Playing My Piano

From Weezerpedia
"Playing My Piano"
Playing My Piano cover
Album track by Weezer
Album OK Human
Released January 29, 2021
Recorded 2020
Length 2:36
Label Crush Music/Atlantic Records
Writer(s) Rivers Cuomo
Producer(s) Jake Sinclair
Status Released
Stream Spotify
OK Human track listing
"Numbers"
(4)
"Playing My Piano"
(5)
"Mirror Image"
(6)

"Playing My Piano" is the fifth track from OK Human.

Appearances

Overview

It's weird. I feel like naturally I'm this amazing musician and composer. Like I was born that way, but I didn't get any training and so I have very little skill. I feel that way as a piano player and as a singer, too. Inside I'm like Luciano Pavarotti - this huge voice and can hit all these glorious high notes, but I actually don't have the instrument for it in my throat.

So when I'm here in my room, I have the door locked and, in some cases, even put a sound machine outside. So nobody can see me, nobody can hear me. I don't really have to face the reality of my limited skills. In my mind, I'm just jamming away at the piano and I sound like Beethoven, Puccini, singing like Pavarotti. I think it allows me to go to all these places I really get so much pleasure out of.

Then the next day, I come back and listen to what I recorded. It's pretty pathetic, but the ideas are in there. I can go in there and practice them, touch them up, and hand them off to some actual skilled musicians. And it ends up sounding really great.

Rivers Cuomo, Apple Music interview with Zane Lowe, 2021[1]


Cuomo has described "Playing My Piano" as a metaphor for computer programming, explaining in a podcast recorded for Audible that he'd originally written the song to be explicitly about programming, but found it "really weird and unrelatable", and so instead opted for the use of metaphor.[2] Cuomo has also explained that "Zoom interviews" are intended as a metaphor for songwriting itself.[3]

Audio

Lyrics

My wife is upstairs
My kids are upstairs
And I haven't washed my hair in three weeks
I should get back to the Zoom interviews
But I get so absorbed and time flies
I just can't let go

When I'm playing my piano, ooh-oo
I'm playing my piano, ooh-oo
I'm pounding out the bass, singing out the tune
I never see the sun like I'm living in a womb
I'm playing my piano, ooh-oo

A cup of java at the edge of the keys
Dipping down from major to mixolydian
Put on some white noise
Double-bolt the door
Kim Jong-un could blow up my city; I'd never know
I just can't let go

When I'm playing my piano, ooh-oo
I'm playing my piano, ooh-oo
I'm pounding out the bass, singing out the tune
I never see the sun like I'm living in a womb
I'm playing my piano, ooh-oo

Known recordings

Performer(s) Title Filename Date of recording Recording location Length Appeared on Notes
Rivers Cuomo Playing My Piano playing_my_piano_mod_verse_combo_69_2018_5_16_8_49_45.mp3 May 16, 2018
Weezer Playing My Piano 05 Playing My Piano.wav 2020
  • Gloria Sound, Van Nuys, CA
  • Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
  • Abbey Road Studio 2, London, United Kingdom
  • The Village Studios, Los Angeles, CA
  • Big Bad Sound, Los Angeles, CA
  • 4th Street Recording, Santa Monica, CA
2:36 Leaked online Instrumental version of final mix, leaked online in 2021
Weezer Playing My Piano 2020
  • Gloria Sound, Van Nuys, CA
  • Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
  • Abbey Road Studio 2, London, United Kingdom
  • The Village Studios, Los Angeles, CA
  • Big Bad Sound, Los Angeles, CA
  • 4th Street Recording, Santa Monica, CA
2:36 OK Human
about this table

See also

References

  1. Lowe, Zane "Weezer: The OK Human Interview." Apple Music, 27 January 2021 https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/weezer-the-ok-human-interview/pl.2b67d12686224245ac1bbbbfa7fb4aa8
  2. Lanier, Jaron. "Weezer - OK Human: Audio Liner Notes." Audible. 3 March 2021. https://www.audible.com/pd/weezer-ok-human-Audiobook/B08XC17KJ6
  3. King Tom. Mr. Rivers' Neighborhood. 4 June 2021. https://www.weezerpedia.com/wiki/File:Rivers-PlayingMyPiano.png