Goo Goo Dolls singer John Rzeznik was told to do things differently when he was making their new album – and he couldn’t be happier.

The long-standing rockers bring their 11th record, Boxes, to the O2 Academy on Monday.

John wanted to shake things up by bringing in several new writers and producers to work with.

“The process was like, school’s open and I’m willing to listen to anyone that would teach me,” explains the frontman, who formed the band with bassist Robby Takac back in 1986.

“I could have sat in my room and made a boilerplate album, but I wanted other interpretations. I wanted to go into a room and play guitar, and have someone else go ‘what if we did this instead?’

“In a lot of ways, it was humbling because it took me a little bit of time to say to myself ‘you’re not always right and you do have a tendency to fall in love with your reflection’. Writers and painters tend to want everyone to love what they do, rather than be told to do it differently.”

That means tracks like Flood see the group team up with songstress Sydney Sierota from pop band Echosmith. However there’s plenty of full-on anthems to satisfy long-term fans of the band, who went massive in 1998 with the smash hit Iris.

That capped a long path to success for the band, who started out playing tiny gigs in New York. That lengthy route is something that’s harder for bands to achieve these days, and the singer fears bands from a blue collar background are being frozen out.

“Brooklyn is the epicentre of things musically here, and you’ll talk to a lot of these guys, and there’s always a trust fund somewhere,” he says.

“It pains me to see that happen to something that was such a populist form of communication, where you could work hard and be rewarded.”

John has had other issues on his mind, too. Boxes comes a couple of years after a troubled spell with last album Magnetic, which saw long time drummer Mike Malinin depart and John face up to problems with alcohol.

“Where I grew up in Buffalo, you proved your manhood by how much you could drink but when you do that for 20 years, then eventually there’s a time when you have to face the world without that crutch and it is a terrifying experience,” he says.

“I guess I never grew up. I haven’t had a drink or drugs in two years now, and I feel good about it. Every day is a little strange – there’s always a few minutes every day where I think it’d be nice to have a couple of bottles of wine with my meal, or have some vodka, but the problem for me is that if I have a sip of Coke, I don’t think about where to get 25 more. If I have a gin and tonic, then I’m thinking about where to get another and another.”

Trying to find a place to fit in is something that runs through a lot of Goo Goo Dolls songs. John appears content, at least to some degree now.

“I always felt like I didn’t fit in,” he says.

“I was the only boy in my family, so I was different in that way. I was really into the new wave and punk stuff that my sisters had turned me onto, and I couldn’t listen to Def Leppard, who everyone at school loved.

“My mother and father passed away when I was quite young and that can be an isolating experience. Then I’m an alcoholic, and that’s always an isolating feeling too, because you feel like you’re on the outside of everything.

“The answer for me, not for everyone else, but for me, was reaching out and meeting a great girl, and becoming a father, but life is still terrifying!”

Goo Goo Dolls, O2 Academy, Monday, £27.50, 7pm