Music Connection interview with Rivers Cuomo - June 10, 2002

Print interview with Rivers Cuomo
Cover Cover
Publication	Music Connection
Published	June 10, 2002
Interviewer	Mike Moore
Interviewee	Rivers Cuomo
Title	WEEZER
Format	Print
External link	Archived via Issuu
References	See where this article is referenced on Weezerpedia

WEEZER Author: Mike Moore (Music Connection) Published: June 10, 2002 The triumphant story of L.A.'s own Weezer goes something like this: early-Nineties pop band toils for a year or so on the grunge-laden Sunset Strip and sneaks a signing with Geffen. The video for "Buddy Holly" from their self-titled, Ric Ocasek-produced debut explodes, sending the self-proclaimed "geek rockers" on an extended world tour that makes them rich and burns them out. Frontman Rivers Cuomo retreats to college at Harvard, where he writes an intensely dark and personal follow-up album called Pinkerton. Fans don't buy it. Rolling Stone dubs it the worst album of '96. Cuomo disappears from public view altogether. Most of the music industry assumed the story would end there. But four years later, Weezer resurfaced to play some dates on the Vans Warped Tour and consistently stole the show. Reinvigorated, Cuomo wrote another self-titled CD (produced by Ocasek) now called The Green Album) with hits that were a return to the happy, hooky format of the band's first release. Fans rediscovered Pinkerton, too, citing the now-cult classic as the prototype for emo rock. By summer 2001, Weezer was suddenly bigger than ever, but this time the band tried to avoid another bout of burnout by touring less and quickly starting work on album number four. By then, Cuomo had begun to assume nearly all of Weezer's business affairs from various managers and industry types. However, his hopes to move on to the next record didn't coincide with the label's multi-year promotional plan for album three. Conflict ensued when, earlier this year, an eight-song sampler entitled Songs From the Forthcoming Maladroit reached the desks of radio programmers and media outlets (including Music Connection), accompanied by a personal letter from Cuomo asking for feedback. Radio stations immediately added the tune "Dope Nose" to their playlists, and Interscope (who had swallowed Geffen during Weezer's off-years) politely urged Cuomo to send another letter asking stations to cease and desist. He did. They didn't. Interscope released the full version of Maladroit a few months later, on May 14th. Maladroit rocks harder than previous Weezer efforts. Its guitars are heavy, but unlike Pinkerton, its message is not. Rolling Stone has given it four stars. Brief North American and Japanese tours quickly sold out, with this summer's Enlightenment Tour promising to be a "six-week American freak-out" that will include openers Dashboard Confessional, Sparta and, on select dates, the Strokes. (The tentative date for Irvine's Verizon Amphitheater is August 9th.) Although they still experience осcasional bumps in the road such as original bassist Matt Sharp's recent decision to sue for more royalties things appear to be leveling out for Cuomo, drummer Pat Wilson, guitarist Brian Bell and new bassist Scott Shriner, a fact that our recent discussion with the less and less media-shy Cuomo seems to corroborate. Mike Moore: Regarding the advance-advance music you sent out to fans, radio and the media a few months before Maladroit's release - were you surprised at Interscope's reaction to your trying to get the word out a little early? Rivers: That wasn't my only motivation. We'd actually gotten into a big fight with our record company last year, and we hadn't been talking to them for four or five months. So we went and funded this record entirely on our own without consulting the label or getting their approval on any of the songs or the recording process in general. The first they heard of it was when they started hearing it on the radio. So they were very surprised and...concerned. (Laughs) And upset. And I wasn't surprised by that. Mike Moore: Did you send out the advance music as kind of a wake-up call to Interscope, that you wanted to do what was right for the band and that the label just needed to trust you on it? Rivers: I think that was a big part of it, yeah. I can't say that I fully understand my motivations for doing it. It was just some-thing I really wanted to do. I was like, "Man, this record's done, it's great - let's get it out there. Why should we wait for the record company?" Mike Moore: Did you feel that, otherwise, the label would have made you go through with the traditional process of releasing a couple more singles off the previous album and making you wait the standard two years to come out with Maladroit? Rivers: Yeah, and they would have made us use a top producer and spend years in the studio crafting the perfect pop album. And that just seemed very counter to our rate of artistic development. We want to produce as much as we can and keep moving and learning and growing rather than trying to force out the perfect album every time. Mike Moore: It sounds like, in the long run, it worked out. Interscope have released the album. Rivers: We definitely forced their hand by sending it out to radio. They asked me to write a second letter to the radio programmers to ask them to stop playing [the first single "Dope Nose"], but by that time it was too late. So they had to put the album out. Mike Moore: Would you say Weezer's relationship with the label has smoothed a bit over the last few months? Rivers: It's not only smoothed over, but it's basically become the ideal label/artist relationship, in my opinion. They've seen the wisdom in what we're trying to do with our development and our philosophy of continuing to produce and move forward. I think they trust us now and want us to lead the charge and do whatever we need to do. They've said that now they'll basically just help us do that. So yeah, I really don't anticipate any more battles. Mike Moore: How business-savvy were you upon entering into your major label deal? Rivers: I went into it pretty blind, and I wasn't very interested in the business side of it at the time. I didn't really care about it and just knew that I trusted the people that I worked with. And that was enough for me. Mike Moore: And was that a good idea? Were they really looking out for you? Rivers: On the whole, the people that I've worked with have been good people, and for the most part they've looked out for my best interests. But there's really no substitute for being on top of your business yourself. Since I wasn't on top of my business at first, there was just this incredible trail of errors and wrong decisions and entanglements that I have to deal with now. It's a challenge, but it's also really fun and exciting to actually get into all this stuff. Mike Moore: Was it a gradual transition