Heckler article - fall 1997

Print interview with Rivers Cuomo, Patrick Wilson, Brian Bell
Magazine cover Magazine cover
Publication	Heckler
Published	c. fall 1997
Conducted	c. summer 1997
Author	?[who?]
Interviewer	?[who?]
Interviewee	Rivers Cuomo, Patrick Wilson, Brian Bell
Format	Print
Associated album	Pinkerton
External link	Archive via Internet Archive

Author: ?[who?] (Heckler) Published: c. fall 1997 My addiction to Weezer began at 13. I saw them play the last couple of songs of what was a short set at what was then the mecca of Sacramento rock - The Cattle Club. Actually, I just stumbled across them. I was there to see some crappy local Sacramento band. Seeing Weezer in that small, dimly lit club that night wasn't the best way to experience them. Visually, my view was obstructed by the big beam of wood that holds the ceiling up at the front of the stage. Still, I was completely blown away. Their ability to blend crunchy guitars with beautiful vocal harmonies amazed me. As far as I was concerned, no band had ever made the power chord sound so beautiful. I was sucked in, and soon, I was a huge fan. My goal after leaving the show was to find their album and to bring the excitement of their live show home to my stereo. When I finally got their self-titled debut, I was ecstatic. And I know it sounds totally corny, but their music really touched me. Yeah, I know. I had never felt this way about a band before. The album covered so much territory. Musically, it was a wonderful mixture of pop and wannabe-metal. That's right. Wannabe-metal. Lead singer/guitarist Rivers Cuomo used to be a big Metallica fan. Nowadays, Rage Against The Machine and Slayer suit his tastes better. Cuomo's beautiful tales about alienation, girlfriends, and loneliness were stories I was all too familiar with. I listened to the album constantly. It never left my side. I listened to it at home. I listened to it on the bus. I listened to it in my bed. Alone, mind you. And in every other possible location imaginable. The album went on to sell 2 million copies. Which means by purchasing exactly one copy of their album, I contributed .00000005 percent to their total album sales. I'm such a hero! Weezer was instantly thrown into the spotlight and had much radio and MTV (the M stands for Mpty) exposure thanks to such songs as: Undone - the Sweater Song, Buddy Holly, and Say it Ain't so. Then they toured for a year and a half and won world-wide acclaim and became millionaires and huge rockstars and sex symbols thanks to that damn Happy Days look-a-like video they did. Yaada...yaada...yaada. Like you care. Cut to the crap, right? Is this Alternative Press? Is this Rolling Stone? No, I say unto thee. This is Heckler. Where we cut to the chase. Get you inside the loop. Play soccer with your favorite rockstars. I actually did. Jealous, aren't you? You want the interesting details, right? Like how drummer Pat Wilson is a huge soccer fan. "I hope that MLS (Major League Soccer) attains the level of popularity in this country that it has in the rest of the world," Wilson said. Wilson and bassist Matt Sharp can often be found getting rid of pre-show jitters with a little Sega soccer action. In fact, this interview was delayed because I couldn't drag them away from some game they were playing on the bus. However, the love of soccer and video games is not the only reason that Weezer are unlike most of their counterparts in rock today. They are also intelligent and witty. In fact, prior to recording their second release, Pinkerton, Cuomo went back to Harvard to work on his English degree. "I like to read a lot of books about relationships. I really like Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens, Henry Miller. I like things that are written between 1850 and 1940. There was a 90-year period there that was really cool. I'm really out of touch with today's writers," says Cuomo. It was during Cuomo's time at Harvard, where he also had surgery to lengthen his left leg which had been shorter than his right leg since childhood, that all the band members parted ways. And while Rivers was studying Dickens, the other guys were doing more music. Sharp went to work with his Moog-inspired band, The Rentals. Guitarist Brian Bell spent more time working on his previous project, Space Twins. And Wilson (you remember, the drummer) decided to try out songwriting on his own. He got carried away and recorded an album entitled Special Goodness. Meanwhile, back at Harvard, Cuomo is having one helluva time trying to overcome the painful and debilitating operation that has left him more than just a little depressed. Sounds like a soap opera, huh? He was trying to write songs for a second Weezer album, but nothing was really clicking. Then he got a letter from a young fan in Japan. "When I got the letter, I fell in love with her," Cuomo said. "It was such a great letter. I was very lonely at the time, but at the same time I was very depressed that I would never meet her. Even if I did see her, she was probably some 14-year-old girl who didn't speak English," says Cuomo. That letter became the inspiration for the fifth track on Pinkerton, Across The Sea. After the letter incident, Cuomo began pouring out songs. He eventually pinned down a dozen or so songs, 10 of which ended up on Pinkerton. And oh, what a different album Pinkerton is. Whereas their self-titled debut was a light, bubbly pop album, album #2 was a deeply introspective rock adventure. Pinkerton is the story of the last 2 years in Cuomo's life. In chronological order, mind you. The album talks about casual sex, alienation, and dealing with relationships gone awry, a particularly fertile Cuomo-ian topic. "The second album sounds more like us I think. We were too uptight on the first record. Pinkerton has a nice rambling quality to it. When I'm writing the songs, I usually don't think about how personal I'm getting. I feel like I don't have any privacy at all anymore. Everything I say is out in the open. I'm not usually thinking about how a million people are going to hear them," says Cuomo. Pinkerton winds itself out like