I base my drums around the guitars mostly. I come from the school of locking in with the bass, so I usually go from there. Actually I think the only drummer I know of that played his drum parts around the lyrics was Keith Moon. I remember hearing a Who interview and Pete Townsend was sitting at the board playing back 'Behind Blue Eyes' and he said, 'Notice that Keith is only filling when Daltry is singing, and when he's not singing Keith is playing straight through.' Which is really interesting. Moon is one of my favorite drummers of all time, and I had never thought of it that way."

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