Hey Hey INROCKERS!
Welcome to The Lobby for the last month of 2012!

Hope all's well with you and I know you'll soon be out enjoying the illuminations, decorations and excitement that is in the air during the holiday season in Japan. My wife, our new baby and myself are headed back to Japan in the next few days to visit family, see some cool bands and take part in the fun of the Japanese Christmas season. I'll be coming to Japan by way of Hawaii as Goo Goo Dolls are doing a private show on a golf course in Kona (and since I was already halfway around the world I decided to make my way back to Japan with the baby).

Meanwhile, we here in the USA have re-elected President Barack Obama back into the White House. The last four years have been tough everywhere, but the country decided we were generally doing the right things at home and around the world and it was best for us to stay on the same course we've been on. I've been watching the Japanese news here in the US and I see PM Noda is going to be dissolving the lower house soon, so Japan may be seeing some changes in government very soon.

We're a few sessions short of being done w/ the recording process and moving into mixing process on the new GGDs album, it looks like we'll first be releasing a single in early spring, then followed by the full album release shortly there after. These album sessions are never without their share of action, were recording a few weeks ago in New York City and got caught up in Hurricane Sandy while staying in a hotel in Manhattan. We were very lucky as we were staying on 39th street and the power was shut off in Manhattan from 32nd street all the way to Battery Park.

It was such a crazy experience to be in NYC with the streets almost empty (as cars and trucks were not allowed on or off of the island by bridge or tunnel) and with nearly all of the businesses closed I was stuck in a hotel with my wife and baby for 3 days as we waited for some normalcy to come back to the city. Prior to the storm's arrival we walked to find one of the few still open markets, when you add the fact that it was Halloween and there were still people having parties, you have to imagine the shock of seeing costumed gangs of people wandering around midtown Manhattan dressed like Zombies and Princesses and such. Just walking around a deserted Times Square just weird.

Many homes and businesses in lower Manhattan, Long Island, New Jersey and the surrounding areas got substantial flooding. Our thoughts are with people affected by the storm, as I said we were lucky, as Sandy didn't really affect our area too much and Midtown was spared the force of the storm. We waited out the storm, NYC began to dry out and we got back into the studio to get to work making some more music.

We just enjoyed Thanksgiving here in the states, my family from all over the globe came home to celebrate with us and we had a great time eating and laughing with people we care about, and that's what it's all about. Hope you have a great holiday and an even better New Year! We'll talk next week and I'll fill you in on our gig in Hawaii and our latest trip to Japan !

Peace !
Robby