from having everything taken care of for you to the point where you now do it all yourself? Rivers: I'd say there was a turning point somewhere in '99. This was still when I was totally secluding myself and working only on music and I mean totally secluding myself. But there was a point there where I just kind of grew up and said, "I want to be responsible for every facet of my life." And that included the business side of music. So from then on, I gradually started taking over all the different responsibilities of our career from our manager and other associates of ours. And I'm still in the process of taking back those responsibilities. Mike Moore: Can you be specific? What are you now doing for yourself that a manager once did for you? Rivers: I think at the heart of the matter is putting the creation of music ahead of every other aspect of our career. Most of the industry, including managers and record companies, have it backwards, where they put the promotion of a record at the center of your career. In the short term they might be right, because you can always make the most of whatever album you happen to have made, and you get out there and promote it as much as you possibly can and build your fanbase. But I think [by doing that] you make a lot of sacrifices in terms of your artistic development. You sacrifice all the time and energy and lifeforce you could be putting into the creation of new stuff and continually developing. In the long run, that's not worth it at all. Musicians and bands and artists, they should really concentrate on what gets them the most excited and makes them feel vital and alive. Nine times out of 10, I'll bet that's not going to be touring for two years on the same record and doing a thousand interviews. Mike Moore: What kinds of tasks do you still have other people do for you? Rivers: Basically everything. It's a paradox. It's like, I feel more responsible for everything that's going on, but I actually do less of it. I hand over tasks to other people more and more, but still feel responsible for the ultimate outcome. Before, when I had a manager and I was more under the wing of the record company, I almost felt like I was an employee. Now I feel like the boss, but I'm very happy to give everyone else in the organization tons of responsibility and creative control. I feel more open than ever to outside ideas. Mike Moore: You can sometimes measure a band's success by the number of lawsuits thrown at them. Is it easy to shrug off that kind of thing as just part of being a rock star? Rivers: In the cases where we have been sued, it's always been complete bullshit. The suits themselves have served to defame me, so of course I'm going to stand up for myself and do everything I can to clear my name. Mike Moore: When Weezer were coming up, what were the main things you did to get noticed and get a fanbase? Rivers: I never felt like we ever really got one of those hyper-buzzes going. There really wasn't a heck of a lot of industry interest. At the end of the day there was really only one major label that offered us a deal. We never got to a point where there was more than 150 people at our shows. And even then, that was at our peak. We'd been playing a year and would still play to 10 people on some nights. It was very, very disheartening. We'd see other bands come up and they'd get a huge buzz instantaneously and get a big deal. We couldn't understand what our problem was. I mean, we were playing "Sweater Song" and "Say It Ain't So" in these clubs and passing around our demo tape with those songs, and for months and months no one heard it. We'd get comments from the industry like, "We don't really hear these songs going anywhere, but keep writing!" We started to think we were insane, because we thought our songs were so good and we were so cool, but no one was getting it. And it wasn't really until our song hit the radio that we felt like anyone was really appreciating it. Mike Moore: Was there one particular person at the label who really championed you? Who turned Geffen on to you? Rivers: It was a junior A&R guy at the time, Todd Sullivan. I don't really know how the rest of the company felt about us. We assumed they looked down their noses at us. We had a serious inferiority complex. Mike Moore: But they provided enough support to get things started. Rivers: It was enough to get it on [L.A. radio station] KROQ. They added it and the listeners responded. I don't think we felt like we really found our audience until it got on the radio and the kids started hearing it. When we were playing 21-and-up bars in L.A., those people just couldn't relate to our music. Mike Moore: So you were doing all the things that any other L.A. band has to do make all the calls, do all the legwork and hope that 50 people show up to your shows. Rivers: Exactly. I think the smartest thing we did, as far as success strategy goes, was to hook up with bands that were a few steps ahead of us. I remember at the time it was Wax, and Black Market Flowers, and El Magnifico. These bands already had followings and label interest and publishing company interest, and we had none of those things. So we befriended these other bands. They liked our music and let us play on the same bill with them. I think that was the best we could do to forward our career at that point. Mike Moore: But then KROQ was what finally did it. How do you feel about the fact that bands need radio in order to break through these days? Rivers: Yeah. As with all other aspects of my life, I would love to develop independence from radio. I'd love to be as successful as we could be without having to rely on radio stations or MTV...or anybody, really, except for the four of us. I'm absolutely determined to foster that strength and independence someday. Mike Moore: Did you read Music Connection? Rivers: I read Music Connection all the time when I was starting out in L.A. and trying to get off the ground. So it's a real honor to be on the cover.... I was so excited to find that magazine when I moved to L.A. It was the coolest thing ever. It had practical advice on exactly what I was trying to do. Mike Moore: What practical advice can you give our readers who want to find the same kind of success you have? Rivers: I would just say persevere. Don't give up. Even the most successful artists were at one time as self-doubting, depressed and discouraged as I'm sure some of your readers feel at times. Just don't give up. Mike Moore: And as you said earlier, stick to what excites you. It'll either play out or it won't. Rivers: Yeah, it'll play out to the extent that it's supposed to play out. And you'll find your audience, you'll find your niche in the marketplace. And it will be something that is natural, and something that can grow and last.

Scans

• 

  Page one

• 

  Page two

• 

  Page three

• 

  Page four