Rivers Cuomo: Difference between revisions

=Biography=

===Early years===

[[Image:Rivers Cuomo - 1978 School Picture.jpg|thumb|200px|Cuomo's 1978 school photo]]

Rivers Cuomo was born on [[June 13]], 1970 in Manhattan to father [[Frank Cuomo]] and mother [[Beverly Shoenberger]].  His mother claims he was named "Rivers" because she first heard the sound of a river outside her hospital window after Rivers' birth.  His father claims that he was named after three players from the Soccer World Cup of 1970: Rivelino, Riva, Rivera; all three of which played one another one week after June 13.  Rivers was, according to [[Leaves Cuomo|his brother, Leaves]], almost named "Apple"--most likely because he was born in New York City.  Rivers was raised in upstate New York at the Buddhist Zen Center.  There, Rivers' father farmed cows until he left the family in 1975.  Afterward, he was mostly absent from Rivers' youth.  Rivers and Leaves followed their mother, Beverly, to [[Yogaville]] where Rivers remained for the rest of his childhood.  There, Rivers was known as "Rama."  Said Rivers, "You have to realize we were living in an enclosed community of Hindus.  We lived in an ashram.  Isn't that insane?...It was a very mellow childhood."  Beverly remarried to [[Stephen Kitts]] who became Rivers' stepfather.

"We were all about six or seven years old.  And when we heard 'Makin' Love' or 'I Want You' off that record, we just lost our minds.  The guitar was so exciting!  I remember we'd all just run around the room in circles, playing air guitar and jumping off the furniture."

Around 1980, Yogaville moved to Virginia.  Rather than following it, the Kitts family (Beverly, Stephen, Rivers and Leaves) remained in Connecticut moving to Storrs Mansfield.  There, the family lived at an apartment in Warrenville and eventually a home on South Eagleville Rd in the Summer of 1983.  Once out of the commune, Rivers and Leaves began to prepare for public schools.  According to Rivers, they taught each other to swear to fit in.  Furthermore, Rivers joined the Columbia Record Club and bought all the Kiss albums he could.  Said Rivers, "I bought twelve albums for one penny or something.  Within that package was Eddy Rabbit, Abba, Queen...I think they all had a tremendous impact."  Clearly they did - two out of three of those artists are mentioned in 2008's "[[Heart Songs]]".

In 7th grade, Rivers got Justin into Kiss, which at the time, Justin was a fan of [[The Beatles]] and [[The Beach Boys]].  From Kiss, Rivers went on to discover metal bands like Scorpions and pop bands like Men At Work, which was Rivers' first concert.

At an 8th grade talent show, Rivers and Justin witnessed some classmates covering "Metal Health" by Quiet Riot.  Rivers and Justin noticed girls rushing the stage and "everyone freaking out", so the two decided to form their own band, [[Fury]].  Inspired by the performance, Rivers asked his parents to buy him a guitar for his fourteenth birthday.  On June 13, 1984, Rivers received his first guitar, a Stratocaster copy.  Rivers learned the [[Ace Frehley]] solos and would attempt to play them for his mother.  Said Rivers, "I'd play her the 'Shock Me' solo from ''Alive II'' because I thought that was the greatest.  She told me that it sounded like a dying cat."  The first song Rivers wrote was "Fight For Your Right".  Rivers described it as, "...a Kiss style heavy metal anthem.  It's funny that I basically do the same thing now.  Come up with a metal riff and sing it.  I've barely evolved."  Tuning into local radio, Rivers got into Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, both of whom later would Rivers sing "[[Heart Songs|taught [him] how to shred]]."

===Fury===

{{Main|Fury}}

Ten days after Rivers received his first guitar, Fury began holding rehearsals.  Fury was the band Rivers formed with Leaves, Justin and their mutual friend [[Eric Robertson]].  In September of 1984, Fury played their first show.

===High school===

With Weezer's future uncertain, Rivers moved back to Boston and dropped out of Harvard.  While there, he pursued many different musical projects, including the short-lived acts [[Homie]] and [[Rivers Cuomo Band]].  He also began attempting to write songs for Weezer's third album, however, most of these songs were ultimately not used for the band's third release.

===Comeback and SS2K===

After many shows with [[Homie]], Rivers continued his "songwriting machine", recording more demos than ever before, which eventually led to the reformation of Weezer. With all of his new material, all of Weezer recorded demos and headed right into the Warped tour, and which would eventually lead up to the Summer Songs of 2000 tour (or Ss2K for short). In an interview with Yahoo!, Rivers stated if they weren't on the tour he would "still be in my room wanting to play music."After the tour was over, Rivers had build a new home-studio, which he and the band used to record [[The Christmas CD]] (after which Rivers had his braces removed) and what would become [[The Green Album]].

===The Green Album and return to success===

With all his new material and tons of demos recorded, Rivers and all of Weezer headed back into the studio to record [[The Green Album]]. Rivers had written over 75 new songs for the album and was as he said a "struggle" to narrow it down to only 20 songs, which would have to be then marked only to 10.

===Maladroit===

===Meditation===

In February 2003, taking the advice of producer [[Rick Rubin]], Rivers became involved in a form of meditation called [[Vipassana]], and later that year, began a vow of celibacy.  His intention was to find balance in his life. He now frequently takes Vipassana 10 day courses every few months.

===Make Believe===

===Marriage, parenthood and peace===

Cuomo married [[Kyoko Ito]] on [[June 18]], [[2006]], a woman he had known since the fall of 1997. He proposed to her in Tokyo shortly before Christmas of 2005. The wedding was held at a secluded beach on Paradise Cove in Malibu and was attended by over a hundred people, including six of the seven members who played in Weezer ([[Mikey Welsh]] being the only no show) as well as notables [[Justin Fisher]], [[Kevin Ridel]] and Rick Rubin.  The couple has a daughter, Mia, who was born in May of 2007 and a son named Leo who was born in 2011.  Mia has played piano live with her father on a few occasions, such as Weezer Cruise II, adding the accompanying piano to Perfect Situation.

===The Red Album===

==Relationship with fans==  

In 2009 in a BBC interview, Rivers said "The older fans – their tastes get frozen in time and they’re not able to evolve with the band. We’ve found again and again through our career that we’ve had to shed some fans like a snake sheds its skin, just so that we can stay vital." This was posted on [[Allthingsweezer]] and angered many fans there.

In March 2008 Cuomo started a video series on YouTube called "[[Let's Write a Sawng]]."  Through the majority of 2008, Rivers exchanged videos with fans online to write a new song called "Turnin' Turnin'".  The project resulted in the song "[[Turning Up The Radio]]," which appeared on the 2010 rarities album ''[[Death to False Metal]]''.

=Discography=

{{Main|Rivers Cuomo discography}}