When you're a veteran rocker whose credited as a founding persona of the glam-rock movement of the '70s, you can pretty much record where ever you want these days. For David Johansen and the New York Dolls, the group packed up and ditched the cold Northeast winters and headed to Kauai, the "garden island" of Hawaii.

The group reteamed with original Dolls producer Todd Rundgren for 'Cause I Sez So,' due out May 5th -- the first time they've worked together since then their self-titled debut back in 1973. "We got to Hawaii and I had a couple of quick time files of live stuff and played it for Todd, and he was like 'What?'" Johansen tells Spinner. "But I could hear what was going on in there and where it was going but he needed a little more convincing. We spent a week -- I wrote the songs down. The second week, we rehearsed them. The third week did the tracks, and the forth week we did the overdubs and vocals."

While the group originally reformed at Morrissey's request back in 2004 for a one-off show, Johansen still feels those jitters as far as the recording and touring process goes. "We played for awhile as our initial sideshow, curiosity factor," he says. "Then you get a call from your manager -- and they said if you want to keep playing around, you need to make another record. It's funny; when I say "its time to make a record" It's kind of unnerving – because it's almost like changing jobs or something."

The Dolls are currently in South America for a quick run before heading back to the U.S. They'll kick off the 'Cause I Sez So' tour officially on May 20th, at Solana Beach, California.