19,021
edits
Make Believe: Difference between revisions
Added some overview details from the 2005 Rolling Stone article
m (→Track listing: capitalization) |
(Added some overview details from the 2005 Rolling Stone article) |
||
| Line 34: | Line 34: | ||
==Writing== | ==Writing== | ||
{{Main|Main article: [[Album 5 Demos]]}} | {{Main|Main article: [[Album 5 Demos]]}} | ||
Songwriting for the band's fifth album began before ''[[Maladroit]]'' had even been released, with demos being recorded as early as March of [[2002]]. In an [[AIM chat with Rivers Cuomo - January 8, 2002|AIM chat]] with [[Rivers Cuomo]] on [[January 8]], [[2002]], Cuomo described the sound of Weezer's fifth album as "a combination of ''[[The Green Album]]'' and ''[[Pinkerton]]'', if that's possible! And some ''[[Maladroit]]''. But really it's a new different style." A A number of these songs, including "[[The Organ Player]]" and "[[Running Man]]", featured a shift to third-person storytelling. These sessions also featured, for the first time, songs primarily written and sung by band members other than Cuomo. Ultimately, none of the songs from these sessions would appear on the final album, some song elements were re-appropriated into new songs that would appear on ''Make Believe''. | Songwriting for the band's fifth album began before ''[[Maladroit]]'' had even been released, with demos being recorded as early as March of [[2002]]. In an [[AIM chat with Rivers Cuomo - January 8, 2002|AIM chat]] with [[Rivers Cuomo]] on [[January 8]], [[2002]], Cuomo described the sound of Weezer's fifth album as "a combination of ''[[The Green Album]]'' and ''[[Pinkerton]]'', if that's possible! And some ''[[Maladroit]]''. But really it's a new different style." A A number of these songs, including "[[The Organ Player]]" and "[[Running Man]]", featured a shift to third-person storytelling. These sessions also featured, for the first time, songs primarily written and sung by band members other than Cuomo. Ultimately, though none of the songs from these sessions would appear on the final album, some song elements were re-appropriated into new songs that would appear on ''Make Believe''. | ||
{{Main|Main article: [[S.I.R. Demos]]}} | |||
Following the summer of 2002, producer [[Rick Rubin]] agreed to work with the band on their next album. From September of 2002 through May of 2003, the band recorded new songs at S.I.R. Studios. Some songs that eventually appeared on ''Make Believe'', including "[[Perfect Situation]]" and "[[Hold Me]]", were demoed as a band for the first time. According to [https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/rivers-cuomo-weezers-invisible-man-76590/ an article with ''Rolling Stone''], however, Cuomo wasn't pleased with the music he was making. 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 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafez Hafez]. Hafez, who wrote hundreds of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghazal ghazals] about different forms of love, led Cuomo to an epiphany, which he described in [[What I've Been Up To Since I Left School|a Harvard readmission essay]]: | |||
<blockquote>''Hafiz wrote hundreds of ghazals [or love songs], finding ways to bring new depth and meaning to the lyrics without losing the accustomed association of a love song…He explored different forms and levels of love: his delight in nature’s beauty, his romantic courtship of that ideal unattainable girl, his sweet affection for his wife, his tender feelings for his child…his relationship with his teacher and his adoration of God.'' | |||
''I was struck by the connection between all these different forms of love. I recognized that the feeling of sublime ecstasy I once got from music was just one more of these forms of love.'' | |||
''I had 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. A whole world of spiritual teachings therefore opened up to me for the first time since, as a child, I had decided that I was an “atheist”. I now read these spiritual teachings as coded instructions for how to connect with my musical creativity. For example, when 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.” Like this, I just replaced the word God wherever I saw it. I had discovered a new path which I believed was what I had been waiting for.''</blockquote> | |||
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. Initially skeptical when Rick Rubin suggested meditation, Cuomo found himself drawn to the technique of [[Vipassana]]. Disgusted at himself for spending the past fifteen years having sex with groupies without ever being in love, Cuomo committed to a vow of celibacy for two years. Cuomo soon felt the effect of the discipline on his songwriting. One song, "[[Pardon Me]]" (Rubin's favorite) was written after Cuomo attended a meditation course in which the teacher told him to repeat over in his mind "I seek pardon from all those who have harmed me in action, speech or thought" [https://web.archive.org/web/20060716040125/https://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/weezer_weird_world/page/3]. Another song, "[[Hold Me]]", was written while fasting. | |||
<blockquote>''“At first I was vehemently opposed,” says Cuomo. Rick Rubin, who produced Make Believe in off-and-on sessions that lasted more than a year, suggested meditation. “I sent him a very anxious page, saying, ‘Rick, no. I cannot get into meditation because it will rob me of the angst that’s necessary to being an artist.’ And he said, ‘OK, don’t worry about it, forget it.’ I think because he put no pressure on me, I began to get intrigued. Then I did a Tibetan-Buddhist meditation retreat. That wasn’t intense enough for me. I knew I wanted something extreme.”''</blockquote> | |||
{{Main|Main article: [[Acoustic Office Demos]]}} | {{Main|Main article: [[Acoustic Office Demos]]}} | ||
Throughout 2003, the band began renting an office to demo new material acoustically. | Throughout 2003, the band began renting an office to demo new material acoustically. | ||
{{Main|Main article: [[Make Believe Sessions]]}} | {{Main|Main article: [[Make Believe Sessions]]}} | ||
Pre-production demos for ''Make Believe'' were recorded in November of 2003, with proper album production beginning at [[Cello Studios]] in December. The band would ultimately be dissatisfied with these recordings, however. Cuomo began recording new demos in January of 2004. Beginning in July, the band recorded again at Grandmaster Studios. Cuomo returned to Harvard in December, with the rest of the band finishing overdubbing through October. In January, the band reconvened at Rick Rubin's studio to assess the album's status. With the band's label requesting a spring release, the band scrambled to complete the album on time, with a lot of the recording and track list decisions being made very late in production, leaving several finished songs on the cutting room floor. | Before recording ''Make Believe'', Rick Rubin suggested that the band, which he called one of the most dysfunctional bands he's ever worked with, have sessions with a "communications coach". Pre-production demos for ''Make Believe'' were recorded in November of 2003, with proper album production beginning at [[Cello Studios]] in December. The band would ultimately be dissatisfied with these recordings, however. Cuomo began recording new demos in January of 2004. Beginning in July, the band recorded again at Grandmaster Studios. Cuomo returned to Harvard in December, with the rest of the band finishing overdubbing through October. In January, the band reconvened at Rick Rubin's studio to assess the album's status. With the band's label requesting a spring release, the band scrambled to complete the album on time, with a lot of the recording and track list decisions being made very late in production, leaving several finished songs on the cutting room floor. | ||
==Tentative album titles== | ==Tentative album titles== | ||