NME interview with Rivers Cuomo - June 14, 2008
| Print interview with Rivers Cuomo | |
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| Publication | NME |
| Published | June 14, 2008 |
| Interviewee | Rivers Cuomo |
| Title | What Rock'n'Roll Has Taught Me |
| Sub-title | He's been called a geek, a recluse and a dictator, but the bespectacled prince of pow pop punk has finally found inner peace through meditation, marriage, and rat poo |
| Format | |
| Associated album | Weezer (The Red Album) |
| References | See where this article is referenced on Weezerpedia |
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What Rock'n'Roll Has Taught Me
Don't try too hard. It was nice to see ourselves on MTV for the first time in 1994, but I think we were immediately struck by how much cooler we were than everybody else. Like with the video to 'Undone (The Sweater Song)' [directed by Spike Jonze], which was our first single. We weren't trying to be rock stars or posturing, it was just a video of us playing with some dogs running around. I think we stuck out from the start because of things like that. Be a contrary bastard as much as you possibly can. When I was 18, my parents were telling me to go to college and do the smart thing - get a degree and get a job. I said no; I wanted to move to LA and become a rock star. So after that happened and the band really started to take off, everyone said that I should continue with Weezer and keep being a rock star, including my parents. But again, I said no, I wanted to go to college and get an education [Rivers famously put the band on hold for five years in 1995 to study at Harvard University]. It's just what feels exciting at the time to me and, because of that, there's always vitality to what we do. Even now, I'm not in Weezer because it's the smart thing to do-it's just what's exciting to me. Don't be afraid to look like a member of the Village People. Very often, I look to do the opposite of what people want me to do or what people are expecting. That disturbs them, frustrates them, shocks them, confuses them. Just look at the cover of 'The Red Album'. I don't think any of our fans expected me to be standing there with a cowboy hat and moustache. Sometimes, I get a feeling in my gut that something will bother and annoy people, and that's when I know I've come across a good idea. Don't be shy about exposing your deepest thoughts on record. If you're true to yourself and your muse, you will find resistance, but at the same time there will be people who will thank you for doing it. I get a lot of personal comments about 'Pinkerton' from fans these days. That album has a real cult following, but not many people liked it at the time. It's a fantastic album - it's very raw, deep and powerful and it sounds like someone who's totally focused on what they love about music and lyrics. At the same time, it's also a very band album, which is important in communicating those emotions effectively, because you can't do it all on your own. Barricading yourself inside your home for the best part of two years doesn't make you insane. Everyone seems to know that I shut myself off from the world around 1998, 1999, when I was staying in my apartment a lot [which was reportedly under a freeway in LA, had black walls, blacked-out windows and no phone]. I wouldn't talk to anyone for a week straight, sometimes. Again, I was just doing what I wanted to do, but everyone else thought I was crazy or disturbed, or that I'd lost it. But it made me stronger in the long run, and by the time I came out of that period, I felt a lot more prepared to face the negativity that Weezer had been getting, especially after 'Pinkerton', and rebuild the band. Don't be afraid to embrace your inner geek. I've been interested in the technical side of music and composition since I was 14, and I even signed up for music theory classes in high school. I can't say that it's better than three-chord punk rock, but for the particular aims I have with Weezer, it is necessary. Take a song like 'The Greatest Man That Ever Lived' on the new album, for example - there's no way I could have done that without this kind of technical knowledge. It took a lot of work. There have been rock musicians throughout history that have had no interest in that sort of stuff and they've been great artists, but if you have the knowledge, it at least gives you the potential to be even better. Don't feel bad about being called a geek or whatever, it's just another way to approach rock'n'roll. Never try to be the singer, songwriter and manager of a band at the same time. At first, I liked managing Weezer in 2001 and 2002. I learned a lot about other aspects of the music business that I would have never known about otherwise. But as soon as it started to feel counterproductive musically, I had to stop. Being a businessman will end up having a negative effect on your ability to write songs. I was spending many hours a day on the phone, getting involved in all kinds of power struggles and facing a lot of antagonism, so I could never get in the right frame of mind to create anything. Plus, I don't think it made me the nicest person to be around a lot of the time [other members of Weezer have gone on record to confirm this]. I think my feelings of guilt about that came out in a lot of songs on 'Make Believe', although there's a lot of guilt in Weezer in general." Cleaning up vermin shit is actually pretty enjoyable. I've been meditating at the Vipassana organisation for a few years now [producer Rick Rubin recommended it to him in 2003 during the 'Make Believe' sessions, whereupon he sold most of his possessions including his house and car]. When you first go there, you have two choices. You can either sit and meditate in silence for 10 days straight or you can be a server, which involves cooking, cleaning and managing the students at the centre. It's given me a huge sense of joy to watch other people overcome huge obstacles in their life. But serving has also given me an ability to enjoy whatever it is I'm doing, whether it's chopping vegetables or whatever they ask of me there. I've been in a situation where it's Saturday night and I'm at the meditation centre vacuuming up rat turds and I'll just think, "What the hell am I doing? I should be out doing something fun and making more of my talents.' But then I remind myself to focus on the task at hand and try to enjoy it for what it is. It helps increase concentration and makes everything much more rewarding. When you truly get tired of sex, try going celibate. I went through a long period of being celibate, starting in 2003. For one thing, you are required to be either in a life-long relationship or be celibate for two years in order to gain access to the more advanced meditation classes at the Vipassana Centre. You have to be like a monk in that sense, because they're very long, difficult courses and it's essential to have a calm mind. You can't expect to live the party lifestyle and be having sex with different people all the time and then go straight into 30 days of solid meditation and not go crazy. But I also understood how it would benefit me artistically and personally. It's very easy to live a life of constant self-gratification and get burned out. You have to stimulate yourself more and more and eventually nothing works. That's where I was before I went to Vipassana in 2003 - I felt dead emotionally. So I tried the other extreme. Slowly, I watched myself have greater feelings of pleasure and pain - basically become alive again [so much so that he went well past the two-year period]. When you've been to the extremes of life, make sure you find your middle ground. I've been hedonistic and I've had periods of living with nothing but my mind, but neither are things I can do forever. They're both too extreme for me. I think getting married and making a lifelong commitment to one person is a perfect middle path [Rivers wed fan Kyoko Ito in 2006]. Some people are naturally predisposed to being on their own for life-monks and nuns, for example - but the vast majority of us really need someone else in their lives. I've been married for almost two years now and it's definitely the life for me. I highly recommend it. |
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See also
| More Rivers Cuomo interviews from 2008: | |
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| Other band member interviews from this year: | |
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