| Print interview with Rivers Cuomo | |
|---|---|
| Publication | SPIN |
| Published | April 2002 |
| Interviewer | Douglas Wolk |
| Interviewee | Rivers Cuomo |
| Title | WEEZER TO FANS: HELP US HELP OURSELVES |
| Sub-title | Band leaks new album online |
| Format | |
| Associated album | Maladroit |
| External link | Archived via Internet Archive |
| References | See where this article is referenced on Weezerpedia |
|
WEEZER TO FANS: HELP US HELP OURSELVES
"We just like to write songs," Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo says. "We like to write them, record them, release them, play shows, and keep doing it over and over again in an endless cycle." He isn't kidding. It's no secret that Cuomo is far more prolific than his official output - three albums in seven years - would suggest. (He numbers his three-minute opuses so he can keep track of them; he's currently in the mid-300s.) It's also no secret that Weezer fans are rabidly loyal and difficult to please. Now the band has come up with a novel way to get fan feedback and, in the process, has made available for free online - an album's worth of new music. Last December, Weezer began compiling tracks for their upcoming fourth album and posting them as MP3s on their website, weezer.com. These included completely new songs ("Slave"), as well as songs that had already become live favorites ("Dope Nose"). As the sessions have progressed, the band has posted alternate arrangements and mixes and asked for feedback. Cuomo has been spending a lot of time in chat rooms soliciting advice from his most passionate and critical fans. "What do you think about the fact that we don't tune down a half step anymore?" he asked recently. "Good? Bad? No difference?" "We've gotten amazing feedback, very constructive-much better than a producer," Cuomo says. In his exchanges with his audience (much of it archived at weezon.com), he sounds like a typical Weezer fan: a big admirer of the first record (the self-titled "blue album") and bits of Pinkerton, disappointed with the execution of last year's "green album," and very worried that the new record might lose the Weezer magic. The album, Maladroit, is due this month, and Cuomo's already thinking way ahead. "The fifth record should really come out in November," he says. "I don't see why we can't release two records in one year, but the industry still wants you to wait between them, the bastards." |