Rivers Cuomo: Difference between revisions

Within weeks of the release of ''Green'', Weezer began recording new demos for the follow-up album. Cuomo shut out record label [[Geffen]] from the recording process, and the band financed and produced the record themselves, sharing in-progress recordings with fans online during studio sessions and sending CDs with finished songs to radio stations without the label's foreknowledge.<ref name="vaultdive1" /> Using this leverage, the band was able to renegotiate their contract, but the finished album, ''[[Maladroit]]'', under-performed, selling less than a million copies. Cuomo's behavior also became pointedly antagonistic, demanding a publicist exit his tour bus and walk back to the hotel before consenting to [[Kerrang! article - April 27, 2002|an interview for ''Kerrang!'']] and referring to fans as "little bitches" in [[Guitar World interview with Rivers Cuomo - May 2002|an interview for ''Guitar World'']]. He also began interacting with fans on internet message boards under the handle 'ace.'<ref>Curated archive of Weezer forum threads: https://web.archive.org/web/20120610003630/http://www.members.shaw.ca/ridd2/</ref>

{{Small quote box|[W]hen Hafiz says, “Self-Effacement is the emerald dagger you need to plunge deep into yourself upon this path to …God”, I read it as “Self-Effacement is the emerald dagger you need to plunge deep into yourself upon this path to Musical Creativity."|Rivers Cuomo, 2004<ref name="whativebeenupto" />}}Songwriting and demoing for Weezer's fifth album had begun before ''Maladroit'' had even been released, but plans were halted in the summer of [[2002]]. Soon after, producer [[Rick Rubin]] agreed to produce the record. The band continued demoing new songs, but Cuomo wasn't pleased with the music he was making.<ref name="weirdworld">Grigoriadis, Vanessa. "Weezer's Weird World" ''Rolling Stone'' Issue 973. 5 May 2005. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/rivers-cuomo-weezers-invisible-man-76590/</ref> Said drummer Pat Wilson, "He didn’t believe in the music, because he didn’t believe in himself [...] Didn’t matter how many times we said, 'That’s rad, Dude.' There were times he was physically ill coming out of the studio." Rubin, wanting to help Cuomo, gave him a copy of ''The Gift'', a book of poems by the fourteenth-century Sufi poet Hafez.<ref name="whativebeenupto" /> Hafez, who wrote hundreds of ''[[Wikipedia:Ghazal|ghazals]]'' about different forms of love, led Cuomo to an epiphany: "If the feeling these mystics get in union with their God is analogous to the feeling I used to get in union with my music, then their teachings for how to achieve their union should likewise serve to instruct me how to achieve my union." Cuomo subsequently sold his house and most of his possessions, moved into an empty apartment next to Rubin's house, and began volunteering six days a week at Project Angel Food in Hollywood, providing meals to people with HIV.<ref name="whativebeenupto" /> Although initially skeptical when Rubin suggested meditation, Cuomo found himself drawn to the technique of Vipassana.[[Image:Sngoenka.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Cuomo with Vipassana teacher [[S.N. Goenka]] in [[2005]].]]