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Rivers runs through it
Author: Roger Catlin (The Charlotte Observer)
Published: January 17, 1997
- Weezer's music tells Cuomo's life story - and his alone
Performing in the state where he was raised and started playing rock music should be nothing but a triumph for Rivers Cuomo, 26, the reluctant front man of Weezer.
But a recent show at Toad's Place in Connecticut, only the band's second appearance in the state, was being met with some dread by the painfully soft-spoken lead singer and songwriter.
"I've tried to avoid it," Cuomo admitted during a phone interview. "It's incredibly nerve-racking."
Part of it is the thought of "people I know judging me," he said. "I just feel more pressure in Connecticut than anywhere else in the world."
The homecoming show aside, Cuomo said he's been having more fun on this tour than last time, when Weezer's 1994 debut CD racked up two million in sales.
Weezer plays Tremont Music Hall on Sunday.
Even as the band was collecting an armful of MTV awards for its "Buddy Holly" clip in 1995, Cuomo vanished from the scene by entering Harvard University for a year.
Recovering from a leg operation while he took mostly music classes, he was constantly worried about being discovered as a rock star.
"I was always expecting somebody to come up to me and harass me," said Cuomo, who declined speaking to Rolling Stone at the height of Weezer's success.
"After a month, I realized no one knew who I was, and no one cared," he said. "That was both a relief and also kind of depressing."
It wasn't easy to start writing for a second album after an 18-month lapse. "There were a lot of false starts. A lot of pulling my hair out," he said.
"It was a very sweet-and-sour experience. Because I was really lonely, it was cold, and my leg hurt. I was a nobody again, instead of a star. But at the same time, I was happy to be alone and in touch with my creative self."
The distraction of success and the start of school brought Cuomo massive writer's block, until he finally wrote "Pink Triangle," a song about an ill-fated relationship with a lesbian.
"You can hear, the very first line sounds like a guy sitting down to start writing songs again: 'When I'm stable long enough, I start to look around for love.' That was the first line I wrote post-success. Because for that year and a half, my life wasn't stable enough for me to write."
While Cuomo was at Harvard, the other members of Weezer got busy with side projects.
Bassist Matt Sharp had the biggest success with "Return of the Rentals." The Rentals also featured drummer Patrick Wilson, whose own solo project, Special Goodness, has an album due out next fall. Guitarist Brian Bell hopes to release the album by his own side project, Space Twins, next fall as well.
Despite all this outside activity, "There's surprisingly little tension about solo projects," Cuomo said. "We all understand that everyone is going to do their thing when the Weezer tour is done. I don't think anyone has a problem with that."
But Cuomo wonders what will happen once Weezer loses its multi-platinum appeal.
While he praises band members as songwriters, Cuomo isn't about to allow them to contribute songs to Weezer albums.
"This band plays my songs" he said. "The album is so autobiographical, it would be very strange for one of them to help me write my autobiography."
The undertow of loneliness and pain on "Pinkerton" doesn't mean Weezer, known for its "Happy Days"-themed video for "Buddy Holly," is turning dour.
"I don't know. See, when I wrote 'Buddy Holly,' I thought it was a serious song," Cuomo said.
"People took those songs as funny and fun, goofy and lighthearted. But I never thought so. I don't feel like I'm being more serious now, just more literal, more direct."
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