Summer Northwestern article - July 10, 1997

Print interview with Brian Bell
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Publication	Summer Northwestern
Interviewee	Brian Bell
Interviewer	Mike Sturgess
Date	July 10, 1997
Title	Weezer unraveled
Format	Print
External link	Archive on GenealogyBank
Associated concert	Weezer concert: 11/30/1997
References	See where this interview is referenced on Weezerpedia

Weezer unraveled Author: Mike Sturgess (Summer Northwestern) Published: July 10, 1997 Mike Sturgess talks with Brian Bell of Weezer about entertainment and having fun. Weezer's first album seerned part of a brilliantly simple plan blind kids with huge "alternative rock" guitars, then drive timeless pop hooks into the unsuspecting youth of America. It was the catchiest record I'd ever heard on a radio station that didn't play "oldies," and I honestly believed that Weezer would change alternative rock forever. Today, it's hard for me to accept that they will likely be remembered as four goofballs dorkin' around with The Fonz in the video for "Buddy Holly." Sure, it was a funny video, and the song itself had a wry sense of humor, but it was also really beautiful. I mean, some goons make fun of this guy and his girlfriend and beat him up, but he doesn't care 'cause he's in love. It seems kind of sad that such a heartfelt song could be taken as a joke, but Weezer somehow achieved fame not as the first great pop band of the '90s, but as the first alternative novelty band. Frontman Rivers Cuomo reacted by writing an album that couldn't be taken as a joke last year's much darker, intensely personal Pinkerton. The innocence of the first record had disappeared from his voice, the band had grown more powerful and complex, and the edgier hooks dug in deeper than ever. Above all, Pinkerton was an unblinking self-portrait of the perpetually lonely. Cuomo - a selfish but sympathetic hero who needs love but is terrified of it at the same time. It was heart-wrenching and noisy as hell, which might be why it didn't yield any hits. When Weezer rolled into the New World Music Theatre last Thursday, they were opening for new pop champions No Doubt - a band with much weaker tunes but a much hotter singer. I talked to the "other" guitarist/singer in Weezer, Brian Bell, right before the show, and he offered the standard responses in a fairly aloof and calculated manner. (Since a post-Pinkerton Alternative Press interview painted the band as constantly battling with a whiny control-freak leader who wants to be taken seriously, I doubt their management has encouraged them to be open with reporters.) Let's get the usual stuff out of the way: No Doubt are "extremely nice people, an extremely great band." The tour with them has been "wonderful." To break the monotony of touring, Weezer went go cart racing before the show, but "Rivers stayed to play guitar in the dressing room." Weezer's drastic change in style on Pinkerton "wasn't conscious.... It just happened to come out that way." However, Bell is "glad we were able to achieve different things with both records." Don't hold your breath waiting for a new album, because Weezer probably won't go into the studio until "about 9 months after we finish the tour." As for the next record, Bell surprisingly says that although they haven't started writing yet, "Rivers wants us all to contribute a lot more." Upon further reflection, he laughs and says, "Probably the way it will come out is we'll just all play Rivers' songs again." All the band members have their own outlets for songwriting, though, what with bassist Matt Sharp's band the Rentals, drummer Patrick Wilson's band Special Goodness and Bell's own Space Twins. Bell describes the Space Twins as "very tight and dynamic," but says he wants to "simplify things a bit and make it more accessible." Bell seems preoccupied with finding a wide audience for all his projects. "One thing I do not want to do is make music for musicians so much as the average person," he says. "The average listener can't understand key changes and strange tempos and really trippy lyrics." Above all, Bell says, "I want people to have fun. Especially with these No Doubt shows, I've found out that people want to sing along and dance and have fun when they see a live band. Some guy up there preaching to you and degrading his audience isn't fun music should make people feel good." In fact, Bell sees the tensions documented in Alternative Press as a result of Rivers not understanding that people want to have fun. "The argument was all about the [first] video for Pinkerton. We wanted to use ["Buddy Holly" director] Spike Jonze and Rivers didn't. Spike had really great ideas but they were all wacky and off the wall. Jim Carrey would have played each of us in the "Good Life" video and Flavor Flav would have blown up at the beginning of "El Scorcho." Instead Rivers wanted serious videos, but what we knew was that pop culture wants to be entertained... It was frustrating for Rivers, but frustrating for us because Rivers didn't want to do fun videos and probably frustrating for a lot of our fans too." Bell's concern for Weezer's fans can seem a bit condescending, when he further explains his own notion of entertainment. "I personally like watching the Discovery Channel and stations that I learn from. But your average Joe in Milwaukee, Wisc., doesn't. They want to watch reruns of Gilligan's Island and the same old stupid jokes." Hey, I thought he just wanted people to have fun..... Before the interview ended, Bell did assure me that the boys in Weezer were having plenty of fun themselves. "We're having more fun now than we've ever had, and I think you'll see that tonight. We're learning a lot playing these huge shows and we're really getting into having fun and being silly and shaking our ass on stage and screaming but playing well." They did play pretty well, even if Matt Sharp spent more time shaking his ass and throwing water on the crowd than playing his bass. Even the old party pooper Rivers Cuomo got into the good-time spirit, belly-flopping across the stage after those kooky No Doubt members sprayed him with shaving cream during Weezer's last song. The crowd ate it up, and Cuomo didn't seem a bit concerned about being taken seriously.