a play. From start to finish, you feel like you're being let in on a beautiful story. And in my opinion, Weezer had created the best album of 1996, yet it garnered little national attention. "There is a magazine stand in Hollywood and I was feeling really lonely, so I walked down there. It's a horrible place to walk when you're lonely. I was looking at magazines and seeing if there was anything on Weezer and I came across this Rolling Stone. It had this poll on worst records and Pinkerton was listed as one of the worst. It just felt really shitty," said Bell. "It sucks that it hasn't done as well. We've tried really hard to promote it. We're opening for No Doubt, we're doing everything we can," says Cuomo. On top of all this, the little press that Pinkerton did garner was mostly negative. A scathing article appeared in Alternative Press about how the band was supposedly on the brink of a breakup. It made it sound like the band was ready to throw in the towel and call it quits. Yet, what appeared in the article was simply not true, thank God! "The article was a setup. The guy who did the interview made it seem like we were friends," says Bell. "I was bummed when I read the article, what's even worse is the fact that I knew the guy too. He lives in Connecticut. It just seems like journalists are always trying to get the hot story. We were mad at each other then, but not as mad as he made it out to be," says Cuomo. After all the craziness that the release of Pinkerton and a small scale US Tour, the band took a break for Cuomo to attend another semester of school. While Cuomo attended school, the other members of Weezer tended to their side projects. Now they're back out on the road and happier than ever. Talk of new album is on everyone's minds.. "We're definitely going to do another record. I think it will be our best record to date. We're all refreshed from the downtime this spring and we're ready to rock. I don't think we've ever gotten along so well," says Bell. In fact, It was quite true. To have supposedly been on the verge of breaking up just months earlier, the band seemed to be enjoying themselves quite well throughout the interview. Whether they were playing a fierce game of foos ball, battling it out on Sega Saturn, or kicking the soccer ball around, they all got along famously. Get it, famously. Oh, nevermind, what the hell's the point anyway? The band is glad to be back out on the road playing music for thousands of adoring fans every night. And adoring fans are what keeps Cuomo and the rest of Weezer energized night after night. Cuomo's ultimate goal in life has always been to be a rock star. He prepared himself early. Long hair. Playing Johnny Casino back in a high-school production of Grease. And nurturing a strong liking for schlock metal bands. Always a good way to get chicks. "I used to be into Kiss and Metallica a lot. I probably will enter another metal phase one of these days. I really lost Metallica after And Justice For All. Up until Master of Puppets I was a huge fan," says Cuomo. "Once Metallica cut their hair it lost the edge for me. Actually, it was before that, when they lost the Grammy to Jethro Tull," says Bell. Cuomo always gets excited when the subject of metal comes up. It has been something he's loved for so long. In fact, Cuomo is quick to point out that Weezer is his failed attempt at creating super rock. If metal was Cuomo's first ambition, then overcoming love and relationships was another big factor in his life. Cuomo also shares many of the same similarities and goals of his favorite writers. Finding that true life long companion. Cuomo has attained rock stardom but his love life is still in shambles. "Of course it's easy meeting girls who come to my shows, but If I'm at a bar or school it's different. I can't just walk up to a girl and say, "Hey I'm in Weezer, do you want to fuck me? It just doesn't work that way. You still need cool lines and I don't have any," says Cuomo. With the perception Cuomo has attained he has came up with ways to overcome this. At Harvard he was intrigued with a girl in his English class, but he didn't have the courage to talk to her. So, what better than to write a song about how pathetic he was for not talking to her and include parts of her essay. "I put a couple lines from her essay in El Scorcho. Then, a couple of months later I had to contact her to see if I could use her lines in the song. Then I got things going," says Cuomo. Cuomo tells it from the heart, he tells you the way it is. His songs can be intensely emotional, yet filled with self doubt and questions. One such song is Say it ain't So, off of Weezer's debut. "It's such a complicated story. Way too complex to write a song about. I should never have done it. I was really afraid of alcohol at the time. I didn't drink till I was 21; not even a sip. I was petrified of alcohol. Say it ain't So was about when I was 16, I opened up the refrigerator and I saw a can of beer. All of a sudden I made the connection that my step-father was leaving, because my father started drinking when he left my mother," says Cuomo. Weezer has been through a lot the last few years and somehow they have come out on top. They've had a rocky road behind them, but the future is looking very bright. Everyone in the band talks about the future, and they all see Weezer only experiencing more growth through their music. They've experienced the highs of playing in front of thousands of people, and they've experienced the lows of bad press and small record sales. Yet, they've continued to drag through it all, continuing to write and perform some of the most honest and intelligent music of their generation. It was truly an honor to get to hang out with a band I have the utmost admiration for. Before we finished the interview I had one more nagging question for Cuomo: what did the future hold for Weezer? He quietly pondered the question, then responded, "I have no fucking idea, I'm really scared. Hopefully, we will make another album. We will just cross our fingers and hope it flies."

See also

• Category:Rivers Cuomo Interviews