Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo joins STROMBO on Apple Music Hits to chat about Weezer’s future plans, Van Weezer and Eddie Van Halen’s passing, their shift in sound, his creative solution for tuning out fan criticism, and more.
Key quotes from the chat below. If you’re able to use, please credit to STROMBO on Apple Music Hits: apple.co/_StromboShow.
Rivers Cuomo on ‘All My Favorite Songs’ off new album OK Human
“It’s one of my favorite moments, especially like in the in the third chorus, the whole band drops out. And it’s just me and a cello in this cello is soaring up at the top of its range and everything that feels so good as bad, bad, bad. And it’s just this great cathartic moment where even as I’m singing, most negative of, of observations, it’s just feel so energized and uplifted.”
Rivers Cuomo on releasing Van Weezer following the passing of Eddie Van Halen
“I guess for us, just from a self centered perspective is we’re disappointed, it would have been cool if he could have heard the record. And and I don’t know if it would have meant anything to him. But he could have seen his influence bearing fruit decades later and in this modern record of 2021. But yeah, I don’t know if it would have meant anything to him. But it would have been cool for us.”
Rivers Cuomo on the shift in sound on Weezer’s new music
“So excited to explore the classical influences and just these huge melodies, and then the counter point and the counter point and the baseline. And, you know, it’s something I’ve always loved and always been a little shy of indulging in because I don’t know how many people out there can get into it, but it does feel like the tip of an iceberg that I could go really far down and like some crazy stuff musically.”
Rivers Cuomo explains his creative solution for tuning out fan criticism
“How can you possibly continue to create in a spontaneous way when you’re bombarded with that much feedback. Then it was social media. Eventually, I just had to turn it all off because it was it was not helping. I just naturally gravitate towards negativity. And that just doesn’t help me as a composer. So what I finally ended up doing, after being pretty feeling pretty lonely and cut off was, I started computer programming. I made my own website, my own chat room. And I write the rules there. So it’s, it’s perfectly tuned for my nervous system like they, if there’s some things I don’t want to see or hear about, like, it doesn’t I don’t see it doesn’t have. So that’s amazing.”
Rivers Cuomo on Weezer’s future plans
“The next idea is a four album set, where each album is corresponds to one of the four seasons. And then each album has a very different vibe and lyrical theme. So what like spring could be a very light hearted, breezy Island son type of acoustic songs as thinking fall could be danced rock like Franz Ferdinand winter could be singer songwriters 90 singer songwriter like Elliott Smith, lots of loss and despair and kind of quiet. So yeah, there’s just there’s always new things you can try.